Pull together stakeholders from across campus to synchronize a robust and coordinated first-year experience that facilitates academic, social, and institutional integration that fosters student feelings of belonging. This translates to student success, retention, and, ultimately, completion.
KPIs:
- Development Stage: FYE Inventory – Collect points of integration for freshmen students
- After implementation:
- Building a cohesive schedule of interventions
- Identify barriers in the college pathway, academic and otherwise.
Baseline measure (for each KPI):
- Development Stage: Cataloging interventions throughout the first year
- After implementation:
- Using the FYE Inventory, quantify the number of redundant processes
- Cross-functional Confidence Survey (faculty/staff) Fall 2025
- Survey students at Anchor Day (2-3 prior to start of Fall 2025) to self-report how many post-admissions tasks have been completed.
Current/most recent data (for each KPI):
- Development Stage: Inventory results are pending (Summer 2025)
- After implementation: Baseline will be available by the end of Fall 2025.
Goal or targets (for each KPI):
- Development Stage: Completion of the FYE Inventory
- After implementation:
- A coordinated schedule of freshmen-level touchpoints to prevent redundancy and identify gaps in support.
- Increase faculty/staff levels of confidence in providing timely cross-functional information. (survey) Goal will be set after obtaining baseline survey.
- Percentage completion goal for student self-reporting post-admissions tasks will be set after obtaining baseline data.
Time period/duration
- Development Stage: Completion of the FYE Inventory – Completed by Summer 2025.
- After implementation:
- A coordinated schedule of freshmen-level touchpoints to prevent redundancy and identify gaps in support. – completed by end of Fall 2025.
- Increase faculty/staff levels of confidence in providing timely cross-functional information. (survey) Baseline survey to be administered at the start of Fall 2025.
- Student post-admission tasks survey to be administered at the start of Fall 2025.
September 2025 Progress Update
Inventory by departments is complete. Key findings of the Inventory:
- Inbox & app overload – Missed tasks, late forms, accidental holds, anxiety.
- Stacked deadlines (payment, housing, registration) – Missed early payments, lost housing preferences, late fees.
- Parents completing student tech/housing set-ups – Portal lockouts, unwanted room assignments, extra staff time.
- Confusion about true cost & payment routes – Unpaid balances, registration holds, withdrawal risk.
- Technology hurdles & too many log-ins – Late course access, missed alerts, reliance on peers.
- Residency & lawful-presence documentation maze – Unexpected out-of-state charges, enrollment delays.
- Advising awareness & schedule changes – Late schedule fixes, credit-momentum loss.
- Fragmented early-alert follow-up – At-risk students slip through or experience duplicate outreach.
- Accommodation paperwork complexity – Delayed accommodations, academic stress.
- Housing app nuances & ESA approvals – Lower satisfaction with living arrangements, diminished sense of belonging.
- Clustered co-curricular schedule – Decision fatigue, non-attendance, lower social integration.
- Academic peaks colliding with institutional deadlines – Cognitive overload, missed forms/payments, GPA dips, hold-induced withdrawal.
At this time departments have been briefed on potential implementation strategy for improving the FYE experience. The institution is currently working to align this internal evaluation with the NISS strategic planning.
Analyze Inventory results. Collect baseline data. Complete a synchronized schedule for cross-campus touchpoints. Incorporate NISS feedback and explore how to tie this work to the recommendations.
This will require a large group of people to work collaboratively across varying departments and units. The bandwidth necessary to coordinate this many people will require open channels of communication and division of labor. This analysis was led by the Executive Director of Campus Community and Belonging but that position is now vacant. The institution will strategically align this work with the recommendations from NISS to identify the best path moving forward.
