Albany State University Campus Plan Update 2019

Institutional Mission and Student Body Profile

Albany State University offers certificate programs, transfer associate degrees, career associate degrees, bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees and the education specialist degree.  Students may take classes through online instruction while face-to-face classes are offered on two campuses located in the city of Albany, GA and three off-site locations in Cordele, Cairo and Waycross, GA. 

Albany State University was officially consolidated with Darton State College in January 2017.  The mission of the consolidated ASU, approved by the BOR in March 2016 is as follows;

Albany State University, a proud member institution of the University System of Georgia, elevates its community and region by offering a broad array of graduate, baccalaureate, associate, and certificate programs at its main campuses in Albany as well as at strategically-placed branch sites and online. Committed to excellence in teaching and learning, the University prepares students to be effective contributors to a globally diverse society, where knowledge and technology create opportunities for personal and professional success. ASU respects and builds on the historical roots of its institutional predecessors with its commitment to access and a strong liberal arts heritage that respects diversity in all its forms and gives all students the foundation they need to succeed. Through creative scholarship, research, and public service, the University’s faculty, staff, students, and administrators form strategic alliances internally and externally to promote community and economic development, resulting in an improved quality of life for the citizens of southwest Georgia and beyond.

ASU’s total enrollment for the fall 2018 semester was 6,371 with the majority of students (2,889) enrolled in the transfer associate degree program.  Approximately 77% of the total headcount are female, 72% self-identify as African American and the average student age is 24.  On-campus student housing reached capacity at 2,361 residents.  Almost 95% of ASU students are in-state residents with the majority (1,261) living in Dougherty County.

FALL 2019 STUDENT PROFILE SUMMARY

*Fall 2019 as of 10/1/19

ASU First-Time Freshmen Summary Data

First-Time Full-Time Freshmen Retention Rate

Pell Grant Recipients (Fall 2019)         3,593    62.2% of Total Enrollment

Enrolled in Learning Support Courses (Fall 2019) 845 14.6% of Total Undergraduate Enrollment

Section 2: Momentum Year Update

Albany State University has completed a number of Momentum Year Initiatives and is working toward scaling these opportunities to impact students from matriculation through graduation.  ASU has updated all program maps to clearly show the appropriate math course required for the program, to ensure students complete English and math in the first 30 hours and to navigate through the program in a timely manner.  Additionally, ASU initiated block scheduling in the fall 2019 semester to ensure course availability for incoming freshmen according to the program maps.  Finally, ASU completely moved to the co-requisite model for Learning Support classes in both English and mathematics.

Academic Affairs, Career Services and Advising are collaborating to provide all students who apply to ASU a link to the Holland Theory of Career Choice, Strong Inventory and Focus II – Academic Life assessment to strengthen the inform-discern-affirm process.  The results of the survey will be provided to the Advising Center so advisors can have informed conversations with students prior to their arrival on campus.

Academic Affairs, Enrollment Management and Student affairs are also creating Milestone Conversation opportunities aligned with the academic pathways to encourage regular communication between Success Coaches and students.  Additionally, ASU is implementing living-learning communities for freshmen students with co-curricular activities that support our six focus areas and correspond to academic pathways.

All incoming freshmen students were accommodated through the block scheduling process and 80.9% (1,154) of them were registered for at least 15 credit hours with an additional 10.1% (144) students registered for 12 credit hours.

Section 3: Other Institutional High-Impact Strategies, Activities and Outcomes

Classroom-Based Strategies

The Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) at ASU conducts professional development workshops for faculty to share best practices in classroom instruction.  The CFE has created Global Training Modules that focus on areas such as curriculum design, providing effective feedback, designing effective learning outcomes and aligning classroom assessment to learning outcomes.  These modules are available through the distance learning platform to facilitate access for faculty.  The Chancellor Learning Scholars held four learning communities with a focus on mind set and pedagogy.  During the 2018-2019 Academic Year, the CFE held over 40 individual workshops for faculty with 468 (duplicated headcount) faculty in attendance.

Faculty participating in Gateway to Completion continue with the redesign efforts in ENGL 1101, 1102, MATH 1111 and 1001.  The faculty have moved to a common syllabus and assessments in each course to assist students who may need to transfer between sections.  Students who enroll in the learning support co-requisite courses are required to attend tutoring sessions at the ASU tutoring center.  In the spring 2019 semester, the Tutoring Center assisted 1,377 individual visitors for 7,279 visits.  Students who have a grade of D or F at midterm and who visited the Tutoring Center are more than twice as likely to pass the class with a grade of C or higher (45.4% v 20.3%) than students who did not take advantage of tutoring.

As noted in the table below, ASU has experienced an improvement in pass rates since 2016-2017 for the four courses in the G2C effort.

Table 1. DWF Rates

Wrap-Around Strategies

Albany State University created a “one-stop shop” for students to provide support with Financial Aid, Registration, Admissions and Student Accounts.  Students can visit “Ram Central” in person or get help through the Call Center.  Ram Central has assisted with 21,000 student face-to-face visits and 32,200 phone calls.  ASU also implemented an Artificial Intelligence Chatbot to assist with questions during times the center is closed.  Feedback from a student satisfaction survey indicated 92% satisfaction rates with the Ram Central.

A new Student Success Model was instituted during the 2018_2019 Academic Year which included retraining academic advisors to be Success Coaches and to split student advising between the coaches and the faculty.  The Advising Center assists students with fewer than 60 earned credit hours and faculty advise students with 60 earned hours and above.  Students in career associate degrees are still advised by faculty.  The Success Coaches provide more in-depth assistance to ASU’s students and meet with students more frequently.  New scheduling software allows students to enter preferences for class times and generates class schedule options automatically.  This has reduced the burden on the Success Coach and improved the efficiency and effectiveness of advising sessions.

Section 4: Observations and Next Steps

Albany State students appear to benefit from “high-touch” strategies both inside and out of the classroom.  To sustain these high-touch practices, ASU will continue to augment them with software and other technologies to increase efficiency and productivity.  We continue to monitor wait times for the Call Center and Advising Center and are working toward optimal staffing.

The Tutoring Center has been successful in reaching a larger number of students over the previous year as faculty are encouraging students to take advantage of their services.  The Tutoring Center on East campus was also moved into the library to centralize the location and leverage space and equipment within the library facility.  We are assessing the impact of the new location on tutoring services before moving the Tutoring Center on West campus. 

Through a collaboration between Enrollment Management and Academic Affairs, ASU offered a Summer Success Academy to assist new freshmen transition to college.  Students participated in a combination of academic and orientation classes to develop meaningful learning habits and build a solid academic foundation.  Twenty-eight students participated in the first academy in summer 2019 and ASU is collecting data to determine the effectiveness of the program. 

The Center for Faculty Excellence has implemented four new learning communities around the topics of Small Teaching, Mind Set, Scholarship Reconsidered and Linking Assessment to Outcomes.  The Chancellor Learning Scholars will continue their work in Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT), pedagogy and improving writing skills in the classroom.

Section 5: Student Success and Completion Team

Ms. Carolyn Brown, Director, Academic Advising

Mr. Jeremiah Pitts, Director, Transitional Studies

Ms. Octavia Parker, Manager, Enrollment Services Center

Dr. Dorene Medlin, Director, Center for Faculty Excellence

Dr. Melanie Hatch, Associate Provost