Georgia State University Vice President Dr. Tim Renick recognized for commitment to sharing university’s experience using predictive analytics to improve student success rates.
Columbus, Ohio, October 10, 2015 – The University Innovation Alliance (UIA) announced, today, the establishment of the Award for National Leadership in Student Success, Innovation, and Collaboration. Dr. Timothy Renick, Vice Provost and Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Success at Georgia State University, has received the inaugural award for his commitment to sharing Georgia State’s experience in developing and implementing its successful predictive analytics and student advising model.
The Award for National Leadership in Student Success, Innovation, and Collaboration was created to recognize university leaders for their exceptional efforts to develop and share innovations that improve outcomes for socioeconomically diverse students. The award will be given annually to one national leader in higher education.
“Dr. Renick has been a driving force behind the UIA’s work to develop, scale, and share innovations that improve success rates for students across the socioeconomic spectrum,” said UIA executive director Bridget Burns. “We are very excited to launch this award, and believe Dr. Renick is a great exemplar of the kind of work our 11 member institutions want to encourage. He has been incredibly generous and willing to share details, steps, and insights with campuses across the country. The result is more innovation, and better outcomes for students.”
By analyzing student-specific data and launching proactive student advising interventions for students at risk of going off track, Georgia State has raised retention and completion levels for first-generation and low-income students. As a result, Georgia State has eliminated the gap in graduation rates between low-income and minority students and the rest of its student body.
In addition to his leadership within the UIA, Dr. Renick has been an exceptional ambassador within the national higher education community. Over the past year, he has testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions, and spoken at the White House College Opportunity Day of Action. Dr. Renick also designed and led the UIA’s successful application for a First in the World grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant will fund a four-year research study on the UIA’s 11 member campuses to evaluate the effectiveness of advising in increasing retention, progression, and graduation rates for low-income and first-generation students.
"I am honored to be the inaugural recipient of this award,” Dr. Renick said. “Collaboration is the key to improving graduation rates at our individual universities and nationally. We have tried to work in isolation for too long. We need to share insights, data, and innovations if we are going make significant gains in the number of Americans with quality college degrees."
The UIA was launched to identify student success innovations and scale and share these innovations so that more students across the socioeconomic spectrum earn meaningful degrees. The UIA aims to develop a self-replicating model of innovation transfer by which universities working together can share lessons in group settings and then apply successful models to address challenges on their own campuses.
“In higher education, what gets rewarded is what gets done,” Burns said. “We need to reward universities that promote collaboration and serve more socioeconomically diverse students, not those that guard their exclusivity by turning students away. Universities should earn accolades for welcoming more students from underserved backgrounds and providing the guidance they need to navigate their way to graduation.”
About the University Innovation Alliance
Launched one year ago, the UIA is a consortium of public research universities established to help more students from all socioeconomic backgrounds graduate from college. This year, all institutions are implementing or scaling the use of data analytics and advising to improve student retention and college completion.
The University Innovation Alliance includes:
- Arizona State University
- Georgia State University
- Michigan State University
- Iowa State University
- Ohio State University
- Oregon State University
- Purdue University
- University of California, Riverside
- University of Central Florida
- University of Kansas
- University of Texas at Austin