Be a Champion for the Students You Know
Posted: April 20, 2022 | Author: Southern Utah University | Read Time: 3 minutes
Attention Southern Utah University staff members! Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Information Technology have teamed up to create the Champions program. This 100% optional program has been designed for staff members to complement and mirror a similar initiative that the faculty already participate in.
What is a Champion?
A Champion is an SUU staff member who has an existing personal connection with any student on campus (extended family members, youth from church or community groups, student employees, neighbors, etc.) and participates in our semesterly check-in initiative. The Provost's Office implemented a similar program with the faculty a few semesters ago, and the Champion program is an opportunity for staff to assist in this important work.
What will you do as a Champion?
Champions will be invited to check in with students on their list two times per semester.
The first outreach takes place sometime around the 3rd or 4th week of each semester. Champions simply send an email, a text message, or make a phone call to check in, say hi, and see how their students are doing. If the students need any help, the Champions refer the student to the ACES Nest, the Dean of Students Office, or another campus resource.
The second outreach takes place during the course registration windows each semester (November and April). Champions will receive an auto-generated email from I.T. letting you know which of your students have not yet registered for the next semester. It’s typically a very small subset of the students on your list. Champions will be invited to reach out to see if there is anything you can do to support their continued path to graduation.
How do you get started and participate in the program?
All you need to do to participate and get started is take 5-10 minutes and jot down the names of any students you personally know at SUU. These could be first-year, sophomore, junior, or senior students. They can be full-time, part-time, online, or face-to-face students. Think of students you have mentored, kids you’ve coached on youth sports teams, extended family members, neighbors, former youth from church or community groups, friends of family, student employees, children of donors or alumni, etc. You can type their names in a spreadsheet, an email, or you could handwrite names on a piece of paper and take a photo and send it to us. It can be five names, 50 names, or 500 names. However long your list of names, please send it to Ryan Bailey (ryanbailey@suu.edu) in the ACES Nest. His team will go into the system and add you as a Champion for those students.
We recognize that not every student will have a Champion and many will be connected to multiple staff members. But, the more Champions we have around campus, the more likely we’ll be to reach a majority of our students. And, rest assured that every single student does have an Academic Advisor and an ACE or Lead who will both be checking in with ALL students as well.
That’s it… Then, starting next fall semester, you will receive an email reminding you to check-in with your students during the 3rd or 4th week of the semester and then the automated emails during the registration window reminding you to check in with any students on your list that haven’t registered for classes.
Thanks for participating! If you have any questions, please reach out to Jared Tippets, jaredtippets@suu.edu or x-7712.
Tags: Staff
