Overview
UMass Systemwide Congress on Student Success: Improving Retention
September 29, 2022, 8:30am-3:00pm
UMass Amherst Student Union Ballroom
Please note: The location for this event has been changed from Old Chapel to the Student Union Ballroom.
Please join us for a day-long system-wide congress on student success with an emphasis on retention. Chancellor Subbaswamy will open the gathering in the Student Union Ballroom at 8:30 am on Thursday, September 29 and we will enjoy a stimulating day of panels and presentations that we hope will galvanize even more attention to retention than we already muster! We invited all of the Chancellors, Provosts, Deans, Department Chairs, Vice Chancellors and Vice Provosts, as well as a host of colleagues from Institutional Research, student affairs, and the list goes on. We hope this will be an opportunity for all of us to gather together on a lovely fall day in Western Massachusetts.
Lunch will be served. Parking is available at the Campus Center Garage.
The agenda is available below.
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UMass Systemwide Congress on Student Success:
Improving Retention
Francesca Purcell is Faculty Director of the Higher Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was the program director for education and the development of knowledge at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences overseeing educational policy and research activity including a multi-year, national study entitled The Future of Undergraduate Education, The Future of America. She formerly served as provost/chief academic officer at Massachusetts Bay Community College providing leadership across three campuses enrolling over 8,000 students. Dr. Purcell also served as associate commissioner for Academic and P-16 Policy for the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education where she engineered public policy on college completion, student transfer, developmental education, and performance-based student financial aid and oversaw the review of new academic programs and newly-established colleges and universities. She is the recipient of the Governor's Commonwealth Citation for Outstanding Performance in recognition of her contributions to public higher education. She has held adjunct faculty positions at Boston College, Suffolk University, and Roxbury Community College and has co-authored works on international women’s colleges and universities. She has consulted for the World Bank and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation National Fellowship Foundation. Purcell holds a B.A. from Amherst College, a M.S. from Northeastern University, and a Ph.D. from Boston College.