by Betty Huff, Senior AACRAO Consultant
The University of Utah experienced a “perfect storm” in 2012 with the institution’s move to the PAC 12, the inauguration of a new President, and a state initiative known as Prosperity 2012. A climate of change provided an opportunity to evaluate the academic progress and graduation rates of the institution using data analysis and the leveraging of technology, according to Assistant Registrar Emily Johnson, in her Monday morning presentation "Using Data Analysis and Leveraging Technology to Further Academic Progress and Graduation Rates."
Prosperity 2012 was designed to position Utah in the list of top ten states for the percentage of working age adults (25-64) with a postsecondary certificate or degree. Under the program, additional dollars for increased graduation rates and outreach/access initiatives for first-generation and under-represented students would be available based on state initiative. The University of Utah needed to gather, analyze, and understand the data to be able to create or modify a strategic enrollment plan to adhere to Prosperity 2012.
Steps taken to acquire data included: surveys sent to Spring 2013 students who did not enroll for Fall 2013; a strategic check of course offerings in cooperation with a scheduling vendor; and a strategic scheduling and course management process working group that began in December 2013.
The survey attempted to obtain data from students about future enrollment plans including transfer plans, why they had not enrolled for the following term, and if they anticipated ever enrolling again at the University of Utah.
The check of course offerings provided data for a newly created schedule review team to develop data-driven scheduling policies and integrate the policies into other academic planning processes.
The strategic scheduling and course management working group was able to identify bottleneck classes, assess the loss of classroom space, quantify the massive amounts of changes to the course schedule after publication, and the misalignment of deadlines and processes.
Following the gathering of data, a new task force was created from a broad membership across the campus. Over a period of time, the Task Force was able to implement new department and student scheduling tools, utilize a class demand report for the creation of the class schedule, obtain more classroom space, and institute a freshmen pre-registration process. The Registrar’s Office was instrumental in providing data and support throughout this process using technology and information contained in the SIS.