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Activity 1 Progress Summary by program year -

Staff Involved in Activity I

Activity 1- Strengthening Student Success through Student Data System Enhancements

Activity I seeks to improve student success and retention through better identifying and tracking at-risk students, better mentoring/advising of students, and better data retrieval to support management planning and decisions by more full utilization of the new regental student database system, i.e., Datatel's Colleague. The total budget for this activity is $679,609 over five years. Approximately 93 percent ($629,609) of the budget is to fund technical staff that will provide documentation, training, programming, reporting and computer support activities SDSM&T needs to utilize Colleague. Seven percent ($50,000) is for staff training and the purchase of computer licenses, software, and hardware.

Year One Year I was an organizational year for Activity I: establishing an office and hiring the programming staff and technical writer. These staff members provided us the needed technical support to implement and enhance the student database system. These staff members augment the current Student Information Systems staff of two: the director, and a programmer analyst.

Some of the accomplishments of Year I include:

Faculty and staff overall wants for the student data system were determined by focus groups. These focus groups of faculty, staff, and students were conducted by Dr. James Munro, the faculty liason with assistance from Barbara Hughs, the Title III Administrative Assistant.
The Student Information Planning & Design Team (SISPDT) was formed and began its weekly meetings to map out the necessary steps to accomplish the goals of Activity I.
Campus training needs were determined by electronic surveys of faculty and staff.
The degree audit module of Colleague was implemented. Dr. Sue Shirley, the technical writer, completed a training manual which Dr. James Munro, the faculty liason, used to train faculty advisors on degree audit. Dr. Munro also created a webpage of helpful hints for faculty on how to use degree audit and other features of Colleague.
The implementation of WebAdvisor, the internet interface to the student data system was begun.
Programming staff began adding new queries to the query library and documenting the existing queries.

Year TwoThe grant funded the enhancement of our student database and made SDSM&T a leader in the state in implementation of new components of Colleague (WebAdvisor, Safari OLAP, Schedule 25, Communications Management, and queries for institutional research). Student and faculty satisfaction with administrative details improved. They became more independent being able to access WebAdvisor 24/7 from any location. Greater student satisfaction leads to better retention and therefore more fiscal stability for the institution. Safari OLAP will allow us to provide better management tools to assist faculty and upper level management in decision making.

Year Three In February 2002 the South Dakota Board of Regents (BOR) unveiled its Student-University Digital Enterprise (STUDENT) project. This mandated project's goal was to consolidate the Colleague databases of the seven BOR-governed universities into a single database by November 2003. Since our Activity I is to "Strengthen Student Success through Student Data System Enhancements", this new direction/project of the BOR had a tremendous impact on our Activity I Year 3. This database consolidation involved all modules/aspects of the Colleague student database - accounts receivable, admissions, financial aid, registration, residence life, web interface, and technical. The project tremendously increased the workload and stress on all the SDSM&T Academic and Enrollment Services staff. Without the Title III-funded programming staff, we would not have had the manpower to complete all the tasks necessary to meet the STUDENT project "go-live" date of November 2003. But with the Title III staff, SDSM&T received kudos from the BOR's Chief Information Officer for our follow through on assigned taskes and our positive morale/attitudes. And, in addition to meeting all the demands of the STUDENT project, we still accomplished all our original Year 3 objectives for Activity I.

We feel the end result of the STUDENT project - clearly defined statewide procedures for using the Colleague database and consistent administration of BOR policies throughout the South Dakota university system - will improve our institutional management. In addition, the consistent administration of BOR policies statewide creates a more equitable system that will contribute to our students success.

Year Four Data not yet available.

Year Five Data not yet available.

Faculty and staff involved in Activity 1:

Last Updated: 07/12/2004