by Steven P. Girardot, Ph.D. on
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During the last month, I’ve had the opportunity to share highlights and reflections of the work that we have collectively accomplished over the past academic year here in the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE). A copy of the slides I shared at the Education and Learning town hall are here (link to PDF) (thank you, Cory for the great work on these slides!).  

I could not be prouder of the hard work and accomplishments of this division, particularly as many of us have worked (and are still working) through various stages of staff transition and organizational change. As we quickly pivot into the summer and start welcoming a whole new class of first-year and transfer students, I want to be sure to pause and take a moment to celebrate success of this past year- ensuring that “students are our top priority.” 

Here are some of the updates, and I want to thank our OUE Senior Leadership team for working to pull this information together. Before I close, I want to mention the various ways to connect with me during the summer. Please join me for coffee, lunch, or my office hours. I’d love to hear what you are up to and how I can support you. Happy Summer! 

Best,
Steven

People

new staff

New Leadership & New Roles

  • OUE has posted 54 open positions across the past year, hired 31 employees, offboarded 17, and currently have 15 open searches (9 in final interview/final offer stage). 
  • Dr. Joyelle Harris joins OUE as their inaugural Director of DEI Initiatives in Undergraduate Education 
  • Dr. Chris Reaves was selected as assistant vice provost for Undergraduate Education 
  • Dr. Lorett Swank has been hired as the inaugural executive director of Academic Success & Advising 
  • Jo Beth Cup has been hired as the inaugural senior director of Strategic Initiatives & Operations 
  • Anna Holcomb has been hired as the director of Retention & Completion Initiatives 
  • Dr. Shannon Dobranski Selected as Faculty Director for FYSA@Oxford Program 
  • Dr. Beth Spencer named as permanent Learning Support Coordinator 
  • Dr. Catherine Thomas was hired as the new Associate Director of Undergraduate Transition Seminars 
  • Laura Garcia will now serve as the Director of Undergraduate Career Education, Career Center
  • Exploratory advising has been launched with 2 Academic Program Managers (Devoni Williams & Emmie Cass)

Student Award Winners 

 
Awards 

  • Dr. Roberta Berry received 2023 Dean’s Appreciation Award for her contributions to the Ivan Allen College and Georgia Tech 
  • Dr. Charmaine Troy awarded Georgia Tech 2023 Putting Students First Award 
  • Francisco Castelan awarded 2023 Spirit of Georgia Tech Award 
  • Camille Liverpool received the 2023 Buzz Award for Spirit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts 

Points of Pride

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Academic Success & Advising

  • Pre-Graduate & Pre-Professional Advising
    • 5 Goldwater Recipients
      • 24 Fellowship Recipients since last SVP-EL town hall (May 2022)
    • Hosted second annual Virtual Graduate School Showcase in partnership with Graduate Education (1,101 student registrations and 95 schools attended)
  • First-Generation & Limited Income Student Initiatives
    • Georgia Tech Alumna, Cecili Poole, Donates $75,000 to Support First-Generation Students 
    • Georgia Tech hosts First-Generation College Institute at Savannah Campus 
    • First-Gen Jackets Peer Mentoring Program: 210 mentees and 82 mentors 
  • Tutoring & Academic Support 
    • In AY23, 5,940 students have engaged with TAS programming in 35,546 visits 
    • Expanded services with a new app-based product, Knack, which matches students with a GT tutor in a user-friendly format.
    • Added new courses and faculty to their PLUS and Learning Assistant programs 
  •  Undergraduate Advising & Transition 
    • Exploratory Advising: The new advisors opened their availability to students at the end of January. Since then, they have had ~135 appointments (through April 15) 

 Career Center 

  • The Princeton Review released its 2023 rankings for Best Value Colleges, and Georgia Tech ranked #1 for career placement (again) and #6 for internships 
    • These rankings complement the #5 Co-op/Internships ranking received in 2023 from US News 
  • Programming expanded to now reach +14,000 students (223% increase over AY20) with 31 diversity-focused programs this year 
  • Fall 2022 undergraduate internships increased 10% over previous year

High-Impact Learning Initiatives

Honors Program

  • Associate Director Amy D’Unger, in collaboration with academic units, increases AY 22-23 class offerings to a record number of 61
    • an increase of 27% over AY22 and 33% over AY21

 Serve-Learn-Sustain

  • RCE Greater Atlanta SDG Futures Fellowship Program 
    • 26 student fellows, representing 8 higher-ed institutions across the Atlanta Region; 6 student team-led partner projects 

Planning Ahead

Clough Renovation

  • Completed initial renovation planning phase of the Clough OUE space, with construction phase projected to begin July/August 2023

Quality Enhancement Plan 

  • Topics: Transformative Academic Advising, Leadership in Progress and Service: Creating Intentional and Transformative Learning Experiences, and Transformative Teaching through Experiential Learning 

Georgia Legislative Requirements 

  • All Georgia Tech undergraduate students must satisfy four GLRs to graduate 

OUE Communications Planning

  • Developing a more robust communications strategy for OUE as a whole
    • To be implemented in Fall 2023
  • Currently working with consulting group, Modo Modo, to develop new strategies for communicating on campus
    • Their findings will help inform our strategies moving forward

OUE Strategic Alignment Planning begins June 1, 2023 - 2030

  • Developing a strategic alignment plan, to inform aligning the work of OUE with the ISP and the emerging needs of undergraduate students
  • The ISP includes values, a vision, performance indicators, and five focus areas; all of which have Specific implications for the future work of OUE
  • The planning should focus on changes in OUE practices that will be required to implement the ISP and meet the evolving needs of OUE’s customers
  • Will include an embedded organizational assessment report regarding the newly assembled Academic Success and Advisement unit within OUE with recommendations for organizational restructuring and/or realignment, programmatic priorities, and areas for further team building, change management, and professional development

4-Year Graduation Rate Analysis

  • In progress: creation of OUE working committee focused on 4-year graduation rate analysis and streamlining efforts to identify and implement strategies re: improving 4-year grad rates

Career Center & Graduate Career Development Services Integration Study

  • A study initiated with Georgia Tech Strategic Consulting (GTSC), Graduate Career Development, and the Career Center named “The Career Center and Graduate Career Development Services Integration”
  • The project is now complete. Both reports from the study (Phase I and Phase II) were submitted and delivered.
  • The first phase provided recommendations on how best to address the vacant Assistant Director of Graduate Career Development role, and the second phase more broadly addressed the integration of graduate and undergraduate career services leadership

Serve-Learn-Sustain

  • The Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE), in collaboration with the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS), is excited to announce an institutionalization plan for Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) that will advance two of Georgia Tech’s Institute Strategic Plan (ISP) initiatives - Sustainability Next and Transformative Teaching and Learning (TTL) - and strengthen our service learning, community engagement, and sustainability ecosystems at Georgia Tech.

 

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