KSU is actively engaged in several student success initiatives in partnership with the CPE and its Kentucky Student Success Collaborative (KYSSC). These include the following:
Kentucky Purpose First Initiative: KSU is a member of a nine-campus cohort in the Purpose First initiative to ensure greater social mobility for minoritized communities. KSU is receiving technical assistance from Complete College America to implement a Purpose First model to accelerate career exploration, planning and pathways on campus.
Kentucky Network Demonstration Project: KSU is a member of a nine-campus cohort in the Network Demonstration Project with a common goal of creating a holistic advising philosophy and developing a master advisor training. KSU is receiving technical assistance through Jobs for the Future (JFF) to implement the advising professional development on campus and participate in an Information Technology audit for maximization of technology to support advising.
Student Basic Needs Community of Practice: KSU will be invited to participate in a year-long continuous improvement project to advance several strategies that increase access to institutional, community and public benefits for current and future students. KSU will receive technical assistance from Education Trust to complete an asset map/accessibility audit of student basic needs resources, as well as a report issuing recommendations.
Earlier this year through an engagement with CPE and KYSSC, KSU received technical assistance from national advising services providers through participation in the Kentucky Network Demonstration Project with JFF. One benefit of this initiative is deployment of the Institutional Transformation Assessment (ITA), an online perspective gathering survey designed to gather input from diverse campus stakeholders and lead to a dynamic sense-making conversation to explore new insights that spur action related to student success. The ITA was deployed with a KSU Transformation Team made up of diverse stakeholders across campus who then convened three in-person meetings in February and March to reflect and discuss. These sense-making conversations were facilitated by a national partner with expertise in student success and institutional change.
As a result of this process, the following four priorities were identified, and action steps were developed for each:
Improve leadership and culture around student success;
Provide guided pathways for career exploration and success for all students;
Develop, implement and sustain a streamlined student advising process; and
Improve a holistic information technology system connecting faculty, staff and students.
When new leadership is in place, CPE will continue to explore these priorities in more depth and refine the resulting action steps.
In partnership with KSU, CPE and KYSSC are working to support the following initiatives that relate to the priorities identified through the ITA. External funding is being sought to further enhance these initiatives: