By Alex Sorrells / The Jambar
Youngstown State University Provost Jennifer Pintar delivered a speech Aug. 19 at the State of Academic Affairs address. Pintar spoke in front of a crowd at the Williamson College of Business Administration auditorium, discussing plans to increase enrollment and student retention, and addressing concerns with advising.
29 bachelor’s degree programs were found to be “low enrolled,” as well as 14 master’s degree programs. Pintar said a program is considered low enrolled when the graduation rate is less than five students per semester.
“If the program starts off with a lot of students — but then, come their sophomore to junior year, they’re leaving — we’re trying to look at what’s happening in the program at the point that we need to intervene,” Pintar said.
Pintar also said several students are frustrated with the constant change of advisors, as each advisor comes with a different academic plan.
“Advising sometimes feels disjointed with getting different opinions from one place or another,” Pintar said. “We are making a lot of strides towards that, and [it is] going to be an important step.”
David Graham, associate provost of the Division of Student Success, said data from the Ruffalo Noah Levitt Student Satisfaction Inventory sparked the decision. This survey questioned students at YSU to determine what they feel needs the most improvement.
“We want to standardize training. We want to look at roster management in terms of — some of our case loads are a little large, larger than what the national average suggests it would be,” Graham said.
In partnership with Ruffalo Noah Levitt, the company issued a student success plan, which includes academic advising changes.
“We looked at trying to reimagine — reconceptualize — academic advising in terms of administrative structure, and then we wanted to also work on our orientation process, how we onboard students,” Graham said.
Graham said the changes will be across all colleges within the university and will take a full academic year to be implemented.
“Even though it’s going to be centralized … from this office, it’s going to be locally delivered in the colleges,” Graham said. “If they’ve been working with a particular advisor in that college, that should stay the same. That will stay the same.”
Pintar said many factors affect the state of enrollment, including program performance and marketing strategies, both of which Pintar seeks to improve.
“I have a marketer on my team in the Office of Academic Affairs that looks at, ‘How can we spend our marketing dollars wisely for that program and get more attention, and get more students enrolled?’” Pintar said.
Pintar also said YSU has an all-time high enrollment rate from high school students taking College Credit Plus courses.
“We’re trying to broaden our offerings in the CCP that gets us in contact with students as early as seventh grade to show them, ‘Hey, this is why YSU is a valuable degree,’” Pintar said.
Kilcawley Center isn’t the only building seeing changes. DeBartolo Hall saw many improvements regarding student life, led by Director of Student Counseling Services Francine Packard.
“From the food pantry to the clothing area, Packard’s area has salt rooms and nap rooms and things that just help students take that stress off,” Pintar said.
While campus buildings receive a facelift, administration is focused on making life easier and less confusing for students on campus.
