MARCH 16, 2023 — UTSA is one of five UT System schools that will receive a second round of funding to continue a project that will identify and resolve barriers to student success and degree completion, particularly among women and students from historically underrepresented and minority (URM) groups using real-time student and curricular data.
The university’s Equitable Student Pathways (ESP) project is part of a larger, UT System-wide student success initiative—Data Agency, Action, and Insight: Redesigning Student Pathways to Ensure Equity—made possible by the Lumina Foundation, an independent, private organization focused on post-secondary learning.
The first phase of funding began in January 2022, with each of the UT System’s eight universities designing projects to enhance data agency and equity-mindedness across their respective institutions.
Of these eight universities, five, including UTSA, were selected to receive the second round of funding for their projects.
UTSA’s ESP project aligns with the nearly two dozen university-wide initiatives created since 2018 to help the university reach its strategic destination of becoming a model for student success. It is also a continuation of the efforts made by the university’s Enabling Clear Pathways to Degree Completion Tactical Team, which was introduced in 2020 to promote a more centralized and standardized core curriculum to improve student degree progression and completion.
“Being chosen by the Lumina Foundation for a second phase of funding is a testament to the important work we’re doing to address barriers promoting timely graduation for all students,” said UTSA Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Kimberly Andrews Espy. “With this support, we can expand our successful approach to another college and evaluate options for institutional scale-up. This grant will expand our cross-functional teaming work to implement effective solutions that promote student success from admission to graduation across UTSA.”
UTSA’s ESP team analyzed student enrollment and demographic data from the last decade during phase one of the project. They examined how factors including race, ethnicity, gender, first-generation status and Pell grant eligibility impacted persistence, timely graduation and academic performance.
From this analysis, the team identified three majors—civil engineering, construction science and management, and environmental science—as having significantly lower rates of persistence and degrees awarded to URM students.
Using these three academic programs as a pilot, the UTSA team embarked on a multi-part strategy to address the equity gaps. The group built an institutional dashboard that reveals real-time student course enrollment, persistence and graduation data down to individual programs within the three majors.
“UTSA’s investment in these data dashboards was crucial in identifying hidden obstacles to success for our underrepresented students,” said Mark Appleford, UTSA’s ESP project lead and associate vice provost of undergraduate studies. “We’re now ready to take what we’ve learned into the next stage of this initiative and scale these tactics so they can be used campus-wide.”
The ESP team designed several strategies to improve student degree attainment, including:
The first phase of UTSA’s ESP project was led by a cross-campus team that incorporated faculty and administrators from the Student Success and Academic Innovation divisions within Academic Affairs. In addition to Appleford, team members included:
For phase two, the ESP team is shifting its focus to the Carlos Alvarez College of Business—which serves more than 6,000 undergraduate students—due to its high transfer and pre-major student populations. Using knowledge gained from phase one, they will target courses within the finance, accounting, and cyber and information systems degree programs. Working with Academic Innovation’s Office of Teaching, Learning and Digital Transformation, the team will modify and restructure the targeted courses to help alleviate existing gaps in persistence and degree attainment in those classes.
The primary goal of phase two, which is expected to conclude in July 2023, is to create a formalized, scalable system that will identify and decrease equity disparities within any degree program at UTSA.
In addition to analyzing real-time and historic information from UTSA’s data dashboards, the ESP team also used Civitas Learning, a tool that uses predictive analytics to detect at-risk students, or those who are stagnant in a general studies program and not transitioning into major-specific coursework. This enabled the team to proactively identify students needing extra support and to provide them with targeted programs and services to help them progress through their studies.
In a related university initiative, Appleford also used Curricular Analytics to assist in the revision of core classes and undergraduate degree programs as part of UTSA’s partnership with the Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities. This open access software gives insight into how overall curriculum design—such as the structure and sequence of courses in a degree program—affects student outcomes.
Furthermore, the Curricular Analytics software can recommend data-informed curriculum improvements as well as personalized degree plans for different students.
“Our goal with this software is to figure out the appropriate complexity of degree pathways at UTSA,” Appleford said. “Curricular Analytics lets us simulate student progress in many different scenarios by rearranging prerequisites or changing the order in which courses are completed. All UTSA colleges will have access to this program as part of our long-term course catalog refresh, and it will serve as a critical tool in evaluating the most effective degree pathway design for our students.”
Over the last decade, UTSA has made tremendous strides improving key student success outcomes, including graduation rates and first-year student retention, by creating a data-informed ecosystem of student support across the institution. For example, Roadrunners now complete their degree in 4.3 years on average, compared to 5.4 years a decade ago. First-year student retention also improved to 80%, up from 64% in 2012.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
In partnership with Metro Health, HCAP will host a lecture discussing the life and body of work of Dr. Fernando Guerra, longtime director of the Metropolitan Health District.
Buena Vista Theater, Downtown CampusJoin our team to reflect on the students’ achievements and challenges during the semester and explore techniques, strategies, and tools to address growth mindset, self-reliance, and what it takes to keep students committed and on the path to success
Multidisciplinary Studies (MS 240) and VirtualThis course will introduce you to this popular graduate program, providing a review of UTSA’s Employee Educational Benefit program and MPA info. Free lunch will be provided!
Mesquite Living Lab, Main CampusDía en la Sombrilla, formerly Fiesta UTSA, is a festival hosted each spring as a part of Fiesta® San Antonio events. Sponsored by Roadrunner Productions, the event features music, food, confetti, games, event t-shirts, and more.
Sombrilla Plaza and Central Plaza , Main CampusFiesta Arts Fair is a party with a purpose! The annual art-focused fundraising celebration provides operating support for UTSA Arts, which is dedicated to community arts education for children and adults, public-facing performances and exhibitions, and arts-based research and partnerships to enhance the accessibility of the arts for the public.
UTSA Southwest, 300 Augusta, San Antonio TX 78205This year’s UEA ceremony will be an in-person event that will take place from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Tuesday, April 25 in the H-E-B Student Union Ballrooms (HSU 1.104/1.106) on the UTSA Main Campus. The ceremony will feature UTSA President Taylor Eighmy, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Kimberly Andrews Espy, Vice President for Inclusive Excellence Myron Anderson, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President for Business Affairs Veronica Salazar and representatives from Staff and Faculty Senate.
H-E-B Student Union Ballrooms (HSU 1.104/1.106), Main CampusSan Antonio’s treasured Asian Festival returns on Saturday, May 27, 2023, at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Downtown Campus. In observance of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month the one-day performance, entertainment, and food event will celebrate the diverse Asian diaspora represented in South Texas and San Antonio. Come and enjoy one of San Antonio’s premier family-friendly events, with hands-on activities and opportunities to learn through experience.
UTSA Downtown CampusThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to ending generations of discrimination and inequity. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.