two hands performing a handshake

Strategy 2 : Engagement

Increase meaningful student engagement on campus and in the community

Strategy 2: Engagement

Overview

Meaningful engagement opportunities allow students to connect more deeply to the campus and local communities and more readily see and take advantage of opportunities to create positive change. When students feel a sense of belonging within an environment, they are more likely to invest their time and efforts enhancing and bettering that community. As affirmed by American Association of Colleges and Universities research, connecting and engaging students in high impact out-ofclass experiences is a critical element for their well-being, academic success, retention, progression, graduation, and overall affinity for the institution.

At UGA, Student Affairs provides out-of-class engagement opportunities for students, including student activities and organizations, student and cultural centers, campus programming, leadership and community service opportunities, and student employment, among others. Student Affairs is also a key campus leader in efforts to promote a diverse and inclusive educational environment for students.

With this plan, Student Affairs aims to encourage more students to engage meaningfully. By growing capacity within existing programs, creating new programs, and infusing leadership, service, and unified advising across different student involvements, Student Affairs will offer students even more ways to engage meaningfully and commit to address the grand challenges of our time on a national and global scale.

Digital Engagement Collaborative Student Organization Advisors

Strategy 2 : Engagement

Engagement, Leadership, and Service

With this plan, Student Affairs is working to:

  • Lead student engagement, leadership, and service for the campus
  • Streamline student access to engagement opportunities and advising
  • Infuse leadership and service across all types of student involvement
  • Expand student service opportunities and community partnerships
  • Create a new unified leadership curriculum for student leaders
  • Develop a new unified advising approach for student organizations advised by Student Affairs
  • Improve program alignment and sequencing to lead students to higher levels of engagement

Strategy 2 : Engagement

Digital Student Engagement

With this plan, Student Affairs is working to

  • Provide new and enhanced digital service and content delivery to students
  • Offer more personalized and proactive engagement with students through integrated data and information sharing
  • Implement new technology solutions to help students access and engage with campus resources, programming, and skill development opportunities
  • Dedicate Student Affairs leads for digital engagement, data, and technology to achieve wider integration of efforts to benefit students

Strategy 2 : Engagement

Measures of Success for Strategy 2

Some ways that Student Affairs is measuring success of this strategy include continued gains in:

  • Students interacting with and engagement opportunities available to students through Student Affairs, with particular consideration for identified student populations
  • Students participating in and the availability of University transcript-eligible Experiential Learning opportunities through Student Affairs
  • Students participating in service-learning and other community service opportunities
  • Student scores on identified assessments of sense of belonging and service-mindedness
  • Financial support available for students to participate in campus engagement opportunities