Cross-Department Collaboration
Build strong, trusting, effective teams across divisions critical for addressing systemic barriers to student success.
Join a cohort of equity-driven institutions in a collaborative transformation journey. This transformational experience, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is specifically for institutions committed to student success and closing equity gaps for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and low-income students.
This cohort experience accelerates transformation by providing specific and customized support so that your institution can make data-informed decisions to close equity gaps and achieve student success goals for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and low-income students.
Thanks to the generous support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, there is no cost of participation.
This program is designed for leaders at four-year regional comprehensive institutions that are AASCU members.
One of the cornerstones of AASCU’s student success efforts is our emphasis on engaging senior leaders in key positions at your institution as a student success team. Team members work together to understand and elevate student experiences, review data to inform student success strategies aligned with institutional strengths and growth opportunities and engage others on their campus in transformation.
To participate in the Student Success Equity Intensive, institutions must assemble a campus team consisting of at least the following required roles:
President: A visionary committed to long-term success with students and the community at the center; empowers teams & creates an environment ready for change.
Campus Team Lead: A trusted partner & main liaison to the AASCU team. This person should be someone close to Student Success work & be able to champion the tangible work of institution-wide transformation and keep their teams aligned, on-target, & in-motion. Note: This position can be held by any of the roles below.
Provost: A thought-leader and operational strategist who can help bring clarity and direction to the ambiguity that can quickly stall efforts.
Data Lead: A subject matter expert who values evidenced-based decision making and informs the campus team’s understanding of the student experience by collecting, managing, and analyzing data.
There is no limit to the number of participants. Additional team member(s) may include VPs, Directors, etc. from the following areas:
Bi-Monthly cohort calls with full teams from each campus in the cohort (2-Hours); quarterly team calls with your institution specific team and AASCU coach (1 Hour; 3 Hour ITA x2); Monthly coaching calls between Campus Team Lead and AASCU coach (45-minutes); and quarterly call with the president and provost.
There is a great deal of support provided to your institution as part of SSEI. Your institution will participate in data gathering, consensus conversations and be invited to working sessions (regional and national). You will receive Technical Assistance and be invited to workshops, professional development that align to key areas that you identify and that will help support your work to close equity gaps. We work hard to ensure that the meetings and support commitments are not an undue burden on staff time.
Beyond these formal convenings, we recommend that teams meet regularly (semi-weekly or monthly) to get the most out of the experience.
Build strong, trusting, effective teams across divisions critical for addressing systemic barriers to student success.
Refine your equity strategy through a deep dive into your institution’s qualitative and quantitative insights.
Connect with subject matter experts for technical assistance to help your institution meet its equity goals.
Connect with other institutions in guided, judgment-free discussions around the real-time challenges you are navigating.
Learn and share best practices with your cohort and celebrate each other’s progress toward student success.
Craft meaningful stories to support case-making internally and externally along your transformation journey.
For over 50 years, AASCU has worked with its member institutions to deliver on the American promise of access, affordability and educational opportunity and on the commitment to serve as stewards of place in their communities. Beginning in 2016, AASCU began documenting and describing the transformation processes at the heart of equitable student outcomes experienced among a subset of partner institutions. Our observations and analyses based on these years of institutional qualitative and quantitative data have led us to develop a set of core pillars we hypothesize are foundational for successful transformation. We draw upon these pillars to create the Student Success Equity Intensive. Learn more about the approach and context of this research by visiting postsecondarytransformation.org.
A process of continuous improvement
A culture of evidence and assessment
Integrated student-centered structures, processes, and supports
Engagement with community and regional stakeholders
A culture of shared leadership and vision
Building upon our work documenting and describing transformation among regional comprehensive institutions, AASCU has launching a unique cohorted learning experience for our members that guides campus teams through a five-step continuous improvement process. This experience reflects the contributions and lessons learned in partnership with over 70 AASCU members, experts across higher education, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Working as a team through a structured 5-step process – with AASCU’s facilitation, tools, and connections to field experts – institutions can accelerate their journey to equitable student success by strengthening their pillars of transformation.