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Win, Lose, or Withdraw: Help Your
Students Make SMART-er Decisions
Ann Elinski
Assistant Director, Wayne State University
aelinski@wayne.edu
@aelinski

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Agenda
• Our Former Withdrawal Process
• The Enhanced Withdrawal Process
• Evaluation and changes since implementation
• Our plan to measure success

Introduction
• Wayne State University is a nationally recognized metropolitan
research institution located in Midtown Detroit
• Over 28,000 students annually
• Three semesters per academic year
• Withdrawals have a direct impact on graduation rates
• In Fall 2012, 2832 students withdrew from over 4000 classes.
• This resulted in over $4,000,000 in lost tuition (of which the
majority was loans) and over 12,000 lost credits

 Log in to Self-Service
 Click on “Withdraw from Course”
 Select the course to withdraw
 Provide a reason
 Submit
Workflow sends a request to the faculty member to make a decision
Withdrawing was easy! Select a course, then submit!
Our Former Withdrawal Process

 Withdrawing was too easy
 Often, there would be no interaction with anyone at the university after
a withdrawal was submitted
 Students were notified of the financial consequences of course
withdrawals when they received a bill and e-mail for a Return to Title
IV funds
 No explanation was given to tell students the reason funds were
returned causing angry calls
Faults in the previous process

Enrollment Management came together to ask ourselves a few
questions:
• Can we communication the hazards of withdrawing in a better way?
• Do students realize the consequences of course withdrawals? Can we
make the effort to tell them?
• Can we personalize the information for each student?
• Can we offer students alternatives, options and resources?
• Can we interrupt the withdrawal chain in the system to require a
conversation with Enrollment Management Specialists?
We got curious….

• Students choose to complete a SMART
Check session Online or In-Person
using a Form Assembly web form
• Salesforce Reports are generated daily
to indicate which students have
complete the Online and In-Person
sessions
• Specialists enter SMART Check
decisions into a system called STARS
• Results are shared real-time on the
Salesforce Contact Record
The Enhanced Withdrawal Process

• SMART Check is a way to talk with students about the
consequences of withdrawing from courses.
• Students learn how withdrawing from a course will specifically impact
them both academically and financially
• Students are offered campus resources to help them achieve their
academic goals
• Each session delivers personalized information to help students
make an educated choice about their proposed withdrawal
• Our professional students are exempt from the SMART Check
process, as there are “stop-gaps” in place in their programs
What is a SMART Check?

S - SAP Withdrawing will affect Satisfactory Academic Progress
(SAP), jeopardizing financial aid in future terms.
M - Money Withdrawing does not cancel tuition or fees. You are still
charged for courses from which you withdraw.
A - Academic Record Course withdrawals appear on your academic record and
may affect graduate & career opportunities.
R - Repay If you withdraw, you may be required to repay a portion of
your aid back to the university.
T - Time to Degree Withdrawing extends the time and cost of your degree.
What is covered in a SMART Check?

• There are two methods to complete a SMART
Check
• In Person
• Online
• The online version takes the burden off of the
front counter staff, and allows students to
complete the session if they cannot come to
campus during business hours
How do students complete SMART Checks?

• A student signs in at our Information Desk with a visit topic of
SMART Check.
• The Walk-In Monitor shows their name and Maximum Wait Time
In-Person SMART Check

• Form Assembly forms eliminate the
need for a person to touch, scan
index and process a paper form.
• This has created a more efficient
process that saves staff time and
money
• We have 2 years of data on paper
forms which cannot be easily used to
gather information
• We store the forms so a PDF or
printout can be generated if needed
In-Person SMART Check

• A Specialist sits down with each student to go over the areas on the
form in detail using the students actual account information
o Information entered into the form is updated to the Salesforce contact record in
real time
• Recommended action steps, acknowledgements and session notes
are typed into the form
• The student then makes a choice to:
o Rescind his/her decision to withdrawal
o Keep some of his/her courses
o Continue with the full withdrawal
In-Person Smart Check

In-Person SMART Check Response Form

• The student will receive an
immediate confirmation email
that his/her session is complete
and a link to the highlights of the
session.
• Students also receive a list of
what they agreed to during the
session.
In-Person SMART Check Email Confirmation

Online SMART Check
• Provides real time feedback in the session with conditional rules
• Reinforce deadlines with an acknowledgement statement

Online SMART Check
• Allow students to request a call back to discuss their
decisions if they are unsure

Online SMART Check
• Provide a clear indicator
that the session is
complete with a wrap
summary of the session
highlights

Automatic case creation
• When a student asks for a call
back on their SMART Check, a
case is automatically created in
the Student Service Center
Management Queue

Contact Record Summary of Session
• Real time updates to
the Salesforce Contact
Record

Evaluation and changes since implementation
• Fully in-person SMART Check sessions were not a sustainable model
for Wayne State
• Student Service Center has 12 full time staff and 3 Management staff
• The first 2 semesters we had assistance from Management in other offices
to complete the SMART Check sessions during busy periods
• Wait times often exceeded 1 hour at the end of the withdrawal period

Evaluation and changes since implementation
• We have students in all online or night courses which necessitated the
creation of the Online SMART Check course
• Created notifications emails to keep students informed
• Changed the initial SMART Check messaging to promote the Online
SMART Check option to all students
• Allowed opportunities for students to request assistance from a staff
member in the online session
• We email SMART Check reports to interested parties daily

What did our students think about this new process?
Fall 2013 we asked students to tell us about their SMART Check Sessions

Our plan to measure success
Total SMART Checks
Completed
Summer 2013 (Pilot) 93
Fall 2013 1,548
Winter 2014 1,528
Spring/Summer 2014 483
Fall 2014 1,530
Winter 2015 1,350
Spring/Summer 2015 429
6,961
Many factors will be used to gauge
the success of this program
1. Over the period of study, have
total number of withdrawn
courses been reduced?
2. Has there been a reduction in the
number of students/course
withdrawals?
3. Has the total dollar amount of our
Return to Title IV decreased?
4. Are we decreasing the number of
SMART Checks which have
expired?

What next?
• Get to know our students who are withdrawing based on data
collected this year
• Form assembly went live in spring 2015 we are seeing the majority of our
withdrawals from students in good academic standing
• These good students have outstanding balances
• Now we are curious, we will start looking at semester over semester
data for patterns
• We plan to develop targeted messages/campaigns to students based
on our results

Tips:
• Get curious about your data
• Automate forms to increase office efficiency and allow staff to take the
time they need with students
• We lost 2 years of data by using paper forms
• Data is powerful, use it when you talk to executive management to
back up your findings
• Be prepared for unexpected results
• Think about scalable solutions

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• Networking with your peers, Foundation
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HE Dreamforce 2015.Win Lose or Withdrawal

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Editor's Notes