KENT: Kent State University President Beverly Warren said the university has a responsibility to help every new student earn a college degree.
Warren shared her vision for academic excellence, accessibility and affordability, a plan she called “Living the Kent State Promise,” during her State of the University address Thursday afternoon in the Kent Student Center Kiva.
“If we admit students, when we’re saying, ‘We have a promise to support you to the finish line,’ that’s more of what the promise is about,” she told faculty, students, staff and community members.
“The Kent State Promise should be a comprehensive approach to student success and fulfillment,” said Warren, who became Kent State University’s 12th president on July 1, 2014.
She said a university excels when its people excel, and shared some of the individual and group achievements on a national level that occurred over the past year, “contributions to a landmark year.”
She said the Kent State Promise doesn’t begin and end with financial commitment or a financial pathway to higher education. But she acknowledged that college costs and growing student debt are very real.
“The tragedy is not so much that college costs lead to some level of personal debt, but that many students incur this debt and never graduate, creating a cycle of debt from which many simply cannot recover,” Warren said. “While it is vitally important to keep college costs at an affordable level … it is also important that college graduates are prepared to meet the challenges and career expectations for the future.”
Warren said the university wants students to graduate in four years.
“Our 65 percent graduation rate is a six-year graduation rate because that’s the national benchmark,” she said. “What we are trying to do is to build models that help students to know that they should graduate in four years. We have a 15-30-48 plan: Take 15 credits a semester, 30 credits over a year and graduate in 48 months.”
She said she also wants students at KSU to use all the school’s resources to become college graduates who have the skills, talent and desire to change the world. She wants them to understand a life of meaning is just as important as a life of financial support.
She talked about a new program that began this academic year called DEEDS, which stands for Dynamic Engagement and Education of Diverse Students.
The DEEDS program offers academic and financial support for students from different cultures, races and ethnicities. The program offers a “completion fund,” which provides financial assistance for students in good standing in their senior year who need help to finish their studies.
“So we’re trying to be attentive to making sure that we can provide not only the financial support but all of the academic support structures,” she said. “We are trying to attend to a climate that helps all students to succeed and I think that would be unique in a research university.”
She said the university is providing more career preparation in the students’ freshman year, rather than waiting until senior year.
“We build on career aspiration and build on that by getting internships and co-ops and real world experience so when they reach their senior year they’re well qualified and prepared to graduate,” she said. “What we’re tying to do is if students try to figure out what they want to do with their lives before they figure out the major, they have a much better chance to succeed. “So if you’re undecided on a major, what is it that you think will give meaning to your life? What is it that really motivates you and then let’s place a major in that context.”
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.