More than 250 education leaders from 40 public and private institutions will gather April 11 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 in order 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 seven nationally known and respected scholars,” said Larry Burns, symposium director. “Participants will learn from the best practitioners in their fields. The speakers will discuss African American male initiatives, creating effective learning communities, developing sustainable service learning programs, developing transfer student success programs, data-driven student success solutions, and developing critical thinking skills of students.”
The key note speaker for this year’s symposium is Dr. Patrick Terenzini, distinguished professor of Higher Education and senior scientist emeritus in the Department of Education Policy Studies and the Center for the Study of Higher Education at The Pennsylvania State University. His research examines the effects of college on student learning and development, persistence, and educational attainment.
Dr. Terenzini is co-author of the two-volume How College Affects Students, a synthesis of thirty years of research on the impacts of the college experience on students. The first volume was selected as “one of the 100 most important and influential books about U.S. colleges and universities published in the 20th century.”
Terenzini has also published more than 130 articles in refereed journals and made more than 250 presentations at scholarly and professional, national and international conferences. He is a former editor-in-chief of New Directions for Institutional Research, associate editor of Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, and editorial board member for The Review of Higher Education. He has been a consulting editor for Research in Higher Education for 30 years.
Other speakers are Dr. T. Leon Dandy, assistant professor of adult and higher education at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.; Dr. Paul Gore, associate professor, Student Success Special Projects coordinator and director of Institutional Analysis at the University of Utah; Dr. Emily Lardner, co-director of the Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education at The Evergreen State College; Dr. Richard Parrent, interim assistant vice-president of Academic Affairs, and director of Career Placement, Cooperative Education and Service Learning at Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin, Tennessee; Mr. Steve Piscitelli, professor at Florida State College at Jacksonville; and Dr. Mark A. Poisel, associate provost for Student Success at Pace University.
“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.
