Academic Success Center Wins National Award

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Posted on November 20, 2017

Joy Washington

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The University of South Alabama recently received the Education Advisory Board’s “Return on Education Award” for improving retention rates by as much as 20 percent through proactive student success management.                

The award was presented to Dr. Nicole Carr, associate vice president for Student Academic Success, during EAB’s Student Success Collaborative Annual Summit held in Washington, D.C., with more than 500 of the country’s most progressive student success leaders.

“We are now using technology to track each student’s success at South Alabama, and we are continuing to make sure our students have the support they need to be academically successful,” Carr stated. “Our focus is improving institutional retention and graduation rates. We are honored to receive national recognition for our very good work.”

South’s Academic Services Center is a one-stop shop for academic resources. In addition to Success Center – which provides free academic resources to students — and the Advising & Transfer Services, the building houses the Writing Center, the Math Technology Lab, Student-Athlete Academic Services and the Student Veterans Administration Office. Students looking for academic resources can now find them in one location.

USA's integration of the Student Success Collaborative technology enables faculty, staff and administrators to reach out to groups of students and nudge them toward a desired outcome. “For example, students who have earned over 90 credit hours and have a 2.0 grade point average, and have not applied to graduate, may be contacted by leaders in their academic unit and encouraged to apply for graduation,” Carr said.

In other outreach, faculty in select freshman courses report student attendance for four weeks during the start of term. Students who miss class are engaged in ROAR: Reaching Out in Absence Response. “By leveraging technology to manage student interactions and communicate with them throughout the year, USA is moving the needle on both first year success and graduation,” Carr said. 

EAB is a best practice firm dedicated to helping colleges, universities and schools fulfill their missions and enable all students to succeed.  The EAB experts work to support Carr and other academic affairs staff by assisting with technical support and services, including the firm’s Student Success Management System and their enrollment division, Royal & Company.

 

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