Minutes 11/10/2009

MARICOPA COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT
GOVERNING BOARD
NOVEMBER 10, 2009
MINUTES

A retreat of the Maricopa County Community College District Governing Board was scheduled to be held at 4:00 p.m. at the Rio Conference Center in Tempe, Arizona, pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.02, notice having been duly given.

PRESENT

GOVERNING BOARD
Colleen Clark, President
Randolph Lumm, Secretary
Debra Pearson, Member
Jerry Walker, Member
Don Campbell, Member

ADMINISTRATION
Rufus Glasper
Maria Harper-Marinick
Debra Thompson
Darrel Huish
Steve Helfgot
Albert Crusoe
Ronnie Elliott for Anna Solley
Margaret McConnell
Paul Dale
Jim Mabry for Shouan Pan
Raul Sandoval and Rob Price for Ken Atwater
Jan Gehler
Gene Giovannini
Linda Lujan
Ernie Lara
Linda Thor
Velvie Green

CALL TO ORDER
The retreat was called to order at 4:05 p.m. by Chancellor Rufus Glasper. Dr. Glasper welcomed everyone to this retreat which is the Board’s Calendar and intended to provide an update of effectiveness indicators. He stated that the current indicators have been part of the annual report for the last six years and the monitoring reports have been prepared for the last ten years. This report is timely this year in light of the fact that Alvarez and Marsal are in the middle of conducting their study of efficiency and effectiveness of the Maricopa Community College District. The information presented should provide a baseline for the last six years and it can then be compared to A&M’s numbers. Dr. Glasper stated that the parts had been segmented and the college presidents would have an opportunity to speak about initiatives aimed at achieving the number one priority of helping students succeed. He further stated that board members would have an opportunity to comment at the end of the retreat.

Overview of Evening Activities – Vice Chancellor Debra Thompson
Vice Chancellor Thompson commented the agenda would include reports pertaining to the indicators, information on ongoing initiatives to improve student success, and requests from the Board on advancement of strategic direction.

Data Review/Performance Dashboard – Beth Hunt-Larson
Ms. Hunt-Larson provided an update on the following topics:

• Key Statistics
• FTSE Growth
• Student Demographics
• Changes in Age
• Changes in Ethnicity
• Student Characteristics
• Monitoring of Student Progress, General Education, Developmental Education, Transfers, and Workforce
• Performance Targets
• Indicators of Institutional Effectiveness/National Community College Benchmarks
• Changes from Year-to-Year in Institutional Effectiveness
• Student Progress Key Findings
• Student Progress Persistence
• General Education
• Developmental Education Placement
• Student Success Pilot Project

Ms. Hunt-Larson explained that the Board monitoring report supports the District planning process. In her presentation she provided a brief overview of where the district is now, some emerging trends and how the District compared to benchmark performance indicators and how the indicators have changed since last year. She stated that more than 260,000 students attended a Maricopa college in 2008-09, which included 30,000 students who attended non-credit courses. The 18-24 year old students comprise 15% of that age group in Maricopa County. Nearly 20% of Arizona public high school graduates in 2007 attended Maricopa within a year of graduation. Maricopa University transfer students comprise 45% of all new transfer at a public Arizona University and 33% of all students attaining a bachelor’s degree from a public Arizona University. With reference to FTSE, during the Fall of 2009 there was a surge of growth after four years of decline. The share of younger students has grown over time and the student population has become more diverse. While the majority of students still attend on a part-time basis, the share of full-time students has slowly risen over time.

She explained that benchmarks for the monitoring were established in 2007 by the Strategic Planning Advisory Council. Indicators have been used since 2006 to help document the degree to which the District is accomplishing its mission. Maricopa compares itself to benchmarks from The National Community College Benchmarking Project and the Carl Perkins Federal Reporting Reports which are used for workforce measures.

Ms. Hunt-Larson indicated that the best news this year is that there was notable improvement in 14 indicators, including a drop in withdrawal rates. None of the indicators worsened. Relating to student progress, the first five measures were based on student grades. All measures improved over the previous year. Success and excelling rates meet or exceed the targets set. However, when compared to the target withdrawal rates and retention rates, they rank below the 25th percentile.

Strategic Enrollment Management – Dr. Ernie Lara, Dr. Linda Thor, Dr. Raul Sandoval & Rob Price for Dr. Ken Atwater

Dr. Lara explained that enrollment management was the systematic planning implementation process optimize enrollment. The previous enrollment management had included product and process, recruitment and growth, and retention and persistence. The new approach consisted of data analysis on recruitment, community needs, maximizing facilities, sustainable growth and retention and engagement.

Dr. Lara explained that Estrella Mountain Community College utilizes:
• Super Enrollment Team
• New Recruitment Model
• Contact Center
• KUDER as a Recruitment Tool
• Web strategies
• Community demographics
• Service to expanded areas
• Program development to meet community needs
• Providing flexible delivery methods
• Leveraging partnerships to meet the needs of the business community
• The Learning College Initiative
• Student Success Pilot Program
• Starfish Early Alert Pilot
• Cohort Advisement
• Contact Center
• KUDER as a persistence tool
• Modularized curriculum
• Integration with Strategic Planning
• Peer mentoring
• Financial aid and scholarship development
• Room Utilization
• Maximizing fill rates of classes
• Targeting long-term growth rates that are substantial and sustainable
• Contingency planning between building phases to meet growth

Dr. Thor stated that Rio had experienced the following growth due to their focus on continuous improvement and initiatives supporting retention and persistence:

FTSE Growth 2000-2009 = 52%
2000: 8,457
2009: 12,860

Headcount Growth 2000-2009 + 93%
2000: 26,298
2009: 50,784

Dr. Thor further explained that Rio Salado College launched a dynamic strategic enrollment management plan and associated initiative as the result of the 2007 College Strategic Plan Goal “to increase student success through measurement, processes, practices and services”. The existing 2008-2010 Rio Salado College Strategic Enrollment Management Plan and associated initiatives have been very successful. The plan had three primary focuses:

• Development and implementation a Comprehensive Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Plan for 2010-2012
• Development and launch of an outreach initiative to support enrollment growth and student success.
• Enhancement and stabilization of student enrollment services in order to improve the student experience, support a scalable student services model, and to support student success.

As four minutes is not sufficient time to discuss all that we have accomplished, today, she highlighted two successful examples of enrollment management taking place at Rio Salado. Prior to speaking about the examples she provided the following information regarding the guiding principles driving Rio Salado’s approach to Strategic Enrollment Management.

• The college serves a highly non-traditional student population (as defined by the National Center for Educational Statistics). As the result, services and initiatives are designed with the following guiding concepts in mind:

• Aligned with our service standards of timeliness, consistency and accuracy.
• designed with an eye toward scalability leveraging the talents of highly skilled professionals (cross trained outreach specialists for example) and with the use of technology such as our Customer Relationship Management Solution (CRM). Blending high touch with high tech
• Purposeful and intentional - driven by data and predictive analytics retention and persistence initiatives are designed to be personalized and relative to the student.

According to NCES moderately non-traditional students possess 2-3 of the following characteristics and highly non-traditional students possess 4 or more.
• Delays enrollment
• Attends part-time
• Works full-time (35+ hours per week)
• Financially independent
• Has dependents other than spouse
• Is a single parent
• Does not have a high school diploma

The establishment of the Outreach Center encompasses embodies this guiding principles
• Established in Fall of 2008, the outreach center is made up of:
• a team of enrollment specialists - cross-trained in admissions, registration, basic advisement, financial aid and recruitment
• A CRM to administrator

Working in collaboration with marketing, program coordinators and existing student data to “mine” campaigns.
• In the past year 42 campaigns have been launched with a combined (all types of campaigns) average of a nearly 11% yield rate

Dr. Thor provided examples of two successful outreach campaigns. She explained that the industry standard for the community college is difficult to track as the model is very unique from that of the traditional enrollment funnel. Generally, lead to enrollment conversion rates (depending on how qualified the lead is) run between 6% to 12%.
• Rio Salado is currently operating on the high end of this scale as we continue to define the process for an online community college.
Successful Recruitment Campaign (ongoing) – results as of 11/3/2009
Information Requests (Organic Leads) – generated from our public website and web banners
• 3572 information request generated
• 433
• 12.12%
Successful Persistence Campaign (ongoing) – results as of 11/3/2009
• Life Happens (called students who received a “W” in the past month to get them back on track)
• Contacted 503 students
• Brought 130 back (conversion 25.8%)
• Campaign in the Queue: Come back to Rio Salado Campaign. Will target degree seeking students who have dropped or stopped out in the past year to try to get them recommitted to their program of study.

The Student Experience at Rio Salado College includes the following:
• The Outreach Center also supports the goal to improve the student experience and with a scalable student services model.
• As a part of the lateral service plan, OC members are called to Financial Aid, Registration or advisement to assist students at a variety of times throughout the year.
• Additionally, during peak times they are re-purposed from outbound outreach to increase our inbound capacity.

• Additionally, this past year they developed a Peak Service Plan –
• trained and equipped staff from non-student facing personnel in the college to answer general information and records calls
• Empowered all student facing personnel to advise, admit and register students

• Lastly, they continue to refining the web site and all electronic communication in key service areas
• Track open rates and click through to refine the communication and better support online learners

Dr. Thor concluded her comments by speaking about the Predictive Analytics they employ to predict future events using available student data, data sources, and validity. They collect lots of behavioral data useful in predictive modeling. Detailed tracking of student activities such as logins, submissions of assignments, class discussions.

How accurately does model predict correct outcome?
• 70% accuracy in identifying student’s who will be unsuccessful in their course (unsuccessful = Likely of dropping, withdrawing or receiving a D or lower)

• Targeted interventions to retain students are directed at those likely to be unsuccessful.

• Future – applying the model to persistence from recruitment through to graduation

Question for Dr. Thor from Governing Board Member Debra Pearson: What is the number one complaint from students about Rio? Dr. Thor responded that it used to be textbooks. Mrs. Pearson commented that she receives complaints about financial aid at Rio. Kishia Brock, Dean at Rio, responded for Dr. Thor by explaining that the processing time has been reduced since the implementation of the SIS system, however, students who complain appear to need the financial aid for living expenses and not for the educational aspect which was the original intent of the financial aid.

South Mountain Community College’s experiences were presented by Dr. Raul Sandoval and Rob Price. They explained that in 2003 they contracted with Clarus Corporation who recommended cross-college involvement in their enrollment management practices, a focus on different target markets within their service area, consistent and message-driven promotional materials, and a shift communication emphasis from PR to Marketing. They stated that their college strategic plan originates with their annual enrollment management retreat, wherein they develop new ideas and strategies, drafting a plan, refining the plan, submission to the college president, integrating it into their college strategic plan and finally submitting quarterly status reports on the plan.

For 2009-2010, their priorities have been to increase enrollment, improve retention, and foster student success. They explained the processes by which they work on achieving these milestones.

Student Success Pilot Project – Dr. Paul Dale, Dr. Linda Lujan, Dr. Jan Gehler

Dr. Dale stated that this was their second year of a district-wide, One-Maricopa effort in which each college was funded by the District to begin the pilot. The Student Success Pilot Project is a systemic program designed to increase student persistence and goal completion. A complete description can be found on page 4 of the Monitoring Report. Students enrolled in at least twelve credit hours, are degree seeking or intend to transfer to a university participate in the following required student success activities:
• placement testing for reading, English, and math; a comprehensive new student orientation; and academic advising.
Additionally, students testing into developmental –level coursework begin that coursework their first semester and students testing into developmental course are also required to enroll in a student success course.
Please note that specific program outcomes have been identified – the 2008 – 2009 data for these outcomes are listed on page 12 in the Monitoring Report
• Semester course completion with a grade of C or better
• Persistence from semester to semester
• Successful completion of college-level courses after completion of developmental course sequences
• Persistence to goal (degree, certificate, or transfer)
The intent behind the Student Success Pilot is close the gap between institutional and student practices related to student success – we placed a focus on the “front door” (first semester), increased success in developmental courses, and to make student engagement “inescapable” Let me share with you some survey research that suggests the need
• Entering students are highly motivated, are committed to achieving their academic goals, and sincerely believe they will - 89% agree strongly or somewhat that they are prepared academically to succeed in college. Yet
• More than 75% of survey respondents indicated that they placed into at least one developmental course – math, reading, or writing. (Survey of Entering Student Engagement, 2008)
• Entering students are excited when they first come to the college - 92% percent of entering students strongly or somewhat agree that they have the motivation to do what it takes to succeed in college (Student Focus Groups - Survey of Entering Student Engagement, 2008) Yet
• More than 70% of student respondents indicated they have never used career planning services and 68% of the respondents reported that sometimes or often they come to class without completing reading assignments. (PVCC CCSSE 2007 Results)
Student Success Pilot Project
• We will not leave student success to chance
• Student success strategies become part of the “normal” student experience
2008 – 2009 Maricopa Community College Impact
• Over 13,5000 students participated in a New Student Orientation program
• Over 6,370 students participated in a Student Success course

Dr. Linda Lujan, Interim President of CGCC, provided a College perspective and overview of the elements of the Student Success program. Dr. Lujan prefaced her comments by thanking Paradise Valley Community College for their I-Start Smart Program and the Academic Affairs Division for the seed money to implement this program at the other colleges. She stated that the conversations began in 2008 and much has been done in a very short time. She stated that they use the word “mandatory” with students and students accept this. Placement testing, one stop advisement, and orientation are all mandatory. Faculty advisement takes place in individual meetings and conferences. In Fall 2009, 40 sessions were held and 495 new students attended. All instructors attend special training on motivation, time management, career planning, study skills, and academic goal setting. Future plans for their I-Start Smart program include monitoring data and results, inclusion of part-time students, orientation for adult/re-entry students, supplemental instruction in high-risk courses, recruitment and training of more student success instructors and faculty advisors, as well as expansion of the “Connect with your Major” model.

Dr. Jan Gehler, President of Scottsdale Community College, commented that new student orientation was a process and not an event. Orientations are highly interactive, round table discussions, which result in immediate personal connection to other new students and college professionals. Faculty and student services professionals serve as table leaders. Connection, collaboration, commitment, and capacity are themes for orientation sessions. To date twelve sessions have been held for 1599 students.

Developmental Education – Dr. Maria Harper-Marinick, Ronnie Elliott for Dr. Anna Solley

Dr. Harper-Marinick commented that the presentation on developmental education would center around the following two factors:
• Where we are in terms of areas of improvement, SSPP, college committees, faculty review of placement assessment, policy review
• Where we would like to be with reference to institutionalizing effective practices based on research, faculty engagement, faculty development, placement assessment

Ronnie Elliott, Vice President of Administrative Services, commented that Phoenix College took an integrated approach to strengthening Academic Programs and Student Services for Student Success. Their goal was to implement a holistic developmental education program which was begun in 2007. In 2008 they development a five year plan which consisted of the following:
• Year 1 – Identification of a director
• Year 2 – Implementation of components listed below
o Strengthening faculty and staff development for student success and retention
o Coordinating and strengthening college-wide access to student services
o Aligning and transforming developmental education and gateway course curricula
o Redesigning college entry experience
• Year 3 – Applying for NADE Certification
• Year 5 – Applying for and obtaining NADE Certification

Ms. Elliott stated that steady progress has been made in all components and SSPP took majority of time and energy in 2008-2009. New projects include bridging partnerships with high schools, success coaching, and peer mentoring investigation.

University Transfer – Dr. Maria Harper-Marinick Jim Mabry for Dr. Shouan Pan

Dr. Harper-Marinick stated that the good news was that students who transfer do very well but not as many students are transferring. The challenge is to help students accomplish their goals and transfer to the universities. Transfer is central to the Maricopa mission. MCCCD transfer rate is on part with comparable states and research tells us that academic preparation, academic advising, and financial support are the factors for transfer success. Maricopa initiatives which promote transfer student success include the following:
• ASU-Maricopa Alliance and the MAPPs program
• NAU Connection
• Agreements with 40+ other university transfer partners
• Promotion of academic preparation through completion of the AGEC and associate’s degree

Dr. Jim Mabry, Vice President of Academic Affairs at Mesa Community College, spoke about the MCC experience. He stated there was no real silver bullet to encourage transfer. Programs and faculty are the key. MCC has 212 degree and certificate programs, as well as extensive transfer program. They don’t have to move on to get higher education courses. Faculty are educators who are immersed in their disciplines and have in-depth strengths in courses they teach. At MCC students can do research and they have a strong honors program, service learning program, and a strong connection to the universities.

Workforce Development – Dr. Maria Harper-Marinick, Dr. Gene Giovannini, and Dr. Velvie Green

Dr. Giovannini spoke about the occupational programs available through GateWay Community College and the Maricopa Skills Center. They offer 14 healthcare programs which include radiation therapy, clinical research, polysomnography, diagnostic medial sonography, and medical radiography. In addition, they offer union and non-union apprenticeship programs, solar technology, and automated manufacturing technology. The Maricopa Skills Center offers certificate program and the Boomer Workforce Transition Center offers services on healthcare, education and social services. Gateway Community College has workforce partnerships with Johnson Controls, Toyota/Honda/Nissan, Banner Healthcare, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Geological Survey, Western Association of Food Chains, and the Association of Food and marketing Alliance. In 2008-09 they served more than 650 students in the workforce training programs.

Dr. Green stated that the strengths of their workforce development efforts are the 93 occupational degree and certificate programs, 100 partnerships, training both on and off campus, and exceptional instruction. They offer degrees and certificates in public safety, fire science, EMT, police academy, nursing, and automotive technology. Their partnerships provide advisors regarding course and program content, donation of equipment, and instruction. Partners include 20 municipalities, B&I, schools, Glendale Regional Public Safety Training Center, Banner Health, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Cities of Glendale/Phoenix, Glendale Chamber of Commerce, ASU West, and Raytheon Professional Services among others not mentioned. Dr. Green stated that they continue to look for opportunities to partner for the sake of the Glendale community.

Concluding Comments:

Dr. Maria Harper-Marinick provided a review of the evening’s information. She referred to the Performance Dashboard as she commented that there out of the 23 measures assessed, 12 were green (median or above), 3 were red (below the 25th percentile), 7 were yellow (25th percentile – median), and one was not measured. She stated that we need to be thinking about whether all colleges are addressing all areas of the dashboard and what colleges are doing in areas of workforce development and all areas of our mission. Board members were asked to comment on information presented or information that they would like provided.

Debra Pearson: Was interested in finding out how often consultants were contracted to continue services in order to implement their recommendations once their initial contract was completed. She wanted to find out if contract or outside consulting firms ever included any further negotiated services beyond the original contract. Mrs. Pearson asked if the knowledge or information gleaned as a result of the contracted services was ever shared with the other colleges. The answer was affirmative. An example of this is the sharing of information that has been done in the case of Phoenix College’s E-Zine.

Randolph Lumm: Stated that lots of information had been provided and was really impressed. It takes time to learn more about certain program. He is interested in more information about SSP Programs and the Predicative Analysis Model.

Don Campbell: Outstanding job in terms of a presentation. All information needs to go to communities. Perhaps Channel 11 for City of Phoenix could be used so that more people will understand what we are doing not just in terms of traditional programs but all workforce training. This information should be shared. Changes in data does not happen overnight.

Debra Pearson: Stated she understands One Maricopa Concept, however, would like to applaud how ten competitive colleges help raise the bar. Competitiveness helps improve programs. One may start something and others take it and improve. Don’t get into One Maricopa and eliminate competitiveness. Are processes shared with each other? Are programs compared?

Colleen Clark: Appreciated all information shared. Not one size fits all students.

Chancellor: Expressed appreciation to all presenters. As he tried to resonate tonight’s information, he stated a need to establish the baseline information as to where we want to be in the future. We should look at the series of questions and common themes (i.e., In what areas are we succeeding as a district?, In what areas do we need to improve as a district?, What are the strategies for continuing success/improvements?). How do we connect the dots as we try to increase student success? If we build a matrix and tie them to the Governing Board goals and college goals, so that when we walk out of room we know that we are pursuing the same goals. There are two colleges planning for a review by HLC. What is important to Governing Board? That is about setting framework. We have a ways to go. Have taken aggressive steps using “mandatory.” Evaluations will say that every student will have mandatory assessment. Need to make sure that we provide support to other students to remain in this pipeline. We need to let people know that our dream is their dream. Need to chip away – what is a realistic goal for next year as we push our resources? Where will we be next semester? Help them recognize we are here. Great opportunity in the Valley to have a signature program that is comprehensive. Ask MCTV and be prepared to do a four minute segment on what we have to offer and share.

Adjournment of Retreat: The retreat adjourned at 6:47 p.m.

Randolph Elias Lumm
Governing Board Secretary