Continuing to Build Pathways to Student Success

I spent last week doing what I love—listening, learning, and speaking about student success. As a panelist at the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) Annual Meeting, I was pleased to share and learn about ways to improve student engagement, retention, graduation, and career connections.

Timothy M. Renick, who runs the National Institute for Student Success, shared evidence-based student success initiatives implemented at Georgia State University. Three initiatives that align with the work at IU Indianapolis as well include:

• Proactive advising interventions and analytics that identify student risk factors, along with a GPS Advising model that tracks performance and improves guidance for students.

• AI-enhanced chatbots that helped reduce summer melt and improve student retention, particularly among underrepresented groups.

• Financial Interventions, including retention grants to help students with small financial balances stay enrolled, significantly improved graduation rates for students at risk of being financially dropped.

The results at Georgia State University have been significant - a seven-percentage point overall increase in the graduation rate, with a fifteen-percentage point increase for Black students.

At IU Indianapolis, our proactive advising, a thoughtful approach to addressing high D, F, and Withdrawal (DFW) rates, and the careful design of our first-year experience, including programs like Bridge Week, will help us ensure timely graduation for all our students.

Our aspirations for student success do not stop at graduation. The Classroom to Career Summit, organized by the U.S. Department of Education, began with a discussion at the White House about connecting our students to careers. As I shared in a previous blog, we want our students to have career opportunities even before graduation. At IU Indianapolis, we have adopted the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) competencies into our curriculum in multiple ways—general education, required in some majors and in some electives, in our study abroad programs, in work-study programs and by engaging recruiters so they build in the competencies into their internships and recruitment plans.

Student success conversations begin in high schools. IU Indy's seamless admissions initiative, combined with internships for high school students, helps our learners attend college while they continue to work and gain professional skills. We cannot do this alone and are grateful for our partnership with EmployIndy and the New Skills Ready Network, supported by JPMorgan Chase.

By working together—across campuses, communities, and industries—we can ensure that every student has the opportunity to succeed, both during their time at IU Indianapolis and beyond.

Go Jags!

Latha Ramchand
Chancellor