Counseling and Student Success
Division Council Meeting
April 22, 2015
N. Barber__X____
D. Brown___X___
S. Bennett___X___
G. Castro ___@__
Y. Cooper___X___
B. Flameno__@____
V. Haynes __X____
A. Funes ___X__
R. Lozano__@____
B. Mims___@____
C. Mosqueda _@__
C. Pajo __X__
B. Prado __@____
L. Perez_X___
D. Vaughn__@___
C. Weston__X____
Introductions

Dr. Patel introduced herself and everyone in attendance introduced themselves.
Appointment Center – Lisa Perez

Registration has started and the appointments are booking quickly. A few
appointments that are saved every morning for students that have difficulties
booking online. On Friday’s, assistance is provided for students in scheduling
appointments for the upcoming week.
Athletics – Stephanie Bennett



Student athletes are attending the registration labs. Over 80 students were seen
on Monday and Tuesday, and it is anticipated there will be over 100 students
seen on Wednesday. During these workshops, students receive an educational
plan.
The Athletic counselors went to the LRC and Tutoring center to reach out to the
student athletes to complete their educational plans in the effort for students to
be more involved and on time. All athletes must complete an educational plan
every year.
The men’s volleyball team will have their second playoff game in San Diego. The
women’s softball team will be going into playoffs. The women’s swim team won
their conference for the first time in a while. Women’s basketball won this year.
Track and Field has been excellent. Baseball is in third place right now. Football
Orientations will be scheduled in the next few weeks.
Career Center – Yamonte Cooper

The Career Fair was heavily attended. There was a lot of positive feedback from
participants, faculty, etc. There were a series of career panels that were also well
attended and received great feedback from the faculty, students, and
participants. Jackie Sims visited one of the seminars and she talked with Dr.
Cooper on future collaborations with the MESA program.
Counseling and Student Success
Division Council Meeting
April 22, 2015


There will be an upcoming Career Retreat for the planning of events and
activities for the fall semester.
Career Coach is a new database that is being organized by Irene Graff and
Virginia Rapp. The database will allow for students to find local job market
information and help them to select career pathways. This database will be
adopted in the career center. There will be separate databases for the Compton
Center and ECC. The college has already purchased the database and it’s just a
matter of dissemination.
EOPS – David Brown



Currently accepting applications. The program currently serves approximately
1100 students and they are looking to serve a total of 1600 students in the fall.
They are anticipating to accept 700 applications by June 30th which is the
processing deadline. With the anticipated increase in students, the available
book vouchers will increase but the amount of each will be reduced to
accommodate.
In the process of distributing book vouchers for the fall semester. In the last two
days they have completed priority registration with students and there are
approximately 30 vouchers remaining out of 500.
The EOPS/CalWORKs/CARE Recognition Banquet is scheduled for May 1st at
the Torrance Marriott Hotel. They are accepting RSVPs until Friday, April 24th.
There are approximately 350 guests confirmed. The keynote speaker will be
Mayor Patrick Henry from Torrance, Assemblyman David Hadley, and a senator
will be in attendance.
CalWORKs – Clara Weston



The Assistant Director position is vacant which has left a huge whole in their
budget. They are in the process of developing for allocating the unused funds.
Students who are transitioning from welfare to active careers will no longer as of
April 30th or June 30th receive any benefits from the department of social
services. Ms. Clara is in the process of finding casual positions on campus to
support the students. Many students will be transferring to 4-year institutions and
they will need employment.
Ms. Clara sent a campus wide email to different offices that have supported
CalWORKs students in the past with casual positions.
Student Success Program – Angie Funes
Counseling and Student Success
Division Council Meeting
April 22, 2015








Students on level II probation received a registration hold as of April 20 th. An
email was sent to everyone to encourage students that are on probation to
schedule an appointment for the workshops through MyECC.
There are three workshops scheduled per week. Currently in the beginning
stages of the peak time for probation students.
From January – April, there are approximately 519 students that have attended
the probation workshops.
The Level II Probation contract was updated. The contract only consists of 1
carbon copy. The original copy is turned in at the designated box in the mailroom
and the student receives the canary copy.
o Form Revisions - On the form there is a box called “Good Standing”. This
box is to be checked for those students who may have registration holds
but are in good standing.
o On line 1, it reads, “Attended a Student Success Program workshop”. The
options are: Already Attended – For students that have already attended a
workshop and met with a counselor; and only need to update their
contract. The other option is for those that need to attend a workshop.
o On the bottom of the form, the check box was added for admissions
clearance to be initialed.
o The new contract form is available and should be used after the current
forms are exhausted.
Finished surveying students for the SAO and the surveys will be sent to
institutional research.
Currently updating the power point presentation for the SSSP summer in person
orientation. There were a total of 139 students that attended the Educational
Planning workshops. Only 11 students in March attended the in person
orientation workshop. Most students are completing the online orientation.
Anticipating the peak period for SSP in the summer.
Reviewing the online orientation for any updates or changes that need to be
made.
Project Success – Nikki Barber

The 28th Annual Awards program will be on April 30th in the Alondra room from
12pm - 2pm. They will honor first year students, graduating and transferring
students. The guest speaker is Dr. Lewis who was recommended by Dr. Gloria
Miranda. She is a superintendent of various high schools in California and
Arkansas.
Counseling and Student Success
Division Council Meeting
April 22, 2015


There are at least 11 students that are graduating or transferring and a few
students decided to stay at El Camino for one additional year to be admitted to
their top school.
Currently recruiting students and expanding the program to offer basic skills
courses such as Math 37, Math 80 and two English A classes starting the fall
semester.
SSTARS – Clara Weston

SSTARS currently does not have an active committee on campus since last
spring. Ms. Clara continues to receive requests from instructors for classroom
presentations regarding the benefits of the student service programs on campus.
Ms. Clara is facilitating these presentations. She would like to meet with Dr. Patel
to utilize the funds that are in the Foundation account to assist with the student
support programs on campus. She would also like to know if she will continue to
be able to facilitate presentations to the Human Development classes
SRC – Cristina Pajo



In the process of priority registration and there is a lot of student traffic.
Counselors are coordinating high school groups to visit the SRC center for a tour
and they will also give presentations at the high schools. Trying to get the high
schools accustomed to getting in earlier.
Success Coaching workshops are facilitated by Tisa Casas who meets with
students on a one-on-one basis who are undecided, at risk students, or on
probation; they need help with identifying and setting goals such as educational
and career.
Compton Center – Vanessa Haynes






Many of the activities at ECC are mirroring the activities at the Compton center.
EOPS is currently accepting applications for the summer and fall. The banquet is
scheduled for May 7th
The Transfer Center student admit celebration will be on Friday, May 8 th
FYE is having a year-end luncheon to celebrate the successful completion for the
program on Thursday, May 7th.
The CTE program will be hosting a Girls in Technology conference on Friday,
April 24th
SRC is hosting an advisory committee meeting for both campuses to attend
which will include a presentation on AB 86 and the TriCity Consortium in which
the Compton Center participates. They will be soliciting ideas and best practices
Counseling and Student Success
Division Council Meeting
April 22, 2015




for transitioning students with disabilities from high school through adult
education in community college.
CalWORKs is hosting an annual student and employee recognition breakfast to
honor student academic achievement.
Students have been excited about the summer math academy for those who test
into Math 23 and 40. There will be two different sessions that students may
apply. First session begins Thursday, May 21st – June 11th and the second
session begins on July 9th – July 30th. This was offered last summer and it was
very effective. It helped students to reduce their math requirements by 1 or more
semesters. They get to study in math friendly, stress-free environments and they
learn how to study more efficiently and be better prepared for the placement test.
Students have the opportunity after the refresher course to retake the placement
test.
The Career Center is scheduled to have their end of year workshops in April and
May.
Dean’s Update
Board Policies and Administrative Procedures



ACCJC visited last October and issued a report in January. One of the
recommendations was related to board policies. The board policy was developed
for Counseling and the Transfer Center, but there were no administrative
procedures. A draft of each policy and procedure was given for review. The
counselors have already reviewed the counseling board policy and issued an
additional sentence that is underlined. This statement was pulled and amended
from the CCLC template. In the CCLC template there was a reference to
provisional students which was removed.
The process for the board policies and administrative procedures is to be
reviewed and submitted to Student and Community Advancement, the College
Council, and the board. Dr. Patel wants to make sure what is being presented is
accurate and reflective of what counseling does.
Counseling Board Policy and Administrative Procedures Review
o Aptitudes are not administered in the Career Center. Dr. Cooper will make
suggestions to amend the career section .
o 1 A IV. – The list includes a lot of student services but the first part of the
sentence references academic support services and instructional services.
o Student and academic support services in the first sentence,
o Add a couple to the list – tutoring, SI
Counseling and Student Success
Division Council Meeting
April 22, 2015

o Career Counseling to assist students in assessing interests, personality,
skills, values, career readiness to advise and guide them on current and
future employment trends.
o Suspension of Appointments #6 - not posted but could be posted in
SARS. If this is to be kept it needs to be discussed where it will go.
Student handbook, website, etc. leave in the procedures but follow
through in where to be posted. May add on ESARS to where the guidance
is to make an appointment
Board Policy and Administrative Procedures for Transfer
o Change to service area outcomes,
o 1A – Question – Now that we have Tag agreements with HBCUs, should
this be included in this area? The representatives will be meeting with
students at the tour.
o Pending final review from Rene, Sue, and Lori.
SARS Anywhere and Starfish



Dr. Patel disseminated information about SARS Anywhere and since that time
Starfish, an early alert program, was demonstrated on campus. Starfish has a
scheduling component.
The college was originally looking at an early alert program called Grades First.
The vendor that was selected for the educational planning and degree audit tool
called Hobson’s, partnered or bought out Starfish. As a result this would be part
of their software package that would be given out to the CCC.
The process was halted with Grade First to initiate and consideration was for
Starfish. In the future, Starfish may be used for scheduling and instead of going
through levels of updates in SARS Anywhere, Dr. Patel would like to halt moving
forward until Starfish is considered.
Exemptions for Priority Enrollment


New students must complete the core services which are orientation,
assessment, and educational plan for priority enrollment. Under the Student
Success Initiative and more specifically the Student Success Act, they are
moving forward with wanting students to have the core services even for the
future and not just for the initial semester. ECC has not made a decision as to
whether they will provide a registration date or anything else in the future if they
did not meet one of the core services.
It is written in Title 5 as an option. There are many scenarios of students who
attend the college or want to attend, but don’t need to take an assessment test,
Counseling and Student Success
Division Council Meeting
April 22, 2015




complete an educational plan or orientation. The exemptions allow for this to be
placed in the system but the exemptions do not count for priority enrollment. Dr.
Patel would like to create a list of exceptions that could be agreed upon that
would be put into the system so the students will not be penalized for priority
enrollment.
o Examples:
 Students who only want a certificate in a certain program and the
certificate only requires English, not Math. This student doesn’t
need to take the Math placement test. The criteria at ECC, is that
you only get credit for assessment if you take both English and
Math.
 A student may have taken the EAP or AP and they can be
exempted in the system but it still shows that they have not met the
three core services. Therefore, they would not get the higher
priority registration date but would get a tier 7 priority registration
date.
Dr. Patel will be attending a Region 8 Student Success meeting on May 8 th and
will present some of this information to them and find out what has been done at
other colleges.
Dr. Patel asked what would be the exceptions for students to receive priority
registration.
o The suggestions were: The EAP and AP scores, Bachelor’s degrees,
transcripts from other schools.
Dr. Patel asked for a few volunteers to go through the list and draft a proposal for
everyone to review, requiring an agreement with admissions and records. This
would be done by a forced entry on STMC where it appears as a student has met
the requirement but it will not result in CON reporting to the state. One of the
issues with the forced screen STMC screen is that there are very limited people
who can do that inquiry so a process needs to be created and there is no audit in
Datatel on this. There will need to have some form of a paper trail of comments.
Dr. Patel asked if there were any recommendations of who would like to
participate.
o Dr. Cooper suggested that Janice Pon-Ishikawa and Ken Key may have
started something similar to this about a year ago. He thinks they may
already have a list. Cristina Pajo stated that this was discussed in their
focus group meeting as well and they should have a list. Dr. Patel’s goal is
to have all these clarified before the next registration period. She would
like to have agreements in place by October particularly if it requires any
coding in the system.
Counseling and Student Success
Division Council Meeting
April 22, 2015



Currently in the process of 3 hiring recruitments: Associate Dean, Administrative
Assistant, and Adjunct counselors.
The adjunct counselors will need to be trained. Dr. Patel will be issuing a plan for
evaluations for those that were hired this year that may have not been evaluated.
A mini New Student Welcome Day is scheduled for August 19th and it is being
organized through outreach. A larger NSWD will be planned in the 15-16 year
with cross campus participation. This is an action item from the Student Success
Advisory Committee.
Meeting adjourned.