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Spartan Undergraduate Experience Strategy

The Spartan Undergraduate Experience Strategy serves as a partner in the on-going effort to redesign MSU so that all students can learn, thrive, and graduate, by creating and enhancing the structures and processes for how MSU achieves our student success objectives. The aim is to reduce barriers for every student and to support holistic success. This work supports the MSU Student Success Strategic Plan and the 2030 goal of reaching an 86% graduation rate by closing opportunity gaps.

To achieve this goal, the Spartan Undergraduate Experience Strategy is coordinating campus-wide initiatives and creating common platforms for internal and external stakeholders through different working groups such as the Student Success Executive Committee (EC), Campus Student Success Group (CSSG), Student Success Executive Advisory Committee (SSEAC) and Undergraduate Assistant/Associate Deans, and Directors of Undergraduate Affairs (UGAAD). Additionally, the Spartan Undergraduate Experience Strategy provides the UGS 201 (Big Ideas Seminar) course for students to enable them to understand and participate in each of the five areas of student success.

 

5 Areas of Student Success

Developing and identifying core values; academic aspirations; and meaningful personally, culturally, and socially valuable goals.
Learning effectively through the acquisition of intentionally designed educational outcomes, using academic support services, experiencing culturally relevant curriculum, and effectively navigating academic policies.
Feeling connected to campus community including feeling safe, respected, accepted, and valued.
Learning to engage respectfully across differences to promote trust, respect, empathy, and an interdependent learning culture characterized by hope.
Developing fulfillment and stability regarding physical and mental health, social connections, cultural affinity, finances, and other essential needs that allow people to progress toward their goals.

Five Opportunity Areas of Student Success Recognition Program

Nominations to this program recognize MSU educators (anyone contributing to the teaching and learning, outreach, and/or student success missions of the university) and staff who demonstrate exceptional dedication to one of the five opportunity areas of undergraduate student success. 

Make a nomination

Resources and Committee Work

Spartan Undergraduate Experience Strategy Guide

A collectively developed resource with definitions, institutional commitments and metrics that guide the work of the campus as we shift responsibility from students needing to seek help to be successful, to the institution providing clearer pathways for engagement, support, and participation in impactful classes, programs and activities.

Access Full Report

Student Success Launch & Summit

Two events that bookend university-wide planning and assessment of strategic undergraduate student success efforts, providing opportunities for the campus community to come together and discuss student success with an eye toward where we want to go and what we want to accomplish. 

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Executive Committee

Enhancing the institutional coordination, collaboration, and communication of undergraduate student success projects and initiatives to reform MSU’s practices, processes, and policies so that every undergraduate student can learn, thrive and graduate.

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Campus Student Success Group

This group of campus partners gathers monthly to coordinate and prioritize institutional aggregation of all undergraduate student policies, processes, and practices around the five opportunity areas for undergraduate student success.

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Student Success Executive Advisory Committee

Through the MSU strategic planning process, this group coordinates and manages institutional aggregation of graduate, lifelong learning, undergraduate student success projects and initiatives, so that all students can learn, thrive and graduate.

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Undergraduate Assistant/Associate Deans and Directors of Undergraduate Affairs

Building a campus community through collaborative consultation around undergraduate student success that supports an organizational growth mindset for enacting five opportunity areas for success.

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Undergraduate Seminar (UGS) 201

Students in this seminar will be active participants in designing the Spartan Undergraduate Experience, learning about the study of higher education, the five opportunity areas of student success and how colleges and universities are addressing equity in student outcomes.

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University Innovation Alliance

As part of the University Innovation Alliance (UIA), MSU has a resident UIA Fellow who represents the university in a consortium of fellows from 18 institutions. Together they identify projects and opportunities to advance UIA’s goals at their home college.

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Five Opportunity Areas Learning Community

Join members of a campus-wide community that will contribute to new discoveries and refine the institutional commitments and metrics for five opportunity areas of undergraduate success outlined in the Spartan Undergraduate Experience resource guide.

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Team Leadership

Amy Martin

Assistant Dean
Undergraduate Student Success Strategy
mart1742@msu.edu

Dr. Martin works with colleagues across campus to support student success while also advocating for faculty, educator and staff success. Her lived experience and career in higher education spans 3 decades, beginning as a University of Michigan first-generation student from a rural community in southern Michigan. It was during her roles as dining hall student worker and resident assistant that Amy became aware that not all students had similar experiences to hers, or the ability to fund their educations, and that marginalized students experienced significant barriers to their success. Amy completed a master’s degree in college student counseling from Eastern Michigan University while working full time as a hall director, and graduated in 2014 with a doctoral degree in higher education policy and leadership from the University of Maryland (College Park). Amy continues to reflect on how her identities as a white, cisgender, feminist, woman, parent, grandparent and academic administrator shape her standpoint on the world. She values and advocates for the inclusion of many voices and perspectives in any work the institution engages in around student success and sees the Spartan Undergraduate Experience Strategy as a way to highlight the important research and work of colleagues across campus.

Maria O'Connell

University Innovation Alliance Fellow
Undergraduate Student Success Strategic Initiatives Manager
jacomema@msu.edu

Maria's professional journey is rooted in social work with a profound commitment to higher education and student success. Maria has over a decade of experience in higher education serving in a variety of roles such as a Success Coach, Academic Advisor and Student Services Specialist. Before coming to MSU, Maria served as a Clinical Assistant Faculty for the Department of Social Work at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. An MSU alum, Maria is excited to return to Michigan State University as a UIA Fellow, contributing to student success initiatives within a university that has been pivotal to her life.

Wasek Sazzad

Project Manager 
Spartan Undergraduate Experience Strategy (SUES) 
wasek@msu.edu 

Wasek Sazzad is leading project management of the university-wide implementation of Michigan State University’s MiLEAP sponsored Undergraduate Learning Goals initiative supporting strategic and operational leads of the effort. In addition, he is collaborating with the Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education, Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Student Sucess, Assistant Dean for the Undergraduate Student Success Strategy, University Innovation Alliance Fellow and Student Success Strategic Initiatives Manager, and other campus leaders to advance strategic priorities in student success through project management support of key student success initiatives. 

With over eight years of experience in strategic planning and project management, Wasek has designed and delivered 56 impactful projects across education, innovation, and global development - including initiatives with NASA Space Apps Challenge and the United Nations. He holds a STEM-designated Full-Time MBA in Data Analytics from MSU’s Broad College of Business, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 2025. 

Previously, Wasek served as a Graduate Assistant with the SUES Unit, where he worked alongside 85+ university leaders through the Campus Student Success Group (CSSG) to improve student policies and institutional practices. He has also contributed to student mentorship and career development as a Career Peer Advisor and Global Student Ambassador at MSU. 

 

Student Interns

Rimma Korchmit

Rimma Korchmit (she/her/hers) is a graduate student with Student Affairs Administration Master’s Program at MSU. Before coming to MSU, Rimma completed an undergraduate degree in Linguistics and Translation of English and German and worked as an academic advisor. As part of her master’s program, Rimma has joined the Office of Undergraduate Education to learn more about institutional strategic planning and retention and assist us with projects related to Spartan Undergraduate Experience Strategy. We value her insights, experiences, and analytical capacities along with her passion for student success.

Mariam M. Turkey

Mariam M. Turkey (she/her/hers) is a Master of Public Health Candidate working on her Graduate Certification in Community Engagement at MSU. In addition to being an Intern at the Office of Undergraduate Education with the Spartan Experience Strategy, Miriam is also an Iris Scholar at The Health & Risk Communication Center at MSU. We value her listening skills, her focus on students' sense of belonging and community, and her positive engagement with students in the UGS class that supports our strategy.

Contact


Michigan State University
426 Auditorium Road
Room 345
East Lansing, MI 48824

(517) 353-5380