Last week MSU’s Student Success Development Office hosted its annual Student Success Donor Appreciation event. In years past, the event hosted several dozen donors who had made significant contributions to support scholarships. The annual lunch is always a nice occasion, and I know the donors appreciate it. This year, the Student Success Development Team made big changes to the programming that helped me recognize just how much progress we have made toward becoming the nation’s leading student success institution.
When one perceives of “student success” as a student successfully passing a class, aggregated over 120 credits and ultimately graduating, we place a great deal of stress on the individual student and their efforts to overcome challenges. On its face, this framing of student success seems logical and is consistent with statements recently made by the U.S. Secretary of Education who said, “College should be a trial by fire that inspires students to struggle and strive.” This view of the college experience frames intuitions as sorting mechanisms, distinguishing the good students from the better ones and weeding out the students who could not make the cut.
What I saw at last week’s Student Success Donor Appreciation Event made clear to me how far MSU has moved from the traditional notions of higher education as a sorting experience. The event opened with a welcome, followed by a short address from Provost McIntyre, who emphasized the five opportunity areas for student success as they are outlined in the Spartan Undergraduate Experience Strategy: self-discovery of purpose, educational success (learning and academic success), developing sense of belonging, contributing to an empowered community, and developing wellbeing.
Provost McIntyre’s comments made clear that MSU’s purpose was not to sort students, but rather to support, encourage, and empower them. Every student should have an experience at MSU that catalyzes them to learn, thrive, and graduate.
The panel discussion with students that followed the Provost’s comments highlighted just how effective MSU was becoming at catalyzing every student. They described their experiences, their challenges, and all the support and care they received from the university. Each student showed how MSU encouraged them to become more than they were when they arrived, rather than sorting them out because they were less than someone expected them to be.
I was especially impressed by how the many donors in the room responded to the students on the panel. There was enthusiasm, applause, and joy at the students’ efforts to thrive. As we left, many of the donors talked about how fortunate they were to be part of the students’ experience and how impressive these young folks were.
I want to thank the Student Success Development Team for such a great event, and I want to thank all my colleagues at MSU for helping lead a transformation of our university toward being the premier (new definition of) student success institution.