Office of Instruction and Student Development Update
Student Success Initiative
Bob Brown, Sheila Hall and I attended the Student Success and Support Implementation Summit in
Sacramento this past Monday and Tuesday that included presentations on the implementation of
student success reforms highlighted in the Student Success Act of 2012, an overview of the new
funding guidelines, and MIS data elements.,
Bob and I will have an opportunity to summarize our specific “takeaways” from the conference at a
later date, but I want to give you a few general thoughts:
Dr. Terry O’Banion provided some sobering information:
 Once first in the world, America now ranks 16th in the percentage of young adults with a
college degree.
 For the first time in our history, the current generation of college-age Americans will be less
educated than their parents’ generation.
 14% of California community college (CCC) students do not complete a single credit in the
first term.
 Almost 50% of CCC students drop out by second year.
 60% of CCC students need remediation.
 33% of CCC students recommended for developmental courses never enroll in those
courses.
 Less than 30% of CCC students are college-ready.
 Only 53.6% of degree seeking CCC students ever achieve that goal.
 Of students who plan to transfer only 41% of CCC students are successful.
The Research and Planning Group (RP Group), working with the Chancellor’s Office, conducted a
study recently asking students from twelve of our sister community colleges (N=785) what they
thought were important factors that contributed to their success. Six success factors were identified:
1. Directed: It’s important that students have a goal and know how to achieve it.
2. Focused: It’s important that students stay on track—keeping their eyes on the prize.
3. Nurtured: It’s important that students feel somebody wants them to succeed and helps them
to succeed.
4. Connected: It’s important that students feel they are part of the college community.
5. Engaged: It’s important that students actively listen and participate in class and are involved
in extracurricular activities.
6. Valued: It’s important that students’ skills, talents, abilities and experiences are recognized;
and they have opportunities to contribute on campus and feel their contributions are
appreciated.
From the surveys and focus groups, the RP Group similarly identified five themes that we should
think about as we develop actions that address the student success initiative:
1. Colleges need to foster students' motivation.
2. Colleges must teach students how to succeed in the postsecondary environment.
3. Colleges need to structure support to ensure all "six success factors" are addressed.
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4. Colleges need to provide comprehensive support to historically underserved students to
prevent the equity gap from growing.
5. Everyone has a role to play in supporting student achievement, but counseling/advising and
faculty must take a lead role.
We also had the chance to attend several workshops on promising practices that our colleagues
around the state have instituted to move the student success agenda forward. General themes we
picked from the conference included:
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Establishing student education pathways (beyond simply scheduling) from recruitment to
graduation should be a major focus.
Collaboration between instruction and student development is key to the success.
Working more closely with high schools to develop concrete actions to close the
achievement gap will be important in addressing the lack of academic preparation.
At the end of the summit, we agreed that we’ve been doing some good work and have instituted
several initiatives that, while successful on a small scale, need refining to improve student
completion and enable a greater number of our students to succeed. So, what can we do to scale up
our initiatives and really help students succeed?
Bob and I agree that to make a difference on a larger scale we need to get our instructional and
student development colleagues together and talk about how we can make a long lasting impact on
student success. To that end, we’re going to call for a CR Student Success Summit within the next
few months and talk about CR’s student success agenda. The goal is to develop some institutional
guidelines and actions linked to the college’s institutional and annual plans that will help the college
make an even greater difference for our students before, during and after graduation from CR. We
are forwarding the following six draft guidelines for you to think about in advance of our summit:
1. Every student will make a significant connection with another person at the college as soon
as possible.
2. Key intake programs including orientation, assessment, advisement, and placement will be
integrated and mandatory.
3. Every student will be placed in a “Program of Study” from day one; undecided students will
be placed in a mandatory “Program of Study” designed to help them decide.
4. Every student who enrolls to pursue a certificate, degree, or who plans to transfer will work
with college personnel to create a Student Success Pathway—a Roadmap to Completion.
5. Every student will be carefully monitored throughout the first term to ensure successful
progress; the college will make interventions immediately to keep students on track.
6. Students will engage in courses and experiences designed to broaden and deepen their
learning.
Honors Program
For any freshman, starting college can an extremely exciting and sometimes frightening experience.
One option that our students have benefited from is to begin their college experience in our Honors
program for the first two years and then transfer to a college or university after the sophomore year.
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The administration and the Academic Senate Co-Presidents believe that our Honors program offers
some very special opportunities for talented students to ease into college bolstered by a sense of
community that comes from the Honors environment.
In the coming weeks, the Academic Senate Co-Presidents intend to send out a message soliciting
interest from both fulltime and associate faculty in leading the Honors Program this year. A
compensation request will be sent to SARTCO for consideration once the potential Honors Program
leadership is identified. Look for an email from the Academic Senate office soon.
New Academic Buildings Update
Tracey Thomas, Sue Alton and George Kapitan worked quickly, in response to faculty concerns, to
establish a security presence in the new Science and Humanities building. Effective this past
Tuesday, a security officer will provide security for the labs in these buildings Monday thru
Thursday 7:00-10:00pm (when the doors officially lock) and Friday 5:00 -10:00 pm. until the lock
mechanisms are installed.
Distance Ed
The administration is working with the Academic Senate and CRFO leadership to identify and
address some of our Distance Education issues. Executive Dean/ALO Jeff Cummings is working
with Mark Winter to write the Distance Education Substantive Change proposal for submission to
the ACCJC. The administration agreed with the Academic Senate leadership to put a temporary
moratorium on submitting new distance education courses to the Curriculum Committee until the
ACCJC approves the substantive change proposal. Faculty should continue to submit COR updates
for all courses including ones with a distance education modality currently approved in our course
inventory.
Accreditation
The final accreditation follow-up report will go to the October 1st Board of Trustees meeting for
approval prior to being submitted to the ACCJC by October 15. Comments received were
discussed in cabinet and any changes were reflected in the final document. Thank you for your
comments and input.
Invitation for Faculty to Help in Outreach Events
There’s been a long standing belief, supported by enrollment management research, that the quality
of faculty as teachers and mentors is one of the most important factors in choosing a college for
both students and parents. By talking with faculty who have an intimate knowledge of the
curriculum and course work, students can have their questions more thoroughly addressed and often
leave with an increased enthusiasm to attend college. Therefore, it’s critical to give students the
opportunity to interact with CR faculty during the recruitment process.
Sheila Hall has a few outreach activities planned for October and November that we would like to
invite faculty to participate in: Counselor Day on Friday, October 18, LatinoNet Health Fair on
October 20, and College Night at McKinleyville High School in November. Any faculty interested
in attending these or any outreach efforts please contact Sheila Hall at 476-4155.
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