Access to Success

Matrix on Access to Success/Milwaukee Commitment Initiatives: January 2007 Update on Activities

Action Initiatives
Assessment Measures
Baseline Data
Activities Implemented and Impact to Date

January 18, 2007

Student Recruitment Action Initiatives

• Recruit in area schools which provide a high yield of TRE/D students
• Satellite recruitment offices
• Recruitment material in various TRE languages
• Diversity Ambassadors
• Increase the pre-college experience for TRE/D students
• Aggressively market UWM to the TRE/D students
• Early admission of successful TRE/D pre-college students
• Future Leaders Program to increase the number of pre-college students
• "Honors" program development
• Scholarship development
• Housing availability
• Marketing and recruitment
• Recruit TRE students from out of state metropolitan areas
• Recruit more high achieving TRE students
• Recruit TRE transfer students from UW colleges, technical colleges, and other transfer partners

Admissions and Placement Action Initiatives

• Slightly modify standard and discretionary admission definitions
• Determine “placement” within schools/college and/or AOC of students admitted under discretionary criteria and oversight of schedules, courses, etc
• Develop transfer tracks with MATC
• Develop remedial programs with MATC
• Expand degree completion options
• Consider restricting new students placing at remedial levels to limited course offerings that must include completion of remedial requirements

Retention Action Initiatives

• Bridge Programs : Expand current model for Summer Bridge programs
• Freshman Year Course Redesign: Improve Math Success. Pilot combining the content of Math 090 and Math 095 and Math 105, each into one semester of instruction, with morning classes and afternoon laboratories, using computer adaptive testing software.
• First Year Transition (FYT) Courses. All first year students participate in a first year credit transition course (FYT) with enrollments no larger than 26 per section. Develop common course goals. Course mission/goals will include increasing first year retention; all courses will participate in first-year assessments; all courses will function as conduits for critical information/resources all new freshmen should know; instructions in FYT courses will participate in professional development regarding key retention points, pedagogy, diversity; courses will provide information or references to help students clarify academic and career goals, major/career choices, and academic intentions.
• Expand Supplemental Instruction and Team Teaching in High-Risk First Year Large Classes.
• Mentoring: Establish mentoring programs to enroll new TRE/D and majority freshmen with student, faculty and staff mentors.
• Early Warning: Using a web-based Early Warning System report, all instructors of standard start-date sections with new freshmen will assess the 4-week status of their new freshmen. Advisors will contact students doing unsatisfactory work and report by the eighth week back to instructors their recommendations to students.
• Academic Advising: Take action using the assessment tools, including training and development of academic advisors, examining the distribution/organization of advising resources campus-wide, and initiating the use of best practices in academic advising.
• Academic Advising: Based on placement examination results, provide appropriate academic advising, including the creation of a long-term individualized achievement plan leading to graduation.
• Organizing for Student Success: Annually assess, beginning with the Spring 2005 budget planning process, the effectiveness of UWM's array of student support programs in improving retention and learning; develop common database that allows tracking of student activities in retention services (tutoring, mentoring, advising) and alerts interested parties of student activities.
• Organizing for Student Success: Convene on a regular basis the UWM Retention Network.
• Organizing for Student Success: Consolidate career services.
• Organizing for Student Success: Consolidate tutoring services.
• Organizing for Student Success: Establish a Multicultural Student Center
• Increase the grants/scholarship portion of financial aid packages for needy TRE/D students.
• Curriculum/Courses: Develop and maintain an appropriate learning environment by strengthening the diversity components of the curricula.
• Curriculum/Courses: Assess first-year gateway courses regarding student success and address issues of curriculum and instruction to improve success.
• Curriculum/Courses: Expand campus offerings of training for faculty and instructors on diversity and on effective teaching and learning.

Graduate Student Enrollment Action Initiatives

• Graduate Student Enrollment: Develop a plan for graduate enrollment management and new program development based on school/college plans presented by Deans for increasing graduate enrollment.
• Graduate School Enrollment: Develop and implement strategies for recruitment of Master's and doctoral level TRE/D students.

Faculty and Staff Action Initiatives

• Recruitment and Retention: Institutionalize recruitment processes that utilize the best practices to expand the diversity candidate pools.
• Recruitment and Retention: Fully enforce affirmative action guidelines and close down faculty and staff searches if it can be shown that good faith efforts have not been made to diversify the applicant pool.
• Recruitment and Retention: Enhance professional and social mentoring of faculty and staff to increase retention and promotion rates.
• Recruitment and Retention: Provide leadership training and professional development opportunities to prepare racial/ethnic minorities for leadership positions and seriously consider these applicants to fill vacancies.
• Diversity Training: Develop diversity training materials and modules in a variety of formats (literature, multimedia, web-based).
• Diversity Training: Include diversity training as part of new employee orientation
• Diversity Training: Support faculty attendance at discipline-specific professional development opportunities that assist faculty in learning methods to teach courses to a diverse student body.

Assessment and Accountability Action Initiatives

• Assessment and Accountability: Assess performance of all administrative levels on achievement of overall retention and diversity goals.
• Assessment and Accountability: Increase the data base of knowledge regarding student attrition and student participation in student services and the impact of that participation on student achievement and retention.
• Assessment and Accountability: Create Advisory Council (Council for Inclusion) to the Chancellor on Issues of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender.
• Assessment and Accountability: Identify and allocate necessary resources (financial and personnel) at all levels (campus, unit, department) to successfully implement action plans.
• Assessment and Accountability: Require all units to include diversity goals and strategies in unit strategic planning processes and to submit their plans to implement the strategies in the Milwaukee Commitment Phase II Plan.
• Assessment and Accountability: Progress in diversity initiatives will be used in the evaluation of employees with assigned responsibilities.
• Assessment and Accountability: Create a campus-wide advisory committee as a site to mediate and provide advice to individuals who believe that they have experienced a race/ethnicity related event that is painful and/or hurtful, but does not meet the test of violating either the law or administrative policies.
• Assessment and Accountability: All administrators and supervisors will be required to participate in university sponsored professional development workshops and seminars that will assist them to improve their interpersonal relationships, leadership, and intergroup relations.
• Assessment and Accountability: Review and revise UWM's Discriminatory Conduct Policy to restore the rights of employees (including third-party observers) to report instances of discrimination.
• Assessment and Accountability: Systematically conduct exit surveys of TRE/D students, faculty and staff leaving UWM and use the information for continuous improvement.

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