UB joins national consortium dedicated to fostering student success

A pioneering consortium of U.S. public research universities dedicated to fostering student success among underrepresented, first-generation and disadvantaged students now counts UB as one of its 17 member campuses nationwide.

The University Innovation Alliance (UIA) invited UB to join its ranks last year. The UIA works to test and scale interventions for student success with the goal of increasing the number and diversity of college graduates in the United States.

Functioning as a multi-university laboratory, the UIA develops and disseminates proven measures to help member schools retain and graduate more students of color and more low-income students, as well as increase the numbers of those who are the first in their families to attend college. The organization has made impressive strides in meeting these goals since it was established in 2014: The 11 founding institutions saw a 29% increase in the total number of graduates; an 89% jump in graduates of color; and a 41% rise in the number of disadvantaged, or low-income, students since 2011-12, the baseline year established for this analysis.

UIA’s organizational model ensures that member institutions can share innovative ideas — not only for their individual campuses, but also for the benefit of the entire network, which includes leading public universities such as Purdue University, The Ohio State University and the University of California, Riverside.

Presidents and chancellors of UIA-affiliated institutions are represented on the UIA board of directors. According to UIA CEO Bridget Burns, who visited UB last April, these top leaders establish “the vision for the UIA, set it into motion and have supported it every step of the way.”

 President Satish K. Tripathi, who serves on the UIA board, says the consortium’s work will help advance UB’s mission of excellence.

“The University at Buffalo remains steadfast in our commitment to provide all students, including those from historically underrepresented backgrounds, with transformative educational experiences that prepare them to live and lead in a global world,” Tripathi says.

“At the same time, UB is deeply invested in developing innovative, research-based solutions that address societal challenges. Our membership in the University Innovation Alliance will greatly enhance these efforts and ensure that we continue to achieve greater societal impact.”

As part of its mission, UIA’s Learning Innovation Lab shares and develops structures, training and templates that member schools can implement on their own campuses. The UIA often secures grant funding to share these procedures and findings with the campuses. The measures might include tools or strategies institutions can use to identify bottlenecks to student success or help develop academic advisement methods especially attuned to ensure students stay on track after unsuccessful course experiences.

The association with UIA is already fostering support for student success at UB by extending or developing new programs. For example, UB was able to leverage funding through a UIA-obtained grant to support a new initiative, CULTURE (“Creating Undergraduate Learning Through Unity, Resources and Equity”). Housed in the Cora P. Maloney Center, CULTURE offers support to historically underserved and underrepresented students who are not affiliated with other campus support services or programs at the university. This new program supports implementation of recommendations of the UB President’s Advisory Council on Race.

In another UB initiative funded through support from UIA, two natural sciences faculty are working on a UIA “Learning Innovations” award to investigate improvements in STEM curricula and pedagogy. The two researchers, Benedikt Harrer, clinical associate professor of physics, and Lara Hutson, associate teaching professor of biological sciences, have been working on a landscape inventory of STEM courses offered at UB. Their eventual goal is to help improve student success in key science courses through innovative pedagogy.

UIA’s success relates to an organizational structure that represents each school at various leadership levels, in addition to the campus presidents’ roles. UIA liaisons, for example, are senior campus leaders who mentor, guide and supervise UIA fellows on each campus. Ann Bisantz, dean of undergraduate education, and Brian Hamluk, vice president for student life, are liaisons for UB.

Each campus, in turn, has a fellow who helps drive UIA’s collaborative work at their respective institutions by helping to implement grants and other projects, and generally fostering the campus connection with the UIA. Lindsey Hallman, director of academic initiatives in the Office of Undergraduate Education, and Samantha Smith, director of UB TrACE, serve as UB’s UIA fellows.

What are the primary advantages for UB in this new partnership with UIA? “Participating in UIA,” Bisantz says, “positions UB within universities nationwide that are committed to improving undergraduate student success and degree completion through innovation and transformational change.”

 “Student success and retention is a significant priority for us at the University at Buffalo,” adds Hamluk. “Membership in the University Innovation Alliance allows UB to enhance our work in this area through collaboration and knowledge-sharing with other institutions that are focused on these critical areas.

“This is a unique opportunity for us to realize both institutional benefits at UB, as well as collective impact across the higher education landscape.”

Hamluk and Bisantz meet monthly on Zoom with other UIA liaisons. Fellows meet biweekly; the two groups hold joint meetings two or three times yearly.

Such a concerted effort can yield rich results, Bisantz notes. “We are able to collaborate and lead together with these institutions and have a greater collective impact.”

A cohort of five university administrators attended the UIA National Summit on Student Success Innovation in late October in Tempe, Arizona, to continue to catalyze collaboration and innovation with UIA partner institutions.