Student success is the number one priority at Wayne State.
That’s why a recent WSU summit, titled “Enhancing Student Success through the Use of Data,” brought together speakers from across campus to discuss their experiences and provide demonstrations of current capabilities. The Office of the Provost was the summit's executive sponsor, with funding from the Kresge Foundation.
"Student success is the job of everyone at Wayne State. We all, therefore, need the tools to support our students and see them through to a degree," said Margaret E. Winters, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. "The Data Summit was a good step in that direction; everyone there came away with new knowledge about how to apply data to helping students and renewed enthusiasm about moving forward. We will continue this effort, engaging more members of the WSU community as we do."
Topics included WSU’s current initiatives, strategic goals, happenings across the industry, and what faculty and staff can do to better use data to support and encourage student success. The university captures data that could impact enrollment, retention, yield, persistence and academic planning. It also has the supporting information management systems and technologies to impact student success.
“Data can be really useful in large institutions such as Wayne State,” said Monica Brockmeyer, associate provost for student success. “We’re so big, complicated and decentralized that the student success initiative can’t be just a few people working as hard as they can. Everybody needs to do their part to help make sure our students are successful.”
By analyzing and sharing national best practices, the university hopes to identify opportunities for improvement. Participants also had time to break down the issues they face with colleagues and explore new methods to promote student success.
“The recognition among the summit participants about the importance of using data to inform our decision making was clearly evident,” said Joseph Sawasky, chief information officer and associate vice president for Computing and Information Technology. “Attendees also had a chance to see the rich set of IT tools we have to access and analyze data, and can now employ whichever is best suited to meet their needs.”
Faculty is encouraged to attend future summits and meetings. In the fall, there will be a Provost’s Student Success Faculty Summit. The hope is that with increased participation, meaningful dialogue can be created that will drive the university forward.
“I always say leadership isn’t something that comes down from the top,” Brockmeyer said. “Whether you’re an advisor, a department chair, dean or the president, we want everybody’s decisions to be as effective as possible.”
A starting point for those interested in understanding data about how students are doing can be found on WSU's Institutional Research website.