Strategic Goal 1

There is a broad consensus that our future as a national university hinges on the establishment of a distinctive, JMU blend of liberal arts, research and professional education.

Objective 1

Create innovative academic programming and strengthen inclusive academic supports to encourage exploration, enhance student success and academic excellence, and prepare students to contribute to a dynamic society.

Subobjectives

1-1. Develop and sustain new, high quality academic offerings (majors, minors and certificates) at the undergraduate and graduate levels that meet commonwealth needs and serve student interests.

1-2. Ensure Academic Program Reviews (APR) align with stated learning outcomes and include plans for improvement.

1-3. Develop infrastructure, policies and expertise to provide a range of options for degree completion for undergraduate and graduate students, e.g. flexible scheduling, varieties of course modality.

1-4. Build a sustainable advising framework and systems that strengthen transfer student support, first-year transitions, and exploratory and pre-professional pathways.

1-5. Develop an Early Success / Early Alerts program to increase retention, engagement and degree completion for all students.

1-6. Develop comprehensive student mentoring, academic coaching and other academic supports for undergraduate and graduate students.

1-7. Expand internship, cooperative/early career and class offerings for undergraduate and graduate students to increase workforce readiness.

Action Items and KPIs
  1. New and revised academic offerings (majors, minors and certificates) will reflect the needs of the commonwealth and serve the interests of students. This will be explicitly referenced in curriculum proposals and used as a lens in the evaluation of curriculum proposals. 

  2. In order to establish a benchmark for evaluating the ability of the curriculum process to respond to commonwealth needs and student interests, Faculty Affairs and Curriculum will gather data on the median time it takes for a curriculum proposal to move from Provost review to Board of Visitors approval.

  3. Optimize the student to adviser ratio by college and program type measuring from a baseline of 2021-22.

Optimize the Student-to-Adviser Ratio by College
2020-2021 2021-2022 2022-2023
CAL 28:1 25:1 29:1
(Majors only)  18:1 19:1 21:1
CHBS 85:1 88:1 97:1
(Majors only) 80:1 83:1 93:1
CISE 93:1 106:1 103:1
(Majors only) 105:1 106:1 118:1
COB 557:1 734:1 652:1
(Majors only) 515:1 584:1 519:1
COE 503:1 543:1 692:1
(Majors only) 168:1 253:1 356:1
CSM 16:1 16:1 16:1
(Majors only) 14:1 12:1 13:1
CVPA 38:1 23:1 23:1
(Majors only) 26:1 18:1 19:1
HON 744:1 1049:1 596:1
PPH 678:1 729:1 729:1
SPC (Adult Degree) 255:1 322:1 398:1
UNST 93:1 74:1

Source: University Data

  1. Optimize the student to adviser ratio by advisor type (primary and faculty) measuring from a baseline of 2021-22.    

Optimize the Student-to-Adviser Ratio by Adviser Type
2020-2021 2021-2022 2022-2023
CAL
     Professional 145:1 165:1 196:1
     Faculty 25:1 23:1 26:1
CHBS
     Professional 464:1 470:1 535:1
     Faculty 58:1 49:1 56:1
CISE
     Professional 378:1 366:1 369:1
     Faculty 73:1 69:1 66:1
COB
     Professional 557:1 734:1 702:1
     Faculty 0 0 203:1
COE
     Professional 503:1 543:1 692:1
     Faculty 0 0 0
CSM
     Professional 187:1 182:1 166:1
     Faculty 14:1 14:1 15:1
CVPA
     Professional 0 0 0
     Faculty 38:1 23:1 23:1
HON
     Professional 744:1 1049:1 596:1
     Faculty 0 0 0
PPH
     Professional 628:1 729:1 729:1
     Faculty 0 0 0
SPC
     Professional 255:1 322:1 398:1
     Faculty 0 0 0
UNST
     Professional 188:1 168:1
     Faculty 16:1 18:1

Source: University Data

  1. Increase the first-year retention rate for all students and identified student groups measuring from a baseline of 2021-22. 

First-year Retention Rates
2020 2021
First-Time Freshman 4,452 90.8% 4,731 89.1%
Gender
     Female 2,652 92.3% 2,686 89.4%
     Male 1,753 89% 1,997 89%
     Other 0 0 7 85.7%
     Unkown/Prefer Not Report 0 0 33 93.9%
Race
     Asian 195 92.8% 227 86.8%
     Black or African American 209 91.9% 200 85%
     Hispanic 335 87.5% 334 86.8%
     International 14 92.9% 21 90.5%
     More than one 207 87.4% 252 85.3%
     Unreported 37 83.8% 74 86.5%
     White 3,398 91.5% 3,565 90.2%
Residence
     In-State 3,291 90.1% 4,327 88.7%
     Out-of-State 1,093 90.4% 1,041 86.8%
Pell Recipient
     Yes 607 88.8% 667 84.9%
     No 3,798 91.4% 4,683 89.2%
First Generation
     Yes 548 88.9% 515 83.3%
     No 3,857 91.3% 4,168 90%
     Unknown 47 72.3% 47 80.9%

Source: OIR Data

  1. Increase graduation rates for all students and identified student groups measuring from a baseline of 2021-22.

Six-year Graduation Rates
2014 2015 2016
First-Time Freshman 4,365 82.2% 4,412 81.6% 4,505 81%
Transfers 708 79.5% 676 82% 793 75.5%
Gender
     Female 2,675 84.8% 2,687 84.7% 2,724 84.3%
     Male 1,690 78.1% 1,725 76.7% 1,781 76.1%
Race
     Asian 215 79.1% 191 83.8% 203 82.8%
     Black or African American 191 71.7% 222 77% 232 78.4%
     Hispanic 253 83.8% 277 80.1% 276 77.9%
     International 64 101 71.3% 98 70.4%
     More Than One 169 79.9% 185 81.1% 189 76.2%
     White 3,298 83.3% 3,283 82.2% 3,426 82%
Residence
     In-State 3,112 82.8% 3,094 82.6% 3,265 82.2%
     Out-of-State 1,253 80.8% 1,318 79.2% 1,240 78.1%
Pell Recipients
     Yes 651 75% 591 77.8% 627 75.6%
     No 3,714 83.5% 3,821 82.2% 3,878 81.9%
First Generation Status
     Yes 613 77.7% 597 77.4% 611 76.8%
     No 3,752 83% 3,815 82.3% 3,894 81.7%

Source: OIR Data

  1. The Internship Task Force formed by the provost in Fall 2022 will support and guide the efforts of Academic Affairs to expand internship, cooperative/early career and class offerings that increase workforce readiness. Initial collaborative activities in the AY 2022-23 are expected to include: ​

    1. Defining activities that constitute “work-based experiential learning” resulting in workforce readiness, whether currently available or not. ​

    2. Developing and determining baseline measures of current JMU student engagement in each work-based experiential learning area by program and/or college. This will include: ​

      1. Pruning the current Hight Impact Practices (HIP) measures list used in the university Strategic Plan Performance Measures (as defined by AAC&U) and adding measures where necessary. ​

      2. Surveying institutional peers to learn about their methods of tracking and measurement. ​

    3. Develop approaches to enhance student reflection and metacognition on work-based experiential learning. ​ 

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