Help Them Finish What They Started

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Help ThemFinish What They Started
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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

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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.

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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.
• RSCs 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.

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A Fluid Marketplace

• Within the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, there
  are 17 institutions with whom we competefor
  initial enrollment and for retention of
  students.
• In addition, there are 10 publicly funded
  technology centers (vocational technical
  schools).

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• 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 Program one 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 and the Oklahoma
  State Department of Healthfor two years
  running!

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• 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.

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

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Scholarships
GradMax
Raider Dayz
Big Heads Campaign
Raider Experience
Project Success
Leadership Programs
Case Management
Blended Advisement
Mentoring
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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

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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

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The Response Continued

• Leadership Programs Enhanced
• Presidents 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 assistance
• Peer Tutors ? Oklahoma Money Matters Program, a
  financial management and budgeting tool with
  participation incentives through AmeriCorps

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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

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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

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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.

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Scholarship Leveraging

• The Colleges 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.

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Raider Dayz
Family Orientation
The Raider Experience
Meet Your Campus
College Orientation Academic Strategies
Online Orientation
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The Raider Experience

• The Raider Experience is the redesigned
  orientation program and occurs across five
  dimensions
• Family Orientation
• College Orientation Academic Strategies
• Meet Your Campus
• Raider Dayz
• Online Orientation

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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.

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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

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Scholarships
GradMax
Raider Dayz
Big Heads Campaign
Raider Experience
Leadership Programs
Project Success
Blended Advisement
Case Management
Mentoring
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Positive Signs
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More Positive Signs
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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.

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Next Steps

• Annually assess our efforts and track students.
• Refine and improve as necessary.

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For More Information

• www.rose.edu
• Feel free to contact us
• Dr. Jeanie Webb (jwebb_at_rose.edu)
• [phone]
• L. Dean Fisher (dfisher_at_rose.edu)
• [phone]
• Dr. Jay Kinzer (jkinzer_at_rose.edu)
• [phone]