Dear students,

In September, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign launched our university-wide Student Success Initiative, an effort to better identify the factors that lead to positive and productive experiences for our undergraduate students. The initiative was launched at a kick-off event on September 16 that was attended by approximately 270 students, faculty, and staff. Participants provided feedback on what “student success” means to them and what we do well and where there are gaps on our campus in programs and services that factor into these definitions.

Subsequent to this event, we have held four lunch sessions this month to dig deeper into the themes that arose from the kick-off feedback. Building on those lunch sessions, we write to invite you to a dinner session specifically for students. Based on the feedback received to date, we will be looking deeper at seven categories for further exploration: teaching and learning; diversity, equity and inclusion; building community; health and wellness; affordability; academic advising and academic support.

I hope you will participate in one of these sessions:

• Wednesday, December 4 at the Women’s Resource Center;
• Wednesday, December 11 at the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center;
• Thursday, December 12 at the Asian American Cultural Center.

Please RSVP here. Each session will take place from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. and dinner will be provided.

If you require accessibility accommodations in order to participate, please email studentsuccessinitiative@illinois.edu as soon as possible to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs.

Sincerely,

Gio Guerra Perez
Assistant Chancellor

Jim Hintz
Associate Vice Chancellor

Kathy Martensen
Assistant Provost