Student Success Initiative Helps Students Find Their Place at MSU

A student studies between classes at the historic bust of MSU’s first president Stephen D. Lee. The Student Success Initiative is helping ensure all students are equipped to become lifelong learners and find success during their college careers and beyond.
Photo by: Megan Bean

STARKVILLE, Miss. (Press Release) — Mississippi State administrators, faculty and students are working together to promote the Student Success Initiative by ensuring the entire student population becomes lifelong learners.

“Mississippi State’s Student Success Initiative isn’t only about encouraging academic success, it’s also about being successful in life and society,” said Jerry Gilbert, university provost and executive vice president.

“We want more students to graduate and we want to make them leaders in the world. We’re interested in educating students so they can engage others and solve problems in society,” he added.

Gilbert led in developing the Student Success Initiative which includes several programs aimed specifically at freshmen. Promoting class attendance, providing academic support and connecting students to the 136-year-old land-grant institution are its primary goals. The initiative involves a three-prong effort, including Freshman Convocation, MSU-introduction videos and True Maroon courses.

“Go to class every time, every day; no exceptions,” President Mark E. Keenum told his audience in August at the first-ever convocation. “Go to class; the grades that you earn will be directly related to your class attendance.”

Keenum also encouraged the new arrivals to take advantage of the many academic resources available on campus.

To help them mark what now will be a campus tradition, convocation attendees received special coins representing the beginning of the journey to educate themselves and contribute to society as MSU alumni.

Videos on topics such as time management, academic integrity, effective note-taking, athletics and sportsmanship, and many others, also are accessible via MyCourses at www.msstate.edu, said Michael W. Seymour, MSU Extension Service associate professor.

Seymour said the videos are four-six minutes in length and cover basic information to help freshmen “make the adjustment to college and try to help them connect to MSU.

“I think of the videos as covering the information I wish I had known when I started college,” he said.

The True Maroon survey courses are another aspect of the Student Success Initiative designed to encourage students to get connected, while informing them of available academic resources and acquainting them with the university’s history and traditions.

“Instead of being focused on a particular area, it’s focused on Mississippi State,” said Linda Morse, course facilitator.

Director of MSU’s Center of Teaching and Learning, Morse said the True Maroon courses “cover athletics, our history as the ‘People’s University,’ study strategies, mental health awareness, careers, advising, service learning, financial management, and all of the topics we think are important to acclimate new students to a new environment.”

To further the three-pronged SSI effort, the university also has several other programs to promote class attendance, academic support and social connection.

For example, an electronic attendance-recording pilot project has been installed in large classrooms in Bowen, Dorman and McCool halls. Mike Rackley, MSU’s chief information officer, said each room has an ID scanner for taking class attendance electronically. In addition to working closely with professors and instructors on correct applications of the equipment, he said staff members in his office are seeking faculty members’ support to expand the technology to other large classrooms throughout campus.

Rodney Pearson, MSU’s Robert Keil Innovative Teaching Fellow, serves as campus-wide coordinator of student success. A management and information systems professor in the College of Business, he said collected data shows class attendance to be one of the biggest predictors of whether students will succeed or fail at any institution of higher learning.

As a result, Pearson developed the Graduation Positioning System — available at http://gps.msstate.edu — that enables students to use an absence analyzer and see how more absences correlate with lower grades in specific courses.

MSU also utilizes Pathfinders, a program through which faculty members report class absences in a secure online server. When a student misses more than two classes, a residence hall adviser is alerted and reaches out to the student to make sure he or she knows about resources available to help.

“Since we started the program, the retention rate for freshmen has gone up substantially, and their grades have gone up,” said Pathfinders director David McMillen, a research professor with MSU’s nationally recognized Social Sciences Research Center.

Academic assistance is available via several campus venues, including the Career Center, Learning Center, Math Domain, Student Support Services and the Writing Center. For teachers, the Center for Teaching and Learning provides guidance in enhancing educational strategies.

Additionally, social connection outlets are available through the student-centered organizations and Division of Student Affairs-sponsored programming. New Maroon Camp, Day One Leadership Community and First-Year Experience courses all give students chances to meet and connect with one another.

Also part of the division, Student Counseling Services in 115C Hathorn Hall is open to students, free of charge. Professionals there are committed to providing an open, non-judgmental atmosphere for all seeking assistance.

“Student success is something that we have always valued at Mississippi State,” Gilbert said. “We’re interested in having all students meet the standard of success, and we’re here to educate them for life, not just their careers.”

MSU is online at www.msstate.edu, facebook.com/msstate, instagram.com/msstate and twitter.com/msstate.edu.