Last week, teams of higher education leaders representing 19 CUNY institutions gathered at Lehman College to advance ambitious goals for improving academic momentum rates of students across the system. The undergraduate colleges that participated in the Academic Momentum Planning Summit refined and finalized plans aimed at meeting CUNY’s overall goal of doubling associate degree completion and significantly increasing completion of bachelor degrees in a timely manner—goals established in CUNY’s recently released strategic framework. Complete College America cohosted the event with CUNY’s Office of Academic Affairs.
Over the course of the two-day event, CUNY college leaders met with content experts from other universities involved with CCA and worked within their college teams to fine-tune implementation of degree mapping, credit accumulation, and gateway course completion strategies – interventions that are proven to increase timely student success. Previous work with Tennessee on CCA’s Momentum Year initiative has shown that students who earn 30 credits, complete Math and English gateway courses, and enter a program of study in their first year of college are more likely to graduate on time.
“We are excited to be supporting CUNY as one of only a handful of systems nationally taking bold steps to address the fact that too few students are graduating on-time or at all,” said Complete College America Senior Vice President Bruce Vandal, who led the event on behalf of CCA. “In particular, CUNY’s dedication to closing achievement gaps for its large and diverse student population makes them an ideal partner, as Complete College America continues to promote equity in higher education.”
For more information on the CUNY Academic Momentum Planning Summit, visit completecollege.org/event/cunymomentum.
