State Higher Ed Commission Names 2019 Stan Jones Award Winners

(INDIANAPOLIS) – Two organizations that advocate for students, Ivy Tech Community College Muncie-Henry County and Purdue University Northwest, have today been named winners of the 2019 Stan Jones Student Success Award by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

The awards – named in honor of the late Stan Jones, founder and former president of Complete College America and former Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education – were presented during the first day of the Commission’s fifth annual Indiana Student Advocates Conference in Indianapolis.  

“The Stan Jones Award was designed to build upon Stan’s legacy of landmark education policy and student success initiatives,” said Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Teresa Lubbers. “Just as Stan was a tireless advocate for education, we present this award to programs that are working to increase student success and close the completion gap for all students. We are pleased to see the proactive collaboration among other institutions to make this important work possible.”

Winners:

Ivy Tech Community College Muncie-Henry County: Cardinal Reboot

Students who are dismissed for academic reasons from Ball State University may participate in the Cardinal Reboot and enter Ivy Tech Muncie-Henry County to improve their grade point averages and work toward credentials. Once those students have taken two semesters of fulltime coursework and earned a credential, those students can transfer back into Ball State to complete their bachelor’s degree.

“The Cardinal Reboot project is a strong partnership between both institutions. By expanding this partnership we would be able to create support services around retention for both institutions. Additionally, we will be able to link critical student support areas to the program, tutoring, and career development, as well as creating a student organization that supports students from both institutions,” wrote a representative from Ivy Tech Community College in the organization’s award submission.

Purdue University Northwest: Utilization of Academic Coaching to Affect Academic Progress

The collaboration between Purdue University Northwest (PNW) and Indiana University Northwest (IUN) would form a new academic coaching program – the Utilization of Academic Coaching to Affect Academic Progress (UACAAP) – with the goal of fostering student success at the regional campuses. Representatives from both institutions’ student support services program will be trained to use academic coaching as a vehicle to foster retention and graduation among first-generation college and/or low-income students.

“While IU Northwest already uses academic coaching, I strongly support this request as an opportunity to open conversations and discuss interventions that will assist students and positively affect persistence, retention and graduation rates. This training will provide our staff with additional tools to effectively engage our students,” wrote an IU Northwest representative, in the organization’s award submission.

In addition to being honored at the ceremony, Ivy Tech Community College Muncie-Henry County and Purdue University Northwest each received a $5,000 award to help further the missions of increasing student success and closing educational achievement and completion gaps.