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Each month, Texas State University President Dr. Kelly Damphousse sits down with faculty members, staff, students, alumni, and community members for a conversation about all things TXST — the past, the present, and the bright future of the university.
Part of the TXST Podcast Network: https://www.txst.edu/podcast-network.html
- You know, I got an F my freshman year. I just didn't go to class. I didn't know. I was a first-generation student. I wasn't paying attention. And I thought if I just went, if I just took the exams, I'd be fine. It was English class. And I thought, "I'm really good at English. I'll just show up." I didn't realize there was, like, I guess I missed the first day when there was a discussion about attendance and I got F on it. It still sits on my transcript. It still burns me right now. But a more brittle person might have said, "Well, that's it. I'm clearly not college material." But we work really hard on grades and academic success.
- Yep, my first advice to students is go to class.
- Yes, exactly.
- That is the very first thing.
- I can tell you, that's actually very good advice.
- And that is something that is totally in the student's control.
- Today, I'm really excited about having a special guest here, Dr. Cynthia Hernandez, who is our vice president for student success. We're gonna learn a lot about what's going on behind the scenes. I think a lot of people think about universities like faculty and students and don't realize all the stuff that happens behind the scenes to make sure our students are successful. Cynthia, thank you for being here.
- Oh, thank you, Dr. Damphousse. Excited to be here.
- And so we wanna hear all about the student success stuff, but I always love to hear more about you, like your origin story. And those are always the fun parts. And so tell us a little bit about, now I know all the answers, but tell us about how you got here.
- Sure. I'm happy to do that. And I always struggle with these questions because I don't know how far to go back, right?
- Yeah, like, you know, I was born in...
- Yes. But I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. And one of those, loved school from the very beginning. Learner totally at heart.
- Were you like the teacher's pet? I could tell, yeah.
- Perfect attendance, right? But strong in math and science, really enjoyed it and it was something that becomes relevant in my story later on. Just really enjoyed being at school, enjoyed the learning aspect, but also enjoyed the social aspect and the sport aspect. I played sports all growing up, which also then blended in into some of the things that I do now. But, you know, ended up getting a scholarship to be able to go to college and so I was able to go straight to a four year institution.
- School here in Texas?
- Here in Texas, Texas A&M University. And I loved it. I loved being able to engage in campus, in campus life. I went in as an aerospace engineering major. Growing up in Houston, always wanted to be part of the space shuttle and NASA. And then quickly learned that that was not the career path for me. I actually ended up changing my major four times in undergrad.
- It's not unusual, right? You probably know about 10 degree programs when you're coming out of high school and you know about 15 jobs maybe because of people, your parents' friends and so on. And you get to college, you go, "Oh, there's all these other things I could do."
- Yeah, no, exactly right. And if you remember, math and science. I always thought because I was good in math and science, I needed to do something in math and science. And I ended up graduating with an animal science degree, wanting to go to vet school at the time when I chose that degree. But I will tell you, my junior year of college, I decided to do, I wanted to work in a vet clinic to see if this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my career. And I found a vet who had graduated from Texas A&M and told him what I wanted to do. And he gave me a summer position. And then I realized midway that that was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
- So we talk about internships and the value of that. And we always talk about, well, you're kind of, like, doing a job interview and this could result in a job. But a large part of it is like, do you really wanna do this?
- That is correct.
- Like, what you might imagine what a vet does or what a police officer does. And then you go, "Holy cow, I did not know this was," and then you say, "I got to do something else."
- "I think I wanna do something else." And simultaneously, while I was taking my courses in college, I became a resident assistant in the residence halls. And I also was an orientation leader as an undergrad. I worked also as a fish camp counselor, which is another type of orientation camp. So I was highly involved as a student leader. And I realized that even though I was strong in math and science, my true passion was around serving and helping others. And especially in this realm of higher education as a, both as an RA and as an orientation leader, I found that I, I found a lot of joy in helping students feel comfortable in a new place, help them navigate a new place, and help them be successful in a new place. That was so important to me. And I was doing that as a student leader. And I remember I had an orientation leader advisor and our director of residence life who both had come to me at one point and said, "Have you ever thought about being in student affairs?" And sometimes you don't even know around working at an institution of higher education unless you're going to be a faculty member before you come to college. But when you get there, you realize there are thousands of people who work every day to help this institution run, to help students be successful. And so that's what we did. I ended up applying to the master's program, staying, and that really started my career in student affairs and working in higher education. I worked at Northern Arizona University. I came back to Texas A&M University for many reasons. Just being a native Texan.
- You know, there's a rule. I think if you live in Texas and move away, that you have to move back, right?
- That you have to move back, you know? And my family has lived in this region of the country for over 150 years, six generations. And so being in Texas was really important to me and being back close to family was important to me. But then the position came open here at Texas State and I had a recruiter call me about it. I had never thought about leaving my alma mater. But I'm like, "I'm gonna take a look over here." And I was instantly drawn to the people who work on this campus, to the students who attend. And where we were going and where we had the opportunity to go as well. It's always important to me to be able to work in spaces where I feel like I can bring something to help make a difference. And I felt that calling and took the move, moved two hours down the road. And I've been here. I've been here about six years.
- Six years now.
- Six and a half years.
- Yeah, time flies, right?
- It does.
- The days go slow, but the years go fast.
- Yeah, that's true.
- And it actually leads right up into the conversation we wanna have now. So I was touched by your own story about being a student leader and the impact you have on student success. They call it student affairs in different universities. But, you know, there is a huge impact that our students have on the enterprise that we're doing here. I think people forget that not only do we have faculty and staff, but students are engaged here. And both of us being residents advisors living in residence halls know that intimately, personally about how that is. But even here, we have a lot of students that are super engaged in what we're doing here.
- We do, we do. I mean, we have over a couple thousand students who work just in the Division of Student Success.
- Just in your division.
- So if you start adding, you know, all of the other divisions, you know, students are a big part of the workforce here. But also big leaders in helping shape the culture of this institution and the student experience. And one of the neat things that I love about, you know, student employers and student employment, students being employees of the institution is you're constantly gaining, one, kind of networking opportunities, new friends, but also just developing those skills and competencies that are highly desired by employers and by, you know, selection committees of professional and graduate schools. So when we think about preparing students for a career of purpose, so not just for their first job, but for their career, those are the things they learn in these student employment experiences. And you can have a lot of fun doing it.
- A lot of fun and you help pay your way through school and not have to leave campus for your job.
- That's right.
- You know, I've got a group of students that work in our projects, the presidential events called the Gold Star Society. It used to be called Student Foundation. And you're right, they're learning about just their job, but they're learning about networking, showing up on time, you know, going the extra mile, how to engage with people, a lot of times with donors in the president's suite and so on. And it's not just the job, it's also the other stuff that happens around side of it that they can use when they start going on the market for their real job that not only do I know, you know, how to be an accountant, but I also know about these soft interpersonal skills that are really important. Actually increasingly sought after by employers, right?
- Yeah, I mean, we think about it and, you know, our student workers, our student leaders, they're involved in marketing their position, interviewing for the position, training the students, the finances, the risk management. You know, these are all things that are going to help them no matter what they're doing in life.
- Yeah, public speaking and making presentations and so on. Yeah, that's great. So you mentioned 2,000 student workers. But you're probably the third largest division. You think about academics in the Provost's Office and you think about the facilities administration part under Eric Algoe, but then you've got to be, like, the third largest after that. How many employees do you guys have?
- I think close to 500-
- 500.
- Full-time employees. And then you add on the student workers and the grad assistants.
- 2500.
- Yeah.
- That's a lot of people. They all don't report to you, of course.
- They do not.
- Thank goodness. But you've got a great support staff of assistant vice presidents-
- I do.
- That come from all over the country.
- All over.
- It's interesting. I think in student success, I think there is some gravitation, like, I worked there and then I moved up into student affairs or student success. But I think we've got a good mix of people that have come from other places that are aspirational peers, which really helps us, I think, not just replicate ourselves over and over again, but be thinking about how can we do things differently or better.
- Well, and it's interesting and it's important, right, as we continue to grow and elevate as an institution, you know, what does it mean to be an institution in the Pac-12 in terms of the student experience and student success when, you know, what does it mean to have this experience as an R1 institution and how might that look different as well? And both of those things helps us recruit individuals, like you said, from outside, from bigger institutions. As we grow, we always have to understand how to scale our division, how to scale services, how to meet the needs of, you know, 44,000 students. And sometimes it's hard to know how to do that if you've never done it before. And so, you know, that was one of the things when I came from my previous institution, I had already worked with a larger student body, so it was a little bit easier to understand how we might do something. But to your point about, and here's what I love, and you know, we talk about welcoming home Bobcats. We have a lot of students who work in my division or a lot of staff who work in my division who were former students in Texas State. Some of them have been here the whole time, but others have left and have found their way back.
- Just like you did.
- Yes, yes.
- And there's something good, you want a mix of that. You want people who, first off, love the university and are willing to, you know, make a lot of sacrifices to make it successful. But they also understand the culture and the history of it and they help perpetuate that culture, which is good. So you don't want all new people or all people who are coming from different places. You want that good mix, which is different from the faculty. You typically almost never hire your own graduates to be faculty members. There's some exceptions. But we're always looking to bring people from the outside in academia. But in student success, it seems to be that mix is really important.
- It is.
- Yeah, it's interesting to think about what we're doing here in the Division of Student Success. And there's a purpose. There's a reason we changed the name from student affairs to student success. Part of it is because when I was hired, I was given a list of like, here's your priorities, these are the things you want. And there was things like national reputation and becoming an R1 institution and, you know, maybe addressing things that were going on in athletics and so on. But right in, like, the second or third bullet was about improving student success. And mostly that's measured by first year retention, how many of your freshmen come back for their sophomore year, but also graduation rates and addressing that because historically, a president would meet with a freshman and say, "Look to your left and look to your right. In one year, only two of you will be here and in four years, only one of you will be here. Which one will you be?"
- Right.
- And we have a different orientation here that we say, "Look to your left, look to your right. You know, make sure all three of you are here in four years when you walk across the stage together." And I think we've made some really good headway in that arena on four-year graduation rates and retention rates. But I don't think people even know that we think about that. I mean, it's a huge deal for us. Having the biggest freshman class is great. But having the biggest graduation class is even better. So talk about the philosophy behind a Division of Student Success and about why you do what you do.
- We are in the business of helping students reach their academic goals. It is not a sink or swim, necessarily, philosophy, but it's about scaffolding support now. And you know, I tell new students and family members at orientation every summer, I said, "You still have to bring what my abuelita calls ganas, right? You have to bring the effort." And if you bring the effort and you are doing what you need to do and there are some things, some barriers that are helping, you are stumbling because of that, that's where we can help you, right? Or even doing proactively some things, helping form some good habits for you to be successful. But, you know, we want our students, students are investing a lot of money, families are investing a lot of money, the state is investing money, taxpayers are investing money. We wanna maximize those returns, right? What we want students, we want them to graduate on time, right, within budget.
- We don't want them taking eight years to graduate,
- No, no.
- Right?
- Or I have 150 hours of credit hour. 120 hours what you need. Let's get that as close as possible.
- As close as possible within budget, right? We want them to graduate with a credential of value and knowingly understand, right, the opportunities that they have with the majors they pick and the opportunities, academic opportunities they engage in. And then finally with the career purpose, right? Something they're passionate in, something that is gonna go beyond mastering the depth of knowledge to get a degree. We want that. They have to get that. But again, this notion of we are setting you up for a lifetime of learning and a lifetime of success. And so that's what we want students to get. The way we do that, and at its very basic form, right, student success is about mitigating or eliminating barriers and increasing opportunities. That's what we try to do day in and day out throughout the division, throughout the university. We're working towards that. We also have a framework that helps us understand that. And you know, you've heard a lot around health and well-being. You know, one of the things that we know about students to be successful at Texas State, it goes beyond just the academic preparedness and academic mastery. There are a host of other components that are influential in whether a student is successful here.
- You went to, as a freshman, a university that was pretty big. And I was in grad school the same time you were a freshman at A&M. And I remember walking around campus as a graduate student going, "Holy cow, this is so big." There was 40,000 students at the time. And you know, "How am I gonna find my way around?" I remember thinking, "What would it be like to be a freshman here?" And now you and I are working at a school that's actually bigger than the schools we attended. And how do you make this big school be welcoming and where people don't feel so overwhelmed? I'm sure they feel overwhelmed at first anyways. But how do you make it feel smaller?
- I think there's several ways that we do that here at Texas State. And I think it continues to evolve as well. So part of it you know, for the students, our first year students, the vast majority of them are required to live on campus.
- Yeah, that's huge, right?
- And that is huge. And we have been building as fast as we can to keep up with all the first year students that we have. But to create these environments, these living environments where, you know, students don't just eat and sleep, but they live and learn. And they make those connections. And our focus that first year in those halls are for students to make connections with themselves, amongst themselves, with their RAs, with their hall directors. And have that easy access and proximity to campus to become engaged in campus life in one way or another. That can help a big institution start to feel a little bit smaller. We also have onboarding programs like our new student orientations and our Cat Camps that also help. You know, when I talk about this framework that we use, there's two kind of areas on the framework and one is about individual connections and the other one is about community connections. And we know if students don't make those, the first time something goes wrong, it is so easy to pack up that suitcase and go home. And that's what we don't want. And especially when it is a barrier that can be easily overcome by just asking the right question to the right person. So what we're trying to do in all of our experiences is connect people, connect students to that person. Our first year seminar, US 1100 class is the other way we do that. Small class with a faculty or staff mentor there to be your person that first semester, any question, right? The wrong question is the unasked question, right? Those are some of the ways that we try to create, help create these smaller communities within the larger community.
- If you look at student success predictions, I always think about the three Fs, fit, which is what you just talked about. Like, I'm fit and friends. Do I have a community here? And I don't think there's any expectation that when you move to a city with five million people that you would be expected to have five million friends, but you find your people, right? And maybe the people in your cul-de-sac or whatever. Same thing happens at a large university. You make friends and you feel like you fit in. But there's two other Fs to pay attention to. And one of is Fs, like your grades. And the other one's finances or funding. And so talk about some of the things we're doing to help students get past, you've talked about fit a little bit. And housing is such a, first year housing especially, such a huge component of that. But talk about what we're doing with finances and with the Fs that we're trying to avoid. Or the Ds and the Fs and the Ws, right?
- Yes, yeah. Yeah, you know, I'll take the financial first and then I'll end with the academic. I think that we know, right, that students and families are constantly trying to figure out how to put together finances to be able to, for their student to continue here in college. And we have wonderful units that are out there helping students on the reactive side. When students get in trouble, how do we put together packages? How do we help them out with aid? You know, we've got the wonderful One Stop that's about to move to the first floor of this building. And people in there and financial aid and the other enrollment management functions that are working hard to do that. We've been really taking a look at, you know, what are more pieces around education that we can help our family members with and our students with to understand affordability and choices that they're able to make and levers that they're able to pull to be able to make the college experience more manageable. We've been doing a lot of research looking at how finances impact grades. And trying to be a little bit more proactive in some of that. We talk about student success work and the fact that we've got these levers that can change big systems and processes, but sometimes, especially when we talk about finances, we talk about student success being more hand to hand combat. It's about sitting with students, hearing what's going on, taking the educational moment and helping them out. So we're doing a lot of work around some of that.
- Some of the things we're doing with helping the finances part, you know, we have the BookSmart program where students pay a flat fee and all their books are covered. So I think it's like $255 a semester. I remember when I was with grad school, I was only taking three classes and I was spending, back then, this is a long time ago, I was spending four or $500 for books. And I can't imagine what I'd be spending now, but $255 is great. Holding tuition flat for past four years and the next two years, we committed to that as well. So not raising tuition. And also expanding our scholarship program. I think there's a myth out there that people are graduating with $300,000 in student loan debt, but our student loan, a lot of students graduate with no debt. And then the average student who is graduating with debt is like $20,000. That's less than a-
- New car.
- New car or a used car. And that's pretty good debt because the value, the return on that debt is pretty good. So we've done a lot of good stuff trying to keep the cost down. And also teach people about the value of, you know, how to think about your finances and not use your student loan to go buy something you shouldn't buy, right?
- Right, right.
- Yeah.
- Right. There's a way to be wise with the funding that's given or offered.
- Yeah.
- Right?
- And what about the Fs?
- The Fs, you know-
- You know, I got an F my freshman year. I just didn't go to class. I didn't know. I was a first-generation student. I wasn't paying attention. And I thought if I just went, if I just took the exams, I'd be fine. It was English class. And I thought, "I'm really good at English. I'll just show up." I didn't realize there was an, like, I guess I missed the first day when there was a discussion about attendance. And I got F on it. It still sits on my transcript. It still burns me right now. But a more brittle person might have said, "Well, that's it. I'm clearly not college material." But we work really hard on grades and academic success.
- Yeah, my first advice to students is go to class.
- Yes, exactly.
- That is the very first thing.
- I can tell you, that's actually very good advice.
- And that is something that is totally in the student's control. But yes, no, we're doing a lot around academic support. We have a lot of tutoring and SI available, Supplemental Instruction available to where students who want or need that extra assistance can go. I always tell students to utilize that from the beginning. Before you even think you need it, right, go ahead and prepare, be over prepared for that first test versus trying to make up ground afterwards.
- Motivated and capable students who come to Texas State should all be able to graduate. But the motivated part is the thing we can't control. It's the thing they can control.
- Correct.
- And then the combination of the support we provide and their motivation and their capabilities, they should all be graduating. They don't all graduate, but they're doing better. So four-year graduation rate, great success there.
- Yes.
- When I got here, I think we're around 74, maybe when you got here, about 74% of our freshman class came back and now we're 80%.
- 80%.
- And some of them, there's all kinds of reasons people don't come back. And some of uncontrollable on our part. They've got a family situation or whatever. But we've got a goal of getting that up to around 85%. And your team is right in the middle of that. So thank you for all the hard work there.
- We've been excited about doing it. And, you know, we want to not just be the university with the largest enrollment, but we want good success rates for our students. If you come here, you graduate from here and you go pursue what you want to pursue afterwards.
- And in May of 2026, highest graduation numbers ever. August of 2026, highest graduation numbers ever. Probably December of '26 will be the same way. As our student body has grown, as our student success efforts have been more successful, we're starting to see more and more graduates. And that six-year graduation rate, which always lags behind the four-year graduation rate, will start to pick up as well.
- We should see that picking up this year.
- Absolutely. So, all right, Cynthia, this is the last part of the podcast. So we have a thing we started doing right at the very beginning where we had people submit questions for me. So you get to be the podcast host.
- Oh, right.
- [Kelly] So you got to put your readers on.
- I do have to put my readers on.
- I've got mine in my pocket, by the way, so...
- Wonderful. Well, and I think, you know, we've touched on some of this. So the question is, "What student organizations were you in as a student? Or what student organization would you start if you were in college now?"
- I went to a community college for the first two years. And I think I was a member of, like, the law enforcement club or something like that, but it doesn't really, doesn't really resonate as a thing. But when I went back to school and I was at Sam Houston, I was walking by a building one day and it said Baptist Student Union. And, as a prison guard, I had been a member of a union, so I thought it was like a union. And I thought that maybe they help students with problems or whatever. And one day they had a sign in the window, it said sign up for the camping retreat at Camp Pineywoods. And I didn't know what Baptists were, but I knew what camping was. And so I signed up and going, and I got really involved with that campus ministry. It really changed my life in so many ways. It's how I met Beth and so on. And so the Baptist Student Union was probably my group that I was engaged with a lot. And we have a lot of campus ministries on our campus, by the way, here at Texas State that are really engaged with students as well. So for me, that was it. What about you? Were you part of something?
- I was, right? And I talked about being an orientation leader and a fish camp counselor, but, you know, one of the things I haven't chatted about was I was actually on our class council.
- Oh.
- And so class in '94 is my undergraduate year, which is a big deal at the institution that I attended. And I was on the class council and we organized a lot of things for our class to do together. We had dances every year and some other fun events. But one of the really neat things that I got to do in that role is there was a particular event that students had every year their senior year. And for one reason or another, a class of '64 didn't get to have their event. And so we ended up inviting them back to share ours with us. And it was the neatest opportunity to be able to connect with alumni. With former students who love their institutions and were excited to be back. It just gave us such joy and made it even that more special for us to be able to experience that.
- How many student organizations do we have at Texas State?
- Gosh, we have over 300.
- Over 300. So I always tell students, if you don't find one you like, just start one. I did a video with a Dungeons & Dragons group that meets on Friday afternoons in the library. And I'd play Dungeons & Dragons as a kid. That may not surprise people. It's kind of a nerdy thing to do, I think. But it was just a bunch of students who said, "You know, I like playing in high school. We should get together." And they started a club and they have a faculty or a staff member who's a sponsor and they just did the thing. And again, they found their people. And I'm sure if they have problems, they've got someone they can go talk to. Again, the impact of student, interpersonal reactions, interrelationships between students has such a huge impact on student success.
- Yeah, it really does. And you know, we always talk about students getting involved in that one major organization that's related to the major and then one just for them. Because there's some importance in having fun while you were here in college and that's where some of these student organizations can also help.
- One of the fun ones I know about is it's, I think it's called Quad Ball now, but it was originally called Quidditch. And so these are "Harry Potter" fans and they invited me to go to an event and they're just like, it's a big deal. They play intercollegiately. They play against other schools. And it's just a bunch of people who are "Harry Potter" fans and they played sport and it's a lot of fun. They run around with the broom between their legs and so on and have a lot of fun. But that's a group that they'll probably be friends for life. Like, they'll be in their weddings and they'll be at reunions and so on. That's how you make culture, not with 45,000 students, but with 20 or 30 students.
- Exactly right.
- Yeah. Thank you, Cynthia, for all you do-
- Thank you.
- At Texas State. And thank you for being here today, sharing a little bit about what's going on in our Division of Student Success. And thank you for joining us. It's always a great opportunity to learn more about what's happening at Texas State University. Thanks so much. States Up, everyone.