Find Your People: A Division Wide Collaborative to Improve Student Belonging

ABSTRACT A growing body of research links student sense of belonging to important educational outcomes including retention, persistence, graduation, and well‐being. Conventional approaches apply a one‐time intervention but may not effectively achieve an enduring belongingness. Samura reveals the importance of understanding belonging as more of an ongoing process that takes sustained effort, resources, and shared responsibility by organizations and institutions, not just individuals. Using multiple measures of belonging including factors from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Healthy Minds Survey , the Division of Student Affairs at Mississippi State University found consistency among these measures with up to 30% of MSU students describing a lack of sense of belonging. Additionally, through the implementation of a campus‐wide climate survey in Fall 2022, approximately 20% of student respondents indicated they had seriously considered leaving Mississippi State–48% of them identified lack of sense of belonging as the most significant reason for considering departure from the university. With much room for improvement as it related to our students’ sense of belonging, departments in the Division of Student Affairs set out to develop and implement ‘sense of belonging’ strategies. One of those strategies are shared here. In Fall 2023, the Division of Student Affairs was awarded an internal grant from the Division of Access, Opportunity and Success to address sense of belonging. Because previous evidence had illustrated a higher rate of sense of belonging in our pre‐college program participants when compared to non‐participants, the decision was made to focus the grant on a strategy associated with first‐time college students who had not participated in a pre‐college program. Made up of approximately 1550 students, this population of non‐pre‐college participants accounted for almost half the population of first‐time college students‐ a sizeable population with a potentially high percentage of students who lacked a sense of belonging. Their successful engagement potentially could lead to some very positive outcomes. Program strategies designed to attract the 1550 first‐time college and transfer students were facilitated by multiple departments across the Division of Student Affairs including our Center for Student Activities, Fraternity and Sorority Life, Student Leadership and Community Engagement, and the Office of Survivor Support. Students were invited to attend a “Find Your People” resource session including a one‐on‐one consultation with professional staff members and seasoned student leaders. The goal of these consultations was to learn about the interests of the participating students, connecting them to specific organizations and activities they were curious to explore. Additional campus‐wide programming branded “Find Your People” helped link students to organizations and activities of interest to them. The “Find Your People” campaign invited all MSU departments and student organizations to plan events or programs where the main goal was for students to meet other students. Departments were asked to use the #findyourpeople hashtag on social media and to register the event through our event management system allowing us to market these events directly to the students. All events were required to have a meet‐and‐greet component built in, no matter the size of the audience they were targeting. Using our campus‐based student organization management and attendance tracking system, we monitored the engagement of these students over the course of the semester to assess the scope of their connections to organizations and their attendance at campus programs. We then compared fall to spring semester return rates of pre‐college early start program participants and non‐participants to determine if there were statistically significant differences. Summary Belongingness efforts require a coordinated institutional response. While individual programs and activities can create a sense of belonging in the moment, a sustained sense of belonging is achieved through consistent engagement and communication. Data regarding belongingness is likely available on campus without developing and deploying new instruments. Working with institutional offices of research and effectiveness to use existing data sources can save time and resources. The involvement of current students and student organizations in belongingness work is important. Engaging student leaders in conversations and asking them to help come up with solutions is helpful. It also creates awareness that every student on campus is not having a similar experience of welcome and connection. More assessment is needed to fully understand the ways transfer students are or are not experiencing a sense of belonging and how their sense of belonging, or lack thereof, is impacting degree progress.