Help Them Finish What They Started

1. Help ThemFinish What They Started

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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).

6. 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 Health—for two years running!

7. 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.

8. 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.

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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 assistance Peer Tutors  Oklahoma Money Matters Program, a financial management and budgeting tool with participation incentives through AmeriCorps

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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.

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

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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

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

22. Positive Signs

23. More Positive Signs

24. 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.

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

26. For More Information • www.rose.edu Feel free to contact us: Dr. Jeanie Webb (jwebb@rose.edu) (405) 733-7374 L. Dean Fisher (dfisher@rose.edu) (405) 736-0223 Dr. Jay Kinzer (jkinzer@rose.edu) (405) 736-0355