INDIANAPOLIS — Less than half of Hoosier college students finish their degrees on time, according to state data, but some may soon have help from new “success coaches.”
The Indiana State Budget Committee on Friday approved $2.5 million to embed 31 success coaches in higher education institutions across the state. Officials also nabbed funding boosts for capitol security and a tornado-damaged state park.
During the program’s first year, coaches will focus on getting pre-approved students to complete enrollment, said Michelle Ashcraft, the Indiana Commission for Higher Education’s (CHE) chief programs officer. Because many students drop out in the first year, coaches will concentrate on first-year retention.
Later, they’ll extend that focus to overall student retention, on-time completion, early graduation, and even graduate retention — keeping new graduates in Indiana.
CHE also wants to coordinate the program with the career-coaching provisions tucked within the state’s career-focused efforts to “reinvent” high school, Ashcraft told the committee.
The money will go toward salaries, benefits, and start-up costs like training and office supplies, she said. The effort will serve as a launching platform for institutions.
When applying for funds and associated coaching positions, colleges/universities must also include sustainability plans “for how they would continue these positions moving forward,” Ashcraft said.
CHE is laying the groundwork for more robust student support as Indiana anticipates a swell in the number of higher education-seeking students.
State lawmakers this spring authorized auto-enrollment to the 21st Century Scholars program. The scholars are low-income students who meet certain academic requirements in exchange for state-covered tuition and fees at Indiana colleges and universities.
Previously, the state said it was spending substantial amounts of money encouraging eligible students to sign up by the eighth-grade cutoff — and less than half did.
The first class of students to be automatically enrolled numbered 40,000 — double the previous year’s enrollment. These students will graduate high school in 2027, and the state will begin subsidizing their tuition and fees thereafter.
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