Help Them Finish What They Started

Help ThemFinish What They Started

Rose State College

• Enrolls over 8,500 students per semester• Founded in 1970• Average time to graduation is 5.7 years• Average age is 24• Substantial diversity 35.6 percent of student body is

non-white• Part-time students account for 63.35 percent

Our Students• Our 13 primary feeder high schools have college-bound

seniors with a remediation rate of 59.14 percent• The state average for remediation is 37.4 percent; for

community colleges, the average is 50.0 percent.• RSC is designated as a Title III institution, and 44.2

percent of our students receive a Pell Grant.• Our students have both preparation barriers and income

barriers for success.

The Military Dimension• Each semester, on average, 9 percent of our students

are active-duty military– Additionally, many of our students are military dependents or

civilian employees of the military.– Consequently, they are affected by the dynamics of

deployment.– RSC’s neighbor is a military base with 18,000 civilian

employees and 8,000 military personnel.– The BRAC process has “protected” Tinker Air Force Base and

called for 400 new military families to be moved to be base.

A Fluid Marketplace • Within the Oklahoma City

metropolitan area, there are 17 institutions with whom we compete—for initial enrollment and for retention of students.

• In addition, there are 10 publicly funded technology centers (vocational technical schools).

• Nationally ranked and externally accredited academic programs and campus services in:– Physics The Strategic Programs for Innovations in

Undergraduate Physics at Two Year Colleges named RSC Physics Programone of the Top 10 in the United States

– Dental Hygiene Enjoys a 100 percent pass rate and 100 percent placement rate.

Health Sciences Pass Rate on Licensure Exams is 96 percent; Health Sciences Division has 139 clinical affiliations

– Wellness Program Award of Excellence by Oklahoma Turning Point Council, Oklahoma Academy for State

Goals andthe Oklahoma State Department of Health

—for two years running!

– Exemplary Initiatives Award

• RSC was selected for recognition for its Finish What You Start campaign by the National Council of Instructional Administrators.

– Perfect Partner Award

• RSC was recognized by the Oklahoma City Public Schools for its Adopt-a-School Program for two local elementary schools.

The Challenge• The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education have started a

move to increasingly rely upon performance funding models.• Performance funding will be based on a number of factors—but key

variables are retention and graduation rates.• As already noted, our institution is challenged with

• Higher than average remediation rates for students• A higher than average number of students receiving financial aid• The dynamics of military deployment due to a large part of our enrollment

tied to the military community.• The competition of 27 institutions within the Oklahoma City metro area.• Oklahoma is projected to have a decline of 7.5 percent fewer high school

graduates through 2011—with the college-going rate for those graduates at 51.2 percent compared to the national college-going rate of 56.6 percent.

Big Heads Campaign

Leadership Programs

Blended Advise

ment

Men

torin

g

Project Success

Case Management

Raider Experience

GradMaxScholarships

Rai

der D

ayz

The Response• The campaign implemented by College

President Finish What You Start• Action plan developed by Recruitment and

Retention Committee; the Committee is composed of a cross-section of faculty, staff and students

• Created a “corps” of stakeholders across the campus

Steps in Response

• President launched a “Big Heads” campaign to infuse the campus with the message.

• Significant changes to student services & student activities, including a reorganization of Student Affairs into core functional areas of Student Life and Enrollment Management

The Response Continued• Leadership Programs Enhanced

President’s Leadership Class a leadership corps of 20 students to “seed” the campus with proven leaders from

high school.Ambassadors a recruiting student team that helps us

penetrate markets; selectively chosen and used widely in recruiting and student events

Legacy Scholars student to student advising; enrollment assistance; financial aid and scholarship assistancePeer Tutors Oklahoma Money Matters Program, a

financial management and budgeting tool with participation incentives through AmeriCorps

Project Success• Conceived based on benchmarking using a

model employed by the Community College of Denver– Project Success is a faculty “advisement” day

coordinated with the beginning of an enrollment cycle– The College used a blended enrollment, and Project

Success brings students and faculty together to discuss classes, careers, transfer choices.

– Usually 75 faculty participate, and core student service functions are also represented at the event.

– To date, the event has been well-attended with about 600 students attending each event

Mentoring

• To help students form meaningful bonds to their major, to their faculty and to the campus and its services, mentoring programs have been developed:

• Faculty mentors• Peer mentoring• Community mentoring

Case Management• Using a social services model/TRIO model, three

staff were assigned to serve as case managers for a cohort of students drawn from first-time, full-time students. The case managers– periodically contacted the students to visit about career

goals and objectives.– held workshops with the students on goal setting, degree

planning.– connected students to other services on campus as

appropriate.– served as a single point of service for many tasks the

student might need to accomplish.

Scholarship Leveraging• The College’s tuition waiver resources

have been reallocated to add emphasis upon retention. – The College Foundation increased summer

awards due to limited other federal and state aid during summer terms

– Tuition waivers to returning students were increased by 15 percent. This strategy was made possible by the cancellation of soccer and tennis programs with reallocation focusing upon retention

– All students that apply and have a 3.00 GPA or higher have been served.

The Raider

Experience

Family Orientation

College

Orie

ntation

& A

cadem

ic Stra

tegies

Meet Your Campus

Online Orientation

Raider Dayz

The Raider Experience• The Raider Experience is the redesigned

orientation program and occurs across five dimensions:

1. Family Orientation2. College Orientation & Academic Strategies3. Meet Your Campus4. “Raider Dayz”5. Online Orientation

Early Alert System -- GradMax• Started as an initiative by President based on

software identified at Higher Learning Commission Annual Meeting

• Started as a pilot effort for Fall 2004 with– 526 students– 16 coaches (College staff and faculty)

• Continued into Fall 2005 and was expanded to include 790 students and 20 coaches.

Early Alert System -- GradMax• At risk students are registered for an Educational

Planning course that focuses on life skills/study issues– Students in these courses participate in an online software

(GradMax) that permits the College to respond to student trends or individual student concerns

– Serves as an early alert system for students– Student services staff serve as coaches for GradMax

students– Access to online resources and services, including a

comprehensive resource list

Big Heads Campaign

Leadership Programs

Blended Advise

ment

Men

torin

g

Project Success

Case Management

Raider Experience

GradMaxScholarships

Rai

der D

ayz

Positive SignsGraduation Rate

6.3%

3.6%4.5% 4.8% 4.9%

6.9%8.5%

7.6%

11.5%

0.0%2.0%4.0%6.0%8.0%

10.0%12.0%14.0%

95-96 96-97 97-98 98-99 99-00 00-01 01-02 02-03 03-04

More Positive SignsGraduation Rates

77.0%69.0% 70.0%

85.0%

6.9% 8.50% 7.6% 11.5%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

2001 2002 2003 2004

LeadershipGraduation RatesCollege GraduationRates

Next Steps• The goal is to maintain the effort, continue the

change in campus culture and refine the efforts to best serve our students, our mission and to advance the efforts of Finish What You Start!

• Our current rate is 11.5 percent.• The average time to graduation is 5.7 years• Our effort is to change the campus culture to

emphasize graduation.

Next Steps

• Annually assess our efforts and track students.

• Refine and improve as necessary.

For More Information• www.rose.edu

Feel free to contact us:Dr. Jeanie Webb ([email protected])(405) 733-7374L. Dean Fisher ([email protected])(405) 736-0223Dr. Jay Kinzer ([email protected])(405) 736-0355