Aligned with the first pillar in the Plan for Pitt, the Student Success Team in the Office of the Provost advocates and creates opportunities for undergraduate students by providing a system of academic support to boost student outcomes. Through collaboration with colleges, schools, and campus partners, we intentionally coordinate purposeful programming and holistic advising interventions. We do this by aligning our work across advisors, students, and research-practice partnerships.
Key Accomplishments Academic in Academic Year 2025-2026
In 2025-2026, the following are values-aligned key accomplishments for the Student Success Team.
Collaboratively and curiously grew our initiatives and scope, while anchoring to our core Guiding Principles. We “live the brand” every day such that the team understands how our work meets Provost priorities and our institutional strategic plan goals.
- Established a Student Success Technology unit to expand our workflow into the Graduate, Professional, and Online student populations
- Launched several new Pathways features, including an AI assistant
- Developed more efficient internal processes and workflows
- Grew support for the PRSSIM Project and regional campuses, including a 22% increase in rural student applications and a 3.1% gain in four-year graduation rates for rural students
- Joined three national research and innovation networks: the StarterKit MegaStudy (29 institutions testing evidence-based interventions), the FUSE Faculty Fellowship, and the LIFT Law Consortium—positioning Pitt as a contributor to national student success knowledge.
With a student-first philosophy at the center, successfully implemented Phase B of the Academic Advising Coordination Project.
- Collaboratively developed a graphic outlining the four roles in the shared advising model
- Increased student satisfaction with advising by 9%
- Launched three (3) out of the Big 5 Standard Interventions with integrated professional development for academic advisors
- Established the UUA (University Undergraduate Advising) unit in collaboration with the undergraduate colleges and schools
- Reimagined the first-year intake survey for a more streamlined orientation advising experience, including an AI-assisted advising tool that flags at-risk students for advisors while closing a data privacy gap in the process
- Completed and reported on key strategic assessment objectives with all undergraduate academic units through a collective impact goal, creating a shared focus on student success initiatives
- Nearly doubled Finish Line Grant support—from 67 to 104 students and from roughly $296K to $546K—helping our students clear that last hurdle to graduation.
Strategically cultivated both internal and external partnerships to grow awareness of student success as an institutional priority at the University of Pittsburgh.
- Expanded Student Success Hub partnerships
- Graduated our first Pitt Kessler Scholar, who completed their degree in three years
- Welcomed inaugural Pitt Posse Foundation student cohort
- Grew the Provost Academy and Scholars to a cohort of 244 students
- Grew partnerships with FHC and undergraduate research across campus
- The TRIO McNair Scholars Program graduated 13 students and our first Pitt master’s student, with 100% of alumni continuing in graduate programs—exceeding federal grant benchmarks
- Grew the Mentoring and Advising Summit audience to over 4,300 globally, with partnerships such as UERU (Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities), NACADA (Global Community for Academic Advising), and ASN (Advising Success Network)
- Created Pitt’s first-even Director of Action Research position, embedding a formal research-practice loop into student success work—recognized in a Pittwire feature story.
- Launched the SSARC (Student Success Action Research Collaborative), a structured research-practice consortium connecting LRDC (Learning Research and Development Center) faculty expertise to institutional student success questions.
- Team members presented at several national conferences including NACADA, NASPA, SXSW EDU, and the UERU National Conference.
- Published in a John Hopkins University Press volume on student success in higher education.
Past Years' Key Accomplishments
- 2024-2025 Key Accomplishments
In 2024-2025, the following were key accomplishments for the Student Success Team:
- Collaboratively developed our core Guiding Principles to better define our work, including a North Star vision, mission statement, team values, and objectives aligned with pillar one of the Plan for Pitt
- Successfully implemented Phase A of the Undergraduate Academic Advising Coordination Project
- Hosted the 2024 National Kessler Collaborative Summer Convening
- Hosted the 2025 ACC Meeting of the Minds Conference
- Awarded $1.1 million grant to expand the Kessler Scholars Program at Pitt
- Expanded the Mentoring and Advising Summit audience to 2,600 globally with partnerships such as UERU (Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities) and ASN (Advising Success Network)
- Through the PRSSIM Project’s first year, increased first-year retention of rural students by 3.2% and six-year graduation rates of rural students by 2.6%
- Expanded advising professional development and resources
- Increased faculty early progress reporting response rates by 10% in the spring 2025 semester
- Provided re-enrollment outreach to students through a collaboration with CompleteU, where a total of 74 students registered for an upcoming term at Pitt
- 34 advisors fully completed the four levels Pitt ACT to earn an Accredible badge
- Launched our first microcredential on Pathways and enrolled 40 advisors
- Awarded four Provost’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Student Success
- Expanded Student Success Hub partnerships and programs
- Formalized partnerships with the Posse Foundation and Pittsburgh Scholar House
- Launched a new, University-wide undergraduate research framework
- Increased attendance at SASS (Student Academic Success Series) workshops by 33%
- 100% of Kessler Scholars have been retained at Pitt
- Hosted 8 McNair Scholars at the Summer Research Institute
- Launched the incoming student checklist and engaged with 2,528 incoming students
- Increased the number of active users to the Degree Finder tool by almost 1% to 285,000
- Achieved a 45% response rate between mentors and mentees on Pitt Commons, higher than the industry average
- Increased the participation rate of the Pitt Transition Study for first-year students by 18%