HT to Participate in New Study of College and University Policies
Monday Mar, 12 2012
3.12.12 Linking Institutional Policies to Student Success (LIPSS), seeks to determine whether – and which – institutional policies might be leveraged to improve college student persistence and graduation rates at colleges and universities.
College and university administrators have long struggled to implement institutional policies that foster student success in a way that is both cost effective and consistent with the latest research findings. To assist institutional policy makers with this task, Huston-Tillotson University will participate in a new study titled Linking Institutional Policies to Student Success (LIPSS).
Huston-Tillotson University will receive national visibility and recognition as a foundational participant in the LIPSS project. In addition, Huston-Tillotson University will receive a campus report that compares policies at Huston-Tillotson University to those at other institutions as well as free participation in a web-based presentation of the project’s results – including a discussion of implications for institutional policies, programs, and practices.
Over the past 30 years, hundreds of specific initiatives have been designed to facilitate student engagement during their first year of college – a time during which four-year colleges and universities lose an average of 26% of their beginning students. Although these efforts have improved outcomes at countless institutions, such initiatives are often costly and typically serve only a small group of students who participate directly in a given program.
Therefore, the LIPSS project seeks to identify specific institution-wide policies that can be leveraged to increase college student engagement – a key predictor of student grades and persistence that is especially beneficial to underrepresented and academically under-prepared students. In collaboration with the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Center for Higher Education Research, Teaching, and Innovation (CHERTI) at Florida State University, the LIPSS project will survey Chief Academic Officers and Chief Student Affairs Officers at 57 bachelor’s degree granting colleges and universities in five state including California, Florida, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Texas . The survey will address institutional policies and practices related to issues such as assessment, faculty/staff hiring practices, curricular offerings, and student services. Data collection will begin in spring of 2012.
For more information on the LIPSS project please visit http://CHERTI.fsu.edu/LIPSS, or contact Dr. Bradley Cox, Assistant Professor of Higher Education in Florida State University’s College of Education, at 850.644.6446 or COE-LIPSS@fsu.edu.
