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Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College 2023

Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) is a residential institution that has long been the higher education destination for students who want to study agriculture and natural resources. Today, ABAC has grown to become a destination for students seeking a wide variety of baccalaureate programs from a broad range of academic disciplines. ABAC is a unique, intimate learning environment where students are given the tools to embrace their full potential and pursue their career and personal aspirations through a hands-on educational experience. In addition to delivering relevant experiences that prepare the graduate for life, ABAC is a strategic partner within the University System of Georgia to help create a more educated Georgia.

 

ABAC’s mission is to provide excellent education by engaging, teaching, coaching, mentoring, and providing relevant experiences that prepare the graduate for life.

 

Fall 2022 Student Demographics

Total

Fall Enrollment

3,648

Full-Time

65%

Bachelor’s Degree-Seeking

66%

Females

60%

Underserved Minority Population

21%

Pell Eligible

34%

First Generation

24%

Adult Learner (age 25+)

10%

On-Campus Resident

37%

Intercollegiate Student Athlete

4%

Dual Enrolled

13%

Freshmen (< 30 hours)

35%

First-Year Retention Rate

69%

Six-Year Graduation Rate

30%
 

 

A central tenet of ABAC’s mission is to “provide excellent education by engaging, teaching, coaching, mentoring, and providing relevant experiences that prepare the graduate for life.” To that end, ABAC’s Complete College Georgia (CCG) plan provides the framework to allow the College to commit to student success through proactive and adaptive academic, career, and student support services that enhance student achievement and prepare the student for life beyond graduation. ABAC’s involvement with CCG has allowed the College to expand successful initiatives beyond a student’s first year to increase graduation rates and prepare ABAC graduates for a career.

ABAC’s CCG team is a collaboration and partnership between Academic Affairs, Student Success, Financial Aid, Student Affairs, Housing & Residence Life, faculty, and students. The core objectives of CCG are to support and implement strategies and policies so more students can reach their goal of attaining a college degree while preparing to join the workforce or continue their educational journey. Our most successful CCG strategies, which have positively impacted ABAC’s retention and graduation rates, include fully implementing the Momentum Year (15-to-Finish, Pathway Maps, and Learning Support Transformation) and, more recently, applying techniques of the Momentum Approach to career development. These successes are highlighted in the data below, as well as the Student Success Inventory plans, as discussed in section two.

ABAC’s evaluation of its CCG plan focuses primarily on retention and graduation rates. One means of assessment that ABAC utilizes when determining the level of success with student achievement is by comparing its retention and graduation rates to other state colleges within the USG. The list of peer institutions consists of the following:

  • Atlanta Metropolitan State College
  • College of Coastal Georgia
  • Dalton State College
  • Georgia Gwinnett College
  • Gordon State College
  • East Georgia State College
  • Georgia Highlands College
  • South Georgia State College

ABAC monitors the range of retention and graduation rates from the peer cohorts as well as the average for the cohort for both measures. The College determines an acceptable threshold for achieving student success for retention and graduation rates from these ranges and averages.

ABAC’s minimum threshold of acceptability or goal for its first-year retention rate is to exceed the average retention rate of ABAC’s comparison peer institutions. ABAC aspires to have a first-year retention rate that is at least comparable to or better than the average of its peer institutions. And because ABAC is heavily committed to improving its first-year retention, it has been implementing various supportive Momentum Year initiatives, as described in this document, to do so.

Pertinent outcomes data on the first-year retention rates at ABAC and its peer institutions are shown in Table 1. For Fall 2022, ABAC’s first-year retention rate was 69%, the highest rate within USG’s State College Sector, and exceeded the peer group average of 64%. ABAC’s Fall 2021 and Fall 2018 retention rates were typically close to the peer group average. For Fall 2020 and Fall 2019, ABAC’s student achievement outcomes in terms of first-year retention were higher than the average retention rate for its peers, indicating successful goal attainment.

Table 1. Institutional First-Year Retentions for ABAC and Peer Institutions

Cohort

Semester

Retention

Semester

Cohort Size

ABAC’s

Retention Rate

Peer Group Average

Retention Rate

Fall 2022

Fall 2023

559

69%

64%

Fall 2021

Fall 2022

532

62%

64%

Fall 2020

Fall 2021

548

65%

61%

Fall 2019

Fall 2020

531

73%

64%

Fall 2018

Fall 2019

517

63%

64%

Note. Data are from USG by the Numbers and include First-Year, Full-Time bachelor’s degree-seeking students.

ABAC’s goal or threshold for acceptable performance for its four- and six-year graduation rates is to exceed the average graduation rate of ABAC’s comparison peer institutions. For many years, improving the institution’s four- and six-year graduation rates has been part of ABAC and USG’s Retention, Progression, and Graduation (RPG) and CCG initiatives. The data in Table 2 (four-year graduation rates) and Table 3 (six-year graduation rates) show that ABAC has continually achieved its threshold of acceptability goals with respect to the peer group average. ABAC continues to be on the upper end of the graduation rate range for USG State Colleges and exceeds the peer group average for the fall cohorts presented below. A few of ABAC’s CCG strategies that have contributed to its rise in graduation rates include 15-to-Finish, Early Alerts, Academic Intervention Management (AIM), and 90-hour checks.

 

Table 2. Four-Year (on-time) Graduation Rates for ABAC and Peer Group

Cohort

Semester

Graduation

Year

Cohort Size

ABAC’s

Graduation Rate

Peer Group Average

Graduation Rate (and Range)

Fall 2019

2022-23

533

28%

13% (9% - 28%)

Fall 2018

2021-22

520

28%

13% (3% - 28%)

Fall 2017

2020-21

477

23%

13% (0% - 23%)

Fall 2016

2019-20

478

28%

11% (0% - 28%)

Fall 2015

2018-19

346

23%

11% (0% - 23%)

Note. Data are from USG by the Numbers and include First-Year, Full-Time bachelor’s degree-seeking students.

 

 

 

 

Table 3. Six-Year Graduation Rates for ABAC and Peer Group

Cohort

Semester

Graduation

Year

Cohort Size

ABAC’s

Graduation Rate

Peer Group Average

Graduation Rate (and Range)

Fall 2017

2022-23

477

40%

33% (31% - 40%)

Fall 2016

2021-22

478

51%

33% (14% - 51%)

Fall 2015

2020-21

346

45%

34% (21% - 50%)

Fall 2014

2019-20

242

42%

33% (23% - 42%)

Fall 2013

2018-19

222

39%

35% (35% - 39%)

Note. Data are from USG Qlik and include First-Year, Full-Time bachelor’s degree-seeking students.

The above data show ABAC’s commitment to helping students attain a college degree on a global level. In 2022, given ABAC’s continued success with its CCG initiatives, the College’s CCG team began to develop plans to start incorporating career-focus elements within ABAC’s CCG plan. As discussed below in the Student Success Inventory, incorporating career initiatives with the current Momentum Approach has begun to move ABAC toward a more holistic approach to serving students and aid the state in creating a more educated workforce in Georgia (a tenet of CCG).

Success Inventory

Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College-2023-Implementation with Data Collection, Analysis, and Management (Data CAM): Career Data

Strategy/Project Name: 
Implementation with Data Collection, Analysis, and Management (Data CAM): Career Data
Momentum Area: 
Data & Communications
Category: 
Data
Strategy/Project Description: 

ABAC has reliable data on its Momentum initiatives and retention and graduation rates (internal tracking, USG Qlik, and IPEDS). The top data gaps for ABAC identified during the Momentum VI Summit include:

  • the ability to capture what our graduates are doing after graduation and workforce-related data,
  • data to support funding of programs to support our Black students,
  • trauma-informed data to help guide appropriate academic interventions, which has been shown to improve retention and graduation rates
  • data related to the relationship between participation in campus recreation

Career Data

USG’s initiative on career development and workforce will aid ABAC in filling in our data gaps. ABAC has begun the process of creating a centralized Career Center. One of the responsibilities of the Career Center will be to gather and house data related to Career Services (focus surveys, First Destination Surveys, Graduate School, etc.)

Summary of Activities: 

Activity One Additional Update. During the 2023 Momentum Summit XI, the ABAC Complete College Georgia Team also identified three other areas as follows:

Racial Data

Data reports continue to show that our Black students are not being retained and graduating at the same rate as their racial peers. A deeper dive into the data is needed to help fund programming and outreach efforts targeted to help Black succeed.

 

Trauma-Informed

Research has shown that identifying students who have experienced trauma and offering the appropriate support resources is correlated to increased retention and graduation rates. ABAC would like to implement a trauma-informed survey given to incoming students during the summer. Data collected can help assist in academic services to aid a vulnerable population at risk of not being retained and progressing toward graduation.

 

Recreation Data

Research has shown a positive association between physical exercise, including recreational sports, and mental wellness, retention, and graduation. Due to budget cuts following the pandemic, recreational sports programming was cut, and access to physical exercise (gym) has been limited.

 

For the Racial Data, ABAC has developed a separate team that is utilizing racial data and other data to identify at-risk populations so that the team can develop and apply for the Federal TRIO Student Support Services grant, which ABAC housed at one time. Additionally, ABAC brought back the African American Male Initiative (AAMI) and was awarded a grant by the System Office to conduct services and activities to serve this population. These programs are expected to contribute to the success of minoritized and at-risk student groups, which will also be reflected in the overall Complete College Georgia data.

 

The ABAC Complete College Georgia Team discussed trauma-informed data. Given the nature of the survey and the broader campus concern of collecting the data and having adequate resources for identified students, this endeavor was placed on hold to research more thoroughly. Lastly, recreation data is being used in the partnership between Career Services and Student Affairs for the student involvement milestones in the Thunder’s Bucket List program that parallels academic pathways.

Activity Status: 
Piloting
Scaling
Evaluation/Assessment plan: 

Evaluation Plan and Measures:

Career Services generally measure their success across three domains:

  1. Student engagement (number of career advising appointments, workshop attendance, interviews)
  2. Job search support (number of career fairs, number of employers posting jobs/internships, total number of jobs/internships)

Student success (job placement rates, graduate school placement rates, etc.)

                  Core Function

KPIs

Method/Data Source

Assist students with career decision-making

#of students served

Tacking of appointments

Focus-2-Career Assessments given

Utilization of Stepping Blocks

Job Search Services

# of employers at fairs

% of students employed post-graduation

% of students attending graduate school post-graduation

Handshake Event Tracking

First Destination Survey

Maintain positive employer relations

# of employers posting jobs and internships

#of jobs and internships

#of employer visits

Handshake

Core Function

KPIs

Fall 2023 Data

Method/Data Source

Assist students with career decision-making.

 

#of students served
  • 26 class presentations
  • 6 department pres.
  • 10 student Org. pres.
  • 2 pres. At Bainbridge
  • 182 F-2-C Assessments
  • Stepping Blocks (Oct. 23)
    • 282 accounts
    • 484 web sessions
    • 864 active users
    • 157 personality tests
    • 55 locations
  • Handshake (launched Fall 2023)
    • 723 activated student profiles
    • 575 public profiles
    • 137 completed profiles

Tacking of appointments

Focus-2-Career Assessments given

Utilization of Stepping Blocks

Job Search Services

# of employers at fairs

% of students employed post-graduation

% of students attending graduate school post-graduation
  • All Campus Career Fair
    • Currently Collecting
    • First all-campus career fair Feb. 2024
  • Career Connections (School of AG & NRM)
    • November 7, 2023
    • 89 companies
    • 490 students attended
  • Handshake
    • 766 approved employers
    • 3 Career/grad school events totaling 187 student attendees
    • 864 active users
    • 157 personality tests

Handshake Event Tracking

First Destination Survey

Maintain positive employer relations

# of employers posting jobs and internships

#of jobs and internships

#of employer visits
  • Handshake
    • 26,628 approved job postings
    • 58 internships

Handshake

Goal or targets (for each KPI) and Time period/duration:

  • # of students served: 75% of the student body over three academic years
    • 2023 – 2024: 37%
    • 2024 – 2025: 56%
    • 2025 – 2026: 75%
  • # of employers at fairs over three academic years
    • 2023 – 2024: 80
    • 2024 – 2025: 100
    • 2025 – 2026: 120
  • # of students employed/continuing education post-graduation (still under review)
    • 2023 – 2024: 80%
    • 2024 – 2025: 85%
    • 2025 – 2026: 90%
  • # of employers posting jobs and internships three academic years
    • 2023 – 2024: 700 approved employers
    • 2024 – 2025: 900 approved employers
    • 2025 – 2026: 1200 approved employers
  • # of jobs and internships posted over three academic years – baseline still being determined

# of employer/grad school visits – still under review

Progress and Adjustments: 

ABAC’s centralized Career Center was fully launched in fall 2023. During the fall 2023 semester, ABAC has secured and implemented these student resources: Handshake, Stepping Blocks, and Focus-2-Careers. A Career Closet was also implemented to provide students with professional dress for career-related activities and events. The data above show that the Career Center successfully reached students during its initial launch. In an effort to better engage students and achieve the KPI goals, the Career Center has reached out to develop key contacts in each of the four schools and with Student Affairs.

Plan for the Year Ahead: 

For the 2023-24 academic year, ABAC’s Career Center will focus on data collection to better guide the KPI goals, aligning with the College’s newly launched strategic plan. Additionally, the Career Center will begin surveying students about services to determine additional needs, areas of improvement, and strengths. Lastly, in collaboration with Student Activities, the Career Center is developing a four-year career and engagement plan (currently called Thunder’s Bucket List) that will coincide with ABAC’s program maps.

Challenges and Support: 

Financial and budget constraints are the primary challenges for the Career Center. Budget constraints may limit the ability to fully staff the Career Center to serve the student body adequately.

From the System Office, collected Career/Workforce data by the System disseminated back to its institutions. Additionally, access to dashboard resources, such as Microsoft Power BI, to help showcase data to students, their families, employers, and others interested in the ABAC community.

Primary Contact: 
Rachel Frantz, Career Center Coordinator
Dr. Nicholas Urquhart, Assistant Vice President for Student Success

Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College-2023-FLEX (First-year learning experience)

Strategy/Project Name: 
FLEX (First-year learning experience)
Momentum Area: 
Purpose
Category: 
Mindset
Orientation
Strategy/Project Description: 

Academic Support decided to re-envision the AIM (Academic Intervention Management) program, implemented in 2012, to work with first-year students on academic probation after their first semester. The AIM program is considered reactive and doesn’t provide the “just in time” support many of our students need. A pilot of the FLEX program was run during the fall 2022 and the fall 2023 semesters alongside the AIM program. FLEX will scale and officially launch during the Fall 2024 semester and the AIM program will run each spring semester to work with first-time students on academic probation.

During the pilot program, FLEX was for incoming first-year students below a 3.2 high school GPA (HSGPA). These identified students were invited to participate in the FLEX program. The FLEX program is a proactive approach focused on a productive academic mindset, identifying resources, and providing academic support. Students who participated worked one-on-one with an Academic Support Counselor – essentially, this provided an individualized first-year experience course. The FLEX program is non-credit-bearing; thus, is free, and students can opt in or out.

Activity Status: 
Piloting
Scaling
Evaluation/Assessment plan: 

Measures of success include the percentage of students who participated in the FLEX program and continued into the next semester in good academic standing and those who returned the following fall semester (first-year retention). Also, similar data from the AIM program will be compared to the FLEX program for context on a proactive approach compared to a reactive intervention.

Additionally, a post-survey will be given to all participants to determine the resources utilized and strengths of the program and identify areas of improvement.
    KPIs:

  • Number of participants per fall
  • Percentage in good academic standing after the first semester
  • Percentage retained (First-year retention)
  • Average GPA of all participants
  • Average GPA of those retained

Baseline measure (for each KPI): See below. The baseline is being captured through the pilot.

Current/most recent data (for each KPI) [NEW for 2023]:

 

Participants

% Good Standing

% FY Retention

Avg GPA All

Avg GPA Retained

Fall 2022 Pilot

21

52%

52%

2.13

2.79

Fall 2023 Pilot

26

73%

92%

2.42

2.67

ABAC’s AIM program produced results and helped students return to good academic standing as long as they participated regularly in the program. The effectiveness is reduced when enrolled students who did not participate as expected are added in. Below is a glimpse of the AIM averages for the past five academic years:

 

5 YR Avg

Avg Student Required

% Return to Good Standing

% FY Retention

Avg GPA All

Avg GPA Retained

AIM

89

13%

11%

below 2.0

below 2.0

Goal or targets (for each KPI) and Time period/duration:

For students who participate in FLEX, ABAC would like to see the percentage of students in good standing and retained after their first year exceed institutional averages of over 65%.

Progress and Adjustments: 

Initial results of the FLEX program indicate that a proactive approach may help ABAC in improving USG student outcomes of first-year retention and reducing the time to degree completion. Currently, the FLEX program is voluntary as ABAC does not have a first-year experience requirement. There is capacity to serve more students, so the program may be adjusted to allow all incoming first-year students the opportunity to participate, with additional outreach and attention to students in a higher risk category based on their high school GPA. The FLEX program is expected to be fully scaled by Fall 2024.

Plan for the Year Ahead: 

At the end of Fall 2023, ABAC will review the pilot data. Based on the first pilot, ABAC plans to open the program further to all incoming first-year students, emphasizing those who may be at higher risk of failure. Additionally, an online component will be added to the ABAC learning management system, Georgia View, and survey data will be evaluated for current strengths and process improvement.

Challenges and Support: 

Financial and budget constraints may limit the ability to fully provide adequate staffing to run the FLEX program efficiently while providing other student success services for the student body.

From USG, as the CORE continues to change to better suit students, more flexibility in the CORE for state institutions is needed to allow for adjustments and adding of first-year-type programming without increasing the overall credits required for a degree. This type of flexibility is seen at the research level and in other schools within the university sector.

Primary Contact: 
Lisa Pryor, Director for Academic Support
Dr. Nicholas Urquhart, Assistant Vice President for Student Success

Campus Plans Supplemental Sections

15-TO-FINISH

ABAC continues to preregister first-year students before their scheduled orientation session. Academic Support preregisters all full-time first-year students for 15 hours; however, several of these students choose to take less than 15 hours. The importance of 15-to-finish begins with the information given to interested students before admission and is incorporated into orientation and new faculty advisor training each fall and spring semesters. Financial aid counselors also encourage students to take 15 hours a semester to graduate on time. Plus, the program maps incorporate the 15-to-Finish initiative. Below is a chart showing ABAC’s progress toward this goal:

Fall Cohort

Total FYS*

FYS registered

for 15+

Percentage of FYS 15+

Avg. Credit Hours

2022

711

412

58%

14.26

2021

532

306

57%

14.22

2020

562

286

51%

14.18

2019

614

320

52%

14.36

Note. FYS = First-year students

Measures of Success

  • The number of first-year students taking 15 or more hours their first semester remained above the 50% mark – which was the original goal for the 15-to-Finish initiative. Additionally, the percentage of first-year students enrolled in 15 hours during their first semester for Fall 2022 is higher than the previous three fall cohorts.
  • The average number of credit hours taken per student increased slightly over Fall 2021 students.

Lessons Learned

ABAC has been consistent in delivering the message 15 hours a semester to graduate on time. The 15-to-Finish initiative began in 2012 and has become part of the ABAC culture and a norm for full-time first-year students. ABAC would like to see 60% of full-time first-year students enrolled for 15 hours during their first semester. An increase is expected in this initiative due to the implementation of the FLEX program described under section two as part of the College’s student success inventory programs and projects.

90-HOUR CHECKS

ABAC realizes that the path to graduation should be easy for students to navigate; however, changes in policies and programs can occasionally throw a student off track. ABAC has helped remove barriers to graduation by implementing 90-hour checks for all bachelor’s degree-seeking students who have earned 90 or more credit hours. The checks ensure that each student is on track to graduate within one academic year. In addition to the 90-hour reviews, ABAC enacted a policy for students to apply for graduation the semester before they graduate. An additional check of requirements is done by both the student’s advisor and an Academic Support Counselor, thus further easing the graduation process and reducing potential barriers to graduation. Below are the updated results for the 90-hour checks:

 

Semester

Off Track

Graduated within one year

Percentage graduated

Spring 2023

216

In progress

-

Fall 2022

324

In progress

-

Spring 2022

309

219

71%

Fall 2021

372

336

90%

Spring 2021

189

177

94%

Fall 2020

171

122

71%

Spring 2020

*

*

*

Fall 2019

230

197

86%

Spring 2019

105

86

82%

* COVID-19 shutdown prevented 90-hour checks
 

 

The table above shows the number of students identified as being off-track for the term given, the number that graduated within one year of being off-track, followed by the percentage. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 90-hour checks were not completed for spring 2020 due to the campus closure and other high-priority needs upon reopening. For fall 2022 and spring 2023, the data will be reported after one year, the end of fall 2023 and spring 2024, respectively. This high-impact strategy continues to be a success for the students and the institution by keeping students on track to graduate.

Measures of Success

  • Increase in third-year retention rates.

Institutional Third-Year Retention Rates for ABAC and Peer Institutions

The graph above indicates that ABAC’s third-year retention rates have continued to exceed the average of its peers per cohort year since 2010. Data were pulled from USG Qlik.

  • Another measure of success is the growth in the number of students graduating within one year after being identified as off-track. The table above indicates an overall increase in students who graduate within one year after being identified as off-track.
  • An overall increase in the conferment of bachelor’s degrees is also a measure of success.

 

Number of ABAC Degrees Conferred in the Past Five Fiscal Years

Fiscal

Year

Conferred

Bachelor’s Degrees

2023

393

2022

414

2021

314

2020

334

2019

331
 

 

For FY 2023, a decrease in the number of bachelor’s degrees conferred can be seen in the table above. The annual number of bachelor’s degrees awarded also dropped by a small amount in FY 2021. The dips in bachelor’s degrees awarded tend to follow dips in new student enrollment. Data were pulled from USG by the Numbers.

Lessons Learned

During the 2014-15 academic year, the number of baccalaureate students who reached 90 hours without completing high school requirements or the core curriculum was alarming. Due to these deficiencies, Academic Support implemented 90-hour checks to keep students on track for graduation. The effects of the 90-hour checks can be seen in the number of students graduating within one academic year after being identified. Additionally, the results of this high-impact practice can be seen in the College’s third-year retention rates and the number of bachelor’s degrees conferred. Academic Support, School Department Heads, and faculty advisors continue to work with students who are determined to be off-track to help remove or solve the identified barriers to allow for on-time graduation.

Section 4

OBSERVATIONS AND NEXT STEPS

In addition to the Momentum Year and Momentum Approach implemented initiatives, the high-impact strategies listed in section three have aided ABAC in increasing student outcomes, which are seen through our institutional retention and graduation rates. Also, these strategies and initiatives tie into our institutional mission “to engage, teach, coach, mentor, and provide relevant experiences that prepare the graduate for life.” Our success comes from faculty and staff collaboration and administrative support to increase student achievement and the College’s retention and graduation rates.

ABAC’s next phase, which began during Momentum Summit XI and will continue for this upcoming academic year (2024-25), focuses on increasing student engagement and adding a workforce/continuing education lens to our approaches. The creation of a centralized Career Center is starting to produce positive student results (section two). Expanding these services and programs will aid ABAC in reaching its career readiness KPIs and better prepare ABAC graduates for life after graduation. Additionally, a joint initiative between the Career Center and Student Affairs, currently called Thunder’s Bucket List, will add career preparation and student involvement milestones to students’ academic pathways. ABAC is committed to the Complete College Georgia Initiative but realizes success also comes from campus engagement and preparing for a fulfilling career or continuing education after walking across the stage and earning a degree.

 

  •  

Student Success and Completion Team

Dr. Nicholas Urquhart

Assistant Vice President for

 Student Success

nurquhart@abac.edu

Dr. Alan Kramer

Dean of Students and

Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs akramer@abac.edu

Dr. Amy Willis

Interim Provost & VPAA

apwillis@abac.edu

Lisa Pryor

Director, Academic Support

Lisa.pryor@abac.edu

Dr. Marcus Johnson

Associate Professor

Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs

mjohnson@abac.edu

Dr. Amy Warren

Associate Professor

Director of Assessment

awarren@abac.edu

Rachel Frantz

Coordinator, Career Center

rachel.frantz@abac.edu

Shawn Burnette

Coordinator, Student Activities

douglas.burnette@abac.edu