Indiana University Kokomo pledges to ensure the long-term success of all students – undergraduates, graduates, professional students, online, and lifelong learners – by providing the highest quality education through a rich, diverse, engaging, and fiscally responsible environment.
Student Success and Opportunity
Objectives:
- Strengthen wraparound services to support students by creating and growing Cougar 360 programming to support the whole student from admission to graduation, including but not limited to counseling, financial aid, and advising.
- Regularly assess and strengthen student success programs by dedicating staff resources to analyzing the effectiveness of current and future student success programs.
- Expand inclusive spaces and resources to support the transition to college by establishing Groups Scholars, a cohort program for first-generation and underrepresented students.
- Pilot a 21st Century Scholar support and incentive program.
- Award summer course scholarships for achievement of specific first-year academic and engagement goals.
Metrics:
- Increase fall-to-fall retention rates for first-year undergraduates (FYU) to the top 25% of our institutional peers.
- Increase six-year graduation rate to the top 25% of our institutional peers.
- Reduce equity gaps in retention and graduation for historically marginalized student populations, including underrepresented students of color, Pell Grant recipients, 21st Century Scholars and Groups Scholars from baseline, defined as the 2019-2022 average for each student group.
- Establish staff position to support student success.
- Establish a Groups Scholars cohort as of Fall 2023 and continue new enrollment annually.
Our campuses are learning institutions. Consequently, IU Kokomo is committed to improving student learning in every aspect of the IUK experience, re-allocating resources or identifying new funding for initiatives.
Objectives:
- Integrate strategic interventions for student success into the student campus experience starting in Fall 2024.
- This established curriculum will inform all KEY Summer Institute sections and all A101 First Year Seminar courses.
- Students will reflect on their progress toward key success factors through assignments in these classes.
- Instructors who read the reflections will identify risk factors and make referrals through the Cougar 360 service.
- Improve DFW rates (students who withdraw from or receive a D or F in a course) within high priority courses through a dedicated IUK initiative to identify and implement solutions to improve student success and strengthen student retention.
- Increase student participation in high impact practices through the development and implementation of a new student engagement model that supports overall student success.
Metrics:
- Develop and administer survey for baseline data by Fall 2024. After analyzing survey results, pursue an increased number of students reporting engagement with, and progress towards key success factors by 2030.
- Review courses identified as barriers for students in terms of success and update the Gateway list accordingly.
- Reduce the average percentage of DFW grades in lower division Gateway courses.
- Close the equity gap for historically marginalized students in lower division Gateway courses.
- Increase student knowledge about success practices, KEY programs, and high impact practices through an intentional communication plan and outreach mechanisms.
- Increase participation per National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) High Impact Practices in first-year students and in seniors.
- 2021 First year – 55% participated in at least one HIP
- 2021 Senior – 85% participated in at least one HIP
We are committed to student success, not only in the classroom, but in preparing each student for success after graduation.
Objectives:
- Introduce Journey to Success, a map/pathway that guides students toward activities that promote belongingness, career development, high impact practices, and other curricular and co-curricular milestones.
- Strengthen curricular and co-curricular development, education, and resources by integrating career development more closely in specific individual major curricula.
Metrics:
- Launch Journey to Success, with all milestones identified for specific populations of students by the end of 2024.
- By 2024, develop inventory of career-related activities and how they will be tracked.
- By 2027, more than half of the student population will complete milestones as scheduled.
- By 2030, every student matriculating on or after August 2027 will engage in one career-related activity by their graduation.
- Increase the number of IU Kokomo courses integrating the NACE Career Readiness competencies by 15% by 2030, using the 2024-2025 academic year as a baseline.
We are committed to our responsibilities to our students, region, and state, and will be excellent stewards of our resources, achieving excellence in an efficient manner.
Objectives:
- Develop and employ a model for determining costs and benefits (monetary and non-monetary) of academic programs to allow efficient employment of university resources.
- Model will include the IU Kokomo mission, the IU Kokomo strategic plan, and the university strategic plan as criteria.
- Increase intercampus collaboration in course offerings.
- Programs and courses will be identified where cross-campus collaboration may improve efficiencies.
- Focus on lower productivity majors and lower enrolled courses, combining courses with low enrollment and offering new courses to improve degrees.
Metrics:
- Decisions for programs utilize the established model by the 2028 academic year.
- Model is employed to assess existing programs.
- Model informs budgetary decisions.
- Increase number of intercampus collaborative courses.