The Office of General Education and the University Advising Center (UAC) have completed their Spring 2025 campaign for Degree Planner completion and Success Fest. Both offices collaborated on Success Fest, an event dedicated to promoting and adopting Degree Planner among undergraduate students.
The Spring 2025 Success Fest occurred on February 26th in Hughes-Trigg Ballroom C. Students were encouraged to complete their Degree Planner before this date to gain entrance into Success Fest, however, students were also able to complete their Degree Planner on the day of the event. In total, 69 students attended the Spring 2025 Success Fest.
Leading up to the event, on February 3rd, 2025, all undergraduate students received a To-Do message on their my.SMU Student Dashboard that prompted them to complete their Degree Planner by the university deadline of March 1st. Email communications also went out to students, encouraging them to seek help from their Peer Academic Leaders (PALs) or academic advisors to assist them in completing their Degree Planner. These efforts included and resulted in:
- Four Degree Planner Workshops hosted by the PALs
- Six Degree Planner Workshops hosted by the UAC
- 32 appointments scheduled with the PALs
By March 1st, there were 2,497 students that completed their Degree Planner.
A new aspect to the initiative this year was a second promotional campaign that was run from March 3rd – 10th to target students who did not complete their Degree Planner by the spring academic calendar deadline. These efforts included and resulted in:
- A second To-Do message was posted on students’ my.SMU Student Dashboards who had not completed their Degree Planner
- Two additional Degree Planner Workshops hosted by the UAC
- 20 additional appointments scheduled with PALs
In total, the utilization initiative resulted in 3,100 total undergraduate students completing their Degree Planner.
Students who completed their plans, were surveyed about their Degree Planner user experience while students who did not complete a plan were asked about potential barriers. These responses will be analyzed to make improvements to future marketing campaigns and vendor improvement requests.
Success Fest and the Degree Planner completion campaign will return in the Fall 2025 semester, but students can still complete their Degree Planner by utilizing OIT’s Degree Planner website or scheduling an appointment with their PAL.
