Anthology Blog

It’s homecoming season, one of the biggest alumni events on campus. We sat down with Temple University’s Kelly O’Donnell, director of alumni relations for the Fox School of Business and the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management; and Renee Pacini, senior director of product marketing at Anthology and president of the Fox School of Business Alumni Association.

Institutions are increasingly tracking student involvement and participation information in co-curricular organizations, for several reasons, including retention, co-curricular transcripts, and more. Another reason? This information can be an indicator of potential alumni engagement.

Student Success is often used as short-hand for the larger retention-persistence-graduation (RPG) conversation. The term student success can refer to a wide variety of things including precollege characteristics, quantifiable student attainment indicators, measures of academic achievement and personal and student development characteristics.

With the shift to more virtual learning and engagement over the spring semester, campuses responded with crisis management policies to ensure students are supported with the appropriate resources. Student development theory helps practitioners examine how the environment plays a large factor in the success of a student in the classroom.

The Class of 2020 has been thrown an unexpected curveball due to the events surrounding COVID-19. With canceled graduation ceremonies, an unstable job market, and the lack of social networking opportunities, it is important to shift your events to stay connected with this group.

Faculty and staff are feeling really stretched when it comes to supporting the student journey at institutions. We know that students today are coming to campus with increasingly high academic and social-emotional needs, and of course, expectations. Yet, each of our institutions is unique. So how do we best utilize researched practices with the skills and needs of our unique student populations?