[Important Information for Employees] Data Matters: Monthly Insights and Updates from Institutional Effectiveness | May 2025

Thu May 15 14:30:29 UTC 2025

As the academic year comes to a close, this issue of Data Matters
highlights a range of initiatives aimed at strengthening student
success—from counseling center data to updates on our Student Success
Dashboards. We also spotlight student perspectives on Plattsburgh Next and
invite you to try this month’s Data Challenge. Before we head into our
summer pause, take a moment to explore what’s new—and what’s next—in the
Office of Institutional Effectiveness.

Data Spotlight: Strengthen Student Success

This month, we highlight data from the Student Health & Counseling Center
(SHCC), a key resource to strengthen student success. The below graph
displays the number of appointments per full-time medical provider or
counselor over the  past three years. In total, the SHCC had over 17,000
visits. This does not include the number of front desk staff members’
telephone and in-person encounters or messaging through the patient portal.
Notably, the SHCC has not had a waitlist for counseling services in over
two years and it is one of the few places where students can get a same-day
appointment for medical services.

Got Data? Presentation - TODAY, May 15 at 11 a.m.

Our next Got Data? presentation features ACE Program Director Sara Munson.
Sara will share information about the impact of the ACE Program and
evaluate various program interventions. The event will be held on Thursday,
May 15 from 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. in the Alumni Conference Room of the ACC.
Light refreshments will be served. If you are interested in presenting at a
future Got Data? event, contact us at OIE at plattsburgh.edu.

Student Success Dashboards

OIE and Academic Affairs are proud to have collaborated with the California
State University system to develop 14 dashboards
<https://plattsburgh.successdashboard.org/> designed to support student
success. CSU recently announced that they will no longer partner with
external institutions on this initiative. This presents an exciting
opportunity for us to build on the strengths of the existing dashboards and
introduce customizations that better reflect the specific needs of our
campus. We invite your feedback on how you currently use the dashboards and
what additional features or data you would find helpful. Please use this
form
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSduy4X5tDv5zQ8Lx85JlQehK9sZ9b6GOpiIHs04DYnm3DEmIA/viewform?usp=header>
to share your input by Friday, May 23. If you're interested in
participating in a focus group on data visualization needs, you can
indicate your interest on the form or contact us directly at
OIE at plattsburgh.edu.

We will make the final update to the existing dashboards using Spring 2025
end-of-term data. The dashboards will remain accessible for the foreseeable
future. Additionally, the underlying data used to create the dashboards
will be retained by SUNY Plattsburgh and may inform the development of
future dashboards.

Student Perceptions of Plattsburgh Next

Earlier this semester, OIE and Public Relations intern Maggie Goff
conducted a survey on student awareness and perceptions of Plattsburgh
Next. The results led to a PR campaign that highlighted student stories
across campus and online. An example of these stories is provided below and
others are attached to this email.

Before the campaign:

   -

   86% of students were unaware of Plattsburgh Next.
   -

   30% could name at least one of the four strategic pillars.

After the campaign:

   -

   Awareness improved, with only 40% still unfamiliar with Plattsburgh Next.
   -

   90% reported seeing the student story campaign.
   -

   Awareness of any pillar rose to 60%.
   -

   Students also reported an increase in the perceived value of each pillar.

Promoting North Country Student Success

OIE graduate fellow Bidushi Bhowmik has been leading a project to evaluate
challenges and opportunities encountered by North Country students during
their studies at SUNY Plattsburgh. Preliminary findings reveal several key
opportunities:

   -

   Strengthen campus connections for commuter students, who often seek more
   engagement beyond the classroom.
   -

   Expand awareness of valued supports such as ARO, TRIO SSS, and strong
   faculty communication.
   -

   Address winter travel barriers and offer flexible scheduling to improve
   access.
   -

   Enhance orientation with commuter-focused content and resources.
   -

   Recognize the resilience of these students, who emphasized the need for
   flexibility, clear communication, and personalized support.

Despite encountering some obstacles, students expressed strong motivation
and determination to succeed, emphasizing the importance of flexibility,
clearer communication, and personalized support.

Coming Fall 2025: Data Influencer Program

Are you interested in using data more effectively to support student
success and drive informed decisions? This fall, the Office of
Institutional Effectiveness will launch a new Data Influencer Certificate
Program for a limited number of campus participants. Those enrolled will
explore practical, campus-specific topics like reporting tools, student
success prediction, data visualization, and ethical data use—building
skills to ask better questions and communicate insights with confidence.
Those who complete four sessions will be recognized as Data Influencers at
a special event with President Enyedi. Contact us at OIE at plattsburgh.edu
for more information or to collaborate on this idea—and keep your eyes
peeled for more details soon!

Data Challenge

It’s a battle of the sciences! This month, we look at the hard sciences
here at SUNY Plattsburgh to explore the use and utility of radar charts
<https://datavizcatalogue.com/methods/radar_chart.html>. They can be useful
for comparing distinct things across several metrics at once, however they
can also be difficult to interpret. Consider this dataset
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H9jOTey9Sm3oY2PDaAAuDOQyFCCTsGvf/view?usp=sharing>,
aggregated course grades from two randomly selected past academic years.
There are a few directions you could take your analysis to make meaningful
comparisons–the choice is yours! We are interested in seeing how you might
use these data to make a radar chart and consider the pros and cons of this
visualization technique. As you work through the challenge, it can be handy
to document the choices you make as you transform the data. This helps
others more deeply understand the analysis. For example, you’ll see that
the number of grades in each discipline is different. You might then decide
to work with proportions instead of raw counts so that trends aren’t
skewed. Good luck!

Feel free to use whichever tool or platform you are comfortable with. We
would love to hear from each of you participating as your work may help
inform future organizational analysis! Your visualization, KPI, or story
could even be featured in the following month’s newsletter.  If you’re
interested in participating but aren’t sure where to start, please contact
Levi Martinez (Lmart008 at plattsburgh.edu).

As we wrap up this issue, we’d like to extend our heartfelt congratulations
to OIE interns Brandon Craft and Maggie Goff as they prepare to graduate.
We’ve been fortunate to benefit from their talent and dedication during
their time at SUNY Plattsburgh.

Data Matters will be on summer break and return in August—but we’re still
here on the third floor of Kehoe if you need us!

The Office of Institutional Effectiveness

Erin Campbell | Associate Director, Coordinator for Institutional Research

Kylie King | Director

Levi Martinez | Data Analyst

Bidushi Bhowmik | Graduate Fellow and Qualitative Data Specialist

Brandon Craft | Intern and Visualization Specialist

Maggie Goff | Intern and PR Specialist

-- 
*Institutional effectiveness*
Office of the President
Kehoe 313B
101 Broad Street
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
plattsburgh.edu
*Have an idea? Share it here!* <https://bit.ly/3yYzLkN>

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