Building a Student Success Center 8-Keys to Achieve From the Ground Up: Building a Student Success Center 8-Keys to Achieve Purpose-Driven Success Jewel B. Cherry, Director Student Success Center Forsyth Technical Community College

Successfully implementing change on your campus Implementing change on a college campus is like trying to move a cemetery. Clark Kerr

Advising Financial Aid Retention Instruction Learning Resources Registration

What Are The Eight Keys To Success? Establish a sense of urgency Create the guiding coalition Develop a vision and strategy Communicate the change Empower broad-based action Generate short-term wins Consolidate gains and produce more change Anchor new approaches in the culture Leading Change by John P. Kotter

KEY # 1 ~ Establish a Sense of Urgency SACS reaffirmation self-study (August, 2000) Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Survey (spring 2000) Community College Survey of Student Engagement (spring 2003) Internal ad-hoc committee (2001-2002) Overall air of discontentment

Hacken’s Law The belief that understanding alone will stir an organization to action is one of mankind’s greatest illusions.

KEY # 2~ Creating the guiding coalition Grant writing committee Awarded Title III Grant (spring 2005) Appoint dedicated personnel

KEY # 3 ~ Developing a Vision and Strategy Creating a vision to help direct the change effort Increase student retention Increase student graduation rates Implement split model of academic advising Developing strategies for achieving that vision Develop new student orientation programs Increase faculty training Open a Student Success Center

KEY #4~ Communicating the change vision Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk Top Administrators Deans Faculty Staff Maintenance Students

How??? “A sentence here, a paragraph there, two minutes in the middle of a meeting, five minutes at the end of a conversation, three quick references in a presentation – collectively, these brief mentions can add up to a massive amount of useful communication, which is generally what is needed to win over both hearts and minds” Kotter, p. 95

KEY #5 ~ Empowering broad-based action Committees with Campus-wide representation Faculty advising needs survey Faculty advisor training based on survey results Courageous conversations

KEY #6 ~ Generating short-term wins Student Success Center Open House Annual update from the President Secured a visible location Hired staff All full-time faculty attended initial training session On-going training on hot topics Online orientation option

KEY #7 ~ Consolidating gains and producing more change Don’t lose momentum The rubber band effect

KEY #8 ~Anchor New Approaches in the Culture Share the good news Create a newsletter Keep records and publish Data Retention Persistence Student satisfaction Continuous improvement 100% participation

Sustainability – How to keep it going? DISCUSSION