Student Success

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Aspen - AASCU Transfer Student Intensive

Program Status: Planning

PSU has partnered with Portland Community College to participate in the Aspen-AASCU Transfer Student Success Intensive, a year-long program for leaders and teams from both institutions to develop scaled plans to improve transfer student outcomes. The program is designed to reform transfer practices so that many more students who begin in community college can successfully transfer and attain a bachelor’s degree. Over 12 months of virtual sessions, participants learn from research presentations, examine customized data reports, and engage in facilitated conversations to create and revise plans to implement research-based strategies to improve transfer student success.

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Accomplished

  • Identified and recruited a strong core team of PSU and PCC members to the work group
    • The Aspen team requires involvement from executive leadership in order for schools to participate. We were able to get President Cudd and Sheila Martin to agree to participate, along with other critical stakeholders. The team has been committed to the work and engaged throughout the process.
  • Created a clear vision for transfer partnership between PSU and PCC:
    • Through guided sessions with the Aspen team the presidents were able to craft a vision statement that pushes for presidential leadership and cross institutional collaboration to enhance the experience of our transfer students.
  • Developed strong working relationships with our PCC counterparts:
    • We have been able to facilitate working meetings with the presidents of each school and support them in creating a shared vision for transfer partnerships. The porjoect managers have also met bi-weekly throughout the intensive to plan and support the work assigned by Aspen.
  • Defined measurable goals
    • We identified the key measurable goals that will allow us to assess our progress towards the vision set out by President Cudd and President Benning
  • Deepened connection and collaboration with our PCC colleagues
    • We met with our PCC colleagues in-person at the Sylvania campus where we defined our roles, identified measurable goals, and worked on an end-to-end redesign for the STEP plan.
  • Finalized our Strategic Transfer Excellence Plan (STEP)
    • One of the key takeaways from the institute is a STEP plan that defines our partnership, outlines clear goals and measurable outcomes, and defines roles and responsibilities going forward. We submitted the STEP plan in December and will be launching it at the last Aspen meeting in January. See STEP here: Aspen STEP Plan
       

In Progress

  • Sustainability and Assessment Planning
    • We plan to work to continue to define our partnership and how we want to continue our collaborative work beyond the Aspen transfer intensive. Assessment of our measurable goals and outcomes will also be critical to evaluating and adjusting the strategies that we implement.
  • Strategic Transfer Excellence Plan Launch
    • We will complete the year-long program when we meet with Aspen on January 29th and launch our STEP plan. That meeting will include the presidents from PCC and PSU as well as stakeholders from both institutions that have assisted throughout the intensive and will be integral as we move from planning to implementation.
    • Aspen STEP Plan

Project Health 

  • We are nearing the end point of the transfer intensive and have made great progress towards building partnerships and collaborations with our PCC colleagues. Scheduling has been a major barrier in getting the large group together, but we were successful in coming together for an in-person meeting, as well as additional virtual work meetings in November and January.
  • We have successfully adopted the governance structure from the MOU as a way to guide this work going forward. This will greatly increase the likelihood of implementing the reform strategies outlined in the STEP plan.
  • The facilitation by Aspen has been challenging at times and we were able to share that feedback. We hope that future sessions will be more productive and that we can start to bring into focus our tangible outcomes and goals. 

Project Team

Executive Leadership: Dr. Ann Cudd, President (PSU), Dr. Adrien Bennings, President (PCC), Sheila Martin, Vice President of Public Affairs and Chief of Staff (PSU), Vicky López Sanchez, Executive Dean of K12 & Community Partnerships (PCC)
Lead: Randi Harris
Project Managers: Andrea Garrity, Executive Director of Student Success (PSU), Ryan Wagner, Associate Director of Transfer Student Success (PSU), Josh Laurie, Director of Student Success Program (PCC) 
Steering Group: Greg Flores, Andrea Garrity, Beatriz Lafferriere, Leena Shrestha, Kate Constable, and Leo Perez Lopez
Project Committee: 

  • PSU: Dr. Ann Cudd, Sheila Martin, Andrea Garrity, Randi Harris, Ryan Wagner, Check Knepfle, Suzanne Kodeoot, Cori Watkins, Delaney Ybarra, Eki Yandall
  • PCC: Dr. Adrien Bennings, Vicky Lopez Sanchez, Josh Laurie, Pat Sanchez-Cottrill, Christy Weigel, Gabby Garcia, Laura Massey