Question #6

Question #6 -The goal of the next strategic plan is to help guide YSU on a path to its best possible future.
What could be done to improve student success at YSU?
 
Individual Responses -
  • YSU should be proactive when planning for the future.  Put things in place NOW that will help departments manage growth.  eg. YSU Housing is not open until the day before classes start.  What about new students coming from California, Texas, China?  Where do they live?  What/where do they eat?  How do they get from the airport to YSU?   Outsourcing gets the job done; however, an employee takes pride in a job WELL done.  Students see this.  We should have MORE full-time staff and less part-time.   Part-time leads to more turnover and no consistency.
  • I feel that student parking is an issue and the maintenance of the parking lots doesn't necessarily match the needs. I think that parking is already an issue on campus but sometimes not all the lots are even plowed. At university courtyards (I understand that there are issues with it being not dorms but it is a ysu student lot and a parking pass is needed to park there so it should be treated like all the other lots and it is not) after the snowstorm there was literally a one lane plow job done and absolutely no unoccupied spots were plowed. Last year in one of the new lots ,which I was very happy about being created to help address the parking problem, I was unfortunately stuck because no plow touched the lot where my car in addition to probably 30+ cars had to push our cars out unless we had 4 wheel drive. So I guess student success could be improved if ALL the parking (minus the parking on top of parking decks I understand plows cant get there) was properly maintained and allow in the budget to maybe expand the maintenance department in the winter months to be better prepared for harsh weather so everyone can get to class and get home without having to struggle getting theirselves out of unplowed parking lots.
  • Keep the library open later Monday-Thursday
  • We need to ensure that everyone who works at the university in a forward-facing capacity actually cares about student success. There are far too many stories about faculty who appear to be working against students, intentionally setting up roadblocks to make it more difficult for students to succeed, and who refuse to use available resources like Blackboard and Starfish because they just don't want to. There are far too many staff who think narrowly about their responsibility to students and the university and will only do things if they fall neatly within their written job description. It's not that difficult to educate yourself about who else exists on campus, which offices do what, who works in which offices, basic policies and procedures, etc. And it should be expected from a customer-service (and student success) standpoint that if a student asks a question of anyone on this campus they do their best to connect that student to an answer, a resource, or someone who can provide an answer or a resource.
  • First the university has to recognize that it has a (moral) responsibility to ensure that all students but especially students coming from less than stellar academic and socioeconomic backgrounds (low-income, first-gen and students of color) receive all the supports they require to make the necessary transition to college academically, socially and financially which results in retention and graduation. We accept their tuition and fees so it is incumbent upon us to do our due diligence.
  • Get all the student academic services in one building, preferably Maag Library.
    Center for Student Progress, The Writing Center and the Math Assistance Center should all be in Maag. Maag library is open more than any other building on campus and could host extended hours for those services right before and during finals week. Maag library is also the best place to do any kind of research and also houses a large assortment of textbooks for classes that students need help with. If these services will be rearranged again, which it sound like they will be, do the sensible thing and put them all in Maag Library.
  • Let's ensure that there aren't ANY homeless students on campus.
  • Improve advisement for students.   There should be consistency among all colleges when students enter the university.  Students should receive the same information, be given access to the same tools and have knowledge of available departments, software, etc.  Advisement should also be consistent across YSU. The first year experience course should provide all students the same information about YSU, about what resources are available to them to guide them throughout their academic career. For example, every student should be shown what uAchieve is and how to run a degree audit in EVERY First Year Experience course.
  • Create required service-learning curriculum in conjunction with center for working class studies, office of economic development, and other interested departments on campus, to work with public, private, and non-profit community partners to improve capacity throughout all units of local government.
  • I think that having a good foundational First Year Experience course, that helps students not only adjust to college life, but assists them with understanding what they need to do to manage their course work, schedules, further academic major, and what assistance they have available to them will provide them with the foundation that they need to be successful.
  • YSU has recently increased efforts to recruit international students. While this initiative will bring vital cultural diversity to our campus, we have an ethical responsibility to reciprocate through supporting these students' unique needs. The campus is lacking in ESL services, writing help, and student mental and physical health support staff and facilities. There is a significant need for a better student health facility, more on-site mental health services & staff, a women's resource center, and expertly staffed ESL & writing center staff if the university has a serious commitment to international (and domestic) student course completion and degree completion. The current facilities and staff are either nonexistent or inadequate for YSU's vision to recruit beyond a five county radius.
  •   1. Improve faculty workload, reduce service expectations: If FT faculty are not worked to the bone with service and course overloads, they will be better researchers and teachers for students, and students will have better educational experiences.  This will also improve YSU's standing. 
    2. Reduce the number of PT faculty and hire FT faculty instead.  If students are given the chance to study with full-time scholars who have terminal degrees and are excellent researchers, they will also have better educational experiences.  Less faculty turnover (due to PT status) translates into better educational experiences for students.
    3. Pay faculty for the work they do related to the Honors program.  The level of mentoring students get (or should be getting) to make their work "Honors-worthy" merits reimbursement for the people doing the mentoring.  Expecting faculty to take on additional work for free is unreasonable and waters down the academic portion of the Honors experience.  (The last thing we want is for faculty to simply "check the boxes" for the Honors program, without providing the mentoring to students that should go along with the term "Honors" -- but that's precisely what faculty are being set up to do, if they're not reimbursed for their work.  Paying faculty for their Honors work translates into better student experiences and success in this program.)
    4.  Invest in counseling/mental health for students.  Many faculty report confronting multiple mental health issues per year w/students -- and students not being able to access the mental health support they need, e.g., wait lists at the counseling office, etc.
    5.  Establish a Center for Women and Gender.  The statistics and anecdotal evidence point to the need for better support in this area at YSU.  If pay gaps continue to exist on our campus (and they do), if some male faculty continue to make inappropriate comments in front of students (and at least one does), if gender-based violence/harrassment continues on our campus (and it does) -- then a major way we can improve students' experiences (and ultimately their success) is by investing in resources that work against gender-based harassment, abuse, and violence for everyone on campus, since part of student success is ensuring the people who serve them are safe and can do their jobs free of trauma, as well.
  • The first most important item that needs addressed to improve student success at YSU is to eliminate the "them and us" environment between the administration and faculty. Then Our entire University would be able to focus all its resources on our students' success. Another vital ingredient is seeking to understand the unique challenges our students have as commuter students. That challenge makes getting a complete university education challenging. As a somewhat mixed (commuter/residential) student body that understanding let alone programs and processes to address the understanding is challenging for YSU.
  • We should be gathering and systematically analyzing additional data to help inform and guide decisions to improve student success.
    For example, approximately 130 students who enrolled on the first day were not enrolled on the tenth day of this semester. This represents approximately $1 million in lost revenue to the university for the year.  I'm fairly certain we don't know anything about these students who dropped. As an institution we should be contacting every single student to ask them why they dropped and, more importantly, what could be done differently that would have allowed them to stay.
    Similarly, each year hundreds of students who are in their senior year leave YSU and don't complete their degree.  We should be contacting every single student that is within 30 SH of graduating to ask why they did not finish their degree, and whether anything could be done to allow them to finish.
    These are just two examples -- there are many other potential areas in which data gathering and analysis can help improve student success. 
    Making this a systematic process may require hiring additional staff, but the potential revenue gained far exceeds the costs.  If we are able reduce the drop rate in the first ten days by just 10%, or if we improve the graduation rates for those within 30 SH of graduating by just 5%, that would more than pay for the salaries of two additional staff members.
  • Review the Code of Conduct - Article III. 16 according to the Code of Conduct a YSU student can be sited in a car accident off of campus, and be brought in front of the conduct board.
  • Decreasing faculty workload would allow the faculty to devote a greater level of personal attention to each student. A review of all programs and the student-to-faculty ratio might be warranted. Certain programs are probably deficient in full-time faculty, while others have an abundance.
  • To improve student success I believe we need to hire more faculty and staff, and fewer managers.  How many managers and administrators actually interact with the students?  I would say very few, though there are some.  Faculty is extremely important as if we do not have enough faculty to teach, to offer advisement, and keep up with research to improve our courses and add more, we won't have the students because they will go elsewhere.  Staff is necessary to support the added faculty and they are the first place a student goes when they are having trouble.  We are an educational institution.
  • I think that one thing that would personally improve my success would be to have a centralized place that all professors are required to post grades and assignments would be beneficial. Blackboard is not universally used so it makes it hard when all assignments are in different places and we must keep track of all of them at once. Another thing that I think would be helpful would be a better parking system. Every day I struggle to find parking so I have to come to campus more than an hour early so that I can find parking.
  • Students will be more successful if we only accept them to YSU ONLY if we have a way IN PLACE and OFFERED TO THEM to support them -- whether Honors students or conditionally admitted, or unidentified as having other barriers (disabilities, financial, needing to work, child care, lack of transportation, etc.).  We need to investigate the various needs and then create a centralized/focused way to support and advise them.  This includes issues of diversity and inclusion, academic support, assistance w/registering and understanding their courses -- first year through graduation.  AND, we need to consider incentives/recognition to faculty and staff for their time spent mentoring and helping students.
  • I think a greater effort to help students find their career path/desires/interests would be very beneficial for student success. I talk to a lot of students who say they don't know what they're doing with their life, what major to take up, what they're good at, or even what they like.
    I believe the proverbial hand holding of lower levels of education, along with the prominence of teaching for standardized tests, has resulted in a large student base who are not suited to find what they are truly good at/enjoy in life.
    Of course part of this is the natural process of growing up, but I'm concerned too many students are settling into career paths instead of aspiring.
  • I believe that student success could be improved at YSU if more professors carried themselves as more approachable and accepting people. I know that a majority of professors are very approachable, but some do not carry this same quality. If all professors encouraged more students to ask questions and take advantage of office hours, I believe more student could be successful.
    Another way student success could improve at YSU would be through the mandatory attendance of classes. Too many students find themselves skipping class because it is not required that they go. If it was a requirement, more students would attend class more often and in turn would be more successful.
  • I can see a rather large benefit from pursuing an improved first year experience (FYE) at Youngstown State University (YSU). The FYE course is specifically designed to implement the students integration (aka success) at YSU during their first semester and the long term goal of improving retention rates.  Based on the feed back from students - the current program has failed to do that. There is also some opposition coming from professors that are in opposition to this program. Professor serve as the primary leadership roll in the classroom - so, if they have a negative outlook on the course that will trickle down to the students. Coming from a smaller college (the same college who's very own alum come up with FYE), I have to say that this course truly made me know where to go to be successful. I also made very close friends that were in that class. Not to mention, that this class confirmed that I selected the right major.
  • If what you are asking relates to what goes on in the classroom then we need to address how we support faculty in trying to improve their classroom performance. We do a bit but not near enough. The annual Fresh Start workshops are great but they are just a taste of what we could be doing better all the time if we had a full teaching and learning center that worked with faculty.
  • Students at YSU have many resources available for them and excellent faculty who are largely willing to help students. Between the writing center, SI sessions, tutors livable, and also a student's own resources being at the ready a student should not be without tools. Nor should they be surprised; many professors but everything on their syllabus. Many issues with student performance can be traced back to students, and their own failings due to various issues.
    One of these issues is stress. Stress largely comes from social situations and their own interactions. However, one large source of stress can be financial issues. This is somewhat speaking from experience and my own financial issues with the university in the past. One course of action that could be taken to improve student success at YSU is addressing any financial issues and communication on the matter, as well as checking other systems that are in place with the university to ensure that if monetary issues arrive in one aspect of the student's college career, the rest doesn't collapse as well. Having confidence in the financial situation at YSU can reduce some of the most potent stress a student can experience, and as such improve their academic performance.
  • The communication between different departments and colleges.