Higher Learning Commission

Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma has always embraced big change.  

Its 114-year legacy includes stints as: a state preparatory school serving descendants of Native Americans, farmers and ranchers; a military academy serving the state of Oklahoma from 1919 through World War II, the Korean war and war in Vietnam; and a junior college with ties to northeastern Oklahoma’s other state colleges and universities. 

A free-standing, four-year, degree-granting university since 2000, the institution today is on the cusp of major transformation with new engineering and graduate programs – and with the help from HLC’s Student Success Academy. 

“Our purpose in being involved in the Academy has been to best position Rogers State as the regional university of the future,” said Mary Millikin, associate vice president for academic affairs at the institution. 

“There is stiff competition in our region when it comes to attracting and retaining college students and we knew we had to be at the forefront in looking at issues through a student-success rather than strictly enrollment-focused lens,” she said. 

One of 20 U.S. institutions to have now completed HLC’s intensive data-driven program, a team of eight Rogers State faculty and administrators, including Millikin, spent the last three years analyzing the institution’s student data, student-success programs, organizational infrastructure and student-engagement practices. 

One of the Academy team’s key takeaways during the process was that student advising was fissured, too slow in meeting students’ needs and could be better organized.  

This realization led the team to develop a new advising model that will be anchored for the first time in the university’s student success office and will be led for the first time by the institution’s first recently hired student-success director. 

The information also has been critical to the work being done by a consultant who was brought on separately to help the university develop a new 10-year strategic enrollment plan.   

In addition, the team’s Student Success Academy work is expected to inform decision-making by Rogers State as a member of the six-university Tulsa Higher Education Consortium, which aims to retain students for the region’s workforce by making transfers from community college to four-year universities seamless. 

“The Student Success Academy has been pivotal in helping us devise a new strategic enrollment strategy and to see the big picture of higher education in northeast Oklahoma, and I would recommend it to any institution whose intent is to set and meet aspirational yet realistic goals,” said Millikin. 

It is too early to know results from the new advising initiative, which is being rolled out this fall, and will include: a new student advising handbook; training for faculty and staff in advising; new written policies and methods for communication on advising; a student-success-focused website and newsletter; as well as advisement focusing on career goals for all groups including freshmen, transfers, online, non-traditional and continuing students.  

However, clear goals have been set for the 3,200-student university to increase enrollment and retention annually by 1 percent over the next five to 10 years. 

“We are proud of the work being done by Rogers State University,” said Barbara Gellman-Danley, president of HLC. “The institution has made progress in adapting its vision to changing times and we look forward to what lies ahead for the university.” 

Learn more about HLC’s Student Success Academy experience.