Student success
Imperative 2
Increase six-year graduation rate 10% by 2027 through a comprehensive retention strategy
Objective 1: Increase retention-directed scholarships.
Similar to the recruitment-directed scholarship initiative, this program will garner an unprecedented level of fungible scholarship dollars to address retention challenges induced by financial hardship.
Objective 2: Address student debt with specific, measurable targets.
Taken together, the recruitment and retention scholarship programs will aim to lower the average debt of students who graduate with OSU debt to $3,000 per year and increase its percentage of students graduating OSU student debt-free to 60% beginning fall of 2026.
Objective 3: Increase advising capacity by 20%, limiting non-advisory duties of advisors to the maximum degree possible.
Student success hinges not only on financial capability – addressed strategically through the availability of scholarship dollars to aid in persistence – but also on academic preparedness. Recognizing the critical nature of the professionals who mentor our students toward degree completion, OSU commits to providing robust and broadly-accessible advising and academic support. Additionally, we will innovate to create appropriate incentives for students to fully avail themselves of our advisory resources. By investing in our advisors and underclassmen-directed programs, the Oklahoma State University system commits to making targeted investments aimed at strengthening student success across all its campuses.
Objective 4: Enrich the student experience.
Leveraging best practices from successful on-campus retention initiatives — including those currently in use within living-learning communities, across the Greek system and with student-athletes — we will closely coordinate retention efforts and align student support through a seamlessly integrated web of services, intelligently leveraging critical data from housing, financial aid and academic affairs to attend to the vital contributors to student success.
The Impact of Strategic Access and Student Success
The broad consensus of research reveals a U.S. population at a generational low in its confidence in public institutions. From federal government entities and political structures to higher education institutions, public trust across 14 key categories has ebbed to critical levels.[3] By increasing access to all college-ready students within its mission commitment – and by ensuring that its students benefit from an educational experience that enables them to enter the workforce both academically prepared and financially enabled – Oklahoma State University intends to prove its value to the society it is called to serve.
Imperative Progress Updates
2024
- The centralization of advising for first-year students will begin fall of 2024. The advisors in the new Office of Student Success will receive specialized training will operate under a model of differentiated care.
- Associate provost Dr. Shannon Baker is leading the working group tasked with implementation of the advising restructuring, and aligning the responsibilities and workloads of all advisors across campus.
- Freshmen Fall ‘23 to Spring ‘24 retention is 92.3% (+0.8%) compared to last year.
News and Achievements
2023
3 Gallup, July, 5 2022.