Student Success Initiatives

Thanks to all who took time to participate in the Student Success/Institutional Effectiveness (IE) workshops. Over 150 college employees attended one of the workshops during the month of September. All sessions reflected a mix of faculty, student services, and administrative/support personnel. The purpose of the workshops was to discuss student engagement practices and ideas for setting goals to measure student success. Since the completion of those workshops, college departments have submitted IE plans that detail the strategies and measures they have set to improve student engagement and/or persistence. As we discussed at the workshops, the most obvious place to impact student success is through direct contact in the classrooms. As we also discussed, even those of us who are not in the classroom play a part in determining to what extent our students will be successful. The IE plans submitted so far reflect the varying roles that we all play. Some highlights include:

• The Business Administration Department plans to increase collaborative learning in the classroom through the implementation of in-class student group discussions and presentations.
• The Information Technology Department will offer faculty-led tutoring sessions every Friday during the semester to provide support for student learning.
• In the Criminal Justice Department, faculty will contact each student in their classes prior to midterm to assess the students’ academic progress and to offer assistance to help them be more successful.
• The Science Department will increase engagement with high-risk students by identifying those who scored a C or below on their exams and then scheduling conferences with them and assigning peer tutors.
• Staff at the Off Campus Centers will contact all students who are absent from a teleclass meeting in an effort to make those students feel more connected to the college.
• Staff in the Career Services Office will contact all students enrolled in the General Studies Program and provide them career guidance to increase the numbers who transition into a career-oriented program and remain at the college.
• The Custodial, Maintenance, and Public Safety Departments will all conduct customer surveys to determine areas where they can work to enhance their impact on the overall campus environment.

I’m excited about all of your Student Success initiatives and look forward to hearing about your progress. I will continue to provide leadership to assure progress on the five themes that we identified to support Student Success: Organizational Development, Partnerships, Branding, Campus Environment, and Programming. I will personally be involved through investing time with faculty, staff and students to improve communications and two-way understanding. I am also committed to ensuring that adequate resources are available to invest in those activities that have proven to show an impact on student success.

Vincent Tinto, Professor at Syracuse University, has researched and written extensively on higher education, particularly on student retention and the impact of learning communities on student growth and attainment. He comes from a four-year perspective but has worked very closely with technical and community colleges in recent years. His article “Taking Student Retention Seriously” outlines the conditions that support retention. Please take time to read this article and share your thoughts with me.