Returning Students to UTEP with the Department of Education Title V GrantÂ
About the Title V Grant
The reasons college students stop out are diverse and many of these issues have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Barriers to completing education may include financial complications such as the loss of employment for the student or a member of their household, the loss of financial aid, unexpected medical expenses and others. These events can lead to situations in which students drop out of school to work.
To address these issues, UTEP is implementing a multi-phased plan that is built on coordination and collaboration across multiple divisions of the University. Some projects are to bring stopouts back and some to prevent students from stopping out in the first place, including expanding the University’s financial support services and improving financial literacy and knowledge of existing resources to all current students.
Efforts include the following:
- The divisions of Student Affairs and Academic Affairs are conducting a joint campaign to identify and engage with stopouts. These students are initially contacted via phone, text message, email and social media; those who have issues that can be addressed by the University are then referred to appropriate services and passed on to the Student Success Helpdesk, where they are provided with tailored advising to support them through degree completion.
- The class registration system is also being updated so students can play a more active role in their own registration and the management of their degree plans. A complementary project that aims to partner with faculty to streamline the University’s degree programs to make them more accessible to students is also under way.
- UTEP’s Division of Information Resources is coordinating improvements to student information systems and collaborating on the adoption of a new app that will allow the University to improve its communication with students on issues such as registration, advising, graduation and other topics that can improve students’ chances of making progress toward their degrees.
- The resources of Extended University will be leveraged to help improve access by strategically adding online courses so that students who can't physically be on campus can progress academically in that way.
The grant also supports the development of two student employment projects:
- Student Affairs and Academic Affairs plan to shift the on-campus student employment program to an internship model that imparts skills aligned with industry needs.
- The University is also planning an effort to reach out to community partners to provide paid internships with off-campus entities for students who would otherwise need to work off campus to support themselves and their families.
The University’s Center for Institutional Evaluation, Research and Planning will track and evaluate the effectiveness of the different initiatives deployed throughout the life of the grant.