In 2018, when Dr. Tim Renick took on the role of senior vice president for student success at Georgia State University (GSU), the university’s demographics were rapidly changing. Historically, GSU had been a predominantly white institution (PWI).
Dr. Tim Renick
In the early aughts, Renick says, it was standard practice for student support programs to address equity gaps and low graduation or retention numbers through the creation of targeted programs, like initiatives for first-generation students, and African American male initiatives.
But part of the challenge, he says, “is that 80% of our students self-identified as having minoritized backgrounds, and 60% were Pell students. It seemed like everybody needed a targeted program.”
Renick says that given the limited resources, Georgia State started to think of new and innovative ways to address the needs systematically for all students. Renick knew GSU did not have enough academic advisors to give their roughly 50,000 undergraduate students the kind of support and attention that might be found at a more resourced institution with more staff. In 2012, he says he realized he could use modern technology to amplify the support structures and staff they did have in place.
“The idea was, rather than waiting for students to self-identify their own problems and come to an advisor, let’s try to equip advisors with information on which students are struggling, so [the advisors] can target daily efforts where it would make the biggest difference,” says Renick. “The moment to really intervene is as soon as it happens. Let the advisors know the moment the student withdraws, and the next day, have the advisor reach out.”
GSU began relying on predictive data to proactively assist students. GSU’s student support team created a system of automatic micro-grants, which would be auto distributed to students in need. Over the last decade, the program has given out roughly 20,000 grants and has become a national model.
