Goal 1: Enhancing Student Learning and Success

Core Curriculum See Goal 1 KPIs C and R

The fifth year of the core curriculum was one of recognition and transition. The collective work of crafting, implementing and assessing the core was robustly commended by the external reviewers as part of USD’s reaffirmation of accreditation with WSCUC. As an example, the role of the core’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (DISJ) area of inquiry was noted as integral to promoting greater DISJ initiatives throughout the campus community. In addition, the Critical Thinking and Information Literacy Task Force 2.0 created recommendations for revision to be presented to the Core Curriculum Committee in the 2022-23 academic year. The Committee looks forward to continuing its work and faculty often present USD’s best practices in general education at regional and national conferences.

Academic Program Review See Goal 1 KPI S

Progress on completing academic program reviews (APRs) for all programs continued this year, with many external reviews playing catchup after the pandemic. The policy and process for academic program review at USD has gained dynamic, participatory momentum over the past decade as an authentic opportunity to improve. Having said this, some programs at USD that are professionally accredited have not been though USD’s APR process. In March 2022, USD’s accreditor, WSCUC, recommended that USD focus on ensuring these accredited programs go through the internal APR process in a timely manner, particularly for the long-term plan and MOU benefits. WSCUC also recommends implementing a process for aligning core, program and institutional outcomes. The University Assessment Committee, among other stakeholders, will discuss this recommendation next year to assure continuous improvement for every program. Academic Plan See Goal 1 KPI A and M

In 2021-22, the Provost’s Office completed the second stage of the USD Academic Plan. In this stage, the deans presented the priorities of the Academic Plan to stakeholders in their units with the goal of articulating actions that are being developed or will be developed in the next three years (2022-2025) in alignment with the priorities. The proposed actions and their expected outcomes were discussed by the Dean’s Council. This process has increased a shared understanding of the work happening across units, which will lead to greater synergies and collaborations. In addition, the academic units proposed a series of concrete initiatives to the Provost’s Office in the areas of DEI, interdisciplinary initiatives and centers, program innovation, scholarship recognition and communication, faculty excellence and accountability processes.

Enrollment Plan and Torero Promise See Goal 1 KPIs D, G, H and I

This year, USD made steady progress toward our strategic enrollment goals. USD added two schools to the Torero Promise, bringing the total to 10 Catholic schools across San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. In Fall 2022, USD has over 100 students planning to enroll from these schools and 80% of them are Catholic, 81% are students of color and 40% are first-generation college students. Another objective of the enrollment plan is the implementation of the test-blind admissions policy, now in its second year. A committee continues to review the cohorts of students who were admitted before and after this policy to ensure similar rates of academic success, and USD will continue this policy until at least 2023. Despite national trends showing a decline in transfer students, USD has strong transfer applicant pools and has made progress on several transfer initiatives. USD completed its redesign on notifying students of their transfer credits earlier in the admissions process and continues to

strengthen its partnership with the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD). In fact, as an example of that partnership, we launched the Constance Carroll Trailblazer Scholarship program in honor of our former Board of Trustee member and retired Chancellor of the SDCCD. USD also has a record number of deposits from international students for Fall 2022, helping us refocus our goal of expanding our global reach. USD also made strides in becoming a model program for our veteran and military connected students. Our innovative ROTC Prep Program will be welcoming its second cohort of future cadets to campus this fall, and the university formed a task force to make recommendations on how USD can become a Military Center of Excellence.

Torero Gateway: Expanding Concurrent Enrollment Opportunities (SIG) See SIG Assessment Plan

This initiative seeks to leverage and enhance the relationships USD has been developing with community-based organizations (CBOs) (such as Ocean Discovery Institute, MANA Hermanitas, Reality Changers, Urban League Project Ready, Barrio Logan College Institute, Kearny High School-USD Upward Bound, High Tech High Elevate, etc.) to enroll 100 students from local high schools and community colleges each semester into USD’s dual enrollment (DE) program. The initiative funding allows USD to provide textbooks, other class materials, and cover transportation costs that often are barriers for these students. Additionally, the initiative will develop a campus support network of faculty, current students and staff who will guide and advise these students during their semester. The goal is to develop a program where students who participate in the Concurrent Enrollment program and attend USD eventually become mentors for students coming from the same organizations and local communities. By expanding USD’s dual enrollment program to this level, the initiative hopes to begin seeing more local students consider USD for their college choice. In addition, USD will further advance its reputation as an anchor partner among local high schools. In Fall 2021, we had 35 students participate in our DE program, 69% of whom were students of color. These students represented 11 different high schools (six public, two Torero Promise schools and 27 charter schools). The High-Tech High cluster of schools was the largest participant. For Spring 2022, we had 81 students participate. A big part of the increase was the initiative launched by Dr. Perla Myers to host a concurrent enrollment class at Hoover High School. Of the 59 who took their class at USD, 73% were students of color and they represented 15 high schools and three CBOs. While many of these students were only juniors, we had our first USD enrollee for Fall 2022; they participated in the program, applied to USD and have committed to attend. Retention and Student Success See Goal 1 KPIs F and J-L

The Faculty Alert Outreach system, which allows faculty to proactively connect students who are struggling in their class(es) to the appropriate resources and offices, was continued this year. Online platforms were used again over the summer to provide incoming students and families with earlier online onboarding experiences related to wellness, belonging and academic success. Incoming first-year students had the opportunity to participate in the Pandemic Times class, The Story of Now, which was offered over the summer to engage students academically prior to the start of the semester. The Fall 2021 to Spring 2022 retention was 95.9%. One highlight of this retention data is that there was 100% retention of Black students. The Fall 2021 cohort of students were admitted to USD test blind and with the test blind admittance, there was 100% implementation of both the writing and math assessments to ensure the correct placement of incoming students into the appropriate first-year writing and math courses. There do appear to be gaps in the Fall 2021 cohort’s preparation for their academics, particularly in math, and that is due primarily to the pandemic disruption caused during their junior and senior years of high school. One of the initiatives that is being finalized for Summer 2022 is the development of workshops for incoming first-year students wanting help in developing their math and writing skills, and these will be offered alongside the Pandemic Times class. One of the other goals of the Student Success Committee this past year was to examine the tutoring support services currently available to students and to identify additional services that might be needed to support students academically. The committee partnered with the Institutional Research and Planning office to identify academic disciplines where there are the highest levels of DFW grades and started working with these academic departments to find ways in which to better support students to ensure academic success. The two Student Success Summits organized by the Committee this past year focused on engaging the campus community on discussions around the Horizon Project and one of its goals of USD becoming an HSI. Specifically, participants were asked to consider how their office/unit/team could better serve Hispanic students and other underrepresented students and think of ways in which to act on these ideas.

National Fellowships and Prestigious Student Awards (SIG) See SIG Assessment Plan

The purpose of the National Fellowships strategic initiative project was to implement a faculty team approach to better support USD students in their applications to national fellowships such as Rhodes, Goldwater, Marshall, Truman, etc. A faculty support team was created and is still active. In Fall 2021, one student applied to Marshall, one applied to Rhodes, six applied to Fulbright, two applied to Critical Language Scholarship, one applied to Gaither, one applied to CHCI, one applied to PPIA and three applied to Goldwater. Dr. Karen Shelby was offered a position as a full-time director of national fellowships and she will continue the efforts of the Fellowships Advising Team. Dr. Shelby will continue outreach efforts by reaching out to rising juniors and inviting them to the National Fellowships Opportunity Workshop in the fall and the Fellowships Writing Workshop in the spring. Those interested in applying the following fall will receive applicant support over the summer. The Fellowships Advising Team this year participated in the virtual National Association of Fellowship Advisors, learning best practices in the area of supporting students in their application for national scholarships and fellowships. The team continued efforts from last year by visiting advising meetings for students in the Honors Program at every stage (first, second, third and fourth years). The team also continued to stay in communication with the LLC director, Career Development Center, the Registrar’s Office, the Office of Undergraduate Research and other units on campus to identify students that may benefit from this opportunity.

Enhance Postgraduation Opportunities See Goal 1 KPIs B and N-Q

The Career Development Center (CDev) enhances postgraduation opportunities for students by providing high-touch career guidance with virtual and in-person engagements. CDev hosted Torero Trek company visits to 29 organizations, including the San Diego Padres, Microsoft and the Wall Street Journal, offering students insights into working with these businesses and potential career paths. CDev further facilitated Torero career exploration and networking opportunities by connecting students with 200+ actively hiring companies across four career fairs this year. USD’s online networking and mentorship site, Torero Employer and Alumni Mentors (TEAM), now has more than 6000 Torero accounts and embodies experiential learning by enabling USD students to develop key communication and relationship-building skills needed to thrive in the professional world. CDev continues to develop events and offer students lifetime career services even after they graduate; in 2021-22, in partnership with the USD Alumni Association, 20 virtual career and industry-based networking events were attended by over 900 students and alumni. In addition, CDev provided a total of 560 coaching sessions to support new graduates and alumni with their job search and career planning.

One Stop Student Center See Goal 1 KPI T

This year, One Stop Student Center (OSSC) staff were excited to welcome students back for in-person service. OSSC staff continued to work on implementing recommendations from the One Stop Steering Committee. This included realigning registration time slots with business hours and turning off course waitlist notifications during weekends and holidays to increase student access to resources when they need them the most. To further increase student support, OSSC implemented a phone appointment system through Calendly for new and existing students and added a temporary OSSC counselor who is fluent in Spanish. This has led to reduced student wait times and additional access for Spanish-speaking students and families. As OSSC looks ahead to next year, the office is excited to partner with an OSSC consultant who will help us continue the work of the One Stop Steering Committee, utilizing best practices in this area.

Alumni Relations See Goal 1 KPI E

This year, the USD Alumni Association engaged more than 20% of USD’s 75,000 alumni, an increase from 18% at the end of the last academic year. This figure — the alumni engagement metric (AEM) — comes from national standards set by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. The AEM measures alumni engagement through communication, volunteerism, philanthropy and event participation. This engagement was accomplished through more than 250 virtual and in-person programs including alumni spotlights, a speaker series, and networking and wellness events. Alumni were kept apprised on everything-USD through the deployment of millions of customized emails and entertained with storytelling podcasts and social events. The Alumni Association offers many ways for USD graduates to remain in touch with, be advocates for, and support their alma mater. Through partnerships across campus, the Alumni Association worked to support its mission: to engage and enrich the Torero community for life.