FAMU intends to focus on six key areas to improve student success and outcomes. The areas targeted for improvement are: 1) four-year graduation rate; 2) retention and academic progress; 3) bachelor’s and graduate degrees awarded in areas of strategic emphasis; 4) post-graduate outcomes; 5) bachelor’s degrees awarded without excess credit hours; and 6) degrees awarded to Florida Community College AA graduates.
The University will invest up to $4.3 million by March 2020 to hire more academic coaches, academic advisors, mental health counselors, career counselors, and SLS instructors. The goal is to boost the 4-year graduation rate from 22.4% (2019) to 40% by 2022, increase second year retention, with a GPA above 2.0, from 71.3% (2019) to 85% by 2022, and increase the median first-year wage of graduates from $31,600 to $37,400 by 2022.
The University believes that by adopting a “case management” approach and placing more emphasis on first-year students these goals can be achieved.
FAMU received $13.7 million in performance based funding this year, which likely allows them to reinvest a portion of that money for continued improvement. The six new areas FAMU intends to focus on will be in addition to the student success initiatives already underway --- academic recovery strike team; intrusive advising, early alert, and predictive analytics; and technology-based attendance tracking.
The additional efforts are designed to help students, cope, and navigate the many complex maze of higher education and many competing demands on student’s time, reduce wasted credits (when students change majors), various life issues, lack of a sense of belonging, transportation issues, childcare issues, work and family responsibilities and earn a degree faster and with less debt.