2.0 Student Outcomes
2.1 Student life
A critical element in Albany’s strategy
for attracting and retaining high-achieving students is investment to ensure a
high quality, vibrant, and relevant academic program (see §§3 and 5
below). Further, the institution prides
itself in offering an integrated, comprehensive community experience for
students, and the University at Albany campus has a long tradition of breaking
down barriers that often exist between a student’s academic and residential life.
In recent years Albany has made positive changes in the delivery of student
services, knowing their direct impact on the academic program and the link
between student satisfaction and the overall experience at Albany. In addition
to consolidating undergraduate student services so as to make them more
“user-friendly,” current initiatives include upgrading and transforming the
technology in classrooms and other teaching spaces, and implementing a new
degree audit system.
Albany continues to follow an aggressive
rehabilitation schedule for its residence halls and the University’s Auxiliary
Services have been restructured to improve the quality and variety of food
throughout the institution. Albany will continue to address campus quality of
life and health and safety issues; strategies will include:
·
Continue to enhance the
Faculty in Residence and Faculty Associates Programs;
·
Continue to enhance programs and special events offered to attract
and retain Presidential Scholars;
·
Continue to enhance New Student Orientation;
·
Further refine Project Renaissance, monitoring its effect on
retention, student satisfaction, and academic performance. (Approximately
one-fifth of the freshmen class (400 students) participates in Project
Renaissance, an interdisciplinary living-learning, technology-enhanced,
freshman year educational experience. The format is comparable to that found in
a small, liberal arts college, yet in a dynamic environment with access to all
the resources and advantages of a large research university.);
·
Continue to offer personal development workshops and special
events in response to student needs and interests;
·
Continue to provide guidance and assistance to students who seek
to take responsibility for organizing their own co-curricular and cultural
activities; and
·
Establish an intergenerational living community to enhance the
institution’s ability to attract and retain graduate students with children,
and to provide opportunities for retired faculty to continue to be active
contributors to the University’s intellectual environment.
Albany’s move to Division I athletics,
which System Administration supports, is consciously designed to help achieve a
series of educational, public service, and campus life goals. The University
expects that it will raise the visibility of both the campus and the State
University, assisting in recruiting students (especially from out-of-state),
strengthen town-gown relations, and bolster community support, ultimately
translating into stronger ties with alumni and enhanced fundraising. The
University is committed to monitoring the effects of this ambitious move and
the extent to which these goals are reached.
System
Administration will endeavor to assist the University at Albany in measuring
the extent to which Division I athletics influences the decision to enroll at
Albany and the extent to which it contributes to students’ collegiate
experience by examining the possibility of including one or more appropriate
items in the SUNY/ACT Student Opinion Survey.
The University will also collect attendance data to measure the extent
of campus and community involvement in Division I athletics. In addition, the campus will provide to
System Administration its annual reports on the retention and graduation rates
of student athletes as well as its federally-mandated athletic program
participation and financial support data.
It is important for System
Administration to join the University at Albany in seeking legislative and
other support for its Division I athletics initiative.
·
The campus will submit a five-year report (by 2004) to System
Administration documenting the costs and benefits of Division I athletics at
Albany, including a summary of the assessment of these and other goals.
2.2 Retention/graduation
rates
Albany’s first-year retention rate is strong and can be expected to improve as the incoming class is strengthened, and the University’s graduation rate compares favorably with other public institutions across the country. Albany’s three- and five-year goals for undergraduate retention and graduation are as follows:
|
|
Current |
3-year
goal |
5-year
goal |
|
First year retention rate |
84.2%1 |
87% |
89% |
|
4 year graduation rate 6 year graduation rate |
49.66%2 66.28%2 |
51% 68% |
54% 70% |
1 Fall 1997
cohort; 2 Fall 1992 cohort.
2.3 Student/Alumni
satisfaction
Albany scored below the SUNY
average overall, and on a number of measures, on the 1997 Student Opinion
Survey, although there was general improvement from the 1994 Survey. Both
campus and System leadership expect that Albany’s scores will improve in
subsequent administrations of this instrument as the initiatives described
throughout this Memorandum come to fruition.
·
Particular improvement is
expected in:
- academic/classroom
experiences;
- course
availability/registration;
- student-faculty & staff
relations;
- academic facilities and
grounds;
- placement services; and
- residence halls.
·
As a part of its ongoing
efforts to improve academic advising, Albany will continue its implementation
of the Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS), an innovative tool that allows
students and their advisers to quickly obtain a clear picture of a student’s
progress towards his/her degree.
Regular and systematic surveys
show that alumni highly value their experience at Albany. The results of the 1998 SUNY Alumni Outcomes
Survey, which sampled 50% of the classes from 1991 to 1994, reveal a solid
level of satisfaction among Albany graduates. Their overall rating of the
University is 3.94 on a five-point scale, just below the average for University
Centers of 4.06. Albany fared satisfactorily in most areas on an absolute
scale, while generally lagging behind the average for University Centers in quality of academic programs (3.96 vs.
4.11), opportunities for student/faculty
interaction (2.92 vs. 3.11), cultural/
fine arts/speaker programs (3.27 vs. 3.47), and computer system/services/equipment/labs/etc. (3.09 vs. 3.24). Perhaps the most telling response is that
94% of the responding alumni would recommend the University to someone who
asked their opinion, although only 40% would do so without reservation (vs. 49%
for all University Centers).
The positive response of alumni to their educational experience has been important to the University in building a strong response to the Annual fund. Over 32% of alumni contacted for the Annual Fund contributed last year. The University’s challenge is to build on this heritage of broad goodwill and approval, and to create a major gifts program that provides significant philanthropic income. Albany has begun to do so, creating high-level Annual Fund clubs at the School and College, even the departmental, levels. These clubs provide higher philanthropic income than standard Annual Fund gifts, build on the alumnus’ natural affinity for her or his particular academic experience, and create natural opportunities for the identification and cultivation of prospects for significant gifts.
2.4 Post-graduate success
Currently, approximately 40% of Albany’s
undergraduates proceed immediately to graduate school upon graduation, and
approximately 70% receive a graduate degree within ten years of their
undergraduate graduation. Further, according to the 1998 Alumni Outcomes
Survey, 75% of responding alumni indicated that a graduate degree was a
lifetime goal for them. Albany is committed to maintaining this high level of
post-graduate success.
The University at Albany collects
and maintains information about the placement and career paths of Ph.D.
students. The quality of the career paths of Albany doctoral students is
assessed primarily in terms of indices such as the quality of the academic
research and private institutions to which they receive initial and subsequent
appointments; awards and honors conferred; and the number and quality of their
professional publications. The data
show that Albany doctoral students place well after graduation, becoming active
members of their profession and joining faculty and researchers at other
institutions within New York State and beyond.
The University at Albany is widely known
and highly regarded for its longstanding commitment to assessment, and has
served as a model for best practices in this area. In 1978, Albany launched a
series of student cohort studies that placed the campus in the forefront of
assessment research. These assessment efforts, which have been conducted on a
continuous basis ever since, have given the University a rich array of
evaluative databases, including student opinion surveys, cohort studies, and
alumni studies. These centrally-administered assessments are complemented with
a wide array of evaluations carried out at the departmental level. ·
Albany is committed to a five- to seven-year cyclical review
process for all undergraduate and graduate programs; this will include
continuation of the doctoral program review process (instituted in 1997-98). The University has established a
number of ambitious goals to pursue in student outcomes over the next several
years. Many of the program strategies
and initiatives for achieving these goals have been launched. Albany looks to System Administration for
support in the administration of the SUNY Alumni Outcomes Survey.
2.5 Assessment planning
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