Strategic Priority #3
EMPOWER ALL STUDENTS FOR SUCCESS AT SAINT MARY'S AND BEYOND
Saint Mary’s will improve student persistence, retention, and graduation rates by providing enhanced academic support, advising, and mentoring and ensuring clear pathways for graduation. We will create and implement a signature “Saint Mary’s experience” for students that facilitates students’ emotional, social, and identity development and creates opportunities for students to experience intellectual and personal growth. We will expand opportunities for students to access experiential and practical learning components in their academic programs and deepen external partnerships throughout the Bay Area to reinforce these educational opportunities. We will ensure that graduates are career ready by embedding career preparation and planning in the curriculum and engaging the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE) core competencies. Accordingly, we will design and implement curricula that prepare students to “demonstrate the awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills required to equitably engage and include people from different local and global cultures (and) engage in anti-racist practices that actively challenge the systems, structures, and policies of racism” (National Association of Colleges & Employers).
Initiatives
We will be updating this page with our accomplishments as we execute the Strategic plan.
2021-2024 Accomplishments
We have an array of successes that support this priority.
Student Experiences
Ongoing Graduate Students Fair and a variety of undergraduate student events, such as Student Involvement Fair and Major Declaration Celebration continue to support pathway to successful academic time at SMC as well as career preparation. The Transfer Advising Cohort (TAC) curriculum was first introduced in 2021 and has now become a graduation requirement. Academic Success and Career Center implemented the first phase of the Career Center's Action Plan by piloting two new co-curricular Career Launch courses in Fall 2023, following the successful completion of the AAC&U Curriculum-to-Careers Institute. Began scaling the experience for undergraduate students first-year through senior, based upon this pilot. We continue to lay the foundation in this work with the newly adopted Institutional Learning Goals that encompass student learning and experiences from academic and co-curricular programs.
Student Support
Created a Veterans Resource Center, opened a new Commuter Student Lounge, and hired SMC's first Title IX Coordinator. Increased cross-unit programming and training, including the Student Life staff retreat and the Academic Success monthly workshops. Launched new initiatives focused on holistic student support and belonging, including the Graduate Student Resource Fair and various BIPOC student and family welcome events. In addition, the Office of DEI and the Student Disabilities Services Office delivered two well-attended GUIDE tier 2 online workshops on supporting neurodiverse students in the classroom.
Digitization
All of the SMC Undergraduate Catalog is online and fully searchable, as are the three previous year's catalogs. As of summer 2023, the revised Catalog includes the myriad of changes prompted by the move to Carnegie Units and the revisions to the Core Curriculum. The graduate portions of the catalog are underway.
Updated: July, 2024