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Student Success

• Relevant Initiatives from the current plan
• Strengths and Challenges
• Key Performance Indicators
• Current College Activities
• Best Practices
• What if...Where might Mount Mary be in 2020?
• Download complete PDF forStudent Success

Goal 1: Enhance current academic programs

• Expand bridge program to include first-year CAP students.
• Goal 2: Address technology issues
• Create and implement plan to provide access to computers for all students.
• Implement a plan for wireless access.

Goal 3: Recruit effectively

• Increase average ACT of matriculated students by 1 point every two years (base year Fall 2006) while continuing to provide access to a diverse group of students.

Goal 4: Provide adequate financial aid to attract and support students

• Explore viability of annual increase of scholarships at 75% of tuition increase.

Goal 5: Assess data and disaggregate appropriately to better understand retention patterns

Goal 6: Strengthen meaningful connections between academic and student affairs

• Establish a Center for Student Success (i.e., relocate student support services to a common area) to coordinate student services and provide greater collaboration among offices.
• Coordinate and enhance programming, service learning and the leadership seminar to provide a coherent first-year experience.
• Create learning communities through various methods to increase students' sense of belonging.
• Create a cohesive undergraduate leadership development program.

Goal 7: Expand student life and services to meet the needs of all students

• Expand childcare to meet the needs of students and employees.
• Review office hours and staff availability and modify to ensure student success and satisfaction.
• Review office procedures and operations and modify to ensure student success and satisfaction.

Goal 8: Enhance and coordinate academic and other student services

• Enhance advising process for undecided students and students changing majors.
• Tailor orientation and registration processes to meet student and program needs (i.e., traditional, non-traditional, evening, graduate, accelerated).

Goal 9: Attract, retain, and support a diverse, highly qualified faculty, administration and staff

• Increase ethnic diversity of employee applicant pool by adding to the recruitment process intentional targeting of ethnic-specific and regionally based professional organizations and institutions.

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Strengths

• Personal, caring, supportive student environment
• Access to faculty
• Small classes
• Academic Resource Center
• Grace Scholars Program (formerly Midtown Scholarship)
• College Achievement Program and other bridge programs
• Social justice seminar
• Early warning/detection system

Challenges

• Insufficient security in residence halls
• Lack of adequate childcare
• Insufficient student engagement
• Insufficient scholarship support
• Learning spaces (classrooms, studios, labs) are not well equipped and/or are in disrepair/dirty
  

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• Moved forward with planning and fundraising for Student Success Center.
• Launched, with grant support, Students Building Bridges, a new program for college students from diverse backgrounds.
• Completed system allowing students self-service access to degree verification, enrollment verification, and loan information online 24/7 through the National Student Clearinghouse; added online transcript ordering.
• Experienced strong recruitment and enrollment over past two years.
• Received a 5-year federal TRIO grant to increase retention and graduation rates of low-income, first-generation, or disabled students.
• Finalized articulation agreements with MATC and WCTC for degree completion.
• Instituted mid-semester grade report and counseling.
• Continued Grace Scholars Program (formerly Midtown Scholarship).
• Continued College Achievement Program (CAP) and Academic Resource Center (ARC).

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The Grace Scholars Program (formerly Midtown Scholarship), enrolling students facing financial and academic challenges, provides not only essential scholarship support but also social and learning support on an ongoing basis for students financially and academically at risk. The Program’s success is evident, with fall-to-fall retention rates that compare favorably to peer institutions and strong persistence toward graduation. Grace Scholars Program (formerly Midtown Scholarship) participants – low-income, at-risk, and frequently first-generation – not only are flourishing in college but in some cases are performing better than their peers at other colleges in Milwaukee and beyond.

What are we learning from this initiative? Key innovative features include a venue for the college-entry year that is convenient and familiar to this urban population, facilitating engagement. The ready availability of Mount Mary staff in a dedicated office also fosters success, with personal interactions as well as space for students to gather informally and bond as cohorts. Efforts to identify candidates begin early and include meetings with the families.

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Things to include in our vision might be:

• Students not only seek out Mount Mary but persist to degree completion with graduation rates well above national averages.
• Graduates talk enthusiastically about their Mount Mary experience as life-changing, one that awakened them intellectually, challenged them to define and live their values, and empowered them to lead.
• While some talk more about study abroad or service learning or athletics, they all uniformly talk about the spirit of community and of preparation for meaningful careers and purposeful lives.
• Recruiters eagerly come to campus to interview.
• Milwaukee businesses turn to Mount Mary for interns who are skilled, disciplined, and principled.
• Other?

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