Student Success and ID Services
Ways Campus Card Office Support Student Success Beyond ID Services
Campus Card Offices “print pretty pictures on cards,” but card offices are far more important to daily operations on campus. Do you realize how your office can assist with student success and retention?
Campus Card Offices typically collect A LOT of information, and provide services that are far greater than issuing a campus credential. That credential is, or can be, used across campus in many locations. So, every time that credential is tapped, swiped, or waved at a reader, data is collected. This data is important to you for reconciling or providing a service to assist another department on campus, but it is much much more!
When Googling, “strategies to improve student retention,” the results for the top 10 strategies were as follows…
- Define Student Success
- Academic Support
- Financial Aid and Scholarships
- Social Integration
- Early Intervention
- Career Services
- Technology and Resources
- Mental Health Support
- Flexible Learning Options
- Feedback and Improvement
Additionally, according to the Ready Education website (12 Key Strategies to Improve Student Retention), “when considering student retention initiatives, higher education administrators often examine how a student is integrated into the campus community both academically and socially”. Still not seeing your impact? Read on…
They go on to say that Institutions can use data to track warning signs. “Collecting data on key indicators of students who may be struggling (such as poor attendance or not earning enough credits on time) is a good way to address low college student retention rates by gaining a deeper understanding of which students are most likely to drop out.
Pay attention to warning signs, configure automated alerts based on behavioral triggers that will inform you of a student’s persistence level, and assign tags or specific account types to target your retention efforts to specific students in your engagement platform (e.g., first generation, second year, transfer, academic probation).”
The Card Office data can help identify warning signs that a student may be struggling. For instance, if a student typically uses their meal plan two times a day, seven days a week, and then suddenly only eats one meal a day or misses several days a week, that could be a sign they aren’t eating properly or even on campus.
For instance, Sara Munds from the University of Illinois Springfield explains how her campus card office sends reports daily that track meal plan usage. Sara explains, “We send a report every week to our Associate Vice Chancellor for Auxiliary Programs and to our Executive Director of Strategy and Partnership who is in charge of Orientation that includes on campus meal plan usage for res halls. The report runs from 8:45 on Friday night through 12:00 pm on Sunday afternoon. It gives them an idea of who is staying on campus and they input it into a spreadsheet and compare to see if there’s anyone staying here a lot. In addition to that, we also send them a list of meal plan balances that haven’t been used so they can see if students are either not here or they can touch base to see what is going on to make the student not eat.”
Are you tracking attendance in classrooms and/or events? The use of attendance data can determine if students are involved, which is a direct correlation to matriculation. Are they attending classes and events? Have they stopped attending?
Rachel Harris from Montana Western has given a presentation at the NACCU Annual Conference explaining their Paw Prints for Success program. It is a fantastic program that offers rewards to students while assisting the University in tracking student progress and identifying at-risk students.
According to their website, https://www.umwestern.edu/bulldog-card/, “Paw Prints for Success is an incentive program for our University of Montana Western students. Paw Prints are earned by engaging in campus activities (both academic and extracurricular).
It’s easy to keep track of your Paw Prints because your Bulldog Card will be swiped at each of these events. The points will automatically be stored on your card and can be checked at any time through the Bulldog Card Center.
What can you buy with your Paw Prints? Nothing, because it’s more fun than that! At the end of every semester, students use their Paw Prints to bid at a live auction with great prizes like 50’’ TVs, Scholarships, Video-Game consoles, a free stay in the residence halls, and much more.
This makes staying engaged in student activities fun and rewarding. Every time you go to a football game, attend a workshop, or visit the tutors in the Learning Center you earn points, so before you know it, you’ll be rich in Paw Prints!”
Points are awarded based on the type of activity and range from 600 points for Academic events to 1000 points if the student makes the Dean’s list!
Door access is another big indicator of identifying “at-risk” students. Do you have a resident student who hasn’t used their credential to access their residence hall, or room, in several days? Maybe contact Housing and let them know to check on that student. Not going to class? Send a note to the Professor.
While any of this information may be helpful to identify specific issues, using the data collectively can paint a much bigger picture. Consider meeting with your IT or data collection staff and work together to use your card program data to identify students at risk. Use this data to partner with your campus Student Success office, the Registrar or other departments on campus.
Depending on your level of comfort with the technical side of your system, you could begin by tracking the information internally to see if your data would be useful. If your card program doesn’t have an easy way to track data, consider taking the Data Summit course offered by NACCU (shameless plug here). More information on the Data Summit can be found on the NACCU website (NACCU Data Summit - NACCU).
The Campus Card Office is far more mission-critical than just “printing pretty pictures on cards”. They hold key information that can help with finances, student success, and retention. You just have to know where to look and how to tie the information together.