» Academic Excellence

Distinguish Chapman as a community of globally impactful scholars who break new ground with their research and challenge students with their teaching, strengthening a culture that values intellectual curiosity. 

Initiatives completed to achieve goal:

• Full-time faculty course coverage up from 52.8% in 2021-22 to 54.2% in 2022-23. 
• Established faculty retention pool.
• The Office of Research and Graduate Education organized a virtual workshop on federal funding trends with 25 faculty attendees.
• Provost Fund for Interfaculty Collaboration was established in fall 2023.
• All 11 Chapman schools and colleges established mentoring plans for faculty (fall 2023).
• The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) developed and implemented a menu of professional development workshops for faculty and initiated CETL Faculty Fellows and Associates Program (fall 2023).
• CETL Activated an Early Career Faculty Learning Community called Productive Pathways to Promotion. 
• The Fowler School of Engineering and Schmid College of Science and Technology hosted a grant writing boot camp for faculty and postdocs (winter 2023).
• The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Disability Services Office initiated the annual Innovations in Teaching and Student Success Conference.
• Schmid College of Science and Technology offered programs to train faculty in research mentoring and piloted a cluster hire program in STEM pedagogy.

Accelerate an ongoing rise in national and specialty rankings, with a particular focus on measures of academic achievement, financial resources and graduation/retention rates.

Initiatives completed to achieve goal:

• Dodge College of Film and Media Arts maintained the No. 4 ranking in Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap. It was also ranked No. 3 by Military.com.
• The Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support (IRADS) continues to monitor the 2025 Carnegie Classification, in which Chapman expects to maintain R2 Classification, and the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings and any changes to the methodology.
• #48 in best undergraduate teaching, U.S. News & World Report --up 18 spots
• #58 (tied) Most Innovative School, U.S. News & World Report
• #60 Best Business Schools, Argyros College of Business and Economics, U.S. News & World Report
• #92 (tied) Best Speech-Language Pathology Programs, U.S. News & World Report
• #96 Best Physician’s Assistant Programs, Crean College, U.S. News & World Report
• #97 (tied) Best physical therapy programs, Doctorate in Physical Therapy at Crean College, U.S. News & World Report
• #99 (tied) Best pharmacy schools, School of Pharmacy, U.S. News & World Report
• #109 (tied) Best Law Schools, Dale E. Fowler School of Law, U.S. News & World Report
• #126 Best Undergraduate Economics (newly introduced ranking) 
• #133 Top U.S. Colleges with Greatest Economic Diversity, The New York Times’ College-Access Index
• #159 (+ 31) Best Undergraduate Business

Support student success by developing a wraparound model of holistic advising in which students can succeed academically, even when facing personal, financial, medical or mental health concerns.

Initiatives completed to achieve goal:

• Created reports that focus on courses with high DFW rates.
• Implemented early assessment tools in fall 2023 to examine the quality of first-year student engagement and peer relationships.
• Developed an early intervention strategy for first-year students who do not successfully complete 12 credits in their first semester.
• Retention for the cohort who entered in fall 2022 is 90%.
• Established pre-registration for students to participate in the Exploratory Majors Program. 
• Launched a reorganized version of our Academic Advising program to align with the new wraparound vision. This changed the model from function-based to college-based, with dedicated advisors for students and faculty in each college. We also developed a training program for the new advising model. These changes allow for more in-depth support, as seen below:
  • Argyros College of Business & Economics: 2 full-time advisors
  • Attallah College of Educational Studies: 1 full-time advisor
  • College of Performing Arts: 1 full-time advisor
  • Crean College of Health & Behavioral Sciences: 1 full-time advisor
  • Dodge College of Film & Media Arts: 2 full-time advisors
  • Fowler School of Engineering: 1 full-time advisor
  • Schmid College of Science & Technology: 1 full-time advisor
  • School of Communication: 1 full-time advisor
  • Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences: 1 full-time advisor
  • Exploratory Majors Program: 1 full-time advisor
• Launched a pilot for yearly class scheduling. 
• Copying previous class schedule into new term class schedule.
• Limiting the number of classes offered due to a stable number of students.
• Developed degree audit report to detail demand for required courses.
• Created degree audit reports that will be used to advise students who are missing requirements in majors and minors. 
• Established having a chaplain at the Rinker Health Science Campus one day per week. 
• Developed and implemented GUS 125: A Wellbeing Journey, a 1-credit course that focuses on identifying skills and habits that contribute to stronger mental health.
• Provided scholarships and funding workshops with the Center for Undergraduate Excellence on Gilman Scholarship.
• Delivered "Discover Chapman" presentations to high school students three times per semester to promote Chapman and its international opportunities.
• Participants in travel courses rose from 171 during interterm 2023 to 228 during interterm 2024, a 39% increase.
• Offered 15 summer travel courses in 2024, up from 12 in 2023, a 25% increase.
• Proposed a record number of travel courses for summer 2024.
• 341 students participated in a semester abroad program in academic year 2023-24, a 14% increase from 2022-23.
• Began offering The Engineering Program in Korea and the Environmental Science program in Costa Rica.

Enrich the Chapman Experience by expanding opportunities for students from underrepresented communities and pursuing formal recognition as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI).

Initiatives completed to achieve goal:

• Implemented the HSI Dashboard.
• Hired Inaugural Director of LGBTQ Pride and Achievement.
• The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the Cross-Cultural Center and the Fish Interfaith Center hosted 229 programs and events in fall 2023.
• Attallah College sponsored faculty leadership to attend Diversity and the Department Chair training from the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Supporting Racially Minoritized Faculty program from Penn State.
• Consolidated multiple reporting websites into a single web portal location to make it easier for students, faculty and staff to report incidents.
• The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion provided a $2,000 budget supplement to support enhanced international student programs/activities.
• Grew Hispanic undergraduate enrollment from 18% to 19% from fall 2022 to fall 2023.

Enhance graduate student support and recruitment and track student milestones and advising.

Initiatives completed to achieve goal:

• Established the Provost Dissertation Non-Tuition Fellowships: four fellowships every term for advanced Ph.D. students.
• Launched a pilot graduate housing program, which can be used to recruit new graduate students for fall 2024.
• Schmid College of Science and Technology launched the Math, Philosophy and Physics Interdisciplinary doctoral program.
• Schmid College of Science and Technology faculty and students initiated new graduate recruitment efforts through attending, presenting and exhibiting at the meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS).
• The Graduate Management Milestone Module launched in Campus Solutions.

Optimize the university library as an academic hub promoting information literacy.

Initiatives completed to achieve goal:

• Launched the Support of Open Access Research and Scholarship (SOARS) program to support open access research for junior-level faculty in collaboration with the Office of Research and Graduate Education and Office of the Provost.
• Forty-three percent of all group study and multimedia rooms have been renovated and upgraded as of November 2023.
• 100% increase in tours of the Oskar Schindler Archive (from 0 in 2022 to 28 in 2023).
• 100% increase in social media postings highlighting specific artifacts (from 0 in 2022 to 2 in 2023).
• Provided 12 workshops and presentations in fall 2023 semester on AI and data literacy to faculty, staff and students.
• The Office of Research and Graduate Education (OORGE) launched the AI Sub-Taskforce on research/scholarship/creative activities.

Promote a culture of pre-eminent and sustainable research and creative and scholarly inquiry.

Initiatives completed to achieve goal:

• The Office of Research and Graduate Education and Information Systems and Technology created a grants dashboard, enabling PIs to view available grant balances and recent expenses of their grants.
• The Office of Research and Graduate Education, Information Systems and Technology and Financial Services collaborated on the development of grants statistics in Power BI to access real-time data, tables and diagrams of proposals and awards by fiscal year, colleges/schools, sponsor, faculty type and budget ranges.
• Implemented cost-sharing model for the vivarium.
• Created an advisory board for the Office of Research and Graduate Education.
• Initiated quarterly meetings with STEM deans to align strategic initiatives and address challenges.
• Increased federal awards received from 48 to 50 from FY 2022-2023 to Q1 and Q2 of FY 2023-24.
• Increased federal funding from $7.18 million to $11.13 million from FY 2022-2023 to Q1 and Q2 of FY 2023-24.
• Increased research and development expenditures in Q1 and Q2 of FY 2023-24 to $5.32 million, up from $4.98 million in the first two quarters of FY 2022-23.

Refine the portfolio of new undergraduate and graduate programs.

Initiatives completed to achieve goal:

• Attallah College proposes replacement of IES Schools Emphasis with Liberal Studies major in response to change in state law regarding preparation of elementary-bound educators.
• Dodge College of Film and Media Arts phased out the MFA in documentary filmmaking and the TV Writing and Production program.

Assess and reorganize academics to ensure relevance, performance and efficiency.

No updates for year one.

Distinguish Chapman as a community of globally impactful scholars who break new ground with their research and challenge students with their teaching, strengthening a culture that values intellectual curiosity. 

Student Success

• Implemented plan to support faculty in continuous pedagogical improvement.
• Created the Early Arrival Program for students on the autism spectrum.
• Extending the role of Orientation leaders to offer workshops for new students at strategic points throughout the academic year. 
• Created dashboards that track student progress towards graduation, including internal transfers.
• Developed a new mandatory grad-check process for juniors.
• Attallah College raised the Teacher Performance Assessment Exam (TPA Exam, the California teacher licensing exam) pass rate to 100% for MACI, 100% for MA Special Education and 97% for MAT in Teaching for 23/24 graduating cohort.  
• Crean College initiated an embedded tutor program for courses in psychology and health sciences.
• The 10-year average retention rate for Exploratory students (2012-2021) was 85.9% with a range from 80.8% to 92.3%. The students who entered Chapman as Exploratory majors in fall 2022 had a retention rate of 84.7% in fall 2024. The students who entered Chapman as Exploratory majors in fall 2023 have a preliminary retention rate of 91.3% in fall 2024.  
• Developed a new one-credit course, “Introduction to Chapman,” for Exploratory majors in fall 2024. This course will cover topics including academic planning, academic resources, study skills, career exploration, major exploration, campus community resources and self-awareness skills that are essential to success in higher education.
• First-year retention rate as of September 5, 2024,  was at 92.4%. 

Enhance Advising-Related Processes

• Launched the new Slate Student Success System to manage advising-related communication with undergraduate students. 
• Implemented new advising process for incoming new students during the “summer handoff” between admissions and academics.  
• Argyros College of Business and Economics launched full-year course scheduling across all undergraduate and graduate programs.

Improve Full-Time Faculty Density

• Full-time course coverage has increased from 54.2% in 2022-23 to 57.4% in 2023-24.
  • Attallah College – Converted one vacated tenure line into non-tenure track (NTT) positions for greater class coverage. 
  • Schmid College – Converted super adjunct positions into four new and one  NTT positions; a Faculty Retention Pool has been established and utilized.
  • College of Performing Arts – Added two NTT lines; a total of 3 new hires started in fall 2024.
  • Crean College – Converted three super-adjunct positions into one full-time instructional faculty line.
  • Wilkinson College – Converted three super adjunct and nine part-time lecturers (PTL) to NTTs, reducing the number of PTLs from 114 to 89.

Strengthen Development of Faculty

• Attallah College sponsored faculty to participate in the NCFDD Summer Program for new tenure track hires and the Academic Leadership Academy at Penn State.
• Crean College has focused on the development of research faculty in the areas of grant-getting and manuscript preparation. Crean’s associate dean of research held a series of workshops devoted to writing papers to target specific high-impact journals and a second series on each section of a grant. 
• Schmid College offered CIMER training for research mentoring and offered junior faculty the services of a professional grant writer, in coordination with the associate dean for Research and Development. It also sponsored faculty participation in national leadership workshops (e.g. at HHMI and Harvard) and initiated and sponsored a twice-yearly writing retreat to help faculty with manuscript and grant writing. The college invited college leadership to the executive leadership training workshop, "The Business of Science.” 
• The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) developed and implemented a menu of professional development workshops (Fall 2024); is continuing the CETL Faculty Fellows and Associates Program (Fall 2024) and held the Innovations in Teaching and Student Success Conference and a day institute.
• CETL offers the Early-Career Pathways to Promotion program for new and pre-tenured faculty. It also initiated the new, three day Course Design/Redesign Institute and is continuing writing groups.
• Argyros College facilitated a workshop to explore how faculty could integrate analytics into their disciplines and courses, and hosts a weekly faculty speaker series to learn from top researchers throughout the country. 
• The Office of Research and Graduate Education (OORGE) in partnership with the Office of the Provost launched a series of 22 on-demand online courses to support faculty developing skills and to increase faculty expertise in areas such as publishing, effective science communication and participating in leading research collaborations.
• Wilkinson College established a faculty development series on best practices for teaching, advising and completing annual reports and CY promotion resorts. It also hosted a book prospectus workshop series and culminating bootcamp. The college also hosts research lunches with tenure-track faculty to enhance interdisciplinary research collaborations and continues to offer internal funding opportunities for speakers, conferences, events, undergraduate research fellows and workshops.
• Continued to build faculty connection with awards and organizations: 
  • Dr. Cintia Citterio (CUSP) was awarded a New Investigator Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy in 2024 and the Endocrine Society Early Investigator Award.
  • Dr. Young-Woo Nam (CSUP) received the American Heart Association's Career Development Award. 
  • Dr. Jeff Goad (CUSP) was honored as an ASHP Fellow. 
  • CPhA Honors Dr. Laressa Bethishou (CUSP) received the New Practitioner Award from the California Pharmacists Association.
  •  

Germinal Faculty Hiring Program

• Schmid College has begun to grow a faculty cluster in discipline-based education research. Two faculty are present; another will arrive in January 2025.
• Hired two sociology scholars, Steve Pfaff and Karen Snedker, who work across the boundaries of sociology, history, European studies, demography and economics.

Presidential Fellowships

• Thomas Pradeu, a leader in immunology and the philosophy of biology now comes to Chapman each January. During that time, in addition to engaging with Chapman faculty, he teaches an interterm class on immunology and organizes an annual conference. The 2024 conference was entitled “Is Philosophy Useful for Science, and/or Vice Versa?” and the 2025 conference will be on “Theorizing and Modeling in Neuroscience”.  

Improve National and Specialty Rankings

• The College of Performing Arts (CoPA) was named a Best College Dance Program by Danceus.org for the fourth year in a row. 
• Chapman was recognized by Performing Arts Schools as among the top 100 performing arts programs in the US. 
• CoPA’s theatre program was ranked in the top 10% in the US by Performing Arts Schools. 
• The School of Pharmacy moved up 19 spots in the national pharmacy school rankings (USNWR).
• Chapman was named among the best colleges in 2024 by The Princeton Review and The Wall Street Journal.
• Dodge was ranked No. 4 in the nation for the fourth year running by The Hollywood Reporter.
• The Fowler School of Law moved up to No. 108 in the US News & World Report rankings.
• Crean College’s Physician Assistant program broke the top 100 in its first ever ranking.

Student Success

• Schmid College: Research Exploration and Skills Development Summer Program for URMs.
• The overall retention rate* grew from 89.7% in fall 2017 to 91.8 in fall 2024.
  • Retention trends for Pell-eligible students grew to 92.7% in 2024, up from 92.1 in 2018.
  • Retention rates for students who participated in the First-Year Exploratory Cohort grew from 86.5% in fall 2017 to 91.3% in fall 2024.
• The five-year graduation rate grew from 76.8% in fall 2011 to 79.2% for fall 2018.
• The School of Pharmacy Class of 2023 ranked No. 18 in the nation in pharmacy licensing exam (NAPLEX) pass rate.
• The School of Pharmacy class of 2024 had the third-highest residency match rate in California.

*As of Sept. 5, 2024. 2024 Data not official until census.

Enhance Advising and Related Processes

• Funded a surge pool to contract with additional therapists during times of high demand.
• Added a Fitness Education Program designed to offer students the opportunity to receive personalized support, learn how to use fitness center equipment and achieve desired fitness goals.
• Expanded outreach methods to include more peer-to-peer global education advising and increased global education applications from spring 2024 to spring 2025 by over 100 students.
• Awarded Phi Beta Kappa funds to six students, four of whom are studying critical languages. 
• Launched the peer-to-peer Ask Me Anything series for outbound study abroad students. 
• Saw an increase of 56% of accepted students for spring 2025 semester programs over spring 2024 accepted students. 
• Increased students abroad by 25% from fall 2023 to fall 2024. 

Further DEI Efforts and HSI

• Increased Hispanic/Latinx undergraduate enrollment to 22% in fall 2024, up from 19% in 2023-24.
• Attallah College successfully concluded the Padres Unidos Community Worker Program at Chapman (2022-2024 cohort). 
• Schmid College hired tenure-track faculty member Christine O'Connell, DEI STEM mentor, to start in fall 24. 
• Added a Latina sorority, with a plan to add a Latino fraternity.
• The College of Performing Arts dance program collaborated with the Camille A. Brown Dance Company to develop a new Gen Ed course, Black Dance in Motion.
• The College of Performing Arts BM Percussion and Guitar programs expanded curriculum to include global, jazz, commercial and popular styles in addition to traditional western.  
• Crean College was awarded with a CalOptima $5M grant to provide low-income, academically qualified Orange County residents with full tuition scholarships. The goal is to diversify the health care workforce. 
• Merged the Fish Interfaith Center with the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to enhance inclusiveness of religious and cultural diversity and strengthen spiritual diversity and support on campus.
• Built an international-student semester program portfolio to include more opportunities for Latino/a heritage seekers. Added programs in Spain, Argentina and Chile. 
• Piloted two summer study abroad programs in Chile and South Korea. 
• A Center for Global Education staff member served on the Diversity Abroad International Student Success Committee and provided strategies for integrating international students into campus life, focusing on fostering inclusivity, and addressing shared challenges.  
• Enhanced student engagement and cultural exchange through new initiatives for incoming exchange students, including roller skating events and podcast episodes. 
• Created WhatsApp groups for exchange students to improve communication and team building before arriving on campus.  
• Introduced a supplemental monthly exchange student newsletter to keep students informed on large campus events at Chapman continuing campus and office engagement. 
• The Schmid College DEI task force coordinated faculty and student attendance at the annual meeting of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science. 

Graduate

• The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) hired its first graduate-student intern (summer 2024) and is working to develop a Graduate Pedagogy Association (Club) slated to begin spring 2025. 
• The Office of Research and Graduate Education (OORGE) launched financial support from Provost Nature Masterclass Online (June 2024 to June 2025), a series of 22 on-demand, online courses to support graduate students and postdoctoral researchers developing skills and to increase faculty expertise in areas such as publishing, effective science communication and participating on leading research collaborations. By the end of July, four graduate students and four post-doctoral researchers had signed up for the courses.  
• Within graduate housing, as of the end of July 24, the university allocated 73 units for graduate students. 
• Provost Dissertation Fellowships supported eight Ph.D. candidates in four programs. 
• Workshops/training offered to Graduate Students:  
  • Presentation workshops (Writing Center) 
  • Thesis/Dissertation submission workshops (Library) 
  • Mentorship development (Schmid College)

Library as Academic Hub

• Surpassed five million downloads in the library’s Digital Commons repository, which highlights the academic excellence and scholarship of our Chapman University community. 
• Awarded seven faculty from across disciplines with funding support through the Support of Open Access Research & Scholarship (SOARS) program. 
• Provided 244 library workshops, presentations and instruction sessions to students, faculty and staff on information literacy, data literacy and AI literacy.  
• Increased the number of e-resources and data resources by 20+.
• Launched the Inaugural Eric M. Scandrett Graduate Library Research Prize. 
• Promoted library services and resources through blogs and social media posts. 
  • Published 90 library blogs. 
  • Increased to 13,009 new library blog users, marking a 56.9% increase.
  • Recorded 26,789 library blog views, indicating a 32.9% rise. 
  • Increased Facebook visits to 823 which is a 15.4% increase. 
  • Increased Instagram profile visits to 963 visits which is a 12.5% increase. 

Promote Culture of Sustainable Research

• Increase extramural funding: 
  • Colleges and Schools from $17,722,746 to $23M+  ($20,783,157 as of first quarter, fiscal year 2024-25).
  • Centers and Institutes from current $6,184,673 to $10M ($9,870,389 as of first quarter, fiscal year 2024-25).
  • Federal Awards from current $10,456,072 to $15M ($21,704,931 as of first quarter, fiscal year 2024-25 for Colleges/Schools and Centers/Institutes).
• In Crean College, faculty received the following awards in the 2023-24 fiscal year: NIH $3,175,025; NSF $133,200; American Heart Association $153.582; Henry Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine $207,233; Next Generation Aeronautics $29,000; Cardon Medical Equipment $3,000. 
• From fiscal year 2021/22 to fiscal year 2023/24, Chapman increased the number of funding proposals from 236 to 156.
• From fiscal year 2021/22 to fiscal year 2023/24, Chapman increased the total awards received from 104 to 145, and the total award dollars received from 17,680,000 to 22,610,000.
• Within Wilkinson College, New grants awarded since the start of the 2023/24 fiscal year over $100,000 plus federal grants and fellowships under $100,000 include: Indiana University/ Lilly Endowment, Inc. $1,102,481; Indiana University/John Templeton Foundation $664,186; National Science Foundation $494,256; Indiana University/Templeton Religion Trust $281,329; University of Nebraska Omaha/Department of Homeland Security $211,074; University of Nebraska Omaha/Department of Homeland Security $200,411; California State Library $100,000; University of Nebraska Omaha/ Department of Homeland Security $74,999; University of Oklahoma, Strong Heart Study, National Institutes of Health $30,000; National Endowment for the Arts $25,000; University Corporation for Atmospheric Research UCAR/ NOAA $15,568;
  and others.

Refined Portfolio of Programs

• Attallah College received a $250,000 Integrated Teacher Preparation Grant from CTC to create a four-year bachelor’s plus special education credential program.