Project Highlights

PURPOSE

To identify the resources, support, and tools necessary for establishing a functional teaching center for UIC that would promote effective teaching practices and inclusive education, supporting the success of all students.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• The first center, named Center for the Advancement of Teaching Learning Communities, was created in 2015 and operated until 2017 offering programming centered on faculty engagement in teaching innovation via involvement in various communities of practice.
• In 2020, a newly envisioned and expanded Center for Advancement for Teaching Excellence (CATE) was opened.
• CATE provides resources and faculty development programming to promote a more inclusive and culturally competent teaching and mentoring while improving student learning and sense of belonging.
• CATE supports faculty in their adoption of educational technology to improve pedagogy across multiple instructional modalities (face-to-face, online, hybrid/blended/flipped).
• CATE creates spaces for dialogue about effective, equitable, and reflective instructional practices in diverse classrooms.
• CATE builds capacity for campus-wide professional learning in inclusive and evidence-based pedagogy and curricular design.
• CATE connects with a community of educators that values and consistently participates in classroom assessment, practice reflective teaching, and advances the scholarship of teaching and learning.
• CATE engages in multidisciplinary collaborations across campus and with regional and national partners to promote the cultural transformation of the teaching & learning enterprise.

More information can be found on the project website.

PURPOSE 

To provide students and their families the estimated out-of-pocket cost to attend UIC almost two months before the actual bill was due, so they have time to secure their financial aid, enroll in a payment plan and pay their bill.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS 

• The project team reconfigured the processes for student billing, tuition assessment, and financial aid disbursement to accommodate this earlier processing.  They created and optimized communications (e.g., mass email, the student portal, USPS, and websites) to alert students, families, and University departments when estimated bills are available and instructions on what to do if they have questions regarding their bill or financial aid.
• The estimated Fall student bill is available to students and their families the first week in August, with a due date of September 28.
• Students who do not see estimated financial aid on their student account, now have additional time to contact the Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships before classes begin and ensure that aid will be applied before the bill is due.
• Communications in the student portal are set up to alert students when they have outstanding requirements for financial aid or have a past due balance.
• Mass email communications contain instructions on accessing the student bill, enrolling in a payment plan, enrolling in direct deposit, using College Illinois Credits, and Sponsored Billing.
• Payment plan enrollments have increased each semester, positively impacting retention, as students on a payment plan do not receive a financial hold on delinquent payments and are thus able to enroll in the next semester.

More information can be found on the project website.

PURPOSE

To identify resources, support, and tools necessary to facilitate collaboration and communication between advising units.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• The project team reviewed best practices, surveyed the state of undergraduate advising practices across UIC, and made recommendations for action to ensure collaborative practices and effective communication are achieved.
• The Provost charged the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs with the coordination of the UIC academic advising and coaching efforts.
• The Office for Advising Development (OAD) was established to provide professional development and training for advisors across the university.
• The Advising Leadership Council (ALC) was created and is comprised of advising leaders from across the university.
• Subsequent SSI teams were created to explore and recommend a campus-wide advising software system (iAdvise).
• The implementation of OAD, ALC, and iAdvise have engendered increased coordinated advising processes and systems across units to achieve a more student-centered approach and resulted in increased collaboration.

More information can be found on the project website.

PURPOSE

To assess the commuter students’ experience at UIC and identify areas of improvement that would support the commuter students’ success through graduation.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• The project team surveyed the commuter students and implemented changes to the Commuter Students Resources Center as well as the targeted programming for the same student population.
• Expansion of the marketing campaign during the Weeks of Welcome to target commuter students.
• Creation of a commuter ambassador program, peer mentoring program.
• Re-imagining the CSRC into more than just a physical location.
• Enhancing current commuter student engagement programs and collaborating with U-Pass distribution.
• Developing “Commuter Friendly” designation of areas on campus.
• Approval of a director position to allow direct representation for this important functional area on the Student Engagement Leadership Team.  A new hire is expected by the end of the calendar year.
• The UIC Commuter Student Sense of Belonging Survey was conducted through focus groups in 2019 and a summary report was written during the early months of 2020.  Five themes emerged as a result of the study and is being reviewed in relation to offered programming, facilities, and services now that the Commuter Student Resource Center has reopened.
• A contract with an off-campus partners to develop and provide a free platform for students to search for available off-campus rental properties posted by landlords and property managers.
• Commuter podcasts were created on topics related to transition and success of students who commute.
• A “Take a Professor to Lunch” program will be implemented during the 2022 Spring Semester.
• A Commuter Advocacy Board will be created and convened to develop and assess student engagement programming for students who commute. (2022)
• A plan to convert the current women’s locker room at the Commuter Student Resource Center into a multipurpose space, which will allow for the expansion of the facility, services, and programming options. (The men’s locker room was converted in 2016 and currently contains a quiet room for students as well as a programming space.)

More information can be found on the project website.

PURPOSE

To create pathways for student placement in credit-bearing math options during their first semester, through a corequisite model for Intermediate Algebra and Quantitative Reasoning, essentially, saving students a semester of non-credit bearing Beginning Algebra course.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• The project team implemented the addition of a credit-bearing College Algebra course as well as the corequisite courses to Intermediate Algebra and Quantitative Reasoning, allowing for over half of the students that previously would have been placed into Math 090 (a non-credit bearing course) to be placed into Math 110 (a credit-bearing course).
• This initiative reduced the number of students beginning in a non-credit-bearing math course by nearly 40% in its first semester of implementation.
• A large number of students now take Math 110, instead of taking a non-credit-bearing course, with higher pass rates than 090 formerly had.
• Follow up to the success of the Intermediate Algebra and Quantitative Reasoning corequisites, the department added a corequisite course to College Algebra as well, Math 109. Math 109 allowed the top 1/3 of Math 090 students (according to placement) to skip Math 090 and begin in College Algebra, as long as they take the corequisite (Math 109). The pass rate of these students was the same or better compared to those placed directly into College Algebra.
• The addition of Math 109 reduced the number of students beginning in a non-credit-bearing course by 35% in its first semester. From Fall 2015 to Fall 2019, the combined impact of the above-mentioned measures led to a 65% reduction in the number of students starting in a non-credit-bearing course.
• The success of the current corequisite courses paved the way for a pilot of a corequisite model for our STEM Calculus course, Math 180. The development of this pilot is being funded by the First at LAS Fellowship, and the pilot will begin in Fall 2021.

More information can be found on the project website.

PURPOSE

To develop, integrate and promote career services education for undergraduate students across campus through faculty engagement and enhanced coordination between the Office of Career Services and college-based offices and programs.  

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Integration of the new Handshake career management system utilized across all colleges (to be introduced in the College of Business spring 2022), offering a portal for connecting students to employers, student employment, full time positions, and internship opportunities.
• Regular integration of required Career Services content into the curriculum and programming for students in areas such as Kinesiology, Applied Psychology, Dentistry and English, among others.
• The new Flames Internship Grant Program offering competitive stipends to undergraduate students across all majors with unpaid internships.
• Establishment of the Career Directors Summit, bringing together the leadership of every career support office and initiative in each college and department for the purposes of shared information and collaboration.
• Advent of successful virtual programming and advising has made all of our services more accessible to those students with restricted schedules and limited availability on campus.

More information can be found on the project website.

PURPOSE

To enhance the Orientation experience for incoming students.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• The project team revised and redesigned the Orientation website. They identified the key topic areas for the development of the pre-and post-orientation video modules that would allow the new students to have access to critical information before starting and throughout their first year. The work of this team on the website content empowered the future upgrades to led to the current website.
• A vendor-based product was acquired, enabling the UIC virtual orientation.
• The content for the virtual orientation was developed and tested through a pilot phase.
• For the Summer 2020 (during the COVID-19 pandemic), the mandatory online pre-orientation modules were expanded to incorporate the necessary content for the incoming students’ orientation experience (excluding the info related to each academic college and course registration). In Summer 2021, the incoming students completed the online pre-orientation modules before their mandatory orientation experience.
• The online platform features were expanded to allow the parents/families of new UIC students create accounts and access the online orientation information.

More information can be found on the project website.

PURPOSE

To promote a timely college completion by encouraging students to attempt and earn enough credit hours each semester, allowing them to finish their undergraduate degree in four years.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• The project team reviewed best practices, the state of the UIC undergraduate path-to-degree, and made recommendations for actions for a campus-wide Finish-in-Four campaign.
• finishinfour.uic.edu website was created.
• Finish in Four information was presented to the advising community of UIC, to increase awareness among the campus partners and promote the buy-in.
• Finish in Four information was included in the annual advising week presentations.

More information can be found on the project website.

PURPOSE

To develop a proposal for enhancing and strengthening the first-year seminar outcomes at UIC, thereby improving persistence, retention, and graduation.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• The project team surveyed the status of first-year seminar offerings at UIC, reviewed best practices, and developed a clearinghouse of high-impact educational practices. They proposed a list of critical elements for “college success in first-year courses” and suggestions on how to best incorporate the high-impact educational practices into UIC first-year courses.
• In addition to a set of recommendations for action, they completed a feasibility assessment for engaging all incoming students in first-year seminars, considering UIC campus resources, including staffing and physical space.
• The project team developed a reference for “Common Learning Outcomes” for all UIC First-Year Seminars, which became the guiding document for the future pilots and the enhancement of the curriculum development resources.
• Annual summit was coordinated through the office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs and Academic Programs, to bring together the UIC first-year seminars instructors and coordinators, sharing best practices and promoting the common learning outcomes.
• Professional development workshops and seminars were offered regularly, to UIC first-year seminars instructors and coordinators.
• The enrollment capacity for the first-year seminars increased across UIC by 30%.
• A first-year seminar website was launched with separate pages for students and staff. Student-facing page listed every first-year seminar course offered at UIC, while the staff-facing pages provided curriculum development resources, information about campus units that are introduced to students during a typical first year seminar course, and professional development resources.

More information can be found on the project website.

PURPOSE

To conduct a comprehensive research to identify and obtain the most suitable integrated planning and advising system for UIC, one that would facilitate communication among advisors, integrate student success information and incorporate Early Alerts to enhance advising and student success. Access to this information empowers advisors to help students improve their performance and raise retention and graduation rates.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• The project team wrote the RFP for identifying a vendor by prioritizing the system functionality expectations and specification requirements, and by communicating with the campus partners to ensure the inclusion of their needs, concerns, and insights.
• The team invited a NACADA consultant to come to UIC and meet with key stakeholders that will be involved with the various aspects of the future IPAS tool.
• They completed the vendor selection process while following the strict university and state procurement guidelines for identifying a vendor and choosing among the final bidders.
• Subsequent to identifying the appropriate product, Starfish was implemented as part of UIC’s iAdvise Project, and the system is maintained by the Office for Advising Development on behalf of the campus. Rollout and advancement of iAdvise continue.
• Common guidelines for note-taking and record-keeping practices were developed and implemented.
• All college advising units run their day-to-day scheduling operations and note-taking in the system.
• iAlert, the intervention area of the system houses Early Alerts and provides faculty and advisors the option to communicate directly to students for nudging to success.
• Campus practices such as orientation, SAP interventions, and common delivery of advising data have been implemented and maintained.
• iPredict, which is the predictive analytics component of iAdvise, became available upon purchase of Starfish. iPredict is under development and is planned for implementation in the coming year.

PURPOSE

To identify and propose programs that have the potential to significantly increase retention and graduation rates of African-American students at UIC, and also have clear and measurable outcomes.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• The project team made recommendations for action to improve African American student success at UIC. Their recommendations were informed by their research on the landscape of African American student success in higher education, incorporating both the national perspective and the University of Illinois at Chicago, historically and contemporarily.
• An Assistant Vice Provost for Equity and Belonging position was created in the Office of Diversity.
• A website was launched to provide resources specifically targeted to meet the needs of Black/African Descent students, faculty, staff and alumni at UIC.
• Programming resources for the African American Cultural Center was expanded to implement an annual student-designed and student-centered conference on issues of race, equity, social justice, as well as additional programming central to the needs and interests of Black students, faculty, and staff.
• New avenues were established to support scholarships for Black students, including, but not limited to, the promotion and dissemination of the Ida B. Wells Scholarship fund.
  Increased resources for anti-bias training for faculty and staff across the university to help generate a more inclusive campus climate.
• Number of hiring for Black and other minoritized faculty was increased.
• A proposal to recognize diversity, equity, and inclusion in the faculty promotion and tenure process was sponsored by the provost.
• A campus-wide commitment was promoted for monitoring and reporting progress at all administrative levels, in Advancing Racial Equity plans with specific goals and metrics.

More information can be found on the project website.

PURPOSE

To consider the existing UIC data and best practices to identify areas for improvement and propose recommendations to increase retention and graduation rates of Latinx students at UIC, and also have clear and measurable outcomes.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• The project team reviewed best practices, surveyed the current initiatives/programming across UIC that cater toward LatinX student success, and made recommendations for action to ensure the improvement of retention and graduation of LatinX students.
• A campus priority for doubling the Bridge to Faculty program, aiming to diversify UIC campus by hiring postdocs for two years with the goal to transition them to faculty.
• A campus priority for significantly increasing the number of hires of minority faculty;
• Recognition of diversity, equity and inclusion in the faculty promotion and tenure process, as the result of an approved proposal introduced by the Vice Provosts for Faculty and Diversity.
• Cluster Initiative to Increase Diversity and the Interdisciplinary Culture at UIC.
• Availability of scholarships and grants for various student populations in need, in particular, LatinX students.

IN PROCESS OF IMPLEMENTATION

• Creation of a Faculty Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award, as an additional measure to recognize and reward exceptional efforts in this area.
• Creation of a position to strengthen UIC’s efforts to be a Hispanic-Serving Institution.
• Creation of HSI website for UIC.
• Implementation of a comprehensive financial literacy tool for students and parents.
• URM Student mentoring programs, either in the form of a pilot or an established program such as L@S GANS.
• Designing and creating search committee training for staff positions and a campus-wide orientation for staff.

More information can be found on the project website.

PURPOSE

To support undergraduate student success toward earning 30 credit hours in their first year by “mainstreaming” students who were placed into English 071, a non-credit-bearing preparatory writing course, into English 160, the first of two credit-bearing courses in the First-Year Writing sequence. This would move the students through the First-Year Writing requirements more quickly, and connect with campus support services.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• The project team coordinated additional support for the participating students through a 1-hour co-requisite workshop called English 159: Academic Writing Workshop.
• From 2016 through 2020, a total of 452 students have taken ENGL 159 as a co-requisite with ENGL 160, without needing to take ENGL 071 as a prerequisite, thus saving them one full semester of non-credit-bearing preparatory coursework.
• The students who take ENGL 159 have passed ENGL 160 that Fall semester at virtually the same rate as the general student population who place directly into ENGL 160.
• Students who take ENGL 159 report greater confidence in their academic writing ability, as well as their ability to succeed as college students in general.
• The ENGL 159 co-requisite workshop has been adopted by the UIC Global international pathways program, to provide supplemental coursework for their students who take ENGL 160.

More information can be found on the project website.

PURPOSE

To provide individual student information to college and support unit advisors to help them advise their students in the most holistic manner and intervene as necessary and as early as possible.

PURPOSE

To provide a single portal for the majority of UIC scholarships, simplify the process of searching for scholarships for students, and promote easier access to these awards.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• The project team launched SnAP!, a system that allows for searching and filtering of scholarships, while offering a single application platform for all UIC scholarships, thereby, reducing student confusion by adapting their application materials between different systems (e.g. Qualtrics, Webtools, PDFs, etc.)
• Automating communications to students at each stage of the scholarship application, awarding, acceptance, and donor thanking.
• Providing training and support for administrators of scholarships, ultimately reducing the time they spend on these processes and freeing them for other work that supports students.
• Creating an additional avenue for the Graduate College, the College of Medicine, and select units to promote external scholarships to students.
• Transitioning the management of SnAP! to the Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships in Fall 2017.

More information can be found on the project website.

PURPOSE

To establish an effective process for capturing and connecting the students in high need (e.g., home and food insecurity) to the appropriate resources of support in UIC.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

PURPOSE

To support students’ progress to degree by enhancing the policies and practices related to probation.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

PURPOSE

To identify challenges that transfer students face at UIC, and propose recommendations for action that aim to significantly increase the success of transfer students.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS