Increasing inclusive student success is a complex challenge requiring a variety of responses, each of which is designed to address some specific barrier or barriers.  No one strategy is, by itself, a silver bullet that addresses all needs for all students; instead, our menu of responses is being designed to collectively cast the largest support net possible across the entire student body.

As we look to expanding our menu of responses, we feel it is timely to address two issues that have surfaced repeatedly as unmet needs: (a) all too often, the courses students need to enroll in in order to make timely progress to degree aren't offered the term they need them (we need a better way to predict course demand), and (b) all too often, students are unclear about what courses they need to take (we need a better way of presenting clear, individualized graduation roadmaps).  The Chancellor's Office is offering to help us pay for a software product that is designed to address both of these issues: uDirect.

To better understand if uDirect is a good fit for HSU, we have established a uDirect Steering Committee, chaired by Dean Ken Ayoob.  Other members of the Steering Committee are Cindy Moyer, Andrew Stubblefield, Dale Oliver, Steve Hackett, Vikash Lakhani, and Lisa Castellino.  The Committee will work together over the summer to gain a better understanding of how uDirect works, learn about the experiences other campuses have had with implementing uDirect, and determine what sort of policy and process issues may arise if we attempt to shape HSU's practices to get the best possible results from uDirect.  With the Committee's help and advice, a final decision will be made next fall about whether to proceed with deploying uDirect.  The Committee will continue to guide the project if we decide to proceed.

More information and dialog will be shared with campus in the fall, based upon what we learn this summer.

Jenny Zorn, PhD

Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs