SG Update 1/24

Student Success

Ellen Granberg, provost and senior vice president of Student Affairs, provided the Student Government (SG) Senate with a student success update. The goal she laid out looks to improve the six-year graduation rate from 70 percent to 78 percent by 2025. The six-year graduation rate is the proportion of incoming freshmen that leave that university with a degree within six years. Based on the quality of students, the university would expect a six-year graduation rate of around 78 percent. RIT knows what its students can accomplish, and this goal will help students get there.

RIT desires to improve students' experiences at RIT. They try to increase student success through a variety of means. The Student Success Committee promotes cross-college communication; the DWF Committee looks at core freshmen and sophomore gateway courses in many majors that have high rates of D's, W's and F's. However, each college examines its own grade distributions to make changes accordingly. With all the data RIT has at its fingertips, they created statistical models to find indicators that can lead to academic failure. Being trialed in select majors is a program for advisers to steer students back on track before falling off.

SG expressed the importance of letting incoming students know about the academic success programs on campus before they arrive. SG believes that colleges should be better at communicating the opportunities available to students. One useful program cited was CodeZero. CodeZero aims to get incoming B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences students on the same level as their peers regarding programming experience.

SG communicated concerns that there was an inconsistency in the quality of academic advising. As a response, Granberg mentioned the recent efforts to standardize the training of academic advisers. She cited the University Advising Office as a central advising authority for the university.

Accessibility

Jennifer Horak, Student Activities coordinator, gave a presentation about requesting interpreting services for student activities on campus. Horak wants to dispel any misconceptions and demystify the processes behind the scenes. 

The planners of the event, as well as the hopeful attendees, should request interpreting services when the need is known. Additional people requesting interpreting services can never hurt the chances of the event receiving interpreting services.

To make a request, students can go to this link and sign in. Click on "Add new SR" to create a request and fill out the form accordingly. Make sure to add all of the known attendees that need interpreting services.

There are many different factors that contribute to requests not being fulfilled. Some requests aren't filled because they were filed too late; other times, the reason stems from the simultaneous demand for interpreting services.

Horak mentioned that there is the rumor of the "three-day rule" that guarantees interpreting services if requested three days in advance. No such policy exists. Horak said that the rumor came from misremembering a policy that said she could throw out requests if made within three days of an event. However, Horak sometimes can make arrangements for requests made within three days of the event. Horak wants to stress that interpreting services are never guaranteed; however, the earlier she knows, the more she can accommodate.

If you would like to request a specific interpreter, it is better to email Horak directly.

Charge Resolved

Bryan Gascon, director of Technology Services, recommends closing the ancient charge about University Identification Regulations and Security. There were sufficient reforms in the Information Security Policy (C08.1), and the Code of Conduct for Computer Use (C08.2). SG, in conjunction with Student Auxiliary Services, Public Safety and ITS, are working on virtual/electronic UID cards. They aim to achieve a balance between convenience and security.