Hampton University News June 22, 2017 Hampton University Receives $600,000 from the Mellon Foundation Grant to Launch a Student Success Center Aimed at Raising Student Completion Rates The Hampton University Student Success Center, slated to open this fall, is designed to help new students navigate through their first year of college and beyond with an Individual Plan for Academic Success (I-PASS). In addition to academic support, the center will provide counseling, tutoring services and encourage fruitful engagement between students and faculty. The Mellon Foundation will support the creation of the Center with $200,000 per year for the next three years offering a total commitment of $600,000. "The Student Success Center is one of many Hampton University programs highly favored by global foundations seeking to support the efforts of stellar academic institutions," said Hampton University President Dr. William R. Harvey. "The Mellon Foundation recognized THE Standard of Excellence that is Hampton University and has chosen to support our unwavering commitment to providing an education for life. It is what Hampton has done for nearly 150 years and something that I have been honored to experience for almost 40 years as President." "We are honored and grateful to the Mellon Foundation for a grant of $600,000 to help establish the Student Success Center at Hampton University. These funds will be used to provide supportive resources to all of our students; develop individual plans for academic success for all new students, and track them throughout their matriculation, said Dr. Barbara L. Inman, Vice President for Administrative Services." Dr. Inman went on to share the collective expectation that I-PASS will fuel a sustainable increase in retention and graduation rates while also preparing our students for success." The Student Success Center will be structured to provide the supportive resources needed for furthering the academic success, persistence, retention and graduation of all future HU undergraduate students entering as freshmen beginning this fall. Each freshman class will be considered a cohort. The students will be serviced and their progress tracked throughout their matriculation. Using a case management, outcomes-driven approach, each student will be evaluated and prescribed effective learning practices. Moreover, this project strives to strengthen and promote the counseling services and academic student support services that will determine student challenges and match students with the resources and courses that they need to excel. The Student Success Center will implement a compendium of services, including assessment, individual academic advising/coaching, group counseling, programming, learning communities, tutoring and education. Academic advisors will interpret institutional expectations and convey them to students in practical terms that illuminate paths to degree completion, thereby meeting student and institutional goals. These advisors will serve as student advocates by assessing and analyzing each new student prior to their arrival on campus and providing them with an I-PASS (prescription). The I-PASS will equip students with specific, long range, and accurate plans for the completion of their academic goals. Academic advisors will be responsible for registering students for support services such as free tutoring; coaching students for a smooth transition to college; and continually monitoring students' performance and progress. The Student Success Center's Education component will consist of facilitating study skills and empowerment workshops by way of a speaker's guild. The Student Success Seminar Series and Speakers Guild will be an avenue to provide students with strategies needed to achieve their educational goals, such as time management, study skills development, and effective note taking and testing strategies. In addition, the Student Success Center will enhance the university's Assessment Center Tutorial (ACT) program by implementing a Supplemental Instruction Component with an objective to increase the pass rates within historically difficult courses and enhance the student's understanding of the course material. Supplemental instruction will be provided for courses such as higher level math courses, biology, chemistry, and physics. The Office of Freshman Studies and the Student Success Center in collaboration with the various schools and academic support programs at the university will provide continuous, quality support for undergraduate students from matriculation to graduation. The goal of this comprehensive program is to increase student retention rates and persistence to graduation with a focus on academic success and achievement through early intervention and systematic tracking of undergraduate students. Once the SSC Project is fully implemented, student persistence rates, academic performance, retention rates, graduation rates, and time to degree completion at Hampton University will all be improved. SANDRA M. PHOENIX HBCU Library Alliance Executive Director Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library 111 James P. Brawley Drive SW Atlanta, GA 30314 404-978-2118 (office) 404-702-5854 (cell) http://www.hbculibraries.org/ sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org%3cmailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org>> Honor the ancestors, honor the children. Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hbculibraryalliance1/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/HBCULibAlliance Check out "PULSE!" 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