Almost two years ago I published an article called, “My Million Dollar Idea.” It was an idea to improve student success in college that is rarely used in higher education, in part because most people in student affairs are not trained, equipped, or interested in doing the data collection and analysis needed to make it happen.
Over the past two years, I have talked to a number of people who have read the article and discovered that the idea actually makes a lot of sense to student success focused companies trying to help universities improve their retention and graduation rates. I even had a couple companies ask me how they could take the next steps to put it into place, with the goal of helping colleges improve student success, and ultimately save money too.
The root of the idea rests in using statistics to study over a hundred data points that universities have access to that are linked to student behaviors which are essential for student success. For example, if a student is not using the meal plan for which they pay thousands of dollars for, it should be a red flag that something is not right with the student. I am not aware of any university in the nation that studies lack of meal plan usage as a predictor of student success. When I left Southern Methodist University we had been given access to this data and we were planning to integrate it into our student success dashboard and predictive formulas.
One other example is membership in a student organization, athletic team, or other out-of-class regularly occurring activity. At Baylor we found this involvement was a major predictor of student retention. It is only in the past decade where student organization software has evolved to the point where student organization member lists are accessible and able to be analyzed for student involvement’s impact in these groups on retention – and the result at Baylor was that students who felt a sense of belonging in groups like these were 5 times more likely to stay in college. Out of 100 other variables we studied at Baylor, there was no other one as predictive as this one. And yet I don’t know of one university currently using this data to predict student retention (we were putting this into place at both Baylor and SMU). Universities are data rich, insight poor, and action inhibited (e.g. see the number of committees and their results).
I am baffled that more universities are not taking seriously the money they spend on student success when they have little, to no, idea how their staff work translates into actual results. I spent 30 years in student life staff meetings where someone would tell an emotional story about one student’s challenge that would result in 15 staff members building a program from the ground up over the next year. Convincing stories need to be backed up by actual data so that our staff are not busy working on the wrong things.
In addition, as we pass the one year anniversary of the mass introduction of artificial intelligence to the public, I am convinced more than ever that the universities which survive the next 20 years will need to learn to automate actions that allow them to prioritize meaningful connections with the students most needing help. There is no reason why we can’t be using AI to collect data from students that are known in the world of results as Key Performance Indicators, which then lead us to prioritize the students most in need of additional help.
When I left my role as dean in student life at one college, we had over 170 full-time student life staff and thousands of student leaders being paid to improve student success. We easily spent over $20M per year on full-time and part-time personnel costs in just student life (which did not include the student success center) to help students have a transformative experience in college. However, just like thousands of other colleges, there was not an awareness from the staff of which students needed the most help nor efforts to intentionally contact students who were most likely to drop out.
I shared my Million Dollar Idea two years ago because I realized that I could not convince enough people, in person, that it would be revolutionary in the student success industry. The truth is that the idea might be worth a million dollars, but the actual savings from implementing it at colleges will ultimately be in the billions of dollars saved from student retention and graduation.
If you haven’t read it, check out My Million Dollar Idea.
Deep Thoughts on Higher Ed 