CSUN Campus Actions to Facilitate Graduation

California State University, Northridge

Campus Actions to Facilitate Graduation

Fall 2005 Progress Report

In May 2005, the CSU Board of Trustees charged campus presidents and faculty with implementing a set of 22 actions designed to help students complete their bachelor’s degree requirements and graduate. This is the first in a series of periodic reports on our campus progress in implementing those actions. Readers may browse through the entire progress report or examine on-going work in specific areas by clicking on the appropriate links.

The CSU emphasis on fostering degree completion grew out of the work of a Task Force on Facilitating Graduation, co-chaired by Jacquelyn Kegley, then CSU Senate chair, and Louanne Kennedy, then provost of Cal State Northridge. For six months, the Task Force considered strategies for helping students make progress toward graduation; its report, "Facilitating Student Success in Achieving the Baccalaureate Degree," was presented to the CSU Board of Trustees in December 2002. At the Trustee' direction, CSU campuses then created plans for implementing key recommendations, including:

renewed emphasis on academic advising,
development of campus "road maps" detailing how courses required for each major can be effectively sequenced,
development of electronic "degree audits" allowing students to monitor their progress toward the baccalaureate regularly.

For additional information on the CSU initiative, see "Campus Actions to Facilitate Graduation" http://www.calstate.edu/AcadAff/cafg.shtml

Improving graduation rates has long been a priority at Cal State Northridge. In Spring 2001, President Jolene Koester appointed a Graduation Rates Task Force and charged it with making recommendations for improvement, which it did after 18 months of study and consultation. Since that time, several campus groups have been assigned the task of implementing specific recommendations. Many of the achievements noted in this report are the result of that work. For a summary of the major themes and initiatives, see President Koester’s transmittal letter, which accompanied the Fall 2005 report (cover letter).

December 2005 Progress Report

I. Efficiency in Academic Program Design

1. Reduction of Required Units in Programs Leading to the Baccalaureate Degree

2. Selective Reduction of Campus Graduation Requirements

II. Supporting Students in Choosing an Efficient Pathway to the Baccalaureate

3. Emphasis on Graduation in Orientation Sessions for New Students (FTF and FTT)

4. Strengthened Support for both General Education and Life/Career Goal Clarification for Lower-Division Students

5. Prominent Association of Career Outcomes with Degree Majors in Catalogs and Other Student Informational Materials and Resources

6. Choice of Degree Major Required at a Reasonable, Early Juncture

III. Tools to Keep Student on Efficient Pathways to the Baccalaureate

7. Wide Promulgation of Roadmaps to Degree in an Official, Centrally-Archived, Graphically Authoritative Format

8. Alignment of Class Schedules to Roadmaps