Columbus State University Campus Plan Update 2020

Institutional Mission and Student Body Profile

Columbus State University (CSU) is a four-year public institution that offers more than 100 programs at the certificate, associate, bachelor’s, master’s, specialist, and doctoral levels. Many degrees are conferred in professional areas at both undergraduate and graduate levels in response to student demand and service area needs. Due to the nature of Complete College Georgia, this report only concerns our undergraduate degree programs and primarily focuses on efforts and strategies aimed at student success that aligns with our Momentum Approach Implementation Plan and Calendar.

Institutional Mission

The mission of CSU is to “empower individuals to contribute to the advancement of our local and global communities through an emphasis on excellence in teaching and research, life-long learning, cultural enrichment, public/private partnerships, and service to others.” The institutional focus on excellence in teaching and research as well as the emphasis on life-long learning, cultural enrichment, public-private partnerships and service to others influences the key priorities of the college completion work that CSU has undertaken. The University financially supports student research and creative inquiry projects facilitated by faculty mentors. CSU has a strong commitment to service and has provided significant leadership in meeting the needs of the community, the region, and the state through endeavors such as the Early College initiative, Dual Enrollment, service to military-affiliated students, Embark on Education (for homeless and foster youths), BOOST (childcare reimbursement program), and the development of high-quality online programs and services that allow students to decrease time to completion regardless of their geographic location and to continue their higher education in the age of COVID.

Student Body Profile

The University System of Georgia (USG) designates CSU as one of the three “access” institutions within the state because no state colleges in the USG are located within the geographic service area. The service area of Columbus State University is defined as these Georgia counties: Chattahoochee, Harris, Marion, Meriwether, Muscogee, Stewart, Talbot, Taylor, and Troup. In Fall 2020, 52.9% of the new student population was drawn from these counties.

In a typical year, Columbus State University utilizes moderately selective admissions standards and processes for most applicants (high school grade point average of 2.5 and SAT minimum scores of 440 Critical Reading and 410 Math or ACT English 17/Math 17). In the past, modified standards were utilized for applicants within the local service area in accordance with the University System of Georgia-mandated local access mission (high school grade point average of 2.0 and SAT minimum scores of 330 Critical Reading and 310 Math or ACT English 12/Math 14). But due to the pandemic, CSU has temporarily revised requirements for all high school applicants to the University System of Georgia minimum requirements of high school GPA for state universities and not requiring ACT or SAT scores as entrance requirements. As a result, CSU ADVISE has devised an extensive intentional advising plan that targets students identified as high-risk. Learning Support Services are also essential to support academic and integrative needs of this population group. These efforts are to foster retention, progression, and graduation rates and are supported by our Strengthening Institutional Partnerships (SIP) grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education.

While the University takes pride in its role as an access institution, this role presents challenges in retention and student success. Nonetheless, due to CSU best practices, retention and graduation rates have increased overall in the last eight years. The overall CSU retention rates, 2012-2020, for first-time, full-time (FYFT) freshmen have increased from 66.2% to 74.9%, yielding an increase of 8.7% over eight years. The increase in the graduation rate is also impressive. In the same time period, it has risen from 30.5% to 38.0%, an increase of 7.5%.

Overall CSU Graduation Rate, 2012-2020

Overall, CSU enrollment has remained steady over the past few years but has increased significantly Fall 2020 by about 16% for FYFT freshmen. A breakdown of demographics for FYFT freshmen (such as % Pell grant-eligible, % first-generation, % adult learners, % minority, etc.) is shown in Appendix I: CSU Demographics of Students (2020).

CSU has focused on helping students succeed by

• Creating four new Momentum-based Improvement Practices aimed at lessening barriers to success—See Section 2—4 template charts.
  • Creating a New Degree Aimed at Transfer Students (Purposeful Choice)
  • Developing Milestones by Program and Building Select Items onto Program Maps (Transparent Pathways)
  • Creating a Proactive Financial Aid Approach and Lengthening Student Time to Pay (Transparent Pathways)
  • Replacing the Exclusion Policy (Transparent Pathways) with a proactive University Support program
• Continuing and Expanding Existing Momentum Work—See Section 3.1
  • Purposeful Choice—2 template charts and discussions
  • Transparent Pathways—4 template charts and discussions
  • Academic Mindset—2 template charts and discussions
• Providing clarity and vision to our planning of future Momentum work—See Section 3.2 and Section 4.0

Improvement Practices

Of the four Improvement Practices listed, the first one involves Purposeful Choice; the next three involve Transparent Pathways. CSU has focused on these particular improvement practices to remove or lessen structural and motivational obstacles that students face and that should improve outcomes for our campus.

Momentum Update: Observations and Next Steps

Section 3.1 Existing Momentum Work

According to Georgia’s CCG website, students are most successful when they make purposeful choices, have clear paths for completion, and demonstrate an academic mindset. To accomplish that end, beginning Fall 2018, CSU centralized its advising for all freshmen and sophomores and increased the staff of CSU ADVISE accordingly. CSU ADVISE now has three offices on campus—one on main campus (for the College of Business and Computer Sciences and for the College of Letters and Sciences) and two on the RiverPark Campus (one for students in the College of Education and Health Professions and one for those in the College of the Arts). In addition, CSU ADVISE advises all students (native or transfer) who are uncertain of their major and have chosen an academic focus area instead of a major.

Purposeful Choice: Academic Focus Areas and CSU ADVISE Plan for Intentional Advising

Academic Focus Areas: In AY 2017-2018, we expanded our academic focus areas from five to eight so that “students groping with uncertainty can pursue coursework from the start that contributes to college completion and also provides exposure to potential majors, helping them refine their post-secondary path” (Momentum Year website). These focus area maps—all of which cover two semesters (the first year)— were carefully constructed to dovetail into every major on campus so that all courses in the first year of a given general area (for example, Business) will count across all programs under that focus area umbrella and “offer an informative exposure to the subject field.” 

Focus area maps list courses that are broadly applicable across a wide range of majors within the area, helping students avoid enrollment in unnecessary credits as they narrow their program choice. The eight focus areas are Social Sciences, Health Professions, Education (Excluding Secondary Ed.), Business, Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts, Exploratory, and Computer Science, Math or Science (STEM). See Appendix II: Academic Focus Areas for details.

In August 2018, the undecided/undeclared option for students was eliminated on the CSU application for admission so that students applying for subsequent terms selected an Academic Focus Area (AFA) instead. Students selecting AFAs are advised by student retention specialists in the CSU ADVISE center. Students selecting the Exploratory focus area are required to engage in specific activities to help facilitate the selection of a specific focus area or major.

CSU’s Academic Focus Area maps (seven pictured) plus Exploratory (not pictured)

CSU offers eight AFAs which allow students to explore majors within an area of interest. For coding purposes, AFAs are an attribute and students have been assigned to the BA in Liberal Arts Humanities concentration; in the future, the BS Interdisciplinary Studies will serve this role. Using this “shell” major enables students using AFAs to receive financial aid. The student attribute code, next to the AFA, allows CSU ADVISE to track AFA students. Since the coding was created in 2018, there is little data to report at this time regarding movement from these coded AFAs to majors, but we should have some meaningful data in the next few years

These AFAs are published on the CSU ADVISE website and in the catalog. Each map has been carefully constructed to include 9 credits in the Focus Area of interest and to specify the math course recommended for that AFA. Since students must select a major by 30 hours, Academic Focus Area Maps only apply to freshmen, whether native or transfer. Students selecting AFAs, including Exploratory, are advised by a dedicated student retention specialist in CSU ADVISE.

CSU ADVISE, the Center for Career Development, and Counseling Center have scaffolded their career support services to be responsive and effective. AFA students are referred to the Center for Career Development for career advising and to complete the Focus 2 Career assessment. This assessment is designed to identify strengths and interests, allowing students to explore career fields based on those strengths and interests and to develop professional skills. Students are also referred to the Counseling Center that administers the Strong Interest Inventory, the results of which help guide conversations by experienced counselors about potential majors and career paths. Referrals are recorded in EAB Navigate (Educational Advisory Board) and monitored to ensure that students complete the required interventions and activities.

CSU ADVISE Plan for Intentional Advising: CSU ADVISE also engages in a robust plan for intentional advising of all students, but is especially targeted in its approach to dealing with at-risk students. With the help of the predictive analytics capability of the Education Advisory Board’s (EAB) Student Success Collaborative (SSC), CSU ADVISE serves the whole student by not only focusing on academic progress, but also by addressing the student’s social, emotional, physical, and financial needs. CSU ADVISE has facilitated student success through programs such as the Early Alert System, BOOST (a Quality Care for Children program), Embark in Education (Homeless and Foster Care), and SIP (Strengthening Institutions Program grant). In addition, CSU ADVISE has defined our “at risk” population and created a tracking system for identifying and serving these students.

Transparent Pathways for Completion: Program Maps, Course Rotation Schedules, Course Details and Gradebook in LMS, and 15-to-Finish

Program Maps: CSU has maintained extensive program maps for all associate and bachelor degrees since 2013, including a 5-year map for the BS+MS combination Robotics Engineering program in Earth and Space Science. Some of our STEM programs have multiple maps, based on the potential starting points of their math pathways. For years, we have mandated the completion of core English and the aligned mathematics course (including any required learning support courses) in the first year and required all program maps to illustrate a minimum of 30 credits per year. In 2018-2019, we also ensured that all maps include a minimum of nine credit hours (usually three courses) in the discipline or discipline-related courses in the first year of a student’s selected major or academic focus area. For 2019-2020, we double checked compliance of completion of Area A courses and nine credit hours in the discipline or discipline-related courses on the program maps of all majors and focus areas. 

In the last few years, retention and graduation rates have increased due to our attention to program maps and our emphasis on 15-to-finish. In 2019, CSU registered its highest graduation rate of 39.5 percent, an increase of 9.0 percentage points in the seven years.

Since 2013, all CSU program maps have used a template designed in-house. However, in Fall 2020, CSU began using a template in My Curriculum (Courseleaf) that is compatible with other software and allows the merging of catalog and program maps to reduce course number errors. The program maps should now also be ADA compliant. In addition, beginning in 2017, eight program maps per year (2 per academic college) have been tested against the fall published course schedule to validate whether courses are being taught when the program map indicates they will be taught. See Appendix IV: Pressure Testing showing 93-98% compliance.

Course Rotation Schedule: Another significant accomplishment is the implementation of the 2-year course rotation schedule.

Course Details and Gradebook in LMS: All faculty teaching core curriculum courses must now submit midterm grades, which help students see their actual standing and progress in their courses and perhaps save themselves from failing or receiving low grades. In addition, due to COVID-19, all faculty must now keep grades in CougarView (D2L) since most classes are either entirely online or are being operated as hybrid courses (part face-to-face and part online, thereby enabling social distancing in the classroom when classes are in session). As of Sept. 18—five weeks into the semester—there are 13 known cases of COVID-19 reported.

15-to-Finish: CSU has actively pursued “15-to-Finish” for the last seven years. In 2013, a review of institutional data indicated that many students were not enrolled in a minimum of 15 credit hours each term. In Fall 2013, 3,680 undergraduate students were taking less than 15 credit hours per term. This group had an average overall GPA of 2.81. During the same term, 1,015 were enrolled in 15 or more credit hours. The average overall GPA of that group was 3.12. A campus-wide initiative was implemented in Summer 2014 to provide new students, beginning in Fall 2014, with 15-hour schedules for their first term of study. These schedules were developed in advance by academic advisors with input from the students.

The following chart illustrates that, from 2011-2019, CSU full-time freshmen (FTF) have increased credit-hours earned. Note the decrease in enrollment of 24 hours or less (blue) and the increase in enrollment of 30 hours or more (grey) even as the overall number of students declined.

Since Fall 2014, we have provided information on the 15-to-Finish campaign to incoming students through our orientation presentations and to professional/faculty advisors through our advising training sessions throughout fall and spring semesters.

Academic Mindset: Mindset Survey and G2C Course Redesign

Mindset Survey: Since Fall 2017, CSU has distributed the Academic Mindset survey every semester to all incoming first-year students.

CSU ADVISE provides advising and academic coaching and peer mentoring SIP grant services to probation students, students not making Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), and transfer students. Specifically, CSU ADVISE’s academic coaches and peer mentors provide essential skills coaching in the areas of time management, note-taking, study strategies, organization, and effective communication. Services are offered during the day, night, and weekends to meet student needs. In Fall 2019, the National Center for Developmental Education (NCDE) provided CSU ADVISE’s SIP grant with metacognitive training modules for its academic coaches and peer mentors. In Fall 2020, the NCDE provided virtual training on encouraging growth mindsets and self-efficacy. As a result, the academic coaches and peer mentors learned to implement techniques and strategies to help the students they serve to better understand and adjust their academic mindsets.

G2C Course Redesign: CSU is actively engaged in the Gateways to Completion (G2C) initiative and has identified four critical gateway courses that will be redesigned. These are ENGL 1101: English Composition 1; MATH 1111: College Algebra; COMM 1110: Public Speaking; and ECON 2015: Macroeconomics. The courses are purposefully drawn from all three colleges that offer courses in the core curriculum. Since 2018, appropriate CSU faculty and administrators have participated in all system-sponsored G2C events and the institution has moved forward to complete the inventory, administer the student survey, and prepare academic teams.

In addition, due to USG system changes in delivery of remediation, co-requisite Math and English courses have replaced the stand-alone remediation classes. These co-requisite support courses provide students with support to reinforce concepts taught in the core classes. In order to enhance these efforts, the Learning Support Success Center provides coaching for students who are required to take corequisite Math and co-requisite English. Students also receive help with campus resources, study strategies in context of metacognition, growth mindsets, time management, etc. In 2019, the coaches received training from the National Center for Developmental Education on best practices related to these topics to serve students who place into the co-requisite classes. Special workshops were created for students and coaches by the Counseling Center on Test Anxiety reduction. Sensitivity training was provided to students and coaches by the Center for Accommodations and Access. Services are offered day, evening and weekend to meet student needs.

In Academic Year 2019-2020, we marked our second year of the redesign process. Starting in fall 2019, instructors began implementing redesign elements in selected sections, while the institution continued collecting data to gauge the impact; this included student surveys, instructor surveys, and DFWI rates. Strategies implemented include early assessment and feedback, academic support by peer leaders, faculty development, adoption of no-cost course texts, course standardizations, reduction in enrollment caps to promote specific student engagements, encouraging students to use tutoring services, and two-stage testing. Efforts continued in spring 2020, but some strategies were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, we requested permission to extend Year 2 activities through fall 2020.

In summary, these three elements—purposeful choice, clear path for completion, and academic mindset—create a Momentum Framework for students by providing them with what they need “to find their path, get on that path, and build velocity in the direction of their goals” (CCG website).

The result has been a decrease in excess credits earned on the path to getting a degree (associate degree in 2 years, bachelor’s degree in 4 years) through judicious creation of program maps, focus area maps, course rotation schedules, conscientious intentional advising, and a bevy of other ventures. We have passionately pursued the Momentum goals and have had significant compliance and buy-in on campus from advisors, advising centers, faculty, chairs, deans, and administrators.

Section 3.2 Follow up from Momentum Summit III - “Campus-Wide” Momentum Approach Activities (Beyond the Classroom)

CSU is focusing a great deal of effort on improving and enhancing its approach to all things Momentum. As a result of Momentum Summit III, CSU has begun a broadly inclusive Momentum Steering Committee and created a very detailed Momentum Approach Implementation Calendar listing 22 goals, divided into three priority levels, consisting of 10 columns of information (Momentum Element, Activities, Person Responsible, Process/Steps, Target Completion Date, etc.) and spanning 32 pages. It is too large a document to include as an attachment, but here is a listing of the 22 goals. Those that impact students “beyond the classroom” are indicated by ⁂.

About ⅓ of the goals have been completed or are in progress; many have been delayed due to the pandemic.

General Overview and Observations

Successful Strategies from last year:

Increasing number of degrees that are earned on time by targeting institutional culture to increase number of students enrolled in 15 or more hours. Success here is due to pre-registering students and showing the 15-to-Finish video to students and families at orientation. There was an increase of 6.4% from Fall 2013 to Fall 2020 in the percentage of students enrolled in 15 or more hours.

Transforming the catalog to include program maps for all undergraduate degrees and eight Academic Focus Areas for students still deciding on majors. We are confident that these maps will positively affect RPG in the future and contribute greatly to the culture of “15-to-finish.” The 2020-2021 catalog represents the eighth year program maps are included. In addition, there are now eight focus area maps for entering freshmen who are still deciding on a major. The 2020-2021 catalog now features the catalog built in Courseleaf with a compatible catalog.

Using various methods to keep students on track and identify students “at risk.” These methods include reminding faculty to use the Early Alert System in the EAB Student Success Collaborative, working with outside organizations to provide childcare for student-parents, and using intentional and proactive advising to refer students to appropriate and effective campus resources. The relaxed admission standards in Fall 2020 will require that CSU ADVISE be on high alert for aiding students, every way possible.

“Pressure testing” program maps with rotation schedules, thereby cross checking the accuracy of the maps to real time course offerings. Results here have been impressive:

2017-2018 98% compliance

2018-2019 93% compliance

2019-2020 98% compliance 

See Appendix IV for more details.

Coding various focus areas so we can better track behavior of students still deciding on majors.

Simplifying course enrollment through Smart Guidance, which creates multiple schedules for students once they specify what courses they need and when they can take them. As a result, we expect to see an increase in the number of hours in which students enroll.

Least Effect Strategies from last year:

Tracking whether students are using referral services as directed. 2019-2020 was the second year we were able to track such referrals and we will work to improve the rate students follow through with the referral and improve the process of tracking these students.

Tracking the effectiveness of strategies was much more difficult than planned due to the impact of COVID-19 on campus activities. Hopefully, the effects of the pandemic will lessen, especially in Spring 2021. 

Student Success and Completion Team

These individuals are responsible for implementing, monitoring, and evaluating CSU’s Student Success and Completion Strategies.