More than 300 education leaders from 40 public and private institutions will gather March 30-31 to discuss ways to improve student success.
The annual Arkansas Student Success Symposium is a collaborative event between the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, Pulaski Technical College, and the University of Central Arkansas coordinated in conjunction with the Arkansas Student Success Collaborative. The symposium allows education leaders to combine ideas and efforts and work together to enhance student success.
The symposium will be held on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas.
“We’ve been able to provide the higher education community a unique opportunity to hear from eight nationally known and respected scholars,” said Larry Burns, symposium director. “Participants will learn from the best practitioners in their fields. The speakers will discuss first-generation students, transfer students, classroom instruction techniques, communicating general education goals and outcomes, and increasing student success.”
The key note speaker for this year’s symposium is Dr. George Kuh, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at Indiana University Bloomington. Kuh has more than 300 publications and made several hundred presentations on topics related to institutional improvement, college student engagement, assessment strategies, and campus cultures.
At Indiana University, Kuh served as chairperson of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, associate dean for Academic Affairs in the School of Education, and associate dean of the Faculties for the Bloomington campus. He currently directs two national projects — the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment with Stan Ikenberry at the University of Illinois and the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project, the first-ever in-depth look at the factors that help or hinder the careers of graduates of arts-intensive training high schools and post-secondary institutions.
Other speakers are Dr. John Gardner, president of the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education in North Carolina and executive director of the Policy Center on the First Year of College; Dr. Catherine Andersen, associate provost for enrollment at Gallaudet University in Washington D.C.; Dr. Kathleen Cushman, author; Dr. Mickey Davis, lead researcher with the Center for Mathematics Excellence and Equity at the University of California Berkeley, Lawrence Hall of Science; Dr. Bradley Garner, assistant dean for teaching and learning at Indiana Wesleyan University; Dr. Debra Humphreys, vice president for communications and public affairs at the Association of American Colleges and Universities; and George Niebling, assistant director of the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students in the College of Education at the University of North Texas.
“The caliber of speakers for the Arkansas Student Success Symposium is a direct reflection on the desires of Arkansas’s higher education professionals and faculty members to improve retention, graduation, and student success,” Burns said. “We must learn from the best. The higher education faculty and staff in this state are committed to finding the best practices for improving student success. We all understand the public need for a more educated and successful workforce.”
For more information about the symposium, visit www.arkansasstudentsuccess.org or contact Larry Burns at lburns@uca.edu or (501)450-5245.
