Webinar Recap

Getting students through the door is one challenge. Getting them across the finish line is another.

That was the theme for EdSights' recent virtual panel, Where Policy Meets Practice: A Conversation About Higher Ed Student Success in Georgia — a conversation that brought together a Georgia state legislator, two university leaders, and EdSights' co-founder. The panel examined what's standing between students and their degrees – and the shared role that policymakers, technology, and higher education institutions play in student success.

Panelists

• Rep. Phil Olaleye | Georgia State Representative
• Dr. Jermaine Whirl | President, Savannah State University
• Dr. Matt Varga | Dean of the Graduate School, University of West Georgia
• Carolina Recchi | Co-CEO & Co-Founder, EdSights
• Jordan Stein | Head of Communications and Public Affairs, EdSights

The barriers aren't academic. They're often just “life”.

Ask students why they leave, and the answer is almost never the classroom.

As Dr. Whirl stated,

"For Savannah State, and also for many institutions, financial instability is probably one of the first things. But it's really those out-of-pocket expenses — unexpected car repairs, family emergencies. Those things really do derail a student from progressing. And when we actually survey students and ask them why did you leave, most of the time it's not academics. It's something else."

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Representative Olaleye echoed the point, noting that these pressures compound hardest for first-generation students whose parents may not have navigated the same barriers. Carolina Recchi added data: the top barrier EdSights sees across nearly two million students is the struggle to balance work and school, while food insecurity increased 10% year over year in EdSights' most recent Persistence Study.

What makes these barriers particularly hard to address is that students — especially first-generation students — rarely connect their struggles to institutional support.

"Almost everyone we work with has a food pantry, technology assistance, and emergency grants. But it isn't the first instinct for a first-gen student to think, 'this is something my university needs to know about. This is my problem.' The student perception just does not align with the reality of what higher ed is prepared to offer."

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The infrastructure is largely there. Closing the gap between what exists and what students believe is available may be one of the highest-leverage things institutions can do right now.

Government has a role — but so does the system around the student

Representative Olaleye spent time on how state policy can lower barriers at scale — including a student-teacher pipeline bill he championed this past session that would have created paid internship opportunities to attract and retain educators in Georgia public schools. It didn't cross the finish line this year, but he made clear the work continues.

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More broadly, he described the state's role as a convener.

"Students feel comfortable again — that support system is so crucial. Because you can invest, and I'm sure Dr. Varga and Dr. Whirl invest so much, and their institutions provide so much. But if those students don't feel comfortable or don't have a guide to access and take advantage of those resources, then it could be all for naught. Our ability at the state to help play the role of convener — to bring higher ed and workforce together — is critical."

Key to student success: Understanding the real barriers faster

The panelists agreed that understanding the actual barriers underlying student challenges can be, well, a challenge. Carolina and Dr. Varga both pointed to this as an area that AI can support staff to scale that understanding.

Dr. Varga grounded this in something he's seen directly at the University of West Georgia.

"The number one reason we always hear when we're talking to a student is finances. It's always finances. But as we continue to dig in, as they continue to respond to an AI, we find that students are more honest — and, after three or four responses, it's not finances. It's a tragic death that they experienced. And instead of us sending them to the financial aid office, we need to pick up the phone and call them. We're able to help students really where they're at, and not where we see them at or think that they're at."

What gives these leaders optimism

The answers were telling. Nearly every panelist came back to need-based funding — not as an abstraction, but as something immediate and concrete. Dr. Worrell put it plainly: nearly 80% of Savannah State students are Pell-eligible, and the amount standing between many of them and a degree isn't tuition. It's $500 to $1,200. A car repair. A missed paycheck. He thanked the legislature for the recent $300 million DREAMS funding investment across the University System of Georgia, while making clear that the demand far outpaces what's currently available.

Dr. Varga pointed to something adjacent: seamless pathways into advanced degrees. West Georgia ranks second in social mobility in the state, and he credited much of that to the institution's ability to help students move through to graduate-level opportunities that connect directly to workforce demand.

Representative Olaleye's answer was bigger picture and summed up the conversation. 

"We have so many incredible assets — our people, our institutions, our leaders, Fortune 500 companies, no shortage of opportunity out there. It's just connecting the dots and bringing people together to identify opportunities and take advantage of them."

That's the throughline of this conversation. The resources exist. The urgency is there. What Georgia's higher education leaders are working toward — across campuses, across sectors, across the aisle — is ensuring the system around the student is as strong as the student's determination to finish.

Want to see what Student Voice Intelligence could do for your institution? Click here to learn more.

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