Fresh From The UIA

This year’s Hispanic Heritage Month marks the 25th anniversary of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. To celebrate, the White House has recognized institutions that serve as benchmark programs of innovation and effectiveness for increasing college participation and completion rates for Latina and Latino students. Take a look at the innovative programs four UIA universities are being recognized for—these could end up on other UIA campuses soon!

PORTLAND, OR, September 21, 2015 – Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced that the University Innovation Alliance (UIA) and Georgia State University were selected as one of the winners in its First in the World competition to encourage innovation among institutions of higher education. The UIA has been awarded $8.9 million to conduct a four-year research study on its 11 member campuses to evaluate the effectiveness of advising in increasing retention, progression, and graduation rates for low-income and first-generation students.

The University Innovation Alliance launched one year ago this month, and the progress in our first year has surpassed our expectations. We’ve sparked a national conversation challenging the existing values system in higher education. We’ve advanced new ways to incentivize collaboration and reward institutions for innovation that demonstrably improves outcomes for all students. And we’ve educated the higher education community, policymakers, and the broader public about the hard work needed to uncover new solutions that advance student opportunity.

Buzz is building about the transformational changes taking place on University Innovation Alliance campuses. Last week, four UIA members were recognized as the most innovative universities in the country by U.S. News & World Report in its 2016 America’s Best Colleges guide. For the first time ever, U.S. News asked university presidents, provosts, and admissions deans around the nation to select the institutions they credit with trying new approaches to improving success for both students and faculty.

Arizona State University, Georgia State University, University of Central Florida, and Purdue University acknowledged for new approaches that support student success
PORTLAND, OR, September 9, 2015–U.S. News & World Report announced, today, that four University Innovation Alliance member institutions have been named among the nation’s most innovative institutions: Arizona State University (#1), Georgia State University (#5), University of Central Florida (#13), and Purdue University (#21).

Last week, Dr. Tim Renick, Georgia State University Vice Provost and Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Success, testified before the U.S. Senate HELP committee, sharing about the success of Georgia State University in its work to eliminate race and income as a predictors of student outcomes.

Since the launch of the University Innovation Alliance in September 2014, we’ve been busy embarking on the first phase of our journey towards increasing graduation rates among low-income students. As part of our commitment to graduate 68,000 additional students by 2025,  UIA members will scale predictive analytics-based interventions that have been successful on three member campuses—Georgia State University, Arizona State University, and the University of Texas at Austin.

While much of the current conversation in higher education is focused toward what college and university presidents need to do differently to prepare for the future, there is not nearly enough focus on the value system imposed upon them or on how the rest of us in higher education can help them to be successful.

Kim A. Wilcox is Chancellor of the University of California, Riverside. Edward J. Ray is President of Oregon State University.

On college and university campuses across the United States, we're surrounded by a resource that leads to discovery, innovation, and growth—yet we don't embrace it at the leadership level. That resource? Failure.