Fort Valley State University Campus Plan Update 2020

Institutional Mission and Student Body Profile

The mission of Fort Valley State University (FVSU) is to advance the cause of education with emphasis upon fulfilling commitments that our community members have undertaken collectively. As an institution of the University System of Georgia, Fort Valley State University naturally embraces the principles articulated by the Core Mission Statement for State Universities as approved by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. The university’s primary commitments include, among others, enhancement of teacher training programs grounded upon a liberal arts foundation, as reflective of over 120 years of experience and tradition. As Georgia’s only 1890 Land Grant institution, FVSU offers academic programs in a variety of disciplines which include agriculture, family and consumer sciences, technology, and a new program in supply chain management just to name a few. FVSU has a commitment to continue to further its traditions of excellence in programs in the liberal arts and humanities, social, natural and physical sciences.
FVSU enrolled 2,627 students in fall 2019. The student retention rate for fall 2019 is 73.4%. FVSU administrators believe this increase is due to many initiatives that have been implemented. The majority of FVSU students are African-American (91.5%) and as of 2019, 87% of FVSU students received Pell Grant Funds. FVSU has 630 or 24% of the student body that identifies as first generation freshman. Approximately only 1% of the incoming freshmen class were considered adult learners (25 years or older), therefore the majority of the student body is comprised of high school graduates who are products of lower-performing high schools in the inner cities or rural areas. However, a shift has occurred in the enrollment practices and the reward for this is a higher retention rate and, hopefully, a future increase in graduation rates. Our slightly higher female population is consistent with national trends. These indicators were used as the committee devised the Complete College Georgia Plan for FVSU as benchmarks and as points of reference for strategies that should be developed to increase student success outcomes for the institution.

Improvement Practices

We have made significant strides to improve practices at the institution to lessen the structural obstacles facing students. The migration to self-registration and the electronic process for academic advising has streamlined both processes for students and advisors. The decisions were made by a cross section of leaders from across the institution in academic affairs, the university college, the academic colleges, the registrar’s office, student affairs and the institutional research unit. We also updated degree maps to assist in advising and course scheduling to promote on time completion. These improvements were recently implemented and therefore we do not yet have data to support the success of the changes.

Momentum Update: Observations and Next Steps

Section 3.1 Existing Momentum Work

Purposeful Choice

Transparent Pathways

Academic Mindset

General Overview and Observations

The most successful strategies and activities have been the following:

• the updating of degree maps in all academic areas to ensure compliance
• identifying nine credit hours from each major to complete the academic focus area concept
• connecting academic advising with career planning

We have been able to connect these three activities for students, which is lending to their retention and persistence.

• While these activities were not necessarily the least effective, their effectiveness cannot be measured yet, as they are newly implemented and do not have data to fully support their effectiveness. Those activities would be:
• Academic Mindset Survey
• Integration of FYE course and career assessments

Both activities have been connected to students, with an expected increase in participation in the Academic Mindset survey as it will be introduced in the FYE course. Additionally, the potential to adjust FYE workshops to accommodate and complement career assessment. We will analyze the Mindset survey results to determine what programs we need to put into action to address the concerns brought to the surface by the students.
All completion activities transitioned to an online environment. Collaboration with Student Affairs to monitor attendance at signature events were monitored through the use of Presence. An increase in virtual advertising was another. The most important lessons we could share are the importance of engaging students throughout virtual instruction, and finding a variety of ways to do so. Additionally, utilizing technology to communicate – videos are appreciated – will help to provide the human connection that a lot of students are missing. Encouraging them to connect with student activity events is beneficial as well.

Section 3.2 Follow up from Momentum Summit III - “Campus-Wide” Momentum Approach Activities (Beyond the Classroom)

Purpose

Mindset

Pathways

Student Success and Completion Team