Linfield University will be more proactive in responding to student challenges and increase retention and graduation rates.
Lainie Sowell, Linfield director of student care and support, was recently accepted into the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS) Student Success Champions program as the representative of Linfield.
Sowell’s primary goal as a Student Success Champion (SSC) is to institute an early alert system that develops connections between historically underserved students and campus resources.
“By focusing on both early academic performance and campus engagement, Linfield aims to increase the retention of our students and completion of a degree within four years,” Sowell said. “The opportunity to be included comes at an exciting time for Linfield. We have HEDS representatives visiting this month to collect data and identify Linfield students’ definition of success.”
The SSC program helps Student Success Champions develop leadership and change management skills for student success at their respective institutions. The selective program is free for qualifying HEDS institutions.
HEDS member institutions share data, knowledge, and expertise to advance undergraduate liberal arts education, inclusive excellence, and student success.
Other Linfield staff and administrators who contributed to Sowell’s application process included Gerardo Ochoa, Jennifer Ballard, Joe Wilferth, Jeff Mackay, and Susan Hopp.
