1. Building Solid Partnerships For Guiding Student Success
Lyssa Thaden, Ph.D, AFC®, Manager of Partner Education

2. Student Success
Academic
Social
Financial
Physical
From a student perspective, these are four areas that are commonly addressed in terms of “student success”

3. Partnering for Student Success
Agenda
Partnering for Student Success
Student Retention
Financial Education
Default Management
What we want to focus on today is how, from an institutional standpoint, we can partner together to ensure student success across those domains. But, since we are limited on time, we’re going to focus on student retention, financial education and default management – three areas that we know are important both from a student and institutional perspective…

4. Student Success: Your Responsibility
It has been proven in many studies and surveys that the effort a school puts forth in educating and assisting their students has a direct and important impact on a variety of student outcomes.
As the school, you are the trusted agent from a student perspective—especially from a student loan standpoint.

5. Internal Campus Partnerships
Academic Affairs
Admissions
Advancement
Alumni Affairs
Business Office
Career Services
Financial Aid
Registrar
Student Affairs
But you definitely don’t need to go this alone. While you might take a lead in one area, and another department might take the lead role in another, it’s really when we work together toward a common mission that student success really begins to materialize.

6. Student Retention

7. Project DEEP: {National Survey of Student Engagement}
Key questions:
Are some colleges and universities unusually effective at engaging their students?
Do these institutions “add value” to their students’ experiences by inducing them to put forth more effort in activities that contribute to their learning and development than they would on their own?
The goal of the NSSE Institute’s two-year initiative, Project DEEP (Documenting Effective Educational Practice), was to examine the everyday workings of a variety of educationally effective colleges and universities to learn what they do to promote student success. The effort was the first in a series of activities undertaken by the NSSE Institute for Effective Educational Practice to respond to national concerns about improving the quality of undergraduate education.
Two questions were asked:
Are some colleges and universities unusually effective at engaging their students?
Do these institutions “add value” to their students’ experiences by inducing them to put forth more effort in activities that contribute to their learning and development than they would on their own?

8. Project DEEP: {National Survey of Student Engagement}
Goals:
Identify institutions that perform well in two areas— student engagement and graduation rates.
Controlling for institutional size and selectivity and student characteristics.
Discover, document, and describe the policies and practices of these high performing institutions.
Project DEEP had two goals:
Identify institutions that perform well in two areas—student engagement and graduation rates.
Discover, document, and describe the policies and practices of these high performing institutions.
Ultimately, they chose the following 20 schools:
Alverno College
California State, Monterey Bay
The Evergreen State College
Fayetteville State University
George Mason University
Gonzaga University
Longwood University
Macalester College
Miami University (Ohio)
Sweet Briar College
University of Kansas
University of Maine, Farmington
University of Michigan
Sewanee: The University of the South
University of Texas at El Paso
Ursinus College
Wabash College
Wheaton College (MA)
Winston-Salem State University
Wofford College

9. Conditions That Foster Success
A “living” mission and “lived” educational philosophy
An unshakeable focus on student learning
Environments adapted for educational enrichment
Clear pathways to student success
An improvement-oriented ethos
Shared responsibility for educational quality and student success
Although there is no single blueprint for student success, six factors and conditions appear to be common to educationally effective institutions:
1. “Living” mission and a “lived” educational philosophy;
2. Unshakeable focus on student learning;
3. Clear pathways to student success;
4. Environments adapted for educational enrichment;
5. Improvement-oriented campus culture; and
6. Shared responsibility for educational quality and student success.
And no one office can foster success on their own. Partnering with others is the only way to make this happen on your campus.

10. Mission and Philosophy
Common mission
Everyone doing their own thing
When schools have a common mission, everyone is going in the same direction, trying to reach the same goal.
Some have deviated little from their original mission, while others have adopted new or revised missions.
Institutional values do guide actions; key leaders frequently remind others what their institution holds important.
Missions, values, and aspirations are transparent and understandable.
All have developed complementary policies and practice tailored to school’s mission and students’ educational and social needs, interests, and abilities.

11. An Unshakeable Focus On Student Learning
Student learning and personal development are priorities.
Faculty and staff who are committed to student learning and take the time and measures necessary to foster that learning are recruited and retained.
Faculty and staff members make time for students.
Using engaging pedagogies inside and outside the classroom is commonplace.

12. Environments Adapted For Educational Enrichment
“Wherever they are” is a good place for college.
Physical environments on campus are modified to create spaces and settings where teaching and learning can flourish.
Potential learning opportunities on- or off-campus are recognized and utilized.
Interior and exterior spaces are adapted to reduce the psychological size of the campus and to encourage participation in campus life.

13. Clear Pathways to Student Success
Routes to student success are clearly marked; guideposts are often “required.”
Students are intentionally informed about the resources and services available to them.
Resources and services are compatible with institution’s educational mission.
Efforts are tailored to meet the individual needs of students.

14. Improvement-Oriented Ethos
“Positively restless” about being the best they can be.
Continually questioning whether they are living up to their potential.
Inclined toward innovation; open to trying new and promising approaches to teaching and learning.
“Can do” attitude permeates campus.

15. Shared Responsibility
Student learning is widely accepted as everyone’s responsibility.
Senior administrators and faculty members model the preferred ways of interacting, making decisions, and responding to challenges.
Collaborative spirit and positive attitude characterize the working relationships between departments.
Large numbers of caring, supportive individuals who perform countless acts of kindness to make students feel wanted and important.

16. What are you doing on your campus to improve student retention?
Are you partnering with other offices on campus to improve student retention?
What’s happening on our campus? What are you doing on your campus to improve student retention? Are you partnering with other offices on campus to improve student retention?

17. Financial Education

18. Principles Of Effective Programs
Teachable moments
Active, experiential, and problem-based learning
Evaluation
Setting the groundwork. In their 2009 research, the Pell Institute found that effective programs take advantage of those teachable moments – getting to students when students need it. It’s about being salient – the right information at the right time – and applicable.
The also focused on the importance of evaluation to understand whether what you’re offering is in fact being effective.
Principles of Effective Financial Education
The literature on financial education demonstrates three principles that help to enhance
the effectiveness of programs offered. We used this literature to design the survey and
interpret the findings.
1. Teachable moments: Financial education experts have found that learning
and change in financial behaviors are more likely when the financial education
is offered at the same time that individuals are making a specific financial
decision.
2. Active, experiential, and problem-based learning: Financial education
should also allow students to actively participate in their learning through
worksheets, discussing personal experiences, and case studies.
3. Evaluation: Financial education should incorporate evaluation in order to
understand target populations and determine its effectiveness in terms of
knowledge and behavior.
Financial Education in TRiO Programs, Institutional Policy Brief, The Pell Institute, September 2009

19. Key Elements That Promote Partnerships
Perceived need/purpose
Goals and objectives
Audience
Partners and resources
It might seem a little overwhelming to create a financial literacy program from scratch on your campus, but you don’t have to go it along. So, let’s just take some time to discuss a few key elements involved that will help to promote partnership with other departments on your campus… and hopefully result in a success program for your students!

20. Perceived Need/Purpose
Reduce Student Loan Debt and/or CDR
Improve
Retention
Increase Annual Giving and Alumni Engagement
Increase Student Engagement
Position Students and Alumni for Financial Success
Financial Aid Office and Media/Public Relations
Admissions, First Year Experience and Academic Outreach
Alumni Relations and Development
Student Activities, Residential Life, Career Services
Everyone

21. Goals And Objectives Learn good financial decision making
Get students to attend
Get students to pay attention
Lower borrowing levels
Lower cohort default rate
Collaborate with other offices
Now, this is where you need to spend a little time. Every institution is different. Every student body is different. And, where you’re at with your current programming should also play a role in your goals and objectives.
Regardless of where you are at, we probably all want to help our students lean good financial decision making skills. But, beyond that, are you just trying to get a few people to show up to a session? Or, are you trying to increase attendance or the number of sessions that you offer? Are you going to go after student loan borrower behavior? Or maybe there has been a credit card push lately on your campus that you want to try to counteract. Maybe it’s a campus goal to improve collaboration, and this could be a topic that you all rally around.
Whatever your goals, writing them down and then building your program around them, will help you to keep that end in sight and your program on track.

22. Audience TRiO students All entering freshmen All graduating seniors
College 101 class
Greek life/residence hall groups
Commuter students
Campus organization/major
Young alumni
And then you need to think about your audience. And, think about this in a couple of ways.
First, are there captive groups on your campus that you can get to easily? For example, most residence life staff members are required to put on at least one educational program per term. Can you partner with them to bring your financial literacy program to the residence hall? If you know that your TRiO program is required to provide this information, are they already holding lecture series and this can become part of the series? Do you know that your students in a certain program have higher than average student loan indebtedness, and those students might actually benefit – and sometimes ask for – additional financial education? In short, how can you partner with existing groups and their resources?
Secondly, you’ll want to consider tailoring your program for the audience. Your commuter students might find it difficult to make it back to campus for an evening session, so can it be a brown-bag over a lunch hour? Do you have a high non-traditional population that might need child care? And, do you need to adjust your presentation to cover items like child care expenses that you might not talk about with your more traditional aged students.

23. Partners And Resources
Campus partners
Find some champions: staff, faculty, students
Community resources
Local credit unions, banks, insurance professionals, etc.
National resources
Not-for-profit agencies
Blogs and websites
studentlendinganalytics.com, todayscampus.com, academic-impressions.com
We keep talking around this issue, but find and use your partners and resources. If you start asking around, you might be surprised to learn that your campus Students in Free Enterprise program has been doing a student led project on financial literacy. Or you might have a faculty member who is really in to personal finance. Find those champions to help you.
Then, link up with other resources. Whether you are looking for speakers, or products, or sometimes even sponsorship, there are both great local resources within your own community, and a number of good not-for-profit agencies (like ASA) who are happy to partner with you.
You might also peruse the web for interesting program ideas and for current trends.

24. What financial literacy programming are you doing on your campus?
Are you partnering with other offices on campus to bring financial literacy programming to your students?
What’s happening on your campus? What financial literacy programming are you doing on your campus? And are you partnering with other offices on campus to bring financial literacy programming to your students?

25. Default Management

26. Default Management
Managing loan and/or receivable portfolios to ensure that defaults are kept to a minimum.
On the surface, defining default management is simple. It is managing your loan and/or receivable portfolios to ensure that defaults are kept to a minimum. Simple enough, right?

27. Beyond Federal Requirements
To assist the student loan borrower.
To ensure future Title IV eligibility.
To be eligible for loan disbursement waivers and exceptions.
To maintain eligibility for receipt of federal monies.
To ensure that ED does not mandate you to use a default management plan.
To meet your fiscal and regulatory requirements.
Beyond the federal mandate, there are other reasons that you should want to be thinking about a default management plan.
First and foremost, you are in this business because you care about students, and you want to help your student loan borrowers be successful in repayment and in their lives in general. And, for all of your future students, you want them to have access to federal aid – both grants and loans. Additionally, private loan lenders may even use your CDR to determine whether or not they will lend money to your students – and at what rate they might lend at.
On a selfish note, managing your defaults can help you become eligible (or maintain eligibility) for loan disbursement waivers and exceptions, which can cut down on your time spent processing loans in the first place. And, your institution really does love being able to take advantage of academic grants and research funds, which require your default rates to be under X percent (GET THIS NUMBER – IS IT STILL 25?). And, frankly, it’s always nicer to do business on your own terms instead of having to comply with mandates from the Department of Education.
Finally, it is your fiscal and regulatory responsibility to manage your student loan portfolios. These are tax-payer dollars, and recovering defaulted loans is a costly endeavor.
And while most of your campus colleagues might look at these reasons and think that the responsibility should rely solely on the financial aid office—that is not true! Default management takes a village!

28. Default Management Success
Create an institutional default management plan.
Create policies and procedures that support and enforce the plan.
To really ensure success with default management, we need to first create a default management plan that is in line with your own organization’s mission and vision. We have to ensure that we are abiding by any state or federal regulations that may apply to our institution. In some cases, regulations are mandating you to create this plan. Regardless, all institutions can benefit from a default management plan.
Secondly, we need to create policies and procedures to operationalize and carry out our individualized plan.
Both of these tasks naturally include involvement from other offices on campus.

29. Creating A Plan Get institutional buy-in of the plan:
Best with involvement from all key campus offices/stakeholders.
Form a task force or committee to ensure creation, implementation, and continued maintenance of plan, including development of procedures and processes.
The plan becomes:
A blueprint for your office and your campus.
The cornerstone of your procedures in terms of all efforts related to timely collection of debt.
The structure to define how your policies and procedures support the overall mission of your institution.
A statement of your commitment to helping your borrowers strive for good repayment habits—and is ultimately part of student success!
Creating a default management plan is a great opportunity to partner with other offices. In fact, it’s best if you have involvement from all key offices and stakeholders on campus. Some schools begin by forming a task force of campus-wide committee to ensure the creation and implementation of the plan.

30. Implementing A Plan
Generally done with involvement from all key offices and stakeholders on campus.
Obtain the support necessary to carry out the plan.
Policy and plan need to be distributed and communicated prior to implementation.
Processes and procedures should be created to support the plan.
Roles and responsibilities should be defined and expectations clearly communicated across campus.
Partner with all offices on campus.
It is everyone’s responsibility and takes commitment.
“It takes a village!”
Similar to the creation of a default management plan, successful implementation of the plan involves campus-wide participation. It is everyone’s responsibility… it definitely “takes a village”!

31. School Requirements: An Exercise
Entrance Counseling
Exit Counseling
Enrollment Reporting
SAP Information
Are you partnering with any other offices on campus to carry out these baseline requirements?
Regardless of whether or not you are required to have a default prevention plan in place on your campus, all Title IV participating schools are required to engage in certain activities. These include entrance and exit counseling, reporting timely and accurate enrollment information to the U.S. Department of Education, and sharing satisfactory academic progress information across campus.
Are you partnering with any other offices on campus to carry out these baseline requirements? If not, should you be and how can you?

32. In Conclusion

33. Results Of Working Together For A Common Goal
Higher morale on campus
Extreme customer service to the students and to each other
Better overall experience for your students
Long-term positive effect on retention and default
Working together has its benefits:
Higher morale on campus
Extreme customer service to the students and to each other.
Better overall experience for your students.
Long-term effects on retention and default rates.

34. Questions and Discussion
What best practices have you established on your campus?
What are your strategies for approaching other offices on campus?
So, here are just a few questions to get us started with our discussion:
What best practices have you established on your campus?
What are your strategies for approaching other offices on campus?
Which campus departments have you partnered with the most?
And here are a few other questions to consider:
What challenges have you faced in trying to partner with others?
What successes have you experienced as a result of partnering with other offices?
Which campus departments have you partnered with the most?

35. Thank You American Student Assistance Recommended:
Arial font for contact info, 50% black and 12 points
American Student Assistance
asa.org