Resounding Student Outcomes for Ongoing success
A Case Study in Student Success, Retention & Culture Change
When Anderson University chose to participate in Moving the Needle in 2016, they did so from a position of aspiration, not concern. They wanted to know, “How can we take the next step forward as an institution?” When Anderson completed the program in 2018, they’d taken that step, improving retention from 75% to just shy of 80%. But their journey was just beginning.
During its participation in MTN, Anderson faced a challenge many institutions would recognize: great work in the service of student success that was performed in siloes rather than systematically. The disconnected nature of that work led to inconsistencies in the student experience. Through MTN, Anderson and Credo encouraged every department and staff member in the institution to realize that retention is the responsibility of everyone who interacts with students—not just a handful of offices. These conversations and collaborations that started during MTN continue to pay dividends today, five years after the direct work of MTN finished.
Trojan Trek: Clearing Students for the business of learning
One of the most impactful programs to emerge from Anderson’s MTN experience was Trojan Trek, a guide that simplified the “business” side of going to college for students and families—and even university staff. To build Trojan Trek, many departments came together to develop a better understanding of clearance, particularly the different roles that their departments areas play in the process. Those conversations yielded ideas that transformed a highly technical process into a positive student experience. Trojan Trek now delivers tangible, bottom-line results for the university. For example: Just after the start of the 2023 academic year, only 60 out of more than 800 first-year students needed help to be fully cleared, thanks to Trojan Trek guidance and interventions.
Developing Careers Through Student Employment
Another MTN focus area was student employment, which Anderson leaders viewed as an important lever for retention. Yes, a campus job helps a student financially—but it also gives a student another connection to the university, and their work experience can help prepare them for post-college life. MTN conversations about student employment eventually led to the university moving it from Financial Aid to under Career Development. There, staff developed a robust structure for how campus jobs were created, advertised, and recruited for, and provided supervisors with training about how to make “jobs” into “learning experiences.” By the start of the 2023 academic year, Anderson had hired more than 550 student employees for more than 800 jobs on campus—a nearly 200% increase in students working on campus since the university began implementing MTN.
“This [student employment] process started in Moving the Needle, but it’s only come to life in the last year and a half. It’s now at a level where Trojan Trek is in terms of the impact it’s having on student success.”
Jim Fereira, Ph.D. Senior Vice President for Student Development at Anderson University
Ongoing Student Outcomes following MTN
Thanks to the levels of collaboration established through MTN, new projects are taking shape. An original MTN goal was to develop a sophomore year experience, but the final product didn’t materialize among other priorities. Yet the ideas discussed and relationships built during the MTN sophomore year experience module yielded two other initiatives now in development:
- Overhauling the first-year experience: Anderson enhanced its orientation and welcome week and has introduced first-year programming that stretches through the entire first semester. Now, teams are working to extend this programming through the second semester. Events include Late Night Snack Breaks, Life Skills workshops, Spring Registration Gatherings & Breakfast, and Social Media outreach initiatives.
- Creating a commuter student experience: Conversations about the first-year experience are informing the work that Tyrome Philson, Dean of Student Engagement and Support, is leading. “How can we give students a full experience even when they’re not living on campus?” says Philson, who worked on Anderson’s housing team when MTN was underway five years ago.
“Moving the Needle really helped me understand the student experience holistically and how the relationships we have as a staff across campus can impact that.”
Tyrome Philson, Ph.D. Dean of Student Support and Engagement at Anderson University
Student Success as A Campus Collaboration
The culture of collaboration that MTN helped establish across Anderson’s campus makes even small changes easier to tackle. On several recent occasions, orientation activities and events have needed to be rehoused on the fly because the size of the incoming class has been larger than expected. These kinds of changes can happen more efficiently now that groups across the university have open lines of communication and consistent experience working together.
It's clear the impact of Anderson’s MTN experience is still going strong today.