Ensuring student success together!
This is what the Strategic Student Success Initiatives (SSSI) Portfolio/Project Management group is trying to achieve. The SSSI Portfolio/Project Management group was developed to create more synergies and coordination among on-going MSU-wide student success initiatives.
Our newly launched webpage offers portfolio/project management resources, clarity on who is doing what in each project, what distinct roles mean, and how they align together. Our goals are to create alignment, reduce ambiguity, and foster an One MSU mindset.
Creation of SSSI Portfolio/Project Management Group
Summer 2025
When Wasek Sazzad joined the Office of Undergraduate Education as Project Manager - Student Success Initiatives, Amy and Wasek, were charged by Dr. Largent and Dr. Opoczynski to meet with executive sponsors, project leads, and project managers from the Enterprise Project Management Office and identify how we could better meet the needs of project management for student success so that initiatives could be successfully designed, put into action, and down the line implemented.
In the summer of 2025, we kicked off SSSI monthly meetings to call together ongoing student success initiatives project leads and managers into a common platform. In between the monthly meetings Amy and Wasek met with each project’s executive sponsors and project leads to identify each project’s needs.
Fall 2025
With the ramp-up in collaboration, as a part of the portfolio management process (for role clarity and better collaboration), Wasek put together a combined framework on the SSSI webpage showcasing how each project aligns together, no matter where it lives (Office of the President, Provost, and Undergraduate Education), and how everyone can play their part.
Spring 2026
This spring, we are introducing the Strategic Student Success Initiatives web resource, which is not only an informative webpage, but clearly outlines the work of each ongoing SSSI project:
- MSU Learning Goals
- Academic Standing
- Spartan Success Center
- Transfer Student Success Initiative
- Undergraduate Course Scheduling Reform
- Undergraduate Digital Experience
- Strategic Retention Initiatives
Also housed on the webpage are the previously mentioned combined framework and other project management resources for project leads and project managers that refer to how project work can be moved forward and how these initiatives align with other ongoing initiatives such as Modernization of General Education, the Green & White Council, and One Health.
Work Ahead
The development of resources is a work in progress, and we are proud to create a resource page which will not only help ongoing project managers but connect the campus community to support. If any unit is looking for project management support from the Office of Undergraduate Education, they can fill out the project onboarding form, and together ensure student success for One MSU will continue.
In this iterative process, we would like to thank the president, provost, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Education, assistant provost for Undergraduate Student Success, project executive sponsors, leads, and project managers for coming together to continue designing and implementing projects for the betterment of over 51,000 undergraduate students.
We thank you and welcome you in this process of SSSI Portfolio/Project Management collaboration. Feel free to reach out and provide your feedback at UndergraduateEducation@msu.edu.