University of North Georgia Campus Plan Update 2020

Undergraduates only

Enrolled

Percent of UNG

Enrollment

19,793

100.00%

Full-Time

13,183

66.60%

Part-Time

6,610

33.40%

Male

8,300

41.93%

Female

11,493

58.07%

Adult Learner (age 25+)

2,423

12.24%

First Generation

4,249

21.47%

Low-Income (Pell)

5,969

30.16%

Black

845

4.27%

Hispanic

2,884

14.57%

Asian or Pacific Islander

2

0.01%

Native Hawaiian or Pac. Isla.

20

0.10%

Amer. Indian/Alask. Native

35

0.18%

Underserved Minorities

4,638

23.43%

FT Vet

384

1.94%

PT Vet

89

0.45%

Source: Census data Fall 2020

Institutional Peers

USG State Universities

UNG

Benchmark—One Year Retention

68.3%

71.3%

Benchmark—Associate 3-Year Graduation Rate (2016)

11.2%

11.6%

Benchmark—Bachelors 4-Year Graduation Rate (2015)

23.3%

26.5%

Aspirational Peers

USG Comprehensive Universities

UNG

Benchmark—One Year Retention (Bachelors only)

75.8%

78.0%

Benchmark—Bachelors 4-Year Graduation Rate (2015)

22.2%

26.5%

Competitors

Kennesaw State University

Georgia Gwinnett College

Georgia Southern

UNG

Benchmark—One Year Retention (Bachelors only)

80.0%

65.1%

77.7%

78.0%

Benchmark—Bachelors 4-Year Graduation Rate (2015)

16.9%

4.0%

29.9%

26.5%

Student Characteristics

Cohort n

Associate 3-Year (Fall 2017)

Cohort n

Baccalaureate 4-Year (Fall 2016)

Cohort n

Baccalaureate 6-Year (Fall 2014)

Overall Degree

2469 (225)

9.1%

1724 (556)

32.3%

1521 (773)

50.8%

Race (Underserved Minority)+

714 (69)

9.7%

241 (52)

21.6%

170 (77)

45.3%

Male

1150 (81)

7.0%

744 (207)

27.8%

685 (296)

43.2%

Female

1319 (144)

10.9%

980 (349)

35.6%

836 (477)

57.1%

Full-Time

2182 (213)

9.8%

1678 (554)

33.0%

1465 (765)

52.2%

Part-Time

287 (12)

4.2%

46 (2)

4.4%

56 (8)

14.3%

Veteran Full-Time

10 (1)

10.0%

43 (18)

41.9%

42 (23)

54.8%

Veteran Part-Time

6 (0)

0.0%

0 (0)

0.0%

0 (0)

0.0%

Pell

1052 (101)

9.6%

499 (115)

23.1%

462 (211)

45.7%

Adult Learner

39 (6)

15.4%

40 (2)

5.0%

387 (188)

48.6%

First-Generation

661 (78)

11.8%

344 (94)

27.3%

300 (143)

47.7%

Academic Year 2019 – 2020

Count

AVG credit hours

Fall 2019

1,013

Associates

310

86.5

Baccalaureate

681

133.3

Certificates

22

144.1

Spring 2020

1,503

Associates

348

83.1

Baccalaureate

1,136

135.1

Certificates

19

151.2

Summer 2020

487

Associates

168

83.1

Baccalaureate

318

131.6

Certificates

1

131.0

TOTAL

3,003

Academic Year

#

%

2015 - 2016

1,549

54.5%

2016 - 2017

1,862

62.8%

2017 - 2018

2,306

69.6%

2018 - 2019

2,464

76.0%

2019 – 2020

2,721

83.9%

# Fall FTF enrolled in less than 12 hours

# Fall FTF enrolled in 12-14 hours

# Fall FTF enrolled in 15 or more hours

Total Fall FTF enrolled

Fall 2012

343

2,117

667

3,127

Fall 2013

498

2,259

540

3,297

Fall 2014

357

2,045

859

3,261

Fall 2015

340

2,470

1,052

3,862

Fall 2016

295

2,576

1,088

3,959

Fall 2017

328

2,520

1,116

3,964

Fall 2018

303

2,846

1,315

4,464

Fall 2019

321

2799

1037

4157

Fall 2019

Fall 2020

% Change

Students taking 15

2,213

2,113

-4.5%

Students taking > 15

2,089

2122

+1.6%

Total # full-time students  (12 or more)

13,364

13,082

-2.1%

% of full-time students taking 15 or more credits

32.2%

32.1%

-.2%

Academic year

# fall FTF earned less than 24 credits

# fall FTF earned 24-29 credits

# fall FTF earned 30 or more credits

Total fall FTF enrolled in both fall and spring terms

2011-2012

1,199

860

442

2,501

2012-2013

1,158

1,070

457

2,685

2013-2014

1,217

1,160

474

2,851

2014-2015

1,096

1,125

644

2,865

2015-2016

1,316

1,384

680

3,380

2016-2017

1,328

1,410

786

3,524

2017-2018

1,322

1,346

766

3,434

2018-2019

1380

1567

992

3939

Academic year

# degree-seeking undergraduates earned less than 24 credits

# degree-seeking undergraduates earned 24-29 credits

# degree-seeking undergraduates earned 30 or more credits

Total degree-seeking undergraduates enrolled in both fall and spring terms

2011-2012

5,171

3,299

2,292

10,762

2012-2013

5,405

3,561

2,316

11,282

2013-2014

5,569

3,681

2,581

11,831

2014-2015

5,358

4,054

2,921

12,333

2015-2016

5,732

4,361

3,030

13,123

2016-2017

5,954

4,553

3,333

13,840

2017-2018

5,963

4,513

3,429

13,905

2018-2019

5,893

4,848

3,610

14,351

Term

Headcount of Dual Enrolled Students

Credits Attempted

Credits Earned

% of All UNG Students

Fall 2016

865

*

6,341

4.7%

Fall 2017

964

7,692

7,389

5.1%

Fall 2018

1,241

9,542

9,472

6.3%

Fall 2019

1,418

10,392

10389

7.5%

Fall 2020

1560

10362

*

7.9%

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

# students participating in Dual Enrollment

865

964

1,241

1,418

1,560

% of participating Seniors who  matriculate to UNG after high school

37%

30%

33%

32%

30%

Fiscal Year

Average credit hours earned at graduation for Associate's Degree recipients

Average credit hours earned at graduation for Bachelor's Degree recipients

2012

84.8

138.07

2013

84.79

138.12

2014

85.74

137.79

2015

87.08

138.21

2016

82.17

137.02

2017

81.45

135.97

2018

80.56

135.44

2019

77.87

134.78

2020

83.1

133.35

2019

2020

Number of distinct students

1259

1017

Number of exams

2383

2005

Credit hours from exams

3412

2669

AY 2020 (Fall 2019 - Summer 2020)

AY 2019 (Fall 2018 - Summer 2019)

Attempts

Grade A-C

Success

Attempts

Grade A-C

Success

Success rates in co-requisite MATH and ENGL courses (ENGL 0999, MATH 0997, 0998, 0999)

1,097

772

64.9%

1,263

745

59.0%

Strategy or activity 

Career Connections for first year students

Summary of Activities 

Created the Career Explorers League and the Career Construction Zone in the LMS. The Career Explorers League was specifically designed to help students develop a purposeful path using Focus 2 and other activities and resources. The design included values assessment and a place for participating users to indicate their top 5 values.
Career Services created workshops called "Finding Your Why" designed to help students develop a purposeful path focusing on values identification and prioritization. These were held on the Gainesville and Dahlonega campuses (prior to COVID). Participants identified their top 5 values. They were encouraged to use this self-awareness as a filter to evaluate career options for consistency with their values. 
Created content for Career Explorers League available to more than 7,000 first-year students.
Intentional collaboration between Career Services Specialists, Professional and Master Faculty Advisors; Maximize Your Major orientation sessions, and integration of technology to support career exploration (Career Insights). Career Services also created an online career connections course for students.

Outcomes/Measures of progress 

Over 600 students visited the Career Explorers League as of June 2020. Between those participating in the League and those participating in the "Find Your Why" in-person workshops, 168 students have identified and prioritized their top 5 values. Note, there is no incentive beyond personal desire to complete the values assessment or include their prioritized values within the Career Explorers League. In the Career Construction Zone, there are 281 students and instructors enrolled. It will take more time to assess progress for this activity.
Fall 2019 focused on mapping career pathways and academic programs and deployment of Career Insight. Since going live in January of 2020, web traffic on the Career Insight tool is averaging more than 20,000 per month (see graph below).

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

There is a need to promote the courses to both professors and students and request IT and DETI import the new group of first-year students into the Career Explorers League.
The primary challenges with technology integration and adoption is that it takes time. Additionally, marketing is another consideration that needs to be considered when educating students and faculty about tools available to help them gather information about pathways. Being able to embed Career Insights on every academic program page was also helpful. 

Changes because of COVID-19 

The primary impact the pandemic had on this strategy was moving orientations and career services to virtual settings. As a result, opportunities for direct interaction between incoming students and advisors, faculty, and career specialists was significantly reduced.
Career Services made the "Find Your Why" workshop into a virtual career chat due to COVID. After COVID 19, we created a voiceover PowerPoint Career Exploration workshop posted on our Career Services website.

Strategy or activity 

Mandatory Advising (QEP)  

Summary of Activities 

As part of the QEP, UNG Professional Advisors and Master Faculty Advisors have developed a set of advising tools, including planning guides and program maps. Those are now available for all undergraduate programs and focus areas. UNG is in its final year of the QEP, but the structures put in place through the plan will continue on for students. Use of Academic Advising services by students continues to grow; in AY 2019-2020 (June 2019-May 2020) academic advisors (excluding business advisors) checked-in students for 21,973 appointments.

Outcomes/Measures of progress 

Tracking students in focus areas and academic majors; advising center traffic; web traffic on advising tools pages; assessment of student learning related to educational planning; analysis of credits earned/attempted, and credits at graduation.

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

Successful implementation of a program can have consequences. Advising is seen as a service with infinite capacity to take on more responsibilities associated with student success efforts. Protecting the core mission of advising has been challenging; thus, coordination of institutional priorities is critical to the holistic approach informing student success efforts, including the Momentum Approach. As noted earlier in this report, institutional efforts to create a consistent advising culture are paying dividends with students graduating with fewer excess credit hours; additionally, the number of students on academic warning, in need of an academic success plan, or undeclared after 40 credit hours has been reduced substantially.

Changes because of COVID-19 

The major adjustment related to the pandemic was shifting to virtual processes. Immediately after the move to remote operations student meetings with advisors dipped, but by May 2020 they returned to near “normal” levels. Thus far, students seem to be adjusting well to the greater flexibility to meet with academic advisors.

Strategy or activity 

Peer Mentoring  

Summary of Activities 

The Title III SOAR mentoring program, known as Nighthawk Navigators, was initiated in August 2019. In the first iteration of this pilot program, a compliment of 11 peer mentors were hired and trained, and a cohort consisting of 330 Gainesville campus, non-HOPE eligible, associate degree-seeking students was identified through Banner data for the fall semester.
Early messages were introductory and invited mentees to come to group meetings or meet individually with their mentor. Subsequent message content covered topics such as organizational and study strategies, explanations of processes and resources, reminders of deadlines and university requirements, and encouragement. In addition to the written messages, several in-person social opportunities, and workshops were offered. 

Outcomes/Measures of progress 

The Peer Mentor initiative is part of the larger Title III SOAR Grant mission of improved student retention, progression and completion. Specifically, the peer mentoring program is tied to grant objectives of increasing the use of academic support services and improving first-year retention.
Analysis provided by UNG’s Institutional Research on the 2019-20 cohort of students compared the retention, achievement, and academic progress of the engaged group to that of the non-engaged students in our cohort, as well as a comparison with all UNG Associates degree students within the same parameters in that timeframe. An abbreviated table of results are included here.

Table 15: Analysis of retention and achievement of Navigator and Non-Navigator groups

  
The data suggests a correlation between engagement in the Navigator mentoring program and students’ retention and academic progress. The only comparison in which the Engaged group did not exceed the comparisons is cumulative GPA at the end of the second semester.

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

The primary challenges to achieving the program goals lie in the engagement of students with the program, and their tendency not to utilize e-mail consistently or effectively. Students were not responsive to the invitations to meet, which resulted in the bulk of interactions between mentors and mentees taking place electronically.
Informal feedback indicates the possibility that having a “peer mentor” carries a stigma that deterred student involvement. Students may not perceive themselves as needing or desiring this sort of intervention. This perception might be due to the misinterpretation of the purpose of peer mentoring programs. Given the lack of engagement in the pilot, the Fall 2020 model allowed students to voluntarily self-select into the program. We also improved the manner in which the program was marketed to incoming students, including shifting away from the terms peer mentor, mentee, and mentoring, referring simply to the Navigators, and using terms such as “guides” and “fellow students.” As of August 17th, 73 students had requested to participate, resulting in a ratio of 7 – 8 mentees per Navigator.
Three additional new components to the Navigator program were added.

1. Training the Navigators to provide “peer coaching” functions, such as demonstrating and teaching time management and organizational strategies.
2. Navigators were embedded in six sections of ENGL 0999 Co-Requisite Support courses.
3. Deployment of social media as an outreach and engagement strategy.

Changes because of COVID-19 

Adjustments due to COVID-19 are minimal and related mostly to group and individual meetings with students, along with strategies for increasing student connections. For the Fall semester, electronic forms of communication will continue as before due to the compatibility with our present virtual environments.
Adjustments to the program include:

• invitations to virtual meetings and events, both academic and social
• the addition of social media accounts to add another form of connection
• the addition of academic skills coaching to the Navigators’ repertoire of helping strategies as a means to help address the challenges of online learning.

Strategy or activity 

Purposeful, Clear Pathways

Summary of Activities 

To promote purposeful choice, UNG continued development of tools to help students discern clear pathways. Among the activities completed are academic planning guides (year-by-year sequence maps) and plans of study published online for all programs in a single location.
UNG completed a systematic pressure test for all undergraduate degree programs to identify “pain points” inhibiting students’ timely progression in degree programs. The results identified nearly 30 programs where capacity challenges exist, hindering timely program completion.
Finally, the institution began study of co-curricular pathways that can aid students in discerning career pathways.

Outcomes/Measures of progress 

The Office of Institutional Research is providing data to assist in identifying capacity issues as well as providing student success metrics focused on academic excellence in the form of department-level “Health Checks”. Data on rates of growth by major, campus, degree level, and type of course (Core curriculum offerings by department, by semester) will inform solutions to capacity challenges. Additional measures include regular updates on enrollment by program, persistence rates analyzed by a newly created Student Success Task Force, and review of students’ progress towards completion of the plan of study.

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

Development of reliable data systems takes time and requires consistent definitions and training for steady application of data in decision making.
Keeping all tools updated requires advanced planning and workflow; updating tools for students is labor intensive as are the creation of data dashboards.

Changes because of COVID-19 

The primary impact the pandemic had on these strategies was to slow or, in some cases, even pause the work. Thus, the timeline for completion of some projects had to be adjusted. Tools for using institutional data will be finished in AY 2020-2021.

Strategy or activity 

Promoting Academic Mindset

Summary of Activities 

Mindset content has been integrated into UNG’s professional development event, LEADS day, Orientation and Transition Programs, and Maximize Your Major sessions at orientations. Additionally, the Center for Teaching, Learning, & Leadership continues to support faculty with a range of events and opportunities integrating Mindset activities into instruction. Finally, faculty piloting Gateways to Completion courses integrated mindset strategies into their courses.

Outcomes/Measures of progress 

Both the LEADS day committee and OTP staff assess program effectiveness through survey instruments. 78 faculty and staff participated in Mindset training during LEADS day. The “Getting to Know Our Students” USG survey is an important instrument in analyzing students’ mindsets as is the Learning Gains survey administered to students in Gateway courses each fall. The institution also expects a positive change in the rates of DFWI grades for gateway courses.

Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future 

Comparisons of Mindset survey data (2018-2019) suggests integration of mindset work into new student programming has made a difference, but causation cannot be proven; the fall 2019 cohort appears to have a different mindset about their academic preparedness for college than the 2018 cohort. Likewise G2C data suggests that first generation students in particular benefited from the integration of inclusive pedagogies and emphasis on mindset in piloted sections. The institution is continuing to pursue these strategies.

Changes because of COVID-19 

Like most other components, shifting to virtual operations slowed progress in all these areas. The 2020 LEADS Day conference program was changed to respond to more immediate needs related to the pandemic. Gateways to Completion faculty will pilot courses in fall 2020, analyze the data in spring 2021, and then prepare for scaling course models for fall 2021.

Priority Work

Career Explorer and Career Construction Zone courses

Description of Activities

a. Career Explorer: support 1st and 2nd year student development of purposeful pathways.
b. Career Construction Zone: sophomore through senior students or adult-learner first-year students

Activity status and plans for 2020

Career Services created the content for Career Explorers League and uploaded over 7,000 students into the League. The League was promoted through all English 1101 and 1102 courses so first-year students would know this resource was available to them. Several professors agreed to promote the Career Construction Zone course and some agreed to be added as an "instructor" to see content and encourage student use. After COVID 19, Career Services added a voiceover PowerPoint Career Exploration workshop posted on our Career Services website.
Career Services transformed its "Find Your Why" workshop into a virtual career chat due to COVID. A method for students to demonstrate awareness of their top 5 values still needs to be developed; however, offering the chat virtually allows students from any campus to participate. We need to re-promote the D2L groups to professors and students and request IT and DETI to import the new group of first-year students into the Career Explorers League. We need to consult with DETI to explore ways to create differentiated sections from these large groups.

Lessons Learned

Over 600 students visited the Career Explorers League as of June 2020. Between those participating in the League and those participating in the "Find Your Why" in-person workshops, 168 students have identified and prioritized their top 5 values. Note, there is no incentive beyond personal desire to complete the values assessment or include their prioritized values within the Career Explorers League. In the Career Construction Zone, there are 281 students and instructors enrolled.

Priority Work

Mindset integration  

Description of Activities

• Develop an action plan based on analysis of USG “Getting to Know Your Students” survey.
• Faculty/Staff Professional development LEADS Convocation day and other programming; Momentum survey results (fall 2019) showed that faculty and staff are either unfamiliar with the full scope of the momentum approach or unsure how they fit into the plan.
• Master Communication Plan—Consistent communication plans for students. In 2020, the focus will be creating communication plans for specific student populations, veterans, adult learners, and transfers. (NEST) Nighthawk Engagement and Student Transitions Communication plan is complete; templates need to be created with full phase in for 2021.

Activity status and plans for 2020

• Getting to Know Your Students:
  • Priority: improving completion of survey in second administration for fall 2020.
• Professional Development/LEADS Day
• Communication Plan
  • Targeted communications have begun to be sent via Slate on our new NEST template
    • Specific communications went to Readmit, Veterans/Military-Connected, and Transfers
    • Adult Learner communications are in the works.
  • Targeted outreach is going out to transfer students at the beginning of October for those who have been accepted and not confirmed as well as to those who have confirmed their acceptance. This outreach is being done by our Transfer Coaches (peer mentors trained specifically to work with transfer students)
  • NEST webpages are under development and the hope is they go live before the end of fall 2020. There will be a specific webpage for each targeted student population.
  • A new banner report is in development that sorts the targeted populations into specific groups and avoids unnecessary overlap with other groups to streamline communications. For example, a military-connected student may also be an adult learner and transfer student. Some communications will be shared between all three groups. We want to make sure the military-connected student gets those shared communications only 1 time and not 3 times, and then gets just the military-connected specific communications.
  • About 25% of the targeted communications are complete. NEST will continue to develop these communications throughout the year.

Lessons Learned

• Getting to Know Your Students:
  • Based on analysis of the 2018/2019 data sets, there are clear differences in cohorts; of note are students’ feelings of preparedness and their mindset for Math and English courses. Also noteworthy is the change from the first administration to the second administration of the survey for 2018.
• Independence scores drop significantly (Multiple points- large effect)
• Belonging increases significantly (small effect)
• College Identity increases significantly (small effect)
• English Value increases significantly (small effect)
• English Cost decreases significantly (small effect)
  • 2019 data is less conclusive because fewer students completed the second administration of the survey.

Priority Work

Financial Literacy

Description of Activities

1. Student Money Management Center is offering a Financial Fitness Series—A four-part series covering the basics of personal finance.
2. Student Affairs—year by year Planning Guides to help students identify activities they could pursue as they progress through an academic program.

Activity status and plans for 2020

• Financial Fitness Series (completed)
  • Credit & All the Hidden Fees (9/16/2020)
  • Where Did All My Money Go? (10/8/2020)
  • You Can Be the Millionaire Next Door (10/14/2020)
  • Identity Theft - Risk Management (11/11/2020)
  • Build Your Nest Savings Challenge (September 23, October 7, October 21, November 4 and November 18, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.)
• Co-curricular planning guides (postponed indefinitely because of the pandemic).

Lessons Learned

As these were new efforts included in the Momentum Approach plan, some have not been developed, while other elements are being offered for the first time in the fall term. Thus, no data exists for analysis of these elements yet.

Name

Title

email

Dr. Eugene Van Sickle

Assistant VP of Strategic Student Success Initiatives

eugene.vansickle@ung.edu

Ms. Michelle Eaton

Director, Enrollment Management Student Success

michelle.eaton@ung.edu

Dr. Carol Adams

Associate Vice President and Dean of University College

carol.adams@ung.edu

Ms. Terri Carroll

Executive Director, Academic Advising

terri.carroll@ung.edu

Dr. Chris Barnes

Associate Dean Academic Administration

chris.barnes@ung.edu

Dr. Gary Adcox

Director of Campus Success and Strategic Initiatives, Oconee

gary.adcox@ung.edu

Col. Joe Matthews

Commandant of Cadets

joseph.matthews@ung.edu

Mr. Jason Pruitt

Executive Director, Cumming Campus

jason.pruitt@ung.edu

Dr. Cyndee Perdue-Moore

Executive Director, Oconee Campus

cyndee.moore@ung.edu

Ms. Sandy Ott

Director, Blue Ridge

sandy.ott@ung.edu

Dr. Kristie Kiser

Student Success Coordinator

kristie.kiser@ung.edu

Ms. Merci Rivera

Online Student Success Coordinator

merci.rivera@ung.edu

Dr. Alyson Paul

Associate VP Student Affairs/Dean of Students

alyson.paul@ung.edu

Dr. John Delaney

Associate Vice President Student Affairs/ Dean of Students

john.delaney@ung.edu

Ms. Jennifer Herring

Limited Term Special Assistant to the VP - Gainesville Campus

jennifer.herring@ung.edu

Dr. Janet Marling

Executive Director, NISTS and Associate Professor, College of Education

janet.marling@ung.edu

Mr. Steven Stubbs

Registrar

steven.stubbs@ung.edu

Ms. Jill Rayner

Director, Financial Aid

jill.rayner@ung.edu

Mr. Jared Goodall

Bursar

jared.goodall@ung.edu

Dr. Pablo Mendoza

Director of Diversity and Inclusion

pablo.mendoza@ung.edu

Ms. Christy Orr

Asst. Director, Nighthawk Engagement and Student Transitions

christy.orr@ung.edu

Dr. Keith Antonia

Associate Vice President for Military Programs

keith.antonia@ung.edu

Dr. Rosaria Meek

Assistant Professor, Spanish

rosaria.meek@ung.edu

Ms. Linda Rowland

Director, Institutional Research

Linda.rowland@ung.edu

Ex-Officio Leadership

Dr. James F. Conneely

Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management

james.conneely@ung.edu

Dr. Chaudron Gille

Provost & Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

chaudron.gille@ung.edu