In January, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness solicited proposals from faculty and staff for potential Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) projects. The QEP, another component of the SACSCOC reaffirmation process, is a carefully designed five-year project that addresses a well-defined and focused topic or issue related to enhancing student learning and/or student success. A panel of faculty and staff reviewed 12 submissions for the project’s alignment with UA’s mission and strategic plan, demonstrated need for improvement of student learning or student success, alignment of relevant data with topic, proposed initiative, and evaluation, and scalability.

Although all 12 projects demonstrated a passion for improvement of student learning or student success, five scored significantly higher on the rubric used to evaluate the proposals. These included (not in order of ranking):

• A proposal to improve the career readiness knowledge and skills gaps of undergraduates through course revision and a badging system.
• A proposal to improve student retention and graduation rates by improving course completions and credit hour production of students in required entry level courses with high DFW rates through Supplemental Instruction.
• A proposal to improve retention and graduation rates of Hispanic-Latinx students through research-based experiences that bridge academics and student life to create a welcoming and supportive environment.
• A proposal to use innovative pedagogies, such as project-based learning, to improve student understanding of race, gender, and class concepts in everyday life.
• A proposal to improve retention of second-year students (sophomores) through a high-impact leadership development program that builds on existing first-year opportunities for students who have yet to become highly engaged on campus.

With guidance from OIE, other UA partners, and external sources, these proposals will undergo revision to ensure alignment with SACSCOC requirements for a QEP proposal and to develop a research-based project that is well situated to improve student learning or student success. On April 12, the projects will be presented to a QEP Evaluation Panel that is representative of the university. Presentations will be recorded and presented for comment by all UA faculty, staff, and students. One project will be selected for further development, pilot implementation, and submission to SACSCOC in Spring 2025.