Spire Magazine 2021

To engage and inform the entire campus community about the Moving the Needle Project, a kickoff meeting led by Dr. Samuels-Jones was held on October 6, 2020. In conjunction with the kickoff, Dr. Samuels-Jones and Ryan Hopkins visited campus to meet with Bluefield University employees during the week for what was considered an ACE (Assess, Counsel, and Empower) Meeting. These meetings were held over three days with individuals, in small group meetings, and large group sessions with faculty, staff, students, and senior leadership to gain additional insight about the needs/opportunities for student success. Plans were made during this time for the launch and implementation of new or redesigned student success priority/target areas called Modules. These modules are managed by college team members representing different roles across the campus with direct support from Credo. The Module teams are guided by a detailed roadmap provided from the repository of Credo’s successful strategies and best practices. The four Modules consists of four areas; academic advising, academic support for diverse learners, clearance – student facing business processes, and comprehensive first year experience.

The academic advising module is a comprehensive approach to conceptualize, design, and implement consistent advising for all undergraduate students. This includes; clarifying an advising model, establishing and refining a shared vision, clarifying learning outcomes, training, examining systems and infrastructure that supports each piece of advising, and other needs as defined by the institution. The academic support for diverse learners module is an approach to identify and adopt proven practices in a academic support across different student abilities, backgrounds, experiences, establishing an asset and strengths-based approach to cultivate a positive self and academic identity among students. This also includes establishing practices that focus on student resiliency, motivation, and building academic self-esteem and creating anticipatory approaches to identify and address different learning needs to interrupt cycles of distress. The Clearances – Student Facing Business Processes Module focuses on the experiences, communication pathways, systems, policies, institutional practices that drive student-facing business processes.

The goal is to ensure the development and on-going existence of seamless practices that are clear, integrated, and promote maximum efficiency – from the lens of students and families. The Comprehensive First Year Experience Module is an intentionally designed and scaffolded approach to support the successful transition of students into the institution from the point of acceptance through the first semester of the students’ second year. The First Year Experience incorporates all specially and uniquely designed experiences that help students define and master initial goals academically, socially, intra/interpersonally, spiritually, and as they begin to explore career, vocation, and professional pathways. “What has been most impressive is the mobilization of many members of the faculty and administrative personnel in addressing areas of concern that will make a difference for students," said Dr. Flowers. "I believe that at the end of five years of the “Moving the Needle” project, Bluefield University will be a place that best practices in Christ-centered higher education will be evident across the institution.”

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