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STEM Student Success Center

STEM Student Success Center Strategic Plan (2018-2023)

Mission 

The CSUSM STEM Student Success Center (SSC) is dedicated to promoting student engagement and attainment of their educational and career goals. We foster an active and friendly learning environment by harnessing the power of peer-to-peer collaboration, academic assistance, and resources to strengthen student understanding of course concepts and build their academic capacities. The STEM SSC continuously seeks and adopts practices to promote a purposefully diverse community that is student centered and relevant. We create opportunities for students to build confidence, develop transferrable thinking and skill-sets within STEM, other disciplines, and the real world. 

 

Strategic Objective #1 

Steward growth of students served in the STEM SSC. 

Goals 

  1. Increase communication to students and faculty on outcomes of the program in order to increase visibility and number of students being served. 
  2. Determine current (past two years) usage patterns and levels to be used as baseline. 
  3. Increase usage each year from baseline levels.        
  4. Increase overall number of student visits over baseline over next five years.  

 Strategic Objective #2

Develop strong partnerships with campus community to foster program growth and goals. 

Goals 

  1. Create LTS Advisory Council made up of faculty, staff, and students to assist in achieving the goals of the strategic plan. 
    1. Create STEM Student Success Sub-Committee 
      1. a. Work with sub-committee for tasks specific to the programmatic needs of the STEM SSC.
  2. Annually evaluate physical space (including technology) usage to determine whether we are maximizing usable and effective student learning space(s) while simulatenously maintaining office and storage space. 
    1. Develop tools and use self-study data to assess usage of current space and to determine the type of space necessary to facilitate upcoming growth. 
    2. Create, as part of the LTS Advisory Council, a task force to explore space needs and opportunities. 
  3. Work across campus offices to publicize the STEM SSC programs to new and existing faculty/staff.  
    1. Create a yearly STEM SSC program outcomes report to be shared with all stakeholders including administration, faculty, staff, and students. 
  4. Work with the Faculty Center to develop a workshop on the use of peer educators (such as SI) in the classroom.  
    1. Develop and launch a short survey to determine level of faculty interest.  Increase management personnel to levels compatible with programmatic commitments and growth. 
  5.  Increase management personnel to levels compatible with programmatic commitments and growthResearch other STEM learning centers to gather insights on best practices, policies, and procedures especially as it relates to meeting growth needs of STEM SSC. 
    1. Review program usage data to determine needs. 
    2. Based on these data and information, analyze personnel needs and develop necessary job descriptions. 
    3. Present review and research discoveries to Council and administration along with recommendations to expand the number of STEM SSC employees. 
    4. Depending upon the review discoveries, plan to hire additional staff in the next 4 years. 

Strategic Objective #3 

Adopt the most effective ways to support student success in STEM. 

Goals  

  1. Enhance professional development and training opportunities for peer educators. 
    1. Identify professional conferences or venues where peer educators may present their work. 
    2. Secure financial resources or grant opportunities to send students to meetings.  
    3. Collaborate with other centers and staff to increase professional development offerings. 
    4. Collaborate with other centers and staff to increase training activities. 
  2.  Develop program assessments on impact of programs and services provided. 
    1.  Launch alumni surveys and through these surveys determine impact of STEM SSC on past peer educators and             students who received services. 
      1. Collaborate with Alumni Association to determine best communication strategy.  
      2. Develop, deploy, and analyze surveys. 
    2. Identify and implement new elements into STEM SSC practices based on Advisory Council and alumni survey data to encourage lifelong learning and career readiness. 
  3. Increase opportunities to share our outcomes and learn from other centers nationwide. 
    1. Establish a network of contacts with other CSU STEM learning centers to collaborate throughout CSU and develop best practices. 
    2. Send STEM students from Advisory Council to other CSUs and campuses beyond CSU to discuss practices and findings from CSUSM STEM SSC programs.  
  4. Explore online/alternative methods to support and enrich student learning outside of traditional hours and space 
    1. Develop a tool to assess interest and viability of alternative methods of delivery and workshops ( eg. Online support, weekend hours). 

Pursue pilot program based on feedback and assess results. 

Strategic Objective #4  

Refine and strengthen our capacity to assess the impact of our innovative programs and practices .

Goals 

  1. Refine and strengthen data collection on student attendance, surveys, and grades to establish programming effectiveness. 
    1. Refine data analysis templates that standardize programmatic outcomes on topics such as student grades, failure rates and retention based on participation in STEM SSC programs. 
    2. Standardize data analytic protocols. 
    3. Develop annual report on program effectiveness for dissemination to campus community. 
  2. Deepen collaboration efforts between other LTS Centers.
    1. Identify programmatic elements that may be collaboratively developed and assessed.