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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">CALS colleagues,</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Nearly three weeks into the Spring 2023 semester, I’d like to share with you an update on CALS efforts to support our undergraduate students in their journey toward degree completion.
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Sometimes it is easy for us to become jaded by the seemingly endless thousands of students we see walking through campus daily.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We can lose sight of their </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><u class="ContentPasted0">individual</u></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> struggles toward graduation, often over many years.
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">So, I’ll begin with a quick reminder of a startling and unsettling fact:</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">for all the emphasis we put on graduating in four years, barely half of our CALS students (51.1%) complete their degree in that time (by comparison, the UA average is 49.9% as of May 2022).</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Even more sobering:</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">just under two thirds of CALS students (65%) complete in six years or less.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I often tell students at our senior sendoff event each May that they’ve beaten the odds.
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I ask them to recall their first college-wide orientation the Friday before classes started in August of their first year.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If they said hello to the classmate on their right and again to the classmate on their left, the odds were that one of those three wouldn’t make it through within 6 years.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We simply must do better.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Since 2017, ABOR’s goal for the UA is a 6-year graduation rate of 75% by 2025.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Currently, the UA is at 67.9%.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Obviously, both the university and CALS have a long way to go, especially given that the 2025 graduating cohort has already been with us for several years. But, this isn’t just about hitting an arbitrary ABOR target.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our entering students take their admission letter from the university as affirmation that they are capable of getting their degree.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They make enormous investments of time and effort. They incur significant financial expenses (the largest of which are lost salary/wages from their time out of the workforce) to pursue their degrees.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And
thousands of them fall short of finishing.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our job is to remove as many barriers to their completion as possible.
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Attached you will find a document that lays out our CALS Student Success Strategy.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><u class="ContentPasted0">goal</u></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> is straightforward:</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>100% of our entering students will complete their degree.</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Unrealistic?</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Perhaps, but that’s not really the point.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our aim is to treat each of them as individuals and do what we can to maximize their chance of finishing.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This is the </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><u class="ContentPasted0">equitable</u></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> outcome that our student support programs are scaffolded to achieve.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Toward that end, we will monitor success rates, watch for disparities in outcomes across student groups, and modify our support levels/programs to try and reduce those disparities.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In short, our programs are designed to level the playing field as best we can to reduce or neutralize the specific obstacles to graduation that confront so many of our students.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This is the mission of a land grant university, and we take it seriously.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I invite you to read through the strategy, take special note of the role that diversity and inclusion play, reflect on our three strategic pillars, and become acquainted with the dozens of specific program examples.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">While many of these programs are administered by the superb team in the CALS Office of Career and Academic Services (CAS), we are the first to acknowledge that our success in CALS is through partnerships with faculty and
staff across all ten of our academic units.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">All of us have a role to play, and it is hugely important (life-changing is not an overstatement)
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">to the students and families we serve, as well as to the economic development of the entire state.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I can’t think of a more inspiring reason to come to work every day.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="ContentPasted0"> </span><o:p class="ContentPasted0"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Best regards,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Mike</span></div>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:rgb(68,84,106); font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size:10pt">Michael Staten | College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:gray; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size:8pt">Bart Cardon Associate Dean for Career and Academic Services</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:gray; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size:8pt">Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:gray; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size:8pt">The University of Arizona</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:gray; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size:8pt">Forbes Hall, Room 211</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:gray; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size:8pt">The University of Arizona</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:gray; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size:8pt">PO Box 210036</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:gray; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size:8pt">Tucson, AZ 85721-0036</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:gray; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size:8pt">PHONE: 520.621.1932</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:gray; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size:8pt"><font color="#0000ff"><a tabindex="0" href="mailto:statenm@email.arizona.edu" target="">statenm@email.arizona.edu</a></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:gray; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size:8pt"><a href="http://www.mikestaten.com" class="OWAAutoLink">www.mikestaten.com</a></span></p>
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