Valdosta State University Campus Plan Update 2022

SECTION I: Institutional Mission and Student Body Profile

Mission:

As a comprehensive institution of the University System of Georgia, Valdosta State University is a welcoming, aware, and vibrant community founded on and dedicated to serving our communities’ rich and diverse heritages. Through excellence in teaching, basic and applied research, and service, VSU provides rigorous programs and opportunities that enrich our students, our university, and our region. The VSU mission consists of three interrelated parts: Student Mission, University Mission, and Regional Mission. VSU awards associate, bachelor's, master's, educational specialist, and doctoral degrees. [See full VSU Mission Statement.]

Geographic Service Area:

As a comprehensive university, VSU is charged with meeting the general and professional educational needs of its South Georgia service area, which stretches from the Atlantic Coast to Alabama, encompassing forty-one counties and 31 percent of the land area of the state.

Composition of the Student Population

In Fall 2021, VSU served 11,573 students (headcount) with FTE of 9,854 of which:  

• 75.8% undergraduate students; 24.2% graduate students  
• 69.0% female  
• 64.6% enrolled full-time  
• 48.3% white, 36.5% black, 1.5% Asian  
• 1,711 enrolled as beginning first-year

Section 2: Your Student Success Inventory

1.2    Your Big Idea

2021 Big Idea:

Our overarching Big Idea is the alignment of a number of critical initiatives (QEP – experiential learning, Gateways to Completion, First Year Seminar pilot, Concierge Coaching) under the umbrella of Momentum Approach. Students have benefitted from the aspects of this that we have already implemented and are already excited about our expansion of experiential learning. 

As noted earlier in the report, progress within Experiential Learning is on schedule and initial responses have been very positive.  Ways to connect experiential learning within existing institutional activities including Undergraduate Research, First Year Student Experience courses, Mentoring, and integrated student engagement through the division of Student Affairs continue to inform conversations across institutional units and to serve as the basis for action steps that will become part of the new institutional Strategic Plan.

Each of these programs has worked with the other ones to connect these initiatives:

The First-Year Seminar Experience (FYSE) initiative continues to work collaboratively with existing initiatives at VSU. As a high-impact practice, each FYSE course integrates experiential learning opportunities into the course. Thus, the QEP Coordinator and the General Education Coordinator have worked together to endorse first-year seminar experience courses under the undergraduate research experiential learning designation. Subsequently, students who successfully complete a first-year seminar course will receive credit toward the experiential learning program at VSU that is part of VSU’s current quality enhancement plan (QEP).

The FYSE course also facilitates students’ engagement with several resources provided by units in the Division of Student Affairs/Success such as the integration of peer mentors in the courses, participation in student success-related sessions, and opportunities to develop an understanding of the connection between the curricular and extracurricular activities in which they participate. In addition, the new VSU Strategic Plan 2027 includes the participation of all incoming students in a first-year or transfer experience course and/or a learning community as one of the measurable outcomes for fulfillment of Goal 1 of the plan. Subsequently, the General Education Coordinator and the First-Year Program Coordinator continue to collaborate to expand the first-year seminar experience course. Learning community strategies ensure that the outcome is achieved within the timeframe specified.

The Blazer Ready Initiative is also being integrated within the QEP as a type of experiential learning.

1.3    Global Momentum Work

In reflecting on your work above, what units on campus would have the opportunity to be more engaged in your Momentum Work? If so, in what ways and in what areas?

• Alignment of Campus Units and Resources to better support academic units, student affairs, student success, and auxiliary services is critical in a period of limited resources.
• Understand the role of DEIB concepts within all areas of practice within an institution, from individual and professional interaction to organizational and regional interactions and communications.
• Along with student success, efficiencies in how the campus operates and how units interact should be the focus of the goals and objectives of the new Strategic Plan.
• Expanding Pilot or early-stage activities designed to promote student success such as the FYSE and Experiential Learning Initiatives.  Find ways to integrate data regarding student participation in Experiential Learning activities to inform advisors, faculty, and students. Such data integrations could also lead to recognitions of this participation in a student’s final transcript.
• Student Engagement Strategies and training provided through Student Affairs using tools like Modern Campus and integrating those resources with academic areas
• Carefully and critically examine data gathered from all areas of campus and sharing this information, interpreting it within the context of the entire institution, and using it to determine what priorities will be supported on campus and what priorities may have to wait to be realized

In order for this initiative to be successful, there is a need for collaboration across all major divisions at the institution. In relation to first-year seminar experience courses, the need for collaboration is most evident between the divisions of academic affairs and student success/affairs. The coordinators of First-Year Programs and General Education have collaborated on offering first-year seminar courses as part of first-year learning communities and developing strategies to work with at-risk students to assist in the acquisition and/or enhancement of transferable skills that will assist students in being successful in the classroom. The Director of Institutional Research is also working with the General Education Coordinator to develop data dashboards to assist with the analysis of key student success indicators for students enrolled in a first-year seminar experience course, to allow for institutional comparisons of student success on those key indicators. This will assist with the ability to develop and revise strategies that are guided by existing data.

In addition, there are opportunities for the enhancement of existing collaborations and the creation of new collaborations. As the first-year seminar experience initiative transitions from pilot to full implementation, there will be an increased need for instructor development opportunities, revision of student engagement and experiential learning opportunities, integration of peer mentors, clear messaging from application and continuing throughout the degree plan, and other related elements. There will also be opportunities for collaboration with developing initiatives such as common experiences, general education redesign, and forthcoming student success and retention initiatives. As a result, there is the potential for collaborations with numerous units at the institution such as the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, eLearning, Office of First-Year Programs, the QEP, our advising centers, units in Student Affairs/Success (e.g., Advising, Enrollment Management, Career Opportunities, Academic Support Center), Institutional Research, Institutional Effectiveness, General Education Council, Faculty Senate, Advancement, and the Rural Development Institute. The pursuit of and the realization of the fulfillment of these potential collaborations is understandably contingent upon the sustained focus of university initiatives and the availability of resources in the areas of time, talent, and treasure.

Section 2: Reflecting on your Momentum Work & Minding the Gaps

Looking at your student success inventory, campus context and institutional data…

2.1        What are your strengths with respect to student success? Where are you having the greatest success and making the most progress?

• We made great strides in improving retention and graduation rates over the past few years, although retention declined in Fall 2021, likely due to the impact of the pandemic on student engagement. Nonetheless, faculty and staff broadly recognize the importance of engaging every student and the impact of this on increasing retention and graduation rates. We have a particularly effective Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT), in terms of providing very engaging experiences for faculty. CELT continues to expand its menu of Faculty Workshops and individual planning activities for learning communities, peer support, and institutional resources for differentiated content delivery. In the past year, we have made strides in implementing a common course shell design (especially in eDegree).
• We have made great progress in the past year on the pilot of the QEP, with most indicators showing that we are significantly ahead of schedule with implementation of course activities and Experiential Learning Ambassadors across the institution.
• We are using the Institutional SACSCOC QEP and the Momentum Year initiatives as springboards to guide some areas of the new institutional Strategic Plan discussions.
• We have also had success at decreasing the time to graduation and the number of credits taken at the point of graduation.

2.2        What are your priority areas for continued improvement and why? Where do you have gaps in performance among student subgroups? What are your plans for understanding and closing these gaps?

Priorities:

Institutional priorities are for alignment of Strategic Plan Action steps across campus

• Foster Student Success
• Cultivate Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
• Impact Regional Success
• Sustain Institutional Strength

Deploy Student Success Initiatives to different student populations beyond the traditional first year – Full time student

Gaps:

• Real and / or perceived gaps in performance should be addressed within college and departmental planning. This is especially important as we recognize the gaps that students have from the past few years of disrupted learning.
• Coordination and Communication – Integration
• Start – Stop – Continue

2.3        What from the System Office would be most helpful in advancing your work?

No new Mandates and reconsider old mandates. It would help to have some room to breathe as we all continue to cope with the learning challenges brought on by the unprecedented disruption of COVID.

2.4        Goal Setting

 Reviewing your recent data, what are your overall goals/targets for:

Section 3: Lessons from the Pandemic

The Pandemic has changed both the context in which students learn and our institutions operate and the students that we serve, in some ways that we can recognize, and others that we still are struggling to understand. We want to understand a bit more about what you have learned from the Pandemic, what the unanticipated consequences of the many changes and adjustments you have made have been, and what we can carry forward from this experimentation and adaptation into common practice. 

What changes that you have made in your practices/programs/operations because of the Pandemic improved your effectiveness and you plan to maintain or build upon?

• Institutional Planning and implementation of technology:  Expanding remote access and wireless capacity for students and faculty.
• Utilized remote instruction skills and deployment tools to better design and deliver Online College for Career Advancement
• Ability to network across the institution on a larger scale than in the past.
• The VSU (Valdosta State University) IT division discovered that students and faculty were encountering remote access continuity issues due to an operating systems upgrade designed to improve broadband access. After making changes to the system, problems with individuals being dropped have been greatly reduced.
• We have learned to make better use of virtual learning, such as BlazeView (D2L), in all courses, including face-to-face and hybrid, thanks to our crash course in virtual learning during COVID.
• We have greater acumen to communicate with a broad range of constituents regardless of location.

3.2        How has your communications with students shifted since the Pandemic? How did that go? What did you learn?

• We have learned to not always expect rational behavior.
• Much of the communications with students occurs through remote means, (e-mail, dialogue structures within course shells, social media platforms, etc.)  While these expanded avenues of contact provide great opportunity, it is important to recognize that the separation of individuals, the ability to observe and interpret nonverbal communications, and to follow up with conversations in real time pose challenges.
• Use of institutional tools for communicating student performance concerns has increased with some faculty and administrators sharing information in more efficient ways to better understand issues, formulate plans to assist, carry out plans, and follow up on actions taken.
• We have learned that the final component of following up with all involved parties (where allowed) is an important part of any efforts to assist individuals within the systems.
• The belief that students no longer use email is false. They are using it often and it became a preferred communication method for many students during the pandemic. This type of communication decreases the connection between the student and the university as it is difficult to gauge tone/intent.

3.3        In what ways, if any, are the students you serve today different from the students you were serving before the Pandemic? What are the implications for your success work and for campus functions in general?

• Preparation and understanding of linear processes and progression:
• Although they state that they are interested in being engaged, newly admitted students are not practiced in engagement skills. This in turn makes interactions that one might have considered routine in the past appear to feel more forced or uncomfortable.
• Students understand changes and deviation from planned itineraries, adaptability, or flexibility.
• The pandemic has exacerbated student mental health issues and we have worked hard to meet the increased demand.
• Most important to note is that not only have students changed in ways we are still trying to understand, but the faculty have also changed as well. Routine interactions and means for engagement “feel” different and are sometimes uncomfortable including interactions with students or colleagues. The lasting impact of this is yet unclear, but we need to be monitoring engagement closely. Moreover, our plan is to significantly increase experiential learning activities, thus positively impacting student engagement.

3.4        What are the questions you are still working on about supporting students in the Pandemic?

• What remote use technologies should we retain and continue to invest resources in that work BETTER than old practices?
• How can flexibility still be viewed as an asset, rather than a distraction from established process and success?
• The institution needs to be prepared to listen and respond to pandemic influenced behaviors we have not yet encountered. Using the pandemic communication teams on campus to serve in new roles related to reflection and sharing observations across the campus should prove helpful.