RESEARCH

BRIEF

The New Focus on the

Student
Life Cycle

How colleges integrate support

for a learner’s journey

WITH
SUPPORT
FROM
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

4 Executive Summary
6 Introduction
10 A Growing Priority
13 Adopting the Model
16 Overcoming Barriers
20 Conclusion
Contact CI@chronicle.com with questions or comments.

The New Focus on the Student Life Cycle was written by Stephen G. Pelletier and is sponsored by
Oracle. The Chronicle is fully responsible for the report’s editorial content. ©2019 by The Chronicle of
Higher Education, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced without prior written
permission of The Chronicle. For permission requests, contact us at copyright@chronicle.com.

the new focus on the student life cycle 3

 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A
s part of a deepening commitment to help learners succeed
— coupled with increasing interest in retaining students and
keeping alumni engaged — a growing number of colleges and
universities are now focused on how they can best serve students
across the entirety of what has come to be called the student life
cycle. While particulars vary from institution to institution, the
student life-cycle model embodies strategies designed to serve
students in a more concerted, cohesive fashion, starting from be-
fore they enroll, ramping up across the whole of a student’s col-
lege experience, and continuing on beyond graduation. Often,
such work engages colleagues from across a campus in efforts to
collaborate more effectively across traditional departmental silos
in support of student success.
The more than 500 campus professionals who responded to
a Chronicle survey about the student life cycle provided insights into how institutions
are thinking about this new model and adopting its related strategies.
Commissioned by The Chronicle of Higher Education with support from Oracle, the
survey was conducted by Maguire Associates in June 2019. The 562 respondents in-
cluded representatives from campus leadership positions in student affairs and admis-
sions (67 percent) as well as campus technology staff and IT leadership (32 percent).*
This report examines the results of the survey, exploring how college educators
approach the work of supporting students from recruitment to enrollment to
graduation and beyond, and what plans they have for improving those efforts in the
future. The Chronicle also interviewed more than half a dozen campus experts and
included some of their thoughts in the report.

*Numbers do not add to 100 percent due to rounding.

the new focus on the student life cycle 4

 A Growing Priority
Pursuing ways to better serve students,
institutions are exploring and defining
their own versions of a student life-cycle
model.

Adopting the Model

Putting their unique models of the
student life cycle into practice, institutions
are changing business strategies,
realigning departments, learning to
work more effectively across silos,
leveraging technology, and using other
approaches to help learners succeed.

Overcoming Barriers
As they operationalize dimensions of
the student life-cycle model, institutions
are honing their practices, including iden-
tifying and overcoming barriers to further
progress.

the new focus on the student life cycle 5

 INTRODUCTION
I
nstitutions that adopt the student
life-cycle model might consolidate
functions like admissions, enrollment
management, and student-facing busi-
ness operations with academic advising,
career services, and related functions
designed to support learner growth
and development. Some institutions
seek also to link pedagogy and the
curriculum to student life-cycle work,
and some seek to integrate alumni affairs
and fund raising. The fundamental idea is
to create a more coherent, coordinated, and
seamless student experience regardless of
a learner’s field of study, mode of learning
(classroom or online), age, or specific aca-
demic program. Adopting this model usually
requires changes in organizational culture
and operational processes — such as devel-
oping new ways to collaborate productively
across typically siloed institutional functions
— as well as honing an improved capacity to
analyze and apply findings from data.
As a framework for guiding much of an
institution’s interactions with students, the
student life-cycle model can be seen as a re-
sponse to several interrelated trends in higher
education. Demographic dips in the pool of
potential students as well as growing depen-
dence on tuition revenues has driven many
institutions to map new strategies for at-
tracting and enrolling students. Those same
trends have also led institutions to pay more
attention to retention of students. Many in-
stitutions have redoubled their commitment
to help students complete their educational
the new focus on the student life cycle
journeys — a trend driven by societal and
business concerns that we need more citizens
and employees who have a college education
as well as by institutional self-interest in
keeping students enrolled.
Nurtured by a growing understanding
about the factors that help learners succeed
— including applications of technology and
data analytics — the impetus to help students
complete degrees and other programs is also
driven by the need to provide greater assis-
tance for the recent influx of students from
groups traditionally underserved by higher
education, including more low-income and
first-generation learners. Another motivation
is that improved student outcomes that might
result from adoption of a student life-cycle
model could help bolster an institution’s aca-
demic performance and reputation.
Further, the ongoing need for alumni
financial support, coupled with a decline in
giving among younger graduates, has led
institutions to think more strategically about
how they can keep students engaged in the
life of their alma mater — and contributing
to its financial well-being — after graduation.
Nearly 95 percent of respondents believe
that the notion of a “student life cycle” is a
helpful concept for higher education. More
than 90 percent agreed or strongly agreed
that understanding the student life cycle
should be a priority both for higher education
in general and for their institution in particu-
lar and that aligning structures and program
offerings to the student life cycle helps insti-
tutions better serve learners.
6
 TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS?

93%
Better understanding
92%
Better understanding
52%
In the past five years,
58%
In the past five years,
95%
Aligning institutional
the student life cycle the student life cycle higher education has my college has structures and
should be a priority in should be a priority for developed a better developed a better offerings to the student
higher education. my college. understanding of the understanding of the lifecycle at a college
student life cycle. student life cycle. helps to better serve
students.

 ifferent types of institutions have adopted

D academic goals and persist in pursuing
variations of the student life-cycle model:
•George Mason University in Virginia is
engaged in a broad effort, the Student
Experience Redesign Project, that ac-
cording to the university seeks to ensure
that learners “experience a harmony of
people, processes, and technologies in a
transparent and responsive environment.”
On the one hand George Mason wants
students to have better experiences in
enrollment, registration, and housing.
Concomitant goals are that learners “will
feel more personally involved in their
interaction with the scholarly process
through consistent instruction, advising,
and mentorship” and that they will devel-
op a strong connection with the Mason
community “through their every interac-
tion with the university environment.”
•Austin Community College in Texas
began implementing guided pathways in
2016 to help students choose the right
them. Part of that work has included
reorganizing the student affairs func-
tion, with new associate vice president
positions — for enrollment management,
student engagement and analytics, stu-
dent support services, compliance, and
accessibility — all reporting to the vice
president for student affairs. Also part of
the mix: concerted work to bridge student
affairs and instruction.
•S
 usquehanna University, a small private
institution in Pennsylvania, frames its
focus on the student life cycle as the
“student journey.” Across campus, says
Madeleine Rhyneer, the vice president for
enrollment and student financial services,
there is “a growing awareness that how
to effectively serve students and give
them the best opportunity for success
really involves thinking of it from their
perspective, not just your own.” Rhyneer
says Susquehanna helps students map

the new focus on the student life cycle 7

 their journey as learners “in the way that
will be the most effective and helpful
for them.” Work is under way to change
Susquehanna’s culture so that student
services and student support are more
learner-focused. “That doesn’t mean
abandoning your standards and abandon-
ing your policies,” Rhyneer says, “but
making them more student-friendly and
student-centered in their application.”
•The MIT Sloan School of Management
recently went through a 60-day “sprint”
that looked at the entire student expe-
rience in its full-time M.B.A. program
from across 10 different student-facing
offices. One focus was to clarify the many
different touchpoints where students
interact with the school, from enrollment
to career launch. Susan Brennan, assis-
tant dean in Sloan’s Career Development
Office, says that in part the exercise was
designed to help the school see “what that
experience feels like through the eyes of
a student” and to help discern “where we
need to delve deeper to think differently
about how we can streamline and inte-
grate that student’s experience.”
But while more than three-quarters of re-
spondents said their institution had increased
its efforts to understand the student life cycle
over the past five years, just 58 percent of
those surveyed said that their institution had
actually developed a better understanding
of the student life cycle over that timespan.
About two-thirds of respondents said their
institution understood the student life cycle
“extremely well,” “very well,” or “moderately
well.” The balance of respondents rated their
the new focus on the student life cycle
HOW WELL DOES YOUR COLLEGE UNDERSTAND
THE STUDENT LIFE CYCLE?
Extremely well (Clear as Glass)
1%
Very well
14%
Moderately well
49%
Slightly well
29%
Not well at all (Black Box)
8%
institution’s understanding as “slightly well”
or “not well at all.”
The survey suggests that further work
to realign institutional operations to serve
learners coherently across the entire student
life cycle faces distinct challenges. Among
potential impediments, 84 percent said it
was difficult or somewhat difficult to align
institutional structures or offerings to better
match the student life cycle. Nearly 80 per-
cent said it was difficult or somewhat difficult
to develop teams across administrative units
to better match the student life cycle.
8
 CHAD HUMMEL

Susquehanna University has put a larger focus on student advising, whether in the area of academics, career, or personal counseling. Here
soon-to-graduate seniors hike nearby Mt. Mahanoy with the college’s president, a favorite tradition.

the new focus on the student life cycle 9

A Growing
Priority
B
roadly speaking, survey respondents
said the framework of a “student life WHY IS THE STUDENT LIFE CYCLE A HELPFUL
cycle” helps institutions understand CONCEPT? (OPEN RESPONSE THEMES)
and prioritize student needs, focus
on learner success, allocate resources Better understand or prioritize student needs
in support of student success, and, in 78
general, take a more holistic view of
students and the student experience. Student success
In practice, though, adopting a stu- 66
dent life-cycle model manifests itself
in different ways at individual institutions. Better allocate support and resources
The concept of the student life cycle resonates 63
at Bentley University, a private, business-focused
institution in the Boston suburbs. Susan Brennan, More holistic view of students and their experiences
who was associate vice president for university 56
career services there until leaving recently for her
position at MIT, says “at Bentley we always talked
Improving relationship between student and institution
about the student life cycle in terms of thinking 28
about the integration between the communi- Setting institutional goals or priorities
ty, the curriculum, and career, and what is that
holistic experience from the time that a student
27
is considering applying, all the way through their Program or curriculum development
educational experiences, through launching their 26
career, and as alumni.”
At the University of Central Florida, the Better serve nontraditional students
division of student development and enrollment 17
services has long been focused on the distinctive
phases of the student life cycle from pre-enroll- Improve communications/engagement
ment onward. “The difference for us now, and 10
where we’re moving,” says Maribeth Ehasz, vice

the new focus on the student life cycle 10


In the student union at the U. of Central Florida, students learn about different organizations and ways to get involved.
president for the division, “is to more broadly
have all of the entities at the university think in
these ways.”
While Austin Community College uses
different terminology, referring to “pathways”
that frame learners’ educational journeys, Me-
lissa Curtis, associate vice president for enroll-
ment management, says, “I think we’re consis-
tently thinking of the student life cycle.” Curtis
says that focus permeates much of what the
institution does. As one example, she notes that
the college’s strategic plan, “Student Success
Through Guided Pathways,” reflects that “the
notion of guided pathways is about serving and
supporting the student through the life cycle.”
Working toward similar goals, Thomas
Gibson, vice president for student affairs and
vice provost in the division of student affairs at
Bowling Green State University in Ohio, says,
“we’re hoping that this focus [on the student
life cycle] will allow the work that we do to cre-
ate greater efficiencies surrounding providing
the new focus on the student life cycle
U. OF CENTRAL FLORIDA
support services for students. We’re also hoping
that these efforts will increase student learning,
student engagement, student retention, and
completion at the institution. And we’re hoping
that this work allows us to really begin to lever-
age all of our resources to prepare students for
life after BGSU.”
John Masserini, relatively new in his position
as vice provost for academic affairs at Northern
Arizona University, has a similar vision. While
the university does not couch its work in terms
of the student life cycle per se, it is working
toward a more holistic approach to student
success that is shared across campus. “Our goal
is to start looking at the whole picture of the
student rather than just the academic mile-
stones,” Masserini says. To that end, he has
been intentional in reaching out to colleagues
in student affairs and information technology
to begin to chart new ways for different campus
offices to cooperate to help keep students on
track toward their academic goals.
11
 When survey respondents were asked what
university functions or services would better
serve students “if there were a better under-
standing of the student life cycle,” the top
WHICH SERVICES AT YOUR COLLEGE WOULD
five responses were academic advising, career BETTER SERVE STUDENTS IF THERE WERE A
services, teaching, admissions and recruitment, BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE STUDENT
and enrollment management.
In regard to advising students, for example,
LIFE CYCLE?
Masserini says Northern Arizona is engaged Academic advising
in “a major reorganization of our advising
structure.” The university is training advisers 81%
to go beyond just helping students build course Career services
schedules to also help students navigate finan- 69%
cial aid, stay healthy, engage productively in
the life of university, and otherwise manage Teaching
the many aspects of their college career be- 69%
yond classes. “We know that life happens in
all these different directions,” Masserini says. Admissions and recruitment
“Where can we set up systems to help students 63%
no matter where they go?” For advisers, he says,
the message is, “Yes, you need to know your
Enrollment management
discipline and your degree programs, but you 63%
also need to understand how the resources on Financial aid
campus work” and how to connect students
60%
with those resources.
Central Florida has also made the reform of Experiential learning
academic advising a focus of its work around 57%
the student life cycle. “We’re moving toward
an evaluation outcome-oriented approach that Marketing
all advising units — whether at the enterprise 53%
level, college level, or departmental level — will
be accountable with a central leader monitoring Co-curricular activities
and working with all of the entities together, 52%
not separately,” Ehasz says. That structure rep- Residential life
resents “a very major transition,” she says, “but
it reflects that we all need to be on the same
50%
page” in serving students. Alumni relations
Reforming advising is also a focus at George 49%
Mason, where planned initiatives include the
Mason Care Network, a student-centered Registrar
coaching team that will help students meet their 49%
academic and personal goals. The network will
serve incoming students, both freshmen and Health services
transfer, in tandem with college advisers as part 37%
of an evolving integrated coaching and advising
model.
Other
With goals like that in mind, institutions are 12%
starting to take bigger steps to make the student
life cycle a more pronounced focus in institu-
tional operations.

the new focus on the student life cycle 12

 Adopting
the Model
George Mason U. has prioritized
better understanding of the
student experience. Here
students participate in Welcome
Week Get Connected Fair to learn
about student organizations,
activities, and opportunities.

EVAN CANTWELL, GMU

the new focus on the student life cycle 13

 N
early four-fifths of respondents
(79 percent) said student success
or a related topic is “always” or
“often” part of their institution’s
strategic planning.
The survey showed that
colleges pursue a variety of
strategies to better understand
and adopt the student life-cycle
model. In an open-ended
question, respondents said they used research
and data analysis, applied extra resources to
student services, spent more effort communi-
cating with students, created committees or
teams focused on the student life style, and
were more intentional about setting universi-
ty goals related to the student life cycle.
George Mason University dove into this
work in earnest in 2016, when it began work-
ing with a vendor on a self-study of its student
services. David Burge, George Mason’s vice
president for enrollment management, says
the goal was to “identify both the ideal student
experience and document the current state
of our student experience, and then identify
any gaps that existed between those expecta-
tions and realities.” That exercise resulted in a
series of recommendations for “improving the
life-cycle experience for all of our stu-
dents,” Burge says, and helped spark the
Student Experience Redesign Project.
At a macro level, George Mason is
committed to creating a “culture of
service,” which Burge describes as “an
institutionwide effort to establish a
commonly understood and agreed-up-
on set of [student] service definitions.”
Instead of redesigning administrative
structures, Burge says George Mason’s
focus is on “creating new methods of
collaboration that have less to do with
reporting silos and more to do with
job responsibility.” Among specific
components of its redesign initiative,
George Mason created a one-stop
student services operation, the Mason
Student Services Center, which simpli-
fies and speeds how students get help
with things like financial aid, enroll-
ment, and billing. As part of a new em-
phasis on care for first-year students,
the new focus on the student life cycle
Burge says, the 2019 incoming undergraduate
class will be the first to experience “a com-
pletely renovated series of nudge-based com-
munications that are designed to follow them
in all of the activities that we want them to
achieve during their first year on campus.”
Noting that George Mason has plans to in-
crease its student body from 38,000 to 45,000
over the next five years, Burge says “when
we think about scale, we have to think about
efficiencies and student service improvement
and managing costs, acknowledging that
there are many points of entry for a student
to seek resolution to whatever type of issue
they may be encountering. We don’t want to
assume that a student knows right away that
they can go to the Mason Student Services
Center. They could just as likely show up at
the front desk at the library or a dean’s office.
What we want to have is this unified idea of
how Mason treats its students.”
To help adopt the model of the student life
cycle at the University of Central Florida,
administrators restructured the first-year
experience so that teams of what to students
may be seemingly unrelated offices from
across campus (e.g., the police department
and student affairs staff) jointly make presen-
IS STUDENT SUCCESS OR A RELATED TOPIC
INCLUDED IN YOUR INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIC
PLANNING?
21%
79%
n Always or often agree n Sometimes, rarely, or never disagree
14
 tations — in part to reinforce a message to Data analytics, Curtis says, provides “real-
students that the large university is not just time, quick-answer” insights into how stu-
made up of many different parts but is “one dents are doing and helps inform an ongoing
entity concerned about all these aspects of review of “the predictive behaviors behind
the student life cycle,” Maribeth Ehasz says. student success and persistence.” Those in-
Bowling Green State University created the sights help the college know what’s working
Student Success Council, a committee that for student success and where interventions
engages colleagues from across the institu- might be necessary to improve academic
tion around the shared goal of supporting the performance.
student life cycle. The idea is to encourage
colleagues from academic affairs, student
affairs, business affairs, athletics, and other
areas of the institution to think collectively DESCRIBE YOUR INCREASED EFFORTS TO
“about how their work helps create pathways UNDERSTAND THE STUDENT LIFE CYCLE
for student success,” Thomas Gibson says.
Through its award-winning Falcon Success Surveys, research, or data analysis
and Retention Curriculum, for example, the
university collects information that residen-
110
tial life staff glean from conversations with Extra resources or services for students
individual students about challenges they face. 49
Apart from helping the university hone what it
is doing right to serve students, that data also Direct student engagement, outreach, or communication
helps identify learners who may be struggling 39
or considering dropping out to get extra sup-
port, such as tutoring or additional financial Dedicated committee or team
aid. “Our academic affairs colleagues helped 35
to create a platform to share that data with ac-
ademic advisers, career counselors, and other
Institutional priorities or goals
folks who need to be able to impact student 33
success at the institution,” Gibson says. Advising
Austin Community College’s reorganiza-
29
tion of its student affairs area was designed
to help the institution “focus on the guid- Curriculum redesign
ed pathways and the support that students 26
need,” Melissa Curtis says. That focus is
linked to the institution’s work to take a Minimal steps
more comprehensive view of enrollment 25
management. “The strategic enrollment
management lens includes the full student Organizational restructuring
life cycle,” Curtis says. “It includes a partner- 25
ship with marketing, with business affairs, Interdepartmental efforts
with facilities, as well as with student support
and instructional decisions about programs
22
and course scheduling.” Better advising, Additional training for staff / faculty
she says, has resulted in improved student 18
persistence in their academic programs and
helped learners feel a deeper connection with Dedicated student affairs personnel
the college. 18
Another component of the reorganization
at Austin Community College is a stronger Alumni engagement
use of data to track student performance. 12

the new focus on the student life cycle 15

 AUSTIN CC

Avianne Ernest, left, an academic coach, helps an Austin Community College student, right. ACC has emphasized focusing on helping
students achieve academic success.

ILANA PANICH-LINSMAN FOR THE CHRONICLE

the new focus on the student life cycle 16
 Overcoming
Barriers
I
nstitutions that are intentional about George Mason first explored how well the
developing their version of the student university collectively understood the expe-
life-cycle model often approach that rience of its students. Once that picture came
challenge at a systems level. According into focus, the institution was then able to
to Melissa Curtis, for example, as Austin “have a frank conversation about who we want
Community College hones its practice to be, as if there were no constraints” and
around the student life cycle, it is guided “formulate that exercise into a series of very
by big-picture goals in its strategic plan specific deliverables that we can do to reform
for equity, access, persistence, engage- the whole process,” he says.
ment, completion, and transition to
employment or transfer to another institution.
That focus informs work to engage learners
early through high-school programs and
partnerships with community-based organiza-
“If you take that big
tions. In addition, she says, “we’re expanding
the student life cycle by now offering applied view first, then I think
baccalaureate degrees that are not currently
being offered at our local four-year colleges
and universities. So our vision of the student
you’re more likely to be
life cycle has even expanded from what you
might traditionally think of a community successful. It’s a lot better
college life cycle.”
Reflecting on the Student Experience
Redesign Project at George Mason Universi-
than taking it in one-offs.”
ty, David Burge says, “the best thing we did
as we conceptualized this process is that we “If you take that big view first, then I think
approached it as a design thinking exercise.” you’re more likely to be successful,” Burge says.
With help from a design-thinking consultant, “It’s a lot better than taking it in one-offs.”

the new focus on the student life cycle 17

 That is not to suggest that the path to
WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS TO reform is necessarily straightforward or easy.
UNDERSTANDING THE STUDENT As a large, complex organization, for exam-
LIFE CYCLE? ple, George Mason had to invest consider-
able effort in fomenting the cultural change
needed to reach, as Burge notes, “something
Disconnect between institutional structures that resembles consensus around a set of
56% ideals.” Then there was also the challenge of
rearranging finances to support emerging new
staffing arrangements, technology, and other
Lack of staff resources
elements of the redesign.
42% Another barrier was figuring out which
technologies could best support a student
Lack of data/information life-cycle model and how those products could
best be deployed.
39% The survey showed that more than two-
thirds (71 percent) of institutions make use
Faculty resistance of technology to better understand and
support the student life cycle.
28% Bowling Green State University and Aus-
tin Community College are two of many
Lack of money institutions that use a commercial software
product that provides student-focused tools
26% to help learners map appropriate academic
plans and use advisers and course sched-
The student life cycle is constantly changing uling to stay on track until they complete
those plans.
26%
In the past, Burge says, George Mason
essentially used one technology to drive
The college experience is too hard to generalize advising and another to help focus student
25% development. But now, he says, “we’re trying
to use technology as a way to integrate all
that across both functions.” The technolo-
Understanding the student life cycle is not a priority gy suite includes the university’s consumer
23% relationship management system, which
Burge describes as “a single source of truth
in terms of student engagement that will
Staff resistance allow people to have access to relevant infor-
14% mation about a student in an easy-to-un-
derstand way.” George Mason also relies
on a constituent relationship management
Other
platform to help deliver student support and
9% engagement services and on self-help tech-
nologies that students can access.
No access to the right technology Some institutions are finding that a focus
on a student life-cycle model helps the
9% institution match student academic journeys
with local and regional needs for workforce
Student resistance skills. In that regard, for example, Austin
Community College is guided in part by
1% the Austin Metro Area Master Community

the new focus on the student life cycle 18

 BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY

At Bowling Green State University, DeVona Smith, center, provides academic advice to students during the first-year orientation program.

IS TECHNOLOGY PLAYING A ROLE IN BETTER Workforce Plan, which frames a common

agenda and strategies for wide commu-
UNDERSTANDING THE STUDENT LIFE CYCLE nity collaboration in the development of
ON YOUR CAMPUS? the local workforce. While Curtis sug-
gests that kind of network helps ensure
that “it’s no longer solely on the shoul-
ders of the college to ensure that there
are equitable and successful outcomes for
students,” she notes also that work with
29% the partnership “requires us as a college
to be more transparent and forthright
about what we know our students need,
and to listen to our partners about what
they know we need to be doing as well.”
71% In that way, she suggests that “the con-
nectivity that we’re finding within our
educational hubs” feeds into and nurtures
campus supports for student success,
particularly leading up to the juncture of
the student life cycle where the learner
n Yes n No transitions into employment.

the new focus on the student life cycle 19

CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION

F
or many institutions, the work to
frame and implement a student WHICH GROUPS OF STUDENTS WOULD YOU
life-cycle model may not yet have
yielded specific results. One no-
LIKE TO BETTER UNDERSTAND?
table exception is the University First-generation students
of Central Florida, which reports
that last year it retained more
63%
than 90 percent of its first-time-
in-college students — a milestone
Low-income students
likely due at least in part to its 61%
more cohesive approach to services across
the student life cycle. That accomplish- Underrepresented minority students
ment dovetails with a survey finding that 58%
63 percent of institutions hope their work
around the student life cycle will lead to Adult students
better understanding of first-generation 28%
students. Similarly, 61 percent of institu-
tions surveyed hope their student life- Transfer students
cycle focus will yield better insights about 28%
low-income students, and 59 percent hope
that work leads to better understanding of Rural students
underrepresented minority students.
22%
The survey also asked respondents about
changes that are needed to make a given cam-
pus more student-centered. Ranking priori-
Students who are parents
ties in an open-ended question, respondents 18%
said that faculty buy-in is the most important
imperative, followed by cross-departmental Students who are veterans
collaboration, leadership buy-in, and cultural 15%
change.
As these survey results and examples from Other
individual universities show, migrating to 5%
a student life-cycle model is fundamentally
about consolidating institutional resources NOTE: Groups selected because they graduate at a lower rate than the national average

the new focus on the student life cycle 20

 and deploying them as cohesively and
seamlessly as possible in support of
success for an increasingly more diverse
body of learners. Acknowledging the
variety of students at George Mason,
for example, David Burge notes that
“we have students coming to us who
have very different needs.” That’s one
key reason, he says, for why the uni-
versity is pursuing “a holistic reorga-
nization of the way we think about the
student experience.”
“My motto is that the student is
the hero and we are their guide,”
says Susan Brennan at MIT. “Once
we start to rethink the whole
narrative around what the student
journey is and how we’re meant to
be there to support learners, reduce
friction for them, and make their
journey a lot less complicated, we
can reframe the way that we think
about that student’s experience.”
“If you’re not thinking about the
student life cycle, from applicant all
the way through matriculation, graduation,
and being an alum, it would be a very prof-
itable place to put some time and energy
behind that,” says Madeline Rhyneer at
Susquehanna. “Thinking about that holis-
tically, the sum of the parts is greater than
if you just think about how well we recruit
students and teach them” and how they
interact later on with a university’s alumni
the new focus on the student life cycle
WHAT CHANGES ARE NEEDED ON YOUR CAMPUS TO
BE STUDENT-CENTERED? (OPEN RESPONSE THEMES)
Faculty buy-in
62
Cross-departmental collaboration
53
Leadership buy-in
52
Cultural change
43
More funding/resources
40
Better understanding of student needs
38
relations and advancement offices, she says.
“Invest time in thinking about all of the
things that you do and think about what
works for you, and then start to think about
what works for students.” Finally, she advis-
es, identify “where there are opportunities
you could adjust to make that student life
cycle more satisfactory for the students that
you’re serving, whoever they might be.”
21
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the new focus on the student life cycle 23