In this episode of the Innovating Together Podcast, host Bridget Burns sits down with Steve Wuhs and Claire Creighton from Oregon State University to review a transformational story of change. How do you drive institutional change in a way that’s people-centered, ambitious, and built to last; especially in a complex, decentralized university? Oregon State has cracked the code.

Steve and Claire share their journey of developing a student success architecture that’s not just a slogan but a fully embedded, action-oriented strategy. They explain how they moved beyond reports gathering dust on shelves to build a collaborative framework that spans leadership teams, engages advisors, and ensures that every student, not just a select few, has the support to thrive.

You’ll learn about their strategic plan, “Every Student Graduates,” why building consensus and community matters more than top-down mandates, and how they created structures to sustain progress even through presidential transitions. Expect practical insights on:

• Designing effective leadership teams at the college level

• Democratizing data access to fuel real-time decisions

• Fixing broken task force models

• Turning decentralization from a barrier into an asset

• Keeping the human element at the heart of student success work

"We didn't just want a metric. We wanted a mindset: every student who starts here should have what they need to finish."

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This week's episode is sponsored by Mainstay, a student retention and engagement tool where you can increase student and staff engagement with the only platform consistently proven to boost engagement, retention, and wellbeing. To learn more about Mainstay, click Mainstay.