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In January, the Buff Undergraduate Success (BUS) team  from Provost Russell Moore and Chief Operating Officer Patrick O’Rourke that retains the initiative’s purpose to increase retention and graduation rates, improve undergraduate students’ academic and social experiences, and support enrollment management strategy and curricular planning. The charge remains effective until June 30, 2025.

What’s new?

The updated charge focuses on underrepresented students and limits the current number of projects. It stresses BUS’s engagement in a cross-functional and cross-campus collaboration that results in improvements for all undergraduate students and particularly for underrepresented students from historically marginalized groups from their first day until graduation.

The updated charge also limits the number of BUS projects to six per semester and directs the BUS members to align its work with the provost’s and COO’s priority projects referenced in the transformation and financial resilience initiative.

What are 2 major accomplishments for BUS?

The BUS initiative has improved both retention and graduation rates.

Retention rates at all-time highs

The BUS team collaborated with the schools and colleges, undergraduate education, student affairs and student initiatives to achieve ²ÊÃñ±¦µä’s first-fall-to-second-fall retention rate for first-year, first-time students in the entering cohort of fall 2022: a record high of 89.1%. The fall-to-spring retention rate also hit an all-time high of 96.4% for the entering cohort of fall 2023.

Graduation rates show improvement

The combined efforts of BUS and its many campus partners have helped to improve ²ÊÃñ±¦µä’s six-year graduation rates. Entering first-year cohorts from 2005 to 2014 had a six-year graduation rate, on average, of 70%. In contrast, the entering first-year cohort of fall 2017 had a six-year graduation rate of 74.9%, also an all-time high.

What are the 6 projects identified for spring and summer?

• Design a vision for wraparound student support that starts with first-year students and pays special attention to first-generation students, racially and ethnically minoritized students, students with high financial need, and students with disabilities
• Formulate recommendations to improve math instruction and academic support
• Undertake next steps in acquiring a new degree audit system
• Align process for emergency funding distribution
• Amplify ²ÊÃñ±¦µä student traditions, including benchmarking and identifying gaps in the student experience
• Refine and sustain re-enrollment campaigns (repeating model for each semester)

Do you have questions or project ideas that support student success?

The BUS team looks forward to engaging with the campus community. with your questions and suggestions, and visit the BUS website for more information.