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The AACRAO Board of Directors identified student success as foundational to its strategic plan and put out a Work Group charge to:

• Empower members to participate fully in the definition of student success at the institutional, state and national level;
• Enable the use of data and technology to reframe the conversation about student success, demonstrate success, and as a catalyst for action;
• Foster the application of strategic enrollment management principles centered in student success; and
• Cultivate a culture of curiosity to foster research into student success and to differentiate AACRAO in the arena of student success.

Chaired by Tim Amyx, Director of Admissions & College Registrar, Volunteer State Community College and Bianca Thompson-Owen, Assistant Dean for Enrollment Management and Student Success, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, the work group came together at the AACRAO office in Washington, D.C. recently for their first face to face meeting.

“The Board investment in bringing the group together put us on a track to complete in two days what would’ve taken a year on the phone,” stated Amyx.

The work group is a cross section of the AACRAO member spectrum which allows for true conversation about larger themes around student success.

“What we’re finding are themes remain as strong from each school perspective: smaller, larger, private, or research institution…student needs don’t change no matter what school they transfer to," Thompson-Owen said. "What changes is how institutions respond to the needs of the students. Our goal is to determine the best practices for the schools to respond to those needs.”

Those in group have a true commitment to student and professional success and are intentionally using the term credential and not degree in their work as learning is life long and students have varying goals.

“We see student success as a campus conversation," Amyx added. "Responsibility of enrollment starts in admissions with recruitment but doesn’t stop until post-credential goals are completed."

The term "student success" is evolving, and this group is attempting to shape its current definition.

“We’re setting history,” said Thompson-Owen.

The group completed a model while in D.C. and plans to have a draft to the Board in time for the 2019 Leadership Meeting.

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