Recent graduates at commencement (SUNY Geneseo/Matt Burkhartt)
SUNY Geneseo has been selected to participate in the Strategic Prioritization for Student Success program, led by the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Higher Education and supported by the Gates Foundation. The initiative is offered in partnership with the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC).
This opportunity comes at an important time for Geneseo. As a member of COPLAC with a distinctive equity-centered liberal arts approach to education, the College is advancing its role as New York’s Public Honors College and implementing SUNY’s Academic Momentum Campaign. Through Strategic Prioritization for Student Success, Geneseo will leverage national expertise to boost student retention, foster academic momentum, and raise graduation rates.
The Gardner Institute will work closely with Geneseo in three key areas: providing in-depth analysis of student success data to reveal actionable insights, recommending targeted strategies likely to have the greatest impact, and supporting the creation of solutions designed to measurably improve student success and outcomes.
A primary benefit will be advancing equitable graduation outcomes across all student populations. The College will also continue efforts to strengthen enrollment and support students throughout their academic journeys.
“SUNY Geneseo leads the SUNY comprehensive colleges in student outcomes, and we are committed to ensuring that every student achieves success,” says Mary C. Toale, SUNY Geneseo provost and vice president of academic affairs. “The Gardner Institute partnership provides the strategic framework we need to advance equitable outcomes as we implement our Academic Momentum Campaign. This collaboration will help us analyze our data more deeply, prioritize our most impactful interventions, and accelerate progress toward closing achievement gaps. We are grateful for this opportunity to strengthen our capacity for evidence-based decision making in service of student success.”
“My Gardner Institute colleagues and I are honored and excited to partner with SUNY Geneseo and COPLAC in this important work,” says Andrew (Drew) Koch, chief executive officer of the Gardner Institute. “Our experience—supported by external evaluation of our work—shows that programs, while necessary, are not enough on their own to produce lasting gains in student learning and success. Institutions make the greatest progress when they develop and implement a comprehensive plan for student success. This effort will help SUNY Geneseo bring together strong existing work into a more coherent whole, informed by the Institutional Transformation Assessment and the collective wisdom and contextual knowledge of its faculty and staff.”
The Strategic Prioritization for Student Success initiative closely aligns with Geneseo’s Strategic Plan 2022–27, supporting goals such as broadening access, enriching the student experience, improving student outcomes, and strengthening infrastructure. Additionally, it builds lasting capacity for data-informed decision-making across campus by providing tools and processes that support evidence-based strategies.
Work on the initiative is already underway, with Geneseo teams partnering with the Gardner Institute this spring. The effort, co-led by Toale and Michael Taberski, Geneseo’s vice president of student and campus life, will bring together colleagues from across the College, reflecting a shared commitment to student success.
Author
Monique Patenaude, PhD
Executive Director of Content Strategy & Media Relations