ASCEND Podcast

Dr. Christine Salvesen joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share her knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Dr.  Christine Salvesen serves as the Chief Retention Officer and Associate Vice Provost for Student Success & Retention Innovation at the University of Arizona. She leads several retention leadership groups, c...

FACULTY OFFICE HOURS - WHO ARE THEY FOR? One of the things that has always surprised us was the unwillingness of first-year students to visit faculty during office hours. After talking to many students, we realized the unwillingness was not intentional and that they thought that professor office hours were times faculty were NOT to be disturbed. They thought these hours were similar to the listed...

Dr. Amber Williams joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share her knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Dr. Amber Williams is the Vice Provost for Student Success at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where she provides oversight to various departments, encompassing Academic Advising, Career Development, First-Year P...

Campuses that have great success in increasing their retention and completion rates have faculty who are actively engaged in this student success effort. In fact, there is substantial evidence in the literature that faculty may be the strongest influencers in helping students persist and graduate. And, it is easy to see why, because they spend significantly more time with the students than anyone...

Dr. Amelia Parnell joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share her knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Dr. Amelia Parnell is vice president for research and policy at NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, where she leads many of the Association’s scholarly and advocacy-focused activities. Amelia wr...

We recognize that it is critical for incoming students to feel supported. Therefore, from the time a student commits to our institution (through the paying of their enrollment deposit) to the start of fall semester, we have 38 points of contact with each incoming student. These forms of communication include a welcome letter; outreach through phone, text, postcards, handwritten letters, and social...

Dr. Beth Lingren-Clark joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share her knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Beth Lingren Clark is the Associate Vice Provost for Retention and Transition Programs in the Office for Undergraduate Education at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.  She is responsible for leading the U’s...

Generation Z students are highly self-​​directed, demonstrated by a strong desire to work for themselves, study entrepreneurship, and design their own programs of study in college (Northeastern, 2014).    This sense of independence and flexibility also translates into academic and curricular expectations for autonomy and exploration.  Additionally, Gen Z’ers largely prefer a traditional undergradu...

Dr. Drew Koch joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Dr. Andrew (Drew) Koch is a husband and father of 6, hiker (when both body and time permit), aging lacrosse player, educator, son of immigrants, and Chief Executive Officer at the Gardner Institute. His 30+ year career in h...

Does your institution have a publicized, stated retention goal? Is the goal realistic? Do you have data that supports your ability to achieve or exceed your retention goals? We often find campuses, just like ours, who have set lofty retention goals without guiding their aspirations with good data. When we arrived on our campus we inherited a noble, lofty, and catchy retention goal for our campus,...

Dr. Terrell Strayhorn joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Dr. Terrell Strayhorn is Professor of Education and Psychology at Virginia Union University (VUU), where he also serves as Director of the Center for the Study of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)...

Many students are figuratively drowning from the weight of their personal lives or scholastic endeavors. They feel lost. They feel alone. They feel hopeless. They are frustrated, confused, and lacking confidence. Many are just crying to be noticed and for someone to simply recognize that they are alive, that they have a purpose, and that someone sees them for who they are. Most faculty and staff a...

Dr. Monica Brockmeyer, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Urban Studies and Associate Professor, Department Computer Science at Wayne State University, joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share her knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Monica Brockmeyer, Ph. D., an experienced and pioneering higher education leader and...

A healthy campus culture will have a strong partnership between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs. This is something that most campuses struggle with as sometimes there is a natural tension between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs. While Student Affairs professionals sometimes push too hard and too fast with initiatives, it is important for them to remember that Student Affairs exists to su...

Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, President for Amarillo College, joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, President for Amarillo College since 2014. Amarillo College was named the 2023 Aspen Prize Co-Winner for Community College Excellence. Russell’s leadership...

A great way to provide support for staff, faculty, and students is to make them aware of the campus and community resources and services that are available to them. Hoping that students remember everything from their orientation or that faculty and staff have the time necessary to research and memorize where to send students for help is not a very efficient strategy. We recommend that campuses pro...

Dr. Karnell “Dr. K” McConnell-Black (he/him) is the vice president for student life at Reed College in Portland, OR.  He has over 15+ years of experience in higher education. Karnell has a bachelor’s degree in communication, a master’s in education, and a doctorate in education. He has served in a variety of professional roles, including coordinator of orientation and first-year programs at Loyola...

Data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) suggests that there is a large gap between the percentage of employers that rate recent students as proficient in particular skills and the percentage of students who consider themselves proficient in the same skills. We must do better as educators to help our current students and recent graduates be better prepared to succeed in...

Dan Carpenter, Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success Innovation at Purdue University, joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Dan Carpenter serves as the Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success Innovation at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. In this role he...

We all have a pretty good idea of the data points that signal a student may be less likely to persist or retain. RIGHT? Yet, many campuses have purchased expensive software solutions that promise sophisticated data analysis to predict student retention. And, while we know that these programs work well, we have found that many of these third-party models are not significantly more accurate than hom...

Dr. Stephanie Foote, Vice President for Teaching, Learning, and Evidence-Based Practices at the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Stephanie M. Foote is the Vice President for Teaching, Learning, and Evi...

Getting students to do the right thing at the right time can often be a challenge.  Therefore, it is vital that we focus our limited time, energy, and money on those students who need us most, when they need us most. We must discover which students to nudge along, and then find a way to reach those students who do not want to be reached. The right nudges at the right time are a key to success in r...

Dr. Jim Hintz, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Success, Inclusion, and Belonging at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Dr. Hintz serves as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Success, Inclusion, and Belonging at the...

In this episode we share our formula for breaking down silos on campus. One of the key aspects of changing a culture on campus is breaking down the existing silos and getting people to work together rather than working independently. Campuses must become more concerned about the success and persistence of every student than their own departments. Silos and territorialism on campus are created by i...

Dr. Dhanfu Elston, Senior Vice President for Strategy and Chief of Staff at Complete College America, joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Dhanfu E. Elston, Ph. D.  (pronounced: dah-NEE-foo) serves as Complete College America’s Senior Vice President for Strategy and Chief o...