Registration

2026 Registration Rates

Join us October 7-9 for the fifth annual Texas Conference on Student Success at Lyndon B. Johnson Student Center on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos. The theme this year is Beyond the Surface, which invites us to look deeper and explore the underlying currents and interconnected forces that influence and shape student success.

Registration is now open. The earlier you register, the more you save!

LATE/ONSITE

Professionals

$375

Preconference Workshop

$150

Deadline

October 7

What’s Included

Your conference registration fee includes the following:

Conference app and materials
Swag bag, including a conference t-shirt
Plenary and breakout sessions
Breakfast on October 8 & 9
Lunch on October 8
Happy Hour Poster Session
Evening Reception at the Meadows Center

Lunch will be provided for attendees of the preconference workshops.

Preconference Workshops

October 7, 2026

9 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Expand your learning by including a preconference workshop in your conference experience. These workshops are optional and may be added on during conference registration for an additional fee.

Empowering Faculty for an AI-Enabled Future: Building Faculty AI Capacity Through Community, Design, and Practice
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping teaching and learning in higher education, presenting both new opportunities and complex challenges for faculty and institutions. While many instructors are aware of AI tools and their potential, fewer feel equipped to meaningfully integrate them into their courses in ways that support student learning, uphold academic integrity, and align with disciplinary goals. This preconference session explores how centers for teaching excellence can move beyond tool-based training to build sustained faculty capacity through intentional design, community-based learning, and scalable support structures.

Grounded in the work of the Center for Teaching Excellence, this interactive session will highlight a multi-pronged approach to AI integration that moves from exploration to implementation to institutional scaling. Participants will begin with an engaging activity designed to surface their own perspectives on the benefits, challenges, and tensions surrounding AI in the classroom.

The session will then spotlight faculty-driven innovation through examples drawn from AI Learning Communities. These communities bring together instructors across disciplines to experiment with AI in their teaching, redesign assignments, develop transparent AI course policies, and explore strategies for supporting student AI literacy. Through a series of brief case studies, participants will examine not only what faculty are doing, but also the pedagogical decisions behind those choices and the emerging impacts on student engagement and learning.

Building on these examples, participants will engage in a hands-on design studio where they will apply structured design principles to their own teaching or faculty support contexts. Working individually or in small groups, attendees will identify opportunities to integrate AI into assignments, assessments, or course policies while considering key constraints such as academic integrity, workload, and student access. Facilitators will guide participants through a design process that emphasizes alignment between learning outcomes, instructional activities, and assessment strategies.

The session will conclude with a focus on scaling and sustainability. Participants will reflect on how institutions can move from isolated innovation to coordinated, evidence-informed practice by leveraging communities of practice, targeted professional development, and strategic support models. Throughout the session, emphasis will be placed on actionable strategies that participants can adapt within their own institutional contexts.

By the end of the session, participants will leave with practical tools, design frameworks, and a deeper understanding of how to support faculty in integrating AI in ways that are pedagogically sound, contextually appropriate, and aligned with student success goals.

Workshop Facilitators:

Dr. Jamie Thompson, Associate Director, Educational Development, Texas A&M University

Michele Vick, Educational Consultant , Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning
From Playbook to Practice: Building Scalable Campus Mental Health Systems That Advance Student Success
Student mental health is no longer a peripheral issue—it is central to student success, persistence, completion, and workforce readiness. Across Texas, colleges and universities are seeing increasing levels of student stress, anxiety, depression, trauma exposure, and basic needs insecurity, all of which directly affect academic performance and retention. Recent statewide findings indicate that 64% of students report emotional stress or mental health concerns as a significant reason they considered stopping out, while many campuses continue to face workforce shortages, fragmented services, and uneven access to care.

By the end of this pre-conference session, participants will be able to: Understand the key findings and five strategic pillars of the Texas Mental Health Playbook; Assess their institution’s current mental health ecosystem using a readiness framework; Identify barriers impacting student access, equity, and mental health outcomes; Develop strategies that connect mental health initiatives to enrollment, persistence, completion, and belonging; Build a campus-specific implementation roadmap with short-term and long-term priorities; Learn scalable practices that can be adapted across community colleges, universities, and technical institutions; Strengthen cross-functional leadership approaches that move mental health from siloed service to institutional priority.

Workshop Facilitators:

Dr. Carlos Cruz, Associate Vice Chancellor, Student Well-Being and Social Support, Dallas College

Thaddeus Mantaro, Ph.D., CPH, Dean, Student Health and Wellness , Dallas College

Kaitlin Hill, MS, LPC-S, Associate Dean of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Dallas College

Navi Dhaliahl, M.Sc., Director, Research Institute, Dallas College

Leilani Lamb, MPAff, MPH2, Assistant Director of Child & Family Policy, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute

Dr. Ashley Spicer-Runnels, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic and Health Affairs , Texas State University System

Leticia Duncan Brosnan, Ph.D., Director District-Wide Student Advocacy Network, Alamo Colleges District (P.A.T.H.)
Student Parents on Campus: Reimagining Support Through the Graduation Challenge
This interactive pre-conference session uses The Graduation Challenge—a board game rooted in real student-parent stories, data, and law—to help campus practitioners redesign policies and practices that better support parenting students.

Student parents are a significant yet often invisible segment of our campuses, navigating “degrees of difficulty” that extend far beyond coursework. National and Texas-based data presented indicate that student parents are more likely to be first-generation, women, low-income, and students of color. They face substantial barriers related to time poverty, basic needs, childcare, and inflexible institutional structures. At the same time, the presentation emphasizes that student parents are high performers with strong academic potential who persist in the face of compounding responsibilities when they receive meaningful support.

This session will deepen participants’ understanding of student parents as a diverse, high-potential population and equip them with practical tools to improve policy, practice, and culture on their campuses. Drawing on national research, Texas-specific policy developments, and student narratives presented, the session will examine who student parents are, what structural and legal protections exist, and where significant gaps remain in institutional responses.

Participants will engage in “The Graduation Challenge,” an experiential activity featured in the presentation that models real-life scenarios student parents encounter and illustrates how institutional decisions accumulate into barriers or supports over time. Through guided reflection and facilitated discussion, attendees will connect this experience to their roles and identify points of leverage in advising, teaching, financial aid, student affairs, and leadership.

The session will also highlight promising practices and institutional responses named in the presentation, including resource pages, priority registration, staff and faculty training, two-generation programming, data and awareness strategies, and flexibility in course and campus structures. Participants will leave with a “40 Actions for Supporting Student Parents” toolkit based on the presenters’ materials, offering immediate, short-term, and longer-term steps campuses can adapt to better support pregnant and parenting students.

Designed for faculty, staff, and administrators across functional areas, this session centers student voices and reframes student parents from an overlooked population to a critical equity priority and campus asset. By the end of the pre-conference, participants will be better prepared to identify and dismantle hidden barriers, leverage relevant laws and policies, and design campus environments where student parents can persist and graduate.

Speakers/Facilitators:

Mandy Vachon, M.Ed, The University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Jeff Mayo, Ph.D., Director of First-Year Experience, University of Texas at Austin

Cancellation/Refund Policy

We hope everyone who registers can attend the conference, but we know unexpected events happen.

Cancellations submitted on or before July 19 will be assessed a 10% cancellation fee.
Cancellations submitted between July 20 and September 6 will be assessed a 25% cancellation fee.
Cancellations submitted between September 7 and September 22 will be assessed a 50% cancellation fee.
No refunds will be issued on or after September 23, but registrations can be transferred to another participant until October 8.
Registration transfers apply to the full registration (pre-conference and conference) originally purchased. No partial transfers or transfers to more than one person are allowed.

To request a refund or transfer your registration, please submit our online refund request form.

2026 Registration Rates

LATE/ONSITE

What’s Included

Preconference Workshops

Empowering Faculty for an AI-Enabled Future: Building Faculty AI Capacity Through Community, Design, and Practice

Workshop Facilitators:

From Playbook to Practice: Building Scalable Campus Mental Health Systems That Advance Student Success

Workshop Facilitators:

Student Parents on Campus: Reimagining Support Through the Graduation Challenge

Speakers/Facilitators:

Cancellation/Refund Policy

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