Welcome
to The Report Card, a newsletter containing information on
various topics related to institutional effectiveness. Unlike previous
years, the 2005-2006 Report Cards focus is on institutional
processes rather than institutional data. They have been designed to
inform the college community about how Green River addresses each of its
five Institutional Goals. In doing so, the Report Cards also
inform the college community about each recent institutional
effectiveness presentation to the Board of Trustees – the Monitoring
Report. This issue summarizes the most recent Monitoring Report
presentation to the Board of Trustees on student access.
Background
Corresponding to Green
River’s Vision and Mission statements, the Board of Trustees adopted
five Institutional Goals on May 25, 2005. In compliance with Policy
Governance procedures, the Monitoring Reports should report on the
college’s performance in achieving its goals, and thus ultimately in
fulfilling the Mission. However, because the college is devoting the
2005-2006 year to identifying and developing core indicators and related
quantitative measures to assess goal achievement, this is a transitional
year for the Monitoring Reports. More specifically, they have been
designed to better inform the Board about how the college addresses each
goal area. The intention is to provide the Board members with a clear
picture of the mission and functions of the germane instructional and
administrative areas, and a better sense of the kinds of core indicators
that should be used to evaluate performance.
Monitoring Report:
Student Access
The Monitoring Report on
student access was presented to the Board of Trustees on January 19,
2006. The presenters were David Hyllegard, Director of Research and
Planning, Bill Belden, Assistant Dean of Student Services, Mary
Edington, Director of Financial Aid, and Edith Bannister, Vice President
of Extended Learning and Economic Development.
The institutional goal
for student access states that “Members of our diverse communities will
have reasonable access to affordable educational programs and services
that meet their needs.” The institutional goal may be thought of as
consisting of four questions.
-
Does the college
offer educational programs that serve the needs of the community?
-
Does the college
provide services to facilitate enrollment?
-
Are programs
affordable?
-
Are programs
accessible?
This report addresses
each of these questions.
Does the college offer
educational programs that serve the needs of the community? To
meet the communities’ educational needs, the college offers courses in
four major areas:
-
Pre-college,
which includes Adult
Basic Education, English for Speakers of Other Languages, GED test
preparation, and developmental education.
-
Professional
and Technical,
with 121 certificate and degree programs.
-
University Transfer,
with 19
associate degrees and 11 specialized certificate programs.
-
Continuing Education,
offering numerous life-long learning courses. (Because Continuing
Education is the subject of a forthcoming Report Card, this
area is not discussed in this report.)
An obvious yet critical
measure of whether these programs are serving the community is if people
are “voting with their feet.” During 2004-2005, the college served
1,800 FTEs in pre-college instruction, over 1,200 in professional/
technical, and better than 3,700 in university transfer. All told,
these areas served nearly 6,750 FTEs and an unduplicated headcount in
excess of 12,600. Considering the strong economy and the associated
recent decline in our professional/technical enrollments, there is
little doubt that community members are attracted to our program
offerings. Indeed, our FTEs overall have increased noticeably since
2000-2001.
There is no question
that the popularity of our programs is due to the engaging courses and
excellent instruction that students expect and receive from Green River
faculty. Whether students enroll and persist depends in large measure
upon their academic experience in the classroom. Simply put, Green
River’s exceptional instruction is the keystone to serving the
community’s educational needs.
In addition to offering
highly-regarded, popular programs, the college makes a concerted effort
to ascertain the needs of the community. We regularly engage in a
number of internal processes to ensure that we keep abreast, if not stay
ahead, of recent developments in the state and our service area. These
include:
-
Strategic Panning
-
Environmental
Scanning
-
Program Assessment
and Improvement
We also continually
engage in various external efforts that are invaluable for understanding
and appreciating the community’s needs. Included among these are:
-
K-12 Relationships
-
Business and
government collaborations
-
Advisory Groups
-
Community Forums
How does the college
facilitate enrollment?
Primarily managed by
Student Services in conjunction with key instructional areas, GRCC’s
enrollment process has four major components: community outreach, entry
services, support services, and targeted communications. Each of these
areas is discussed in turn.
In order to recruit
prospective students, Student Services, working closely with faculty and
staff across campus, regularly engages
in various community outreach efforts. The three main types of outreach
activities are:
-
High school
presentations on topics such as Running Start, financial aid, Tech
Prep, Project Teach and GRCC’s highly regarded faculty
-
Community
organizations and events, such as presentations to businesses and
governmental agencies, community fairs, and the like
-
Campus events,
including tours for high schools and Open Houses
Another important
outreach activity is the college’s advertising initiatives, including
radio, print ads, billboards and other promotions. In addition to
conveying institutional information, the college’s numerous publications
also serve to promote Green River, as does the college’s website.
There are four essential
college functions that support the broader function of entry services.
These are:
-
Enrollment Services
– the application and admissions processes. In addition to standard
hardcopy application forms and admissions notifications, the college
offers students the option of completing a web application and
receiving electronic admissions notification.
-
Assessment Testing –
the scheduling, administration, and reporting of student’s
assessment scores and associated course placements using COMPASS,
TOEFL, and CASAS examinations.
-
Academic Advising –
the formal process by faculty and Educational Planners that
assists students in defining their academic goals and
developing an educational plan. Specialized advisement services are
offered in a number of areas, such as Entry Advising, Basic Skills,
Transfer, and Professional/Technical.
-
Financial Aid –
(Financial Aid is discussed below)
The college offers a
whole host of support services that facilitate enrollment. Covering a
broad range of student needs, from a comfortable place to live to a
welcoming place to discuss personal issues, these services include:
-
The Campus Corner
Apartments
-
Career and
Employment Services
-
The Child
Development Center
-
Disability Support
Services
-
Diversity Services
-
Help Center
-
Math Learning Center
-
Steps to Success
Program
-
TRIO – Student
Support Services
-
Women’s Programs
-
Writing Center
While not conventional
support services, three programs deserve special mention for
facilitating enrollment: International Programs, Running Start, and
WorkForce Education. These programs provide specialized marketing,
admissions, and retention services to meet their client’s unique needs.
In addition to providing educational opportunities to an expanded array
of students, these programs also support the college’s financial and
enrollment targets.
Student Services has
undertaken a sophisticated campaign of targeted communications to
reach-out to prospective and current students. Using both email and
phone calls, Student Services contacts students that applied but did not
enroll at GRCC. The aim is to ascertain why students did not enroll and
to provide additional assistance to those individuals who express an
interest in attending. A similar initiative targets students who failed
to re-enroll. These personal contacts are an invaluable demonstration
of our concern for students and of our commitment to providing
exceptional, individualized service.
Taken together,
community outreach, entry services, support services, and targeted
communications function as a comprehensive, organizational means to
facilitate student enrollment. Notwithstanding this well-designed
approach and the outstanding work being done in the individual areas,
the college faces a number of enrollment challenges. Specifically,
-
Better serving the
needs of the increasing number of first-generation students
-
Planning for
possible increased enrollments due to the impact of WASL
-
Meeting the unique
entry and retention needs of our diverse student populations
-
Increasing the rate
of applicants that enroll
-
Continuing to
integrate appropriate technology and web-based services
-
Providing enhanced
enrollment services to Kent and Enumclaw Campuses
-
Assessing campus
facilities and their impacts on providing streamlined and efficient
entry and recruitment services
Designed in part to
address these challenges, the college is advancing a number of promising
initiatives. These include:
-
A new facility to
support student success and retention. The facility will be
designed to enhance and personalize the entry process for new
students, and will expand assessment and testing capabilities.
-
The Transition Math
Project and the extension of the Steps to Success Program. These
efforts are illustrative of a number of exciting initiatives to
increase student academic achievement.
-
New and innovative
ways to incorporate technology and web enhancements in the
recruitment, admission and retention of students.
-
The re-alignment of
publications, web resources, and staff resources to enhance our
marketing and recruitment efforts.
Are the college’s
educational programs affordable?
There is little doubt that Green River and the community colleges in
general are more affordable than the public and private 4-year colleges
in the state. Indeed, as seen in the chart below, community college
tuition and fees are less than half as much as the University of
Washington’s, and about one-tenth the cost of attending the University
of Puget Sound.
|
Estimated
2006-07 Tuition and Fees |
|
▪ |
Community College
$2,900 |
|
▪ |
4-Year Public -
UW $6,000 |
|
▪ |
4-Year Private -
UPS $28,500 |
However it must be
acknowledged that a fundamental mission of the community colleges is to
provide educational opportunities to individuals who otherwise have few
options to obtain a postsecondary education. As such, they tend to
enroll a disproportionate share of students from less affluent family
backgrounds. And so while community colleges are typically less
expensive than their sister institutions, they also serve a greater
proportion of low-income students for whom affording college is
difficult.
This is illustrated at
Green River by the number of students applying for and receiving
need-based financial aid. In 2004-05, we received 5,796 applications,
and awarded need-based aid to 1,669 students. Because students submit
admissions and financial aid applications to multiple institutions, the
number of financial aid applications received undoubtedly overstates the
student need at GRCC. Nonetheless, the sizable number of aid applicants
and recipients does highlight the fact that community college tuition is
beyond the means of numerous individuals.
Green River, of course,
provides financial assistance to qualified students, thereby enabling
them to pursue their postsecondary studies. Indeed, in 2004-05, 4,257
students received some form of funding, including the 1,669 students who
received need-based aid. The college is able to provide funds from
various sources, including:
-
Federal grants,
loans, employment
-
State grants and
employment
-
Green River
Foundation Scholarships
-
Private Scholarships
-
Agency Funding – DVR,
L & I, Work Source, etc.
-
Worker Retraining
Funds
-
Work First Funds
-
Veterans Benefits
All told, the college
awarded $10,007,594 in assistance in 2004-05. The largest share of
funds was in the form of grants and scholarships, $6,637,240. Loans
accounted for $2,841,832, while employment programs contributed $528,522
to the total.
Like other colleges,
Green River faces student aid challenges. Among the most pressing of
these are:
-
Changing student
demographics, such as the increasing number of first-generation
students, immigrants and under-prepared students who typically
require additional help completing aid application forms and more
preparation for college level work.
-
Insufficient grant
and scholarship resources and therefore an offsetting increase in
student loan volume.
-
Constantly changing
federal financial aid regulations.
The process of
proactively confronting institutional challenges may often be thought of
as providing an opportunity to enhance programs, services, and the like.
Initiatives that the Financial Aid Office is planning to undertake in
this regard are:
-
Develop additional
funding sources, such as additional GRCC Foundation scholarships.
-
Simplify aid process
so that it is more understandable for students.
-
Improve response
time in providing financial aid award notifications.
-
Assist in
identifying academic support strategies to ensure that students pass
their classes and thereby maintain their financial aid eligibility.
Among the possibilities are a required College 101 orientation
course, additional tutoring, peer mentors, linking developmental
classes and more intrusive advising.
Are the college’s
educational programs accessible?
Green River recognizes that because today’s college students lead such
busy lives, the college must offer various attendance options in order
to best serve their educational needs. We accomplish this by offering
classes at different times, at various locations and through traditional
and alternative modes of instructional delivery.
The most popular time
that students attend classes is during the mornings and early
afternoons, Mondays though Fridays. The college also offers late
afternoon, evening, and weekend courses for students who want or need to
attend at other times. Another option is the clustered course schedule,
that is, classes are offered on two days per week for longer hours
rather than a daily one-hour schedule. Students can then choose to take
two classes back-to-back and come to campus only two days per week
during the late afternoon and evening hours.
With the addition of the
Kent and Enumclaw campuses, Green River has made great strides in
expanding community access to our educational programs. Like the main
campus in Auburn, these facilities offer a wide range of courses at
various times of day, and as such provide more convenient educational
options to individuals in these and neighboring communities. The
college also offers more specialized instruction, particularly Adult
Basic Education and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), at
various sites, including The Auburn Center, and local schools and
churches.
Beyond the traditional
constraints of attending class on campus at set times, Green River’s
students have embraced the scheduling flexibility afforded by our
Distance Learning offerings. Indeed, in 2004-05, 7,500 students
enrolled in distance courses. The college’s distance learning options
include college transfer courses to complete an Associate in Arts
degree, and professional technical program
certificates. In addition to the largely asynchronous mode of
our online courses, we also offer hybrid or flex-courses that combine
traditional classroom instruction with online instruction. This is an
idea format for students who desire structured, classroom-based
instruction, but also have limited time in their schedules to attend
class.
There are, of course, a
number of institutional challenges in trying to provide such a high
level of accessibility. These include:
-
Providing an array
of student support services during the evenings and at the college’s
various locations
-
Offering enough
courses to meet degree requirements at non-peak times
-
Providing classroom
space and support for on-campus and Distance Learning course exams
-
Providing sufficient
classrooms and parking at popular times
While not a solution to
all these challenges, Distance Learning offers many innovative
advantages that go along way toward expanding student access to
education. Among the advantages are:
-
Increases the
capacity to serve more students
-
Serves place-bound
students
-
Reduces access
barriers associated with time, transportation, and child care
-
Reduces the need to
provide additional “brick and mortar” facilities
Possible Core Indicators
of Effectiveness
The
college has formed Working Groups to identify appropriate core
indicators and quantitative performance measures for each of the
college’s Institutional Goals. The Student Access Working Group, in
addition to assisting on developing the Monitoring Report presentation,
is continuing its efforts to identify appropriate indicators to assess
our success in achieving this goal. Below are some examples of core
indicators that the group is considering:
-
Increased
college-wide and program area enrollments
-
Increased financial
assistance
-
Increased
enrollments at various locations
-
Increased distance
learning enrollments
