Backstage at CUNY SPS, Staff Pioneer Data to Support Student Success
Meet the people working behind the scenes to help our students succeed
Helping our students succeed is the number one priority for the faculty, staff, and administrators at the CUNY School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS), though many of them often do this work behind the scenes.
As part of a growing School-wide effort to use data and systems to help drive student success, Enrollment Systems Specialist Cindy Lin quietly champions CUNY SPS students through her innovative use of data.
In her enrollment management role at the Office of Admissions, Lin compiles data from systems like Blackboard, DegreeWorks, EAB Navigate, and CUNYfirst, and then works with the School’s advisement, academic departments, and other enrollment management units to generate reports that help identify — and then meet — student needs.
One of the reports Lin has pioneered is focused on electives not allowed. For this, Lin generates a list that identifies students who are registered for courses that do not meet their degree requirements. She then passes this on to the School’s advisors, who reach out to the students to instruct them to drop or
swap out the course for one applicable to their degree.
“This is quite simple, but the impact is pretty powerful because you can actually tie the dollar amount that student saves by not paying for a class they don’t need to that report,” explained Lin.
Lin also develops reports that help students cross the finish line to their degree. In one example, Lin routinely pulls data to determine which students may have only 1–3 classes remaining before graduation, and works closely with advisement to encourage them to register for either the winter or
summer session so that they may complete their credit requirements sooner.
Other reports Lin compiles assist with needs related to course planning or financial assistance. Each semester, Lin generates a list of all students who will be eligible to register for a capstone project class to help various academic programs plan how many of these courses to offer. Lin also provides lists of
students who may be eligible for scholarship opportunities to the Office of Scholarships, which then reaches out to those students directly to encourage them to apply.
For Lin, her work is part of a larger culture of support at CUNY SPS.
“It’s a collaboration between the data we have and the offices who have the relationships with our students and can act on it,” said Lin. “I use the tools available to provide these teams with whatever they need that may be helpful. In this way, I see my role here as fulfilling wishes.”
