Funded Student Success Innovation Projects

Tamar Heller, Disability and Human Development Department Head and the Director of the Institute on Disability and Human Development

Kate Caldwell, Clinical Assistant Professor of Disability Legal Studies Certificate and the Director of the Disability and Human Development

In collaboration with the Disability Cultural Center and Disability Resource Center, the Department of Disability and Human Development plans to create a series of short-form videos about existing supports, services and spaces provided by UIC campus units. The goal of these videos is to increase student knowledge and confidence in accessing these services, supports, and spaces, as well as to expand the utilization of these entities and attendance at relevant campus events. The target audience is students with diagnosed and undiagnosed disabilities, a population with unmet support needs; however, these videos will be applicable and beneficial to all UIC students.

Sarah Primeau, Associate Director of First-Year Writing Program, Department of English

Mark Bennett, Director of First-Year Writing Program, Department of English

In order to help first-year writing instructors incorporate the principles of linguistic justice into their own teaching and assignments, we propose inviting scholars of Black linguistic justice and raciolinguistics to lead pedagogy workshops and a brief syllabus review with us. A small working group of writing instructors will also collaborate to create instructor teaching standards and recommendations for assessment practices based on the workshops. Additionally, faculty and students from our professional writing program will produce a publication of writing submitted by first-year writing students about linguistic justice and their own experiences with language learning.

Justin Wier, Assistant Dean for Recruitment and Engagement at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Elizabeth Houlihan, Director of the Academic Center for Excellence

Ashley Jarrell, Assistant Director of Recruitment & Engagement, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Casey Thayer, Assistant Director of Recruitment & Engagement, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

The collaboration between LAS 110: Experience UIC, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences first-year seminar, and the Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) will extend connections between students and UIC success units in and out of the classroom. Strategies include teaching several sections of LAS 110 classes in the ACE classroom; enhancing academic skill-building class modules team taught by both units; expanding the Explore UIC project where students will develop informative videos to teach their LAS 110 classmates the top reasons to use UIC’s student success campus resources with an end of semester celebration to highlight the top student produced videos; and incorporating assessment tools to build long-term partnerships to promote student success.

Shonta Durham-Wiersema, Director, Student Affairs Diversity & Inclusion

The UIC Business Passport to Success program is an academic enrichment and student engagement program designed to support students in the following key areas: college and university engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion, and strengthening of help-seeking skills. The overall goal of this program is to increase the retention and sense of belonging of UIC Business undergraduate students by providing a support space in which students will have guidance and practice to strengthen their help-seeking skills while also familiarizing and incentivizing student engagement with the host of support resources available on campus.

Professors Cristián Roa and Xochitl Bada, Director and Co-director of Latin American and Latino Studies

Joseph Fields, Associate Director

This program aims at improving the graduation persistence, major & career exploration, and post-graduation employment for a group of approximate 50 undecided African American undergraduate students by offering a series of skill building activities, insightful dialogue with recent UIC alumni, and reflective assessments. The BPRD Program will provide monthly round-tables with new and seasoned professionals as well as shadowing opportunities within various occupational sectors (e.g., Higher Education, STEM, Business and Law), and career resource development for the participating scholars. Through these activities, scholars will build professional networks, gain better insight toward choosing their major, and career exploration.

Sandy Wayne, Professor of Management, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs

The College of Business Administration is implementing a two-year undergraduate cohort program designed to increase student retention and success. Incoming freshmen will be placed in cohorts of 60-65 students and will take business core courses together. As part of this program, two initiatives will be implemented. The first is a Business Career Closet that will make available professional clothing to students at no cost, enabling them to confidently attend business events starting as freshmen. The second is the creation of Cohort Captains, upperclassmen trained to build a sense of community among students in their cohorts through engaging activities.

Tom Moss, Associate Dean for Student Affairs

Hannah Higgins, Professor of Intermedia and Avant-Garde Art and Culture, Founding Director of IDEAS

The College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts will develop a new seminar, which will be required for all first-year students. The new course will be developed by faculty members from the Interdisciplinary Education in the Arts (IDEAS) program, and will be a hybrid course, with half taught online and half taught in person. IDEAS faculty will develop eight hours of online modules, which will focus on fundamental digital literacy skills. The second eight hours will be will feature modules focusing on academic study skills and socio-cognitive behaviors. both sections could be taught remotely if necessary.

Jessica Shaw, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology

Amanda L. Roy, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology

During this pilot program, the Psychology Department will invite a series of Black scholars from the field of psychology to UIC for a day of virtual engagement. The day of engagement includes a main lecture on the scholar’s work; an affinity session providing dedicated space for Black students to engage with the scholar; and a special session on a selected topic. This series is intended to showcase Black scholars and scholarship and connect Black students to scholars with whom they share aspects of their identities and lived experiences, to promote belonging within the field of psychology and at UIC.

Janet Swatscheno, Instructor & Digital Publishing Librarian, Assessment and Scholarly Communication Department

The high cost of textbooks is a barrier to students successfully completing courses. Students have reported not purchasing required texts, delaying purchasing texts, taking fewer classes, and not registering for courses. One solution to the high cost of textbooks is the implementation of open educational resources (OER). OER are available to students for free and immediately upon enrollment in the course. The purpose of this project is to facilitate the creation of OER using a sprint method, allowing faculty to adapt and produce appropriate course material without dedicating months or years to writing textbooks.

Danielle Liubicich, Director, Math and Science Learning Center

The Math and Science Learning Center (MSLC) provides diverse academic support mechanisms for students enrolled at UIC.  We know that students who utilize the various services of the MSLC outperform their peers who do not; however, to increase access to valuable academic support services and to attract higher percentages of students from courses with traditionally high DFUW rates, we are currently developing a new approach, online peer-led sessions.  Our pilot will offer online peer-led sessions for Organic Chemistry I (CHEM 232), and if these efforts produce positive impacts on student course success, MSLC can expand offerings in future terms.

Jeremiah T. Abiade, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Given the impact of mental health on student success, this project proposes a detailed approach to proactive mental health education for identifying and preventing potential trauma due to mental, emotional or behavioral (MEB) difficulties. The collaborative work between the College of Engineering and the UIC Counseling Center will allow for:

• Determining the extent engineering students experience MEB challenges,
• Implementing a proactive intervention to equip students to deal with MEB challenges prior to experiencing crisis to enhance retention rates,
• Assessing the efficacy of the proactive program,
• Determining to what extent student identity and self-efficacy are impacted by the intervention.

The result will be an increase in students’ self-efficacy, leading to a positive, culturally affirming engineering identity. We anticipate that the same approach can be integrated into other UIC student success efforts such as bridge and introductory courses in various disciplines.

Ashley Stewart, Advisor

This project will allow students the opportunity to meet during the lunch hour/or mid-afternoon to discuss relevant topics of interest centered around college life and the demands they face on a daily basis.  The targeted participants for this project will include UIC students who are affiliated with African American Academic Network.  Students will learn how to work through some of the non-cognitive issues that can often interfere with their overall campus experience and contribute to a delay with completing their degree.  An assessment for each participant will be done during the first group sessions. The overall goal is to keep the targeted population successfully moving toward graduation.

Shonta Durham-Wiersema, Director of Student Affairs Diversity and Inclusion

Designed to assist first-year, underrepresented students of color make a successful transition to college, the UIC Business Diversity Peer Mentor program will pair incoming Black and LatinX freshmen with an upperclassman who will work with them during the 2019-2020 academic year. Mentors and mentees will have weekly one-on-one contact in addition to bi-monthly workshops on topics ranging from goal setting and time management to popular culture representations of people of color and stereotype threat. Program goals include cultural identity exploration, leadership development, supported transition to university life, academic confidence and success and holistic growth.

Jodi Stelley, Program Coordinator for New Student and Family Orientation Programs

Kelly McCray, Director of Student Development Services

UIC will work with a vendor to offer an ADA compliant online orientation platform for international, domestic, first-year, and transfer students. The online pre- and post- orientation program extends critical support to new UIC students throughout their first year. The development and implementation of this program supports retention and graduation initiatives at UIC by facilitating a smoother transition for each new UIC undergraduate student, especially challenging for first-generation students and marginalized populations. By providing critical information about resources, policies, and services before and after orientation, students can gain a better sense of belonging within the UIC community and mastery over their college experience.

Karen Colley, Dean of Graduate College

Jeremiah Abiade, Faculty Director, PAP STEM Initiative

Phillip Beverly, Interim Director PAP

Kristy M. Kambanis, Assistant Director PAP STEM Initiative

Kathleen Kashima, Sr. Assoc Dean of Students, College of Medicine (COM)

UICommunity is a multi-tiered developmental mentoring network designed to enhance underrepresented undergraduates’ sense of belonging, academic and personal support systems, and professional development. We will develop training and on-line tools to advance participants’ mentoring and networking skills, host face-to-face networking events to bring mentors and mentees together, and promote continued engagement of participants. This program will be piloted with President’s Award Program STEM majors, graduate/professional students and faculty/staff from basic science and clinical departments. Our goal is to improve undergraduate retention and graduation rates, east-west campus connections, and the recruitment of underrepresented undergraduates into UIC graduate and professional programs.

Simona Narubin, Visiting Teaching Associate

Student retention in Engineering is known to be closely related to a felt sense of belonging to the institution and identification with the engineering profession. The Arduino Robot Project is motivated by very positive experience and student feedback in our fall 2018 pilot of hands-on, project-based, peer-collaborative learning with an Arduino Robot Project in the Engineering Orientation course for transfer students.  This pedagogic approach provides students the opportunity to engage in engineering activities, explore engineering concepts, and gain engineering skills while working with their interdisciplinary peers, which we are excited to now expand to every future incoming freshman student.

Edward Podsiadlik, Clinical Assistant Professor Department of Curriculum and Instruction

The goal of The Sustenance Enterprise is to train student-leaders in implementing a variety of academic and social/emotional resources to help nourish and sustain the spirits, drive, and aspirations of our College of Education first year students. The project aims to strengthen the collective spirit of support and collaboration within the College of Education as it provides immediate, effective, and personalized support to increase student capability, confidence, and camaraderie. In this way, the Sustenance Enterprise will strategically provide comprehensive supports that will increase the number of students successfully achieving their first year undergraduate personal and academic goals.

Martina Bode, Director of Calculus

Jenny Ross, Director of Precalculus

Beginning Spring 2019, Math 090 will no longer be taught in large lectures of 120 students, but in small classes of 25 students. To maximize the intended effect of these changes, we will expand the Learning Assistant Program to include MATH 090 in its revised format, and incorporate an active learning approach to lectures. The MATH 090 coordinator will design materials incorporating LAs into the new format. These materials will be collected and made available to instructors of MATH 090 in future semesters as well. The MATH 090 coordinator will meet with the LAs in a weekly content meeting.

Diana Soriano, Assistant Director of Advising and Retention, College of Business Administration

The CEO Network: Cultivating Educational Opportunities through Diversity mission is to provide students with an educational experience to prepare them for business leadership and to increase engagement in the college of business, increase peer mentorship, and expose underrepresented students to careers in business. The CEO Network aims to impact the experience of incoming first-year underrepresented students at the College of Business Administration to increase persistence, student success, and student retention.

Aginah M. Muhammad, Executive Director, Council on Teacher Education

Students enrolled in UIC’s teacher preparation programs are required to pass three state-mandated tests: an initial licensure exam, a content test, and the edTPA, prior to program completion and becoming a licensed teacher in Illinois.  The high cost of exams and test retakes, contribute to student attrition and/or a delay in graduation.  The CTE Scholarship for Teacher Assessment Resources (CTE S.T.A.R.) is designed to provide financial support in the form of test vouchers to students enrolled in secondary teacher preparation programs to ease the financial burden associated with becoming a teacher.  This project will increase retention and accelerate graduation rates.

Karrie L. Hamstra-Wright, Visiting Clinical Associate Professor

High failure rates are common in Anatomy & Physiology (A&P) courses, contributing to student attrition and/or delaying graduation. The purpose of this project is to improve academic performance in an A&P suite of courses through a co-requisite course and scaffolding framework. In the fall 2018 semester, a new co-requisite course will be launched. Throughout the suite, a new 3D learning tool will be introduced and instructional contact will increase through undergraduate teaching assistants and peer tutors. To evaluate success, measures such as GPA, DFW rates, continuation and attrition rates, graduate rates, and student engagement and leadership will be tracked.

Mark Bennett, Director of the First-Year Writing Program

Vainis Aleksa, Director of the Writing Center

The goal of this project is to create a part-time position for a departmental advisor who will provide academic and non-cognitive support for students especially at risk of not succeeding in English 071, one of UIC’s preparatory writing courses. The English 071 Engagement Coordinator will be charged with helping to build community among English 071 students, to provide extra academic support beyond the classroom for any English 071 students who seek it, and to foster all-around college success for English 071 students. The Engagement Coordinator will be a visible form of support to whom students and instructors can readily turn, and will maintain a close relationship with campus academic advisors. The Coordinator will hold weekly open office hours, plan special biweekly events such as breakfasts and lunches open to all English 071 students, and arrange special speaking events and presentations by UIC staff involved in various aspects of student success.

Jenny Ross, Director of Precalculus

Recently, the Math department has added co-requisite coursework to the Intermediate Algebra and Quantitative Reasoning courses, allowing students who did not initially place into the courses, to take them with the co-requisite course. This provides the opportunity for the students to take advantage of adaptive courseware. This project will provide two tablet carts and 72 tablets to be utilized in converting regular rooms into labs for an Emporium model. When the tablets are not in use, they can be stored, and the rooms can be used for other purposes.

Melissa Frazin, Assistant Director of Development & Engagement, Career Services

Marisol Mastrangelo, Retention Specialist, TRIO Academic Support Program

The TRIO Career Development Learning Community (TCDLC) is a one-year career readiness program targeting 25 first- and second-year students enrolled in TRIO Student Support Services and identify as low-income, first-generation college students, and/or with documented disabilities. TCDLC will offer career guidance and support by helping students explore possible careers, identify professional goals, engage in hands-on learning experiences on campus, develop networking skills, and connect with faculty, staff, and peer mentors. Through active participation, students will be awarded career related incentives that facilitate practical career planning and preparation. In focusing on career development, TCDLC aims to increase students’ connection to UIC and retention rates by infusing high impact learning practices.

Viviana Kabbabe-Thompson, Clinical Instructor and Director for the Academic Support and Achievement Program

The Strength Threads project aims to provide students up to 3 unique opportunities to learn about their strengths and boost their confidence to engage with campus and the world.  Upon completing the Clifton Strengths inventory, students will gain an awareness of their top 5 strengths and learn how they can apply it to their UIC community in general, to leadership practices on and off campus and/or to future employers.  Pre and Post surveys will not only serve as internal assessments but also as a learning reflection tool for students.

Aidan Gray, Assistant Professor

Nick Huggett, LAS Distinguished Professor

As part of a multi-pronged initiative by the UIC Department of Philosophy to improve student success in the Introductory Logic course, this project aims to develop online resources that facilitate learning and engagement for the PHL102, via:

1. short video explanations of important concepts from the course
2. video demonstrations of problems-solving, and
3. an online “proof-checker” that gives students the ability to check whether their work is correct in real time, outside of class.

It is expected that these resources will significantly impact student success in the course.

Kathleen Sheridan, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Psychology

Take a Professor to Lunch is designed to provide opportunities for the undergraduate students in the College of Education to interact with faculty outside of the classroom. This initiative encourages students to go to lunch individually with a faculty member or in small groups of 3 to 4 students. In the informal meal setting, students explore educational and research opportunities, identify or confirm their career direction, and build an educational and professional relationship in an informal setting. They network for research experience, gain insight into a field, build a connection, and explore graduate school and professional work options.

Spencer Long, Associate Director, Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement

Kristina Garcia, Associate Director Commuter Student Advocacy and Student Engagement

As nearly 85% of UIC students live off-campus, welcoming and properly resourcing commuter students is crucial for our campus community. This project is a two-pronged initiative designed connect students with on-campus involvement opportunities and vital campus resources.  This project consists of: The Commuter Connection Crew (CCC) and the “Commuter Pulse” Podcast. The CCC groups incoming students into family clusters and pairs them with a current student or “Crew Leader.” The “Commuter Pulse” will share key information and resources using the medium of podcasting. Both these project components aim to foster a sense of belonging among incoming commuter students.