Bring Bobcats Back is a formal outreach to undergraduate stop-outs at Texas State University who have not completed their bachelor's degree. The program started in 2018 by targeting 350 seniors close to graduation but not enrolled in the past year. Due to early success, the university expanded the program in June 2020. The goal was to contact all undergraduate students who stopped out between 1990 and 2018. The list was checked through the National Student Clearinghouse database for degree completion at other institutions. The university developed an external partnership with ReUp Education to scale the operation. We did outreach to over 25,000 students who had attended in the past 28 years. Since 2020, we have enrolled 438 students, currently engaging 2,252 about returning, and 119 have graduated. We have 37 that have applied for May 2022 graduation. We have 256 students enrolled this spring. The persistence rate from fall to spring was 83%. The university applied for and received a three million reskilling grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to help remove financial barriers. This grant has allowed us to expand the reach to stop-outs, displaced workers, or those who want to reskill. Each semester, after census day, we add any new names for outreach. The feedback data from stop-outs is helping us to be more proactive with retention practices. The six-year graduation rate jumped by 2.8% since 2019. (2013 cohort 54%, 2014 Cohort 55%, and 2015 cohort 56.8%). We expect hundreds more students will enroll and graduate in the coming years from the Bring Bobcats Back initiative.
DELIVERY FORMAT: The program has a hybrid format.
PROGRAM SCALE: Large-scale (reaches more than 25 percent of its intended target population)
APPROXIMATE PARTICIPANTS SERVED IN 2021-22: 240 students enrolled in fall (119 graduated) and 256 students enrolled in spring.
HOW TO ENROLL: Participants must apply to enroll in this program
WEBSITE TO APPLY: https://www.finaid.txstate.edu/more-info/general/texas-reskilling-grant-2021.html
EVALUATION STATUS: Data related to program outcomes are currently being internally and externally collected
DEPARTMENT(S) OVERSEEING PROGRAM: Enrollment Management
CONTACT FOR MORE INFO: Gary T. Ray at gtr21@txstate.edu or 512 245-1977
- Subject:
- Student Success
- Material Type:
- Student Success: Student-facing
- Provider:
- Texas State University
- Date Added:
- 02/06/2023