Partnership aims to better serve students

The University of North Georgia (UNG) is one of the most recent University System of Georgia (USG) institutions to partner with the National Institute for Success (NISS) to close student achievement gaps and improve student enrollment, retention and college completion. 

"We know that a UNG education can change the trajectory of students and their families," UNG President Michael P. Shannon said. "We are more committed than ever to ensuring students are able to complete their degrees and realize the profound impact this experience can have throughout their lives." 

The work with NISS helped fuel UNG's reimagining of its Division of Student Affairs into the Division of Student Engagement and Success, led by Dr. Alyson Paul, who serves as the division's vice president and chief student success officer. This division focuses on delivering four pillars of student success: academic achievement, sense of purpose, well-being, and belonging and engagement.

Aligned with these goals, UNG has announced the following appointments:

• Dr. Darcy Hayes as associate vice president for well-being.
• Dr. Michelle Eaton as associate vice president for student success.
• Dr. James "Joe" Hutto as associate vice president for student engagement.
• Glen Harris Jr. as senior dean of students.

Georgia State University launched NISS in fall 2021 to further its work as a nationally recognized leader in innovating data-driven student success initiatives and expand its reach across Georgia and nationally. 

"We're taking advantage of in-house expertise to give our own USG institutions a customized analysis of barriers to student completion, a detailed plan to address these barriers and, when necessary, support services to help make good changes," USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue said. "Most importantly, we're working to provide the best foundation that helps more students be successful. There really is no higher priority than to make sure our students, our No. 1 customers, achieve their dream of a college education." 

Led by founding executive director Dr. Timothy M. Renick, the team at NISS helps colleges and institutions identify and resolve institution barriers to college completion. The institute uses hands-on experience to help institutions successfully design, implement and scale transformative student-support systems. Since its launch, NISS overall has worked with more than 70 institutions and seven state systems. 

NISS offers services that include a six-month-long "diagnostic and playbook" process that results in a customized analysis of challenges to student success and a detailed plan to address these barriers. The diagnostic and playbook are required first steps of all of NISS' partners. UNG has received its playbook and taken the initial steps to organize its teams for implementation during the 2024-25 academic year.

"It's always good to gather an outside perspective and a fresh lens to help guide our initiatives as we move forward," Hayes said.  

Dr. Eugene Van Sickle, associate provost for undergraduate programs, is also grateful for the way this process will impact UNG students.   

"We say that every student counts. With this program, we are furthering our institutional commitment to that message. Education can change students' lives in a meaningful way," Van Sickle said. "UNG does well at graduating students with low debt. This process helps us find ways to serve them even better." 

NISS' implementation support services then provide intensive coaching to help institutions overcome those challenges for a period of one to three years, including live coaching sessions, site visits, webinars with subject matter experts and digital courses and materials. The institute also conducts data-based outcome assessments to track institutions’ progress. 

Of the first seven USG public colleges and universities to partner with NISS to complete diagnostic and playbook work, all of them have experienced increases of at least 3.9% in retention rates between fall 2022 and fall 2023, with one jumping by 14.9% and the average being 6.7%.