Strengthening Institutions ProgramFY 2020 Grantee Abstracts

# P031A200007 - Troy University, AL

**Project Title:**Creating a Central Environment of Support for Student Success

**Institutional Profile**: Troy-Montgomery offers undergraduate and graduate academic programs to traditional and non-traditional students, including programs focused on advancing the economic growth of the region through degrees in Business, Education, Computer Science, Counseling, Nursing, Applied Behavioral Analysis, and Social Work. Troy-Montgomery serves predominately African American female students—in Fall 2018, 75.5 percent of enrolled students were female; 56.8 percent identified as African American (63 percent female); and 48 percent were first-generation students.

**Problems:**Troy-Montgomery serves a large population of underprepared students in an area characterized by low educational attainment and high poverty rates. Troy-Montgomery’s retention and graduation rates are significantly lower compared to the University’s overall rates and to similar institutions in Alabama and the U.S. In 2016-17, Troy-Montgomery’s fall-to-fall retention rate of 46.3 percent for first-time, full-time students was considerably lower compared to 70.8 percent for the University’s main campus and 74.8 percent for public four-year institutions in Alabama. 1,2 Of the entering 2010 cohort, only 17.8 percent of Troy-Montgomery’s first-time, full-time degree- seeking students earned a bachelor’s degree by the end of six years compared to 44.0 percent for the University’s main campus and 53.2 percent and 58.9 percent for Alabama and U.S. peer institutions, respectively. Not only is Troy-Montgomery’s six-year rate the lowest, it has declined from 17.8 percent to 12.3 percent over the past three cohorts (2010, 2011, 2012). On average, it takes Troy-Montgomery students 8 years to earn a bachelor’s degree, double the average time of 3.9 years for students at the University’s main campus. Troy-Montgomery is not meeting advising needs or student expectations. Student and academic support services has rated low. Troy- Montgomery’s has outdated and underutilized spaces. Troy-Montgomery faces financial implications from declining enrollment and low retention.

**Strategies:**Troy-Montgomery is proposing one Title III activity: “Creating a Central Environment of Support for Student Success” to address the problems discussed in the CDP. Based on relevant research, best practices, and the University’s own experiences, the following two implementation strategies were developed: Strategy 1: Establish a Comprehensive Student Success Center and Strategy 2: Create an Optimal Environment to Support Student Success. By implementing this project, Troy-Montgomery will increase its capacity to respond to a large population of at-risk students with academic, student success, and student service functions that enhance retention and completion of educational goals.

**Objectives:**

1. By 2024, increase to 55 percent the retention of Troy-Montgomery’s first-time, full-time students.

2. By 2024, decrease failure rates in developmental math courses to 20 percent.

3. By 2024, increase six-year graduation rates of Troy-Montgomery students to 19 percent.

4. By 2024, increase percentage of faculty advisors trained in best practices to 95 percent.

5. By 2024, increase percentage of Troy-Montgomery students who rate academic advising as “excellent” to 52 percent.

6. By 2024, increase satisfaction with Troy-Montgomery student services to 45 percent.

7. By 2021, increase functional student success space by at least 7,500 square feet.

**Outcomes:**Increased student retention/enrollment; Increased technology infrastructure to support all essential programs; increased student success; and increased faculty skills.

**Funds Requested**: $1,959,582

1Troy Univ. Institutional Data; IPEDS Data Center

2IPEDS Data Center

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# P031A200014 - Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology, OK

**Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology (OSUIT)**is a comprehensive two-year, public, open door college, located in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Today, most area residents experience socioeconomic distress, following generational patterns of poverty and low educational attainment. Nationally, Oklahoma ranks 9th highest in the percentage of residents who live in poverty (16 percent), and the Okmulgee County area has an even higher rate of poverty, at 18 percent. Tellingly, only 15 percent of adults in Okmulgee County and 25 percent in the state of Oklahoma have earned a bachelor’s degree compared to 31 percent for the U.S. (Census, 2017).

OSUIT’s mission is to “serve as the lead institution of higher education in Oklahoma and the region providing comprehensive, high-quality, advancing technology programs and services to prepare and sustain a diverse student body as competitive members of a world-class workforce and contributing members of society” is critical to the region’s residents, and OSUIT serves as the educational access point for thousands of disadvantaged area residents. OSUIT serves 2,400 students, offering Associate in Applied Science degrees, Associate in Science transfer degrees, and Bachelor of Technology degrees. With 39 programs available (3 Bachelor of Technology, 6 AS, 26 AAS, and 4 Certificates).

Fall 2018 Student Profile: Thirty-four percent (34 percent) of OSUIT students are minority (Native American, 10 percent) down from 38 percent just 5 years ago. Most OSUIT students enroll full-time (69 percent), average age 23; 36 percent are female, and 82 percent receive financial aid**.**According to institutional surveys many OSUIT students juggle multiple responsibilities in addition to their college studies, including jobs (31 percent work) and over half (70 percent) are commuters.

Increasingly, OSUIT students are turning to flexible online and hybrid course offerings as a way to pursue higher education while juggling work and family responsibilities. In fact, since 2013, OSUIT has experienced a 34 percent growth in online/hybrid course enrollments. OSUIT is eager to meet the increased demand for online and hybrid courses and the opportunity to increase educational access for disadvantaged area residents.

However, OSUIT is facing several key institutional problems and weaknesses—insufficient online offerings, inadequate capacity, and limited resources—that stymie the institution’s efforts. To address the institution’s identified problems and weaknesses, OSUIT proposes a project entitled Investing in Student Success and Services Program that is composed of three interrelated objectives:

1. Increased student enrollment and retention through the expansion of online courses and student services

2. Increasing the stability of the university’s network architecture and IT infrastructure which will be provided through successful implementation of new fiber optics.

3. A back-up power generator will lead to greater student services, in conjunction with the improved IT infrastructure a decrease in interruption of student services. OSUIT’s Year 1 budget request is $441,901.

OSUIT is addressing both Competitive Preference Priorities: #1: Provide work-based learning experiences (internships) for in-demand occupations and; #2: Provide student financing and repayment education to students.

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# P031A200021 - Lone Star College-CyFair, TX

**Project Title**: P3-Purpose, People, and Performance: An Integrated Academic and Holistic Student Support Project

**Institutional Profile**: Lone Star College (LSC)-CyFair (CF) is located in Cypress, Texas (an unincorporated community in Harris County) and is one of seven branch campuses of the Lone Star College system. In addition to the main campus, LSC-CF has two Centers satellite campuses: the Cypress Center and the Westway Park Technology Center.

**Significant Problems**:

· Low rate of developmental transfer to credit courses (Corequisite DE Math), persistence and degree completion

· High Student/ Advisor and Counselor Ratio

· Descriptive Use of Data not meeting College Needs

· Hurricane Harvey’s fiscal impact

**Project Overview**: The comprehensive analysis resulted in the development of the proposed project’s five (5) year plan, which addresses how LSC-CF will leverage institutional strengths to support the development and implementation of solutions in response to the identified weaknesses/significant problems of the College.

This proposed Title III-SIP project will increase corequisite DE Math enrollment by 6 percent, student persistence by 4 percent, and increases completion by 2.5 percent over the baseline. To meet the identified project goal, LSC-CF proposes a *single Activity Objective*, to **improve academic success and completion by reducing institutional barriers.**

The project includes three main Activity Components, which incorporates evidence-based strategies and responds to Preference Priority 1 and 2:

**Activity Component 1**: Implement and institutionalize Pathways Components aimed at

increasing student academic & career pathways and knowledge of financial aid literacy; and (2) Increasing faculty professional development to improve and expand advising to students. **Outcome**: Increase enrolment and completion for Corequisite Math.

**Activity Component 2**: ♦ Strengthen and institutionalize Student Services Access Expansion including revise and expand media communication and implement virtual phase of the LSC- CyFair “Wayfinding” campaign. **Outcome**: Increase Fall to Fall persistence rates.

**Activity Component 3**: Strengthen and institutionalize the Annual Cycle of Effectiveness Process (ACE) for LSC-CyFair. **Outcome**: Increase three-year graduation rate for first time, full- time students.

**Funds Requested:**$1,485,992

# P031A200022 - Lone Star College, University Park, TX

**Project Title**: GradUP: You Commit, We Commit, You Graduate

**Institutional Profile**: Lone Star College (LSC)-University Park (UP) is located in Northwest Harris County, Texas and is one of seven branch campuses of the Lone Star College system. In addition to the main campus, LSC-UP is also home to the Energy & Manufacturing Institute and the Center for Science and Innovation.

Significant Problems:

· High Ratio Part-time Faculty & Obsolete Technology Impacting Academic & Student Support Delivery

· Antiquated Space to Meet Student Academic Support Needs

· Transfer and Returning Students Lack Financial Literacy Opportunities

· Low and Declining Persistence Impacting Student Completion

· 3-Year Graduation Rate Which Is Lower than Texas State Averages

· Siloed and Traditional Model of Professional Development Is Ineffective as a Change Agent to Improve Faculty Practice- Impacting Student Achievement

· Financial Capacity Stained due to Hurricane Harvey

**Project Overview**: The comprehensive analysis resulted in the development of the proposed project’s five-year plan, which addresses how LSC-UP will leverage institutional strengths to support the development and implementation of solutions in response to the identified weaknesses/significant problems of the College.

This proposed Title III-SIP project will **increase college persistence by 5 percent, graduation rates for full-time students by 14 percent and part-time students by 6 percent over baseline.**To meet the identified project goal, LSC-UP proposes a single activity objective, to **improve academic success and completion by reducing institutional barriers.**

The project includes three main Activity Components, which incorporates evidence-based strategies and responds to Preference Priority one and two:

1. **Activity Component 1**: Implement the new Success Accelerator Model integrating comprehensive tutoring across multiple disciplines through space reconfiguration, upgraded technology, and pedagogical best practices based on data analytics.

**Outcome**: Increase Fall to Fall Persistence Rates.

2. **Activity Component 2**: Implement a new Career Accelerator Model adding inclusive student career advising to students, leveraged by technology.

**Outcome**: Increase first time, full-time degree seeing 3-year graduation rates.

3. **Activity Component 3**: Create the Center for Organizational Development and Engagement (CODE) and expand/enhance Professional Development (PD).

**Outcome**: Increase first time, part-time degree-seeking 3-year graduation rates.

**Funds Requested:**$2,183,185

# P031A200026 - Lehigh Carbon Community College, PA

This project, entitled, Pathways to Success for All Students, will address the two Competitive Preference Priorities.

**Institutional Profile:**Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC) is a comprehensive, two- year, publicly supported community college serving Lehigh, Carbon, and Schuylkill counties in Pennsylvania. The college operates at the main campus in Schnecksville, as well as three centers and other locations in the service area. Accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, LCCC offers 14 associate in arts, 14 associate in science, 41 associate in applied science, 19 certificate, and 6 credit diploma programs. Academic programs are grouped under seven career pathways: Arts, Communication, and Design; Business and Administration; Computer Science and Information Technology; Education and Public Services; Health Care; Manufacturing, Trades, and Transportation; and Science and Engineering.

**Student Profile:**The Fall 2018 credit headcount was 7,114, and FTEs totaled 4,746. Demographics: 65 percent part-time, 62 percent female, 25 percent Hispanic, 6 percent African American, 8 percent single parents, 6 percent English not the first language, 65 percent first-generation college, 4 percent with disabilities, 30 percent age 25 years and over, and 45 percent attending at least half-time receiving Pell grants.

**Project Goals:**

· Increase student retention and completion; and

· Enhance the use of data for decision-making in support of student success.

**Project Activities:**

1. Establish an intrusive and holistic student success system through a case management model involving student success coaches, a career readiness coach, and an interest group for online students;

2. Redesign mathematics course sequencing and math placement, develop curricula to align with career pathways, and implement support strategies, including embedded instructional aides in developmental math, faculty-led recitation sessions, using mobile devices to mimic industry applications, and creating a technology-enhanced classroom;

3. Provide professional development for adjunct and part-time faculty through an Adjunct Academy and provide cultural competency training for faculty and staff; and 4) Expand student data reporting tools and upgrade information technology infrastructure for improved communication with students and timelier access to accurate student data reports for analysis of performance gaps among specific student populations.

**Impact:**

· The fall-to-fall retention rate of first-time, full-time entering students will increase from 57 percent to 60 percent.

· The percentage of first-time, full-time entering students who graduate within three years of enrollment will increase from 22 percent to 25 percent.

· Of the students receiving case management support, 80 percent will successfully complete their courses.

· The percentage of students successfully completing developmental math will increase from 34 percent to 50 percent, and the percentage of students in non-algebra pathways successfully completing their first college-level math course will increase from 69 percent to 80 percent.

· Sixty adjunct faculty will demonstrate increased knowledge, commitment, and involvement.

· Of the 90 percent of faculty and staff participating in professional development, 60 percent will report adopting at least one best practice.

· Network upgrades will allow faster access to data, and 100 percent of identified departments will demonstrate increased use of data for decision-making.

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# P031A200038 - Northeast Iowa Community College, IA

**Contact Person**: Dr. Liang Chee Wee, President, Northeast Iowa Community College. (563) 562- 3263. weel@nicc.edu. http://www.nicc.edu/

**Institutional Background**: Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) is a public, 2-year, higher education institution located in the rural town of Calmar (population: 1,080) with a second campus in Peosta (population: 1,836), near the city of Dubuque. NICC was established in 1966 and was accredited by the Higher Learning Commission in 1977. It serves a large geographic region consisting of flat farmland to the west and stately bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River to the east. The rural 5,000 square mile district has a population of just over 200,000 residents. NICC’s vast eight-county service area has been challenged by a declining population and a low-skilled workforce that has resulted in a middle skills workforce gap.

Educational attainment among most of the counties NICC serves is very low compared to state and national averages. Median household income also lags behind state and national averages in nearly all of the counties NICC serves. NICC offers 30 academic programs leading to associate in arts (AA), associate in science (AS), and associate of applied science (AAS) degrees; 20 diploma programs; and 7 certificate programs. Annual enrollment has declined since 2013, however more than 34,000 students have graduated from NICC since 1966.

**Title III Activity**: This Title III project will:

· create institutional processes, policies, and procedures to facilitate the integration of competency- based programming;

· improve student tracking throughout their career pathways;

· improve access to data and reporting capabilities; and

· improve communication with students.

The project addresses the following competitive preference priorities:

1. fostering flexible and affordable paths to obtaining knowledge and skills, and

2. fostering knowledge and promote the development of skills that prepare students to be informed, thoughtful, and productive individuals and citizens.

**Student Body Characteristics:**

**Total Fall Unduplicated Headcount Enrollment:**(2018) 4,449

**Average Undergraduate Student Age:** 20.3

**Ethnicity:**White, Non- Hispanic-89.4 percent; Black Non-Hispanic-2.5 percent; Hispanic-2.9 percent; Asian/Pacific Islander-1 percent; American Indian/Alaskan Native-0.4 percent; Non-resident Alien-0 percent, Not reported: 2 percent.

**Gender:**59.4 percent female; 40.6 percent male.

**Faculty Characteristics:**

Faculty to Student Ratio: 1:13

**Credit hours taught by full-time Faculty (2017-18):**71 percent

**Five-Year Project Budget:**$1,694,853.40

# P031A200039 - Mid Michigan College, MI

**Project Title:**“Enhancing Rural Student Access to College in Mid Michigan”

**Institutional Profile:**Founded in 1965 as Mid Michigan Community College, Mid Michigan College (Mid) is a two-year college serving rural Mid Michigan with campuses in Harrison and Mount Pleasant, Michigan.

Enrollment for Fall 2018 was 4122. Accredited by the HLC, Mid offers transfer and career-focused associate degrees, and certificate and non-credit programs.

**Significant Problem:**The Lumina Foundation’s 2016 Report *A Stronger Nation*found that 52 percent of high school graduates in Michigan have no college, or some college but no degree. The rural region served by Mid has a more dismal record—the percentage of adults with an associate degree or above is less than 30 percent. Surveys of local industries by the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance (2014) found that 71 percent of the industries in the region had difficulty filling STEM related positions. A declining birthrate will likely result in fewer degrees being granted in this region, threatening the viability of industries, as well as the college itself, which relies on tuition/fees for at least 70 percent of its revenues. Clearly, Mid Michigan desperately needs more college graduates.

**Activities/Strategies to Solve Problem:**

· Randomly form cohorts of 75 students from two groups of rural adult students-those age 25 and up and those under age 25;

· Hire/train cohort success coaches to provide intensive advising services, from the point of admission, to job placement. These coaches will also provide financial literacy training, and connect students to tutoring, mental health, and career services;

· Hire a mental health counselor to assess student needs and connect students to community services;

· Hire a mentor/trainer to enhance the ability of Mid faculty to deliver course content to remote sites via video technology;

· Schedule evening courses in a hybrid, seven-week format to better serve working adults;

· Enhance instruction through training in the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, a validated, research-based model;

· Provide hardware and software to support video learning at remote sites.

**Measurable Objectives and Performance Indicators:**

1. By September 30, 2024, raise the percentage of full-time, first-time degree seeking students who reenroll after the first year from 53 percent (Fall 2018 Retention) to 65 percent for students within cohorts. A full-time, degree seeking student is defined as a student taking at least 12-credits per semester in a degree or certificate program;

2. By September 30, 2024, raise the percentage of full-time, first-time degree seeking students who reenroll after the first year from 53 percent (Fall 2018 Retention) to 60 percent for the overall student body;

3. By September 30, 2024, raise the percentage of full-time, degree seeking students who graduate within three years (IPEDS 150 percent Completers) from 14.2 percent to 28 percent for students within cohorts;

4. By September 30, 2024, raise the percentage of full-time, degree seeking students who graduate within three years from 14.2 percent to 19 percent for the overall student body.

**Funds Requested:**$2,106,487. Mid’s Title III project budget is designed to ensure full implementation of the project’s comprehensive implementation strategies, to support project management and evaluation activities over the five-year grant period, and to position Mid to institutionalize these initiatives post-grant.

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# P031A200040 - Seminole State College of Florida, FL

**Title:**Creating an Ecosystem of Student Success Utilizing Guided Pathways

SSC will strengthen faculty and student communities within its college ecosystem by intensifying and transforming coordination of the guided pathway, culminating in a new pathway model, designed to provide strategic, evidence- driven, coordinated instruction and support services to help students through critical transition points. SSC proposes a Comprehensive Development Plan responsive to SSC, industry, and community needs by developing: (1) enhanced outreach and support services directly influenced by the latest evidence on how to better serve diverse and low-income community college students; and (2) coordinated guided pathways that maximize the relationship between student mindset and academic success for diverse and low-income students.

**Overall Project Goal:**Developing Seminole State’s long-term capacity to:

· **Fiscal Stability:**Improve revenue generation by attracting increased numbers of students from a wide range of backgrounds by more effectively and efficiently coordinating the College’s ability to serve as a major higher education partner in industry and community initiatives that recognize the importance of producing college- educated citizens who contribute to the well-being of the region.

· **Academic Programs:**Develop new, replicable models of coordinated academic programming, instructional approaches, and academic support programs and services designed to maximize content relevance, faculty-student connections, and early and continuous engagement with diverse students on a guided pathway to college graduation, while also preparing students to have knowledge and skill sets that are directly responsive to identified industry workforce needs and community priorities.

· **Institutional Management:**More efficiently and effectively capture and disseminate comprehensive external, internal, and student data relative to multiple key transition points in academic progression, so that faculty, staff, and administrators can regularly analyze comprehensive and detailed data to develop policies, make decisions, and take actions based on the assessment of potential and actual factors impacting student success, and to more proactively provide students with “case management style” guidance, access, and referral to needed academic and personal support services in a coordinated and timely manner.

**Comprehensive Development Plan Goals:**

· Develop a replicable guided pathway model built upon an ecosystem of coordinated college programs and services that more effectively and strategically aligns evidence-informed academic and student services to support student transition through completion of a targeted program.

· Close documented achievement gaps in targeted programs and courses where students are at high risk of failure or withdrawal.

· Strengthen opportunity equity for all student groups, including underrepresented students, first generation, low income, LGBTQ, active military, veterans, military dependents, aged out foster youth, homeless, parents, and students with disabilities.

· Improve operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness through more informed decision-making at all institutional levels.

**Comprehensive Development Plan Objectives (To be achieved by September 30, 2024):**

1. Increase enrollment in targeted programs by 10 percent overall.

2. Decrease failure rate by 15 percent for BSC2010C students majoring in targeted programs who receive project interventions.

3. Decrease time- to-degree in targeted programs by 5 percent.

4. Increase by 10 percent the number of FTIC students in targeted programs who achieve a 150 percent graduation rate.

5. Increase enrollment of Hispanic and Black students in targeted programs by 5 percent.

6. Decrease time-to-degree for Hispanic and Black students in targeted programs by 5 percent.

7. Increase by 10 percent the number of FTIC Hispanic and Black students in targeted programs who achieve a 150 percent graduation rate.

**Project Strategies**

· Outreach-Informed Enhanced Academic Ecosystem

· Strengthen Guided Pathways Through the Student Support Ecosystem

· New Guided Pathways Student Engagement Tracking System

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# P031A200041 - Community College District of Central SW MO (Ozarks Technical Community College), MO

**Project Description:**The purpose of *Navigate OTC*is to increase the effectiveness and utilization of advising within the college’s Technical Education Division. OTC’s current advising model is reactive—only providing assistance when approached by students—and utilizes both faculty and professional advisors. This has led to low engagement from students, and dissatisfaction with the consistency of advising support provided. Evidence shows that a robust advisement system can increase a multitude of metrics, particularly retention and graduation. OTC identified improvements to advising as a main goal of its strategic plan, *Your Dreams, Our Plan—OTC 2025.*

Through a collaborative task force of OTC faculty, staff, and administration, OTC has developed a new model of advising. *Navigate OTC*, the first stage implementation of the new model, will embed Navigators into the Technical Education Division. Navigators will proactively work with students to develop a holistic plan.

Rather than only providing academic planning assistance, students will develop a Multiple Aspect Plan (MAP) focusing on four areas: academic, career, financial, and support services. This plan will be individualized, based on the needs identified by the Navigator through a needs assessment. Navigators will continue to engage students throughout their time at OTC to update and track progress on the goals outlined in their MAP.

Lessons learned during the *Navigate OTC*project will be institutionalized for all OTC students. Shifting the college to a proactive, holistic advising model designed to support students in all aspects of their education. Through these efforts, OTC anticipates supporting more students to successfully reach their educational and career goals.

**Project Goals:**The proposed *Navigate OTC*program has three overarching goals.

1. Expand and improve infrastructure within OTC’s Student Affairs Division to provide holistic student advising designed to proactively meet the needs of technical education students throughout their time at OTC.

2. Develop *Navigate OTC,*a proactive, holistic student advising center, embedded within the technical education division and co-located near faculty and instructional spaces.

3. Provide technical education students with supports tailored to meet their needs, including community-based resources, as identified in their Multiple Aspect Plan (MAP).

**Target Population:***Navigate OTC*will serve all post-secondary technical education students (3,266 in 2018-2019 academic year).

**Key Measures of Success:**Several measures of success will feed into the project’s ultimate goal of increasing technical education retention by 7 percent (2018 baseline: 58 percent), graduation in three years by 5 percent (2018 baseline: 30 percent), enrollment by 10 percent (2018 baseline: 3,266 students), and employment in students’ field of study by 4 percent (2018 baseline: 64 percent).

**Total Funding Requested:**To accomplish project goals, OTC requests a total of $1,390,728 in grant funding over five years.

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# P031A200044 - Neosho County Community College, KS

**Neosho County Community College (NCCC),**located in Chanute, Kansas, is a non-profit, 2-year, public community college serving rural Kansas residents. Governed by the Kansas Board of Regents and accredited by the North Central Higher Learning Commission, the college enrolled 2,566 students in Fall 2018. Students may choose a general studies path leading to transfer to four-year programs or a career and technical path at the certificate and associate degree levels.

**Service Area Profile:**The college serves eastern Kansas, a region that includes Neosho County, Franklin County, and a portion of Anderson County. In this service area which includes three designated Opportunity Zones (addresses the Invitational Priority), less than 12.4 percent of adults hold a bachelor’s degree compared to Kansas (20.6 percent). Neosho County’s food insecurity rate, at 16.6 percent, is in the worst 25 percent of Kansas counties, along with Franklin County, at 13.4 percent. More than half of public school students (53.1 percent) qualify for free and reduced lunches. The median income in Neosho County is $44,073, less than the Kansas median income of $56,382. The majority of NCCC students (70 percent) are Pell Grant eligible, and 53 percent are financial aid recipients.

**Growth and Stability Challenges:**A significant decline in headcount enrollment and in credit hour enrollment poses serious challenges to the institution. From 2014-2018, headcount enrollment dropped by percent, while total credit hour enrollment decreased by 12.6 percent. Because of these changes and reduced state support of community colleges, the college is challenged by significant revenue losses.

**Title III Activity:**NCCC’s mission is to ensure service area residents have access to educational opportunities leading to high-paying careers aligned to trending occupational demands. The two key Activity components below address that mission and the growth and stability challenges related to declining enrollments:

Creating Career and Technical (CT) Guided Pathways targets the development of guided pathways which will clarify program roadmaps to degree completion, strengthen the advising process, improve ways of tracking progress toward degree completion, incorporate financial literacy development (Competitive Preference Priority 2), and connect students with work-based learning experiences (Competitive Preference Priority 1). CT Guided Pathways Centers will be equipped for students to receive comprehensive guided pathways services overseen by a CT Guided Pathways Coordinator.

Developing In-Demand Career and Technical Programs will guide students into technical programs aligned with high-paying occupations in demand regionally. Component Two will lead to the development of a Paralegal Certificate/associate of arts (AA), a Diagnostic Medical Sonography associate of applied science (AAS), and a Medical Laboratory Technology AAS. These new programs will require equipping and renovating instructional space for new classrooms and laboratories.

Neosho County Community College requests a five-year total of $2,250,000 for the SIP Title III Project.

# P031A200047 - Gateway Technical College, WI

**Project Title:**The Road to Student Success: Using comprehensive, evidence-based best and high impact practices, systems, and strategies, to strengthen the institution and expand capacity to ensure persistence, retention and graduation for Gateway students

**Institutional Overview:**Gateway Technical College is a publicly funded two-year college, located between the metropolitan areas of Chicago and Milwaukee. The District covers three counties in Southeast Wisconsin and serves just over 20,000 students each year in credit and non-credit courses and programs. Degree credit enrollment generates 4,500 FTEs. Of those in degree programs, 48 percent are economically disadvantaged, and 32 percent are students of color.

**This project addresses key problems:**

· Low retention and graduation rates among students of color and underrepresented student populations. The three-year graduation rate of white students is 9.68 percent higher than the graduation rate for students of color.

· Student satisfaction with advising is low.

· Multiple Student Success teams operating with slightly different focuses.

· Data infrastructure prevents collection of leading key performance indicators (KPs) for early momentum tracking and for resource allocation and college improvement.

· Work-Based Learning is in the College's strategic plan but needs structure and coordination.

· Grad Ready Financial Literacy tool underutilized.

**Project Goals and Objectives**

**Academic Programs Goal I**: Implement early momentum success strategies that support students to Get on the Road to Student Success and Stay on the Road to completion.

**Institutional Management Goal 2**: Increase student engagement through high impact practices and provide staff professional development to help Level the Road to close the equity gap for diverse populations.

**Fiscal Stability Goal 3**: Build college capacity to Maintain the Road to Student Success by enhancing advising structures, training faculty and staff and advancing the data systems.

Retention Objective: Increase the first year to second year student retention rate for new program students from

56.64 to 60 percent by 2024.

**Graduation Objective**: Increase the three-year graduation rate from 15.46 percent to 22 percent by 2024.

**Outcomes:**

· Increase the fall to spring retention rate by 3 percent.

· Decrease the student default rate by 2 percent from 23 percent to 21 percent.

· Decrease the three-year graduation rate gap for students of color from 9.68 percent to 4.75 percent.

· Expand the number of students that engage in a Work-Based Learning experience by 30 percent.

· Increase the percent of full-time faculty using the early alert portal to 100 percent.

· Decrease the case load of student services advisors by 25 students each.

· Increase the number of longitudinal reports that drive student success improvements from 0 to 50.

**Competitive Preference Priorities One and Two**are addressed in this project:

Provide expanded Work- Based Learning experiences and connections to employment for students.

Promote 'Grad Ready' financial literacy platform to all students, infuse it in the First Year Experience Course and offer workshops.

**Funds Requested: $**2,500,000

# P031A200053 - Martin Methodist College, TN

**Institution/Applicant –**Martin Methodist College (MMC) is a four-year, private liberal arts college located in Pulaski, Tennessee. MMC is the only four-year institution in an 18-county region along the Tennessee-Alabama border.

**Requested Funding –**$2,022,536

**Project –**Improving Martin through Programs, Access, Case Management, and Technology (**Project IMPACT**)

**Institutional Problems –**MMC has experienced significant enrollment declines over the last five years stemming, in part, from the need for new, competitive degree programs. Compounding enrollment issues, the campus technology infrastructure is antiquated, which limits the College's ability to launch new programs and prevents it from building an online presence. In addition, processes for student case management are ineffective and negatively affect student retention.

**Project Summary –**The overarching goal of **Project IMPACT**is to increase enrollment, year- to-year persistence, and degree completion through:

offering new degree programs,

expanding distance learning, and

improving case management and data analytics. 

The specific project objectives and tasks are as follows:

1. Objective 1: Increase enrollment to 1,252 through the launch of new degree programs in high demand fields by:

Launching three new undergraduate degree programs (Bachelor of Science in Public Health Education, Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems, and Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity).

2. Objective 2: Increase degree completion to 55 percent through expanded access to programs and courses via distance learning and new technology by:

Upgrading labs, classrooms, and servers with the technological hardware and software necessary to improve instruction and expand online/hybrid offerings.

3. Objective 3: Increase fall-to-fall persistence to 71 percent through improved student case management and use of data analytics by:

Coordinating student support and persistence efforts under the oversight of a Student Success Coordinator and through the use of new tracking and data analytic technology.

**Project Assessment**– **Project IMPACT**will be measured by specific performance indicators including, but not limited to, the following:

· By the end of Year 5, overall undergraduate enrollment will increase from 907 to 1,252.

· By the end of Year 5, degree completion will increase from 33 percent to 55 percent.

· By the end of Year 5, overall fall-to-fall persistence of all students will increase from 61 percent to 71 percent.

**Competitive Preference Priorities**– The project responds to Competitive Preference Priority 1 and Competitive Preference Priority 2.

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# P031A200058 - Colorado Mountain College, CO

**Project Title:**Strengthening a Rural IHEs Instructional and Student Success Capacity Colorado Mountain College (CMC) is seeking $2,125,000 to supplement $1,500,000 pledged by its Board of Trustees in 2019 to strengthen its academic programs, improve its administrative functionality, improve its fiscal management, and strengthen the student support skills of its faculty and staff. CMC presently is grappling with several significant challenges as an institution including rural/geographic isolation, high local costs for staffing, poorly documented business/financial aid operational practices, and limited instructional capacity in certain key programs. This final challenge is actively preventing CMC from meeting the requested needs of its students, in particular to provide regionally needed training in nursing, law enforcement, dental hygiene, and locally needed Career/Technical Education (CTE) fields.

Support from the Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) will allow CMC to vastly accelerate and expand its efforts in the next five years to meet these challenges.

CMC plans to undertake multiple initiatives with the requested support:

· equipping three new nursing simulation labs,

· equipping one (1) new law enforcement academy, partnering with a local dental practice to offer a new dental hygienist training program,

· improving its CTE programs with new equipment, training its staff/faculty in student support skills, and addressing its lack of documentation in its business/financial aid processes.

CMC plans to achieve these goals through a series of multi-step five-year plans. These include detailed equipment/supplies acquisition schedules, hiring outside consultants to assist with its institutional review and study, and an aggressive training plan for its faculty and staff to build individual skills. CMC hopes at the end of this project to educate more students in needed fields and increase student success.

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# P031A200059 - Cossatot Community College, AR

ALigning Industry and Graduates Now (ALIGN)

**Institutional Profile:**Established in 1974, Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas (UA Cossatot), UA Cossatot is a comprehensive public two-year college located in rural Southwest Arkansas. The main campus is located in De Queen (AR) with satellite campuses in Nashville, Ashdown, and Lockesburg. The College’s general service area includes: Sevier County, Little River County, Howard County, and Pike County in the southwest corner of the state. Because of close proximity to other state borders, the college also serves students commuting from southeast Oklahoma and northeast Texas. Sevier County has the largest percentage of Hispanics in Arkansas (32.3 percent) and UA Cossatot is the only Hispanic Serving Institution (HIS) in the state. UA Cossatot offers programs in nine of the top ten growing jobs in the state. The percentage of people living in poverty across the four counties is 20.4 percent, two percentage points higher than the Arkansas average and eight percentage points higher than the national poverty rate. Labor force participation is 7 percentage points lower than the national rate, and median household income is $18,749 below the national average. Fall 2018 total enrollment was 1475 with a Full-time Equivalent (FTE) of 882.

**Significant Problems:**

1. The College’s remediation rate in English, math, history, and reading is among the lowest in the state, which may be responsible for a retention rate of 44 percent; 

2. There is no institutional approach for establishing work-based learning collaborations with local employers and very limited data on the  employment outcomes of graduates; 

3. Students in the medical education programs struggle to pass their medical skills test, causing a significant attrition rate; 

4. Area employers indicate that students are lacking in soft skills; 

5. UA Cossatot’s current endowment fund is only $79,288.

**Project Overview:**In order to improve the retention rate, increase the number of students who successfully pass remediation courses on the first attempt, develop work-based learning activities for current students and assist graduates with job placement, UA Cossatot proposes a five-part strategy:

1. Establish a career services office;

2. Expand the Educational Resource Center and all its services, including additional tutors and open resource professional development for faculty;

3. Provide accelerated remediation to medical education students by adding a skills coach and video equipment to the department;

4. Address the needs of local employers by adding soft skills training to curricula and providing a soft skills instructor in the Center for Student Success;

5. To match the requested $150,000 in endowment funds adding $300,000 to the $79,288 current endowment.

**Project Outcomes:**

· Benchmark and improve job placement rates for graduates by establishing a permanent, UA Cossatot Career Services Office: 375 students per semester will utilize Career Services Center and 17 employers will implement work-based learning activities for UA Cossatot students;

· Seventy-five percent of ERC tutored students will pass remediation courses on the first attempt and on-time graduation rate will increase 6 percent;

· Faculty providing tutoring sessions will increase and adoption of open source materials will increase 4 percent per year to 73 percent at the conclusion of year five;

· Retention in medical education programs will increase to 80 percent and graduate placement rate for medical education students will be 95 percent;

· Soft skills training will be provided to 125 students per semester; students improve soft skills and financial literacy knowledge by 10 percent;

· UA Cossatot will substantially increase its endowment fund

**Funds Requested:**$2,222,659

# P031A200064 - Normandale Community College, MN

Improving Student Success by Developing as a Student-Ready College

Normandale Community College is a two-year, liberal arts transfer institution in the largest suburb of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The college enrolls almost 15,000 students annually and is the largest college in the Minnesota State system. Normandale is a comprehensive community college offering curriculum that spans more than 60 liberal arts and sciences areas that prepare students for upper division academic study and the workplace.

**Significant Problems:**Normandale loses more than 20 percent of its students after one semester and 50 percent after one year. The college’s completion rate is also low, with only 12 percent of all first time-in- college students graduating in three years. Factors contributing to these outcomes include:

· **Small, overburdened advising and counseling staff:**Normandale’s current student-to- advisor ratio is approximately 750:1, compared to the national median of 441:1 for two- year institutions. This has resulted in a transactional, walk-in model for student advising that does not provide adequate guidance and support for students.

· **High rates of academic warning and suspension:**Inordinate numbers of students are placed on academic warning, particularly in their first year. In fall 2018, 43.5 percent of first- time-in-college students were on warning by the end of the semester, and 24.6 percent were suspended at the end of their first spring.

· **Siloed divisions and disjointed services:**Normandale’s current structure does not provide students with adequate touchpoints and communication from faculty and staff. As a result, only 16 percent of students surveyed indicated that someone at the college has contacted them when they’re struggling and 53 percent never used financial aid advising.

**Goal and Objectives:**Normandale’s overall goal is to reduce academic warning and suspension rates and increase retention and completion rates. By achieving these goals, Normandale also will increase overall enrollment, which will contribute to greater financial stability. This project will focus on three objectives designed to address institutional weaknesses and problems: 

1. transform the advising model to reduce caseload sizes and increase proactive, intentional advising, 

2. create a cohesive First Year Experience program to increase retention of first-time- in-college students, and 

3. implement a campus-wide initiative to build a shared understanding of Normandale as a student-ready college and begin implementing student-ready principles throughout the college.

**Strategies:**This project will allow Normandale to reorganize the Advising department into teams of advisors and assign students to advisors based on their academic interest (e.g. STEM, exploring/undecided). Additional professional development will prepare advisors to provide more proactive advising. Along with more intentional advising, students will benefit from a new First Year Experience designed to provide just-in-time information that supports student success and that connects students to one another and to faculty and staff who can be resources.

Using these strategies as a springboard, Normandale will implement a campus-wide initiative to raise awareness of student-ready college concepts. This will be coupled with ongoing professional development and a faculty Student Ready Champion to provide assistance and support to faculty incorporating student-ready concepts into their teaching. This strategy will build a foundation for ongoing initiatives that will be sustained after the grant period ends.

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# P031A200071 - Cameron University, OK

**Institutional Profile:**Cameron University (CU) is a public, regional university located in Southwest Oklahoma with a main campus located in Lawton and a smaller campus in Duncan (CU-Duncan). The university currently enrolls approximately 4,000 students per semester and grants associate's, bachelor’s, and master's degrees. CU is an open admission institution at the Associate of Applied Science level with minimal admission requirements at the Associate of Arts, Associate of Science and bachelor’s degree levels. Serving traditionally underrepresented student populations is a vital part of the university mission. In Fall 2018, the CU undergraduate student body was 50 percent white and 44 percent minority. Furthermore, 37 percent of the undergraduate students identified themselves as first generation college students and approximately 48 percent received a Pell Grant.

**Project Title:**Strengthening CU: Providing Non-academic Support to Increase Student Success

**Activities and Components:**CU’s project consists of three activities.

For Activity 1, predictive analytics and dashboard software will be purchased and used to identify students who are at risk and their at-risk factors. Early Warning software will be purchased to provide a coordinated and centralized system that allows advisors and faculty members to communicate with each other and with at-risk students. CU will hire a Coordinator of Student Success, four Student Success Coaches and a Community Resource Coordinator to work with students who are at risk for not persisting or completing due to non-academic factors.

For Activity 2, CU will hire a Work-based Experiences Coordinator to direct the CU Learn to Earn program aimed at providing work-based learning experiences aligned with in-demand industry sectors for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors in the form of work-study jobs, job shadowing, and internships.

For Activity 3, CU will hire a Financial Resource Specialist to conduct workshops on financial literacy and to help students develop skills aimed at building personal financial understanding and responsibility.

Objectives:

1. Increase the persistence rates from 51 percent to 61 percent for first-time, full-time degree seeking (FTFTDS) students and from 56 percent to 66 percent for transfer first-time to the institution, full- time degree seeking (TFTFTDS) students over the course of the grant period.

2. Increase the completion rates of earning either an associate degree in 3 years or a bachelor’s degree in 6 years from 23 percent to 29 percent for FTFTDS and from 33 percent to 39 percent for TFTFTDS students over the course of the grant period.

3. At least 120 unduplicated at-risk students will participate in work-based learning experiences aligned with in-demand industry sectors or occupations over the course of the grant.

4. At least 400 unduplicated at-risk students will receive support in personal financial literacy and in building personal financial understanding and responsibility.

Amount Requested: $2,065,938

# P031A200074 - Marion Technical College, OH

**Project**: Quality Education for All: Strengthening Completion Rates for Underserved Students

Marion Technical College (Marion, OH) proposes a comprehensive student support model to increase student completion. The student support model is based upon extensive research, national best practices, literature review, and consultation.

The College agrees to institutionalize and sustain key personnel, processes, and procedures created for the revised student orientation, advising, mentoring, career planning, and new IT systems.

**Context:**Marion Technical College lacks a coordinated infrastructure for support services to enhance student success through advising, counseling, technology, and data-driven resources to assist students in attaining their career and academic goals.

**Goal:**Credential Attainment--The number of Marion Tech students earning a degree, certificate, or transferring to a 4- year institution within five years will increase 14 percentage points from 61 percent to 75 percent by Autumn 2024.

**Objectives**(Attainable by 09/30/2024):

1. Increase the percent of students earning 15 college credits within their first year of college enrollment from 39 percent to 70 percent

2. Increase the percent of students completing gateway College Mathematics and English courses within their first year of college from 6 percent to 30 percent

3. Increase the percent of full-time students who persist from their first year to their second year from 59 percent to 77 percent

4. Increase the percent of part-time students who persist from their first year to their second year from 28 percent to 40 percent

5. Increase the number of completed degrees and certificates per 100 FTE students from 27 to 40

6. Increase the percent of students who have a defined completion plan in a Guided Pathway from 15 percent to 95 percent

7. Increase the percent of students who are “on plan” to complete their education goal from 40 percent to 75 percent

**Major Activities**

· **Student Entry**: Improve entry for students through enhanced communication, assessment, and orientation.

· **Advising:**Improve student-centered advising by implementing early alert, interventions, and whole-person resources for non-academic needs.

· **Infrastructure**: Improve the student experience through a coordinated, one- stop student central facility renovation. 

· **Career and Academic Pathway Alignment**: Improve processes for academic program development and experiential learning and provide engaging professional development for faculty and staff.

**Project Deliverables**(Created over five-year project)

**Student Entry:**

*1a)*Questionnaires for prospective and admitted students;

*1b)*Campus-wide CRM for strategic communication;

*1c)*Expanded orientation

**Advising:**

*2a)*Comprehensive advising model and expanded AVISO utilization;

*2b)*Professional development plan for faculty/staff

**Infrastructure:**

*3a)*Student One Stop hub for academic support;

*3b)*MTC Connection Center for non-academic barriers

**Career and Academic Pathway Alignment:**

*4a)*New academic program development model;

*4b)*Employer engagement framework for experiential learning;

*4c)*System to manage program assessment/accreditation/evaluation

# P031A200076 - Guilford College, NC

Revitalizing Enrollment, Retention, and Degree Completion at Guilford College

**Applicant –**Guilford College is a four-year, coeducational, liberal arts institution located in Greensboro, North Carolina. Guilford is the only Quaker-founded college in the southeastern United States and is the fourth oldest degree-granting institution in North Carolina. Current (Fall 2018) undergraduate enrollment is 1,388 full-time students, and overall undergraduate enrollment is 1,567.

**Requested Funding –**$2,211,101

**Institutional Problems –**Since 2011, enrollment decline has led to a 45 percent drop in undergraduate enrollment. In addition, student retention has declined from 80 percent (2008) to 68 percent (Fall 2018). Institutional analysis shows current degree programs are not attracting new students and existing support services and faculty/staff training are not addressing the critical student transition from the freshman to sophomore year. Learning technologies and resources that support active and collaborative learning needs are also significantly limited.

**Project Summary –**This Title III project is designed to revitalize enrollment, retention, and degree completion through:

· enhanced academic programs in targeted fields,

· new academic support interventions, and

· new learning technologies.

The specific objectives and tasks are as follows:

**Objective 1**: Increase undergraduate enrollment and tuition revenue by investing in the revitalization of degree programs through:

Enhancing two undergraduate degree programs with new learning resources and dedicated faculty.

**Objective 2:**Increase student retention and degree completion by investing in new academic interventions and support initiatives through:

Implementing a two-tiered summer bridge program aimed at improving student transitions from entry to the sophomore year, and

Providing dedicated support for recent College-wide changes that require individualized academic planning and learning communities across the curriculum.

**Objective 3:**Improve student success by investing in new technologies that support teaching and learning through:

Creating a Student Learning Center that provides students with access to advanced technologies critical to degree completion and success after graduation.

**Selected Project Outcomes –**By the end of the funding period, the project aims to increase undergraduate enrollment from 1,567 to 2,000, fall-to-fall retention from 68 percent to 73 percent, the four- year graduation rate from 48 percent to 53 percent, and the six-year graduation rate from 53 percent to 58 percent.

**Competitive Preferences –**The project responds to Competitive Preference Priority 1, and Competitive Preference Priority 2.

# P031A200077 - Muskingum University, OH

Accelerating Student Success

Muskingum University offers a transformative educational experience to a wide array of learners, serving a regional, national, and international population. Muskingum is located in Appalachian Ohio, and approximately 43 percent of first year students are drawn from this impoverished region. Ninety-nine percent of students receive financial aid, with close to 50 percent receiving Pell grants. In addition, over 35 percent of Muskingum students are first-generation college students. First to second year retention presents a significant challenge, impacting graduation rates and contributing to the low (32.4 percent) college completion rate by high school graduates in the region. As a tuition-driven institution, this has also negatively impacted Muskingum’s ability to expand student support services and address essential building upgrades, including accessibility.

Developed through a campus-wide collaborative action planning process, in 2017 Muskingum University announced the IMPACT 2025 Action Plan, which unveiled four initiatives focused on the whole student. In keeping with Muskingum’s overarching vision of “educating the whole person for the whole world,” this Title III project accelerates student success by focusing on the Learning and Innovation initiative of the Action Plan. This initiative is built on four pillars of student success: student engagement, financial well- being, pathways to career readiness, and academic success. Guided by these pillars, Muskingum’s Title III project seeks to improve engagement and retention, increase accessibility and student satisfaction, and reduce the time and expense to graduation.

Muskingum University’s Title III project, Accelerating Student Success, consists of five main goals. The first goal is to enhance student engagement and success through a developmentally based integrative advising program, launched within an expanded first year seminar. This integrative advising model supports the holistic student experience from college entry into the workforce through advising touchpoints for exploration and self- reflection. The second goal aims to improve academic outcomes through expanded academic support programs, including academic coaching and supplemental instruction for key high-risk gateway courses.

Goal three is improvement of student financial literacy and to increase the affordability of a Muskingum University education. This will be accomplished by embedding financial literacy into first-year seminar, reducing textbook costs by converting faculty-selected course materials to Open Educational Resources, and creating a Money Matters micro-credential to provide incentives for students to expand financial self- management knowledge and skills. The fourth goal is to facilitate high-impact experiential learning and career readiness by establishing an Impact Center. This will involve renovation of the centrally located Quad Center to make career and other essential student services fully accessible to the Muskingum community. This renovated space will house the Impact Center, a state-of-the-art career readiness center and community commons. Goal five is the creation of a Teaching and Learning Center to build knowledge and skills to implement integrative advising, pedagogies for engaging student learning, and integrating supplemental instruction.

The measurable objectives and lasting impacts of Muskingum’s Title III project are to a) improve overall average first-to-second year retention rates from 72 percent to 80 percent; b) deliver academic coaching to at least 90 percent of first year students on academic probation; c) reduce DFW rates in specified courses by 10 percent from baseline levels; d) improve 6-year graduation rates from 50 percent to 58 percent; and e) engage 90 percent of students in high-impact experiential learning opportunities by 2024. Project activities will increase Muskingum University’s capacity to meet student needs and prepare them to enter the workforce as thoughtful and productive citizens.

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# P031A200079 - University of Guam, Guam

**Project Title**: *Para Hulo’ Triton Advising Center*: Enhancing Capacity at the University of Guam to Advance Students in Academic, Financial and Career Advising

**Amount Requested**: $2,073,456

**Institution Profile**: The University of Guam (UOG) is a public, open admissions, four-year Land-grant institution that offers 26 bachelor’s and 14 master's degree programs to nearly 4,000 students, primarily from Guam and the Micronesian region. UOG was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as an Asian- American and Native American Pacific Islander (AANAPISI) serving institution in 2016, with approximately 42 percent of its undergraduate student population also being first generation students.

**Proposed Project**: The University of Guam will implement the *Triton Advising Center*(TAC) that anchors an ecosystem of student support services that include academic, financial, and career advisement as a course of action to achieve the institutional goal “to increase the undergraduate six-year graduation rate from 38 percent to 50 percent” (*Para Hulo’*Framework). Guam’s low-income statistics and UOG’s population of underserved populations has posed tremendous challenges in retention and degree completion. TAC is organized around three objectives:

· Academic Advising: By the end of five years, 85 percent of graduating students will have experienced at least one advising intervention through the center;

· Financial Solvency: By the end of 5 years, 85 percent of UOG undergraduate students will have received instruction in financial literacy and been advised about financial aid options and protocols; and

· Career Development: By the end of five years 85 percent of UOG graduating seniors will have completed at least one career preparation activity through the center.

**Project Approach & Implementation**: TAC will be implemented using a student-centered approach focusing on keeping students on track academically and financially and providing career advisement to enhance their college experience. Objective One establishes a central and cohesive ecosystem that combines enhanced professional development in advising practices for personnel, Early Alert advising sessions, and the utilization of technology specific to academic plans via the Student Planning module. Objective Two aims to offer financial aid trainings to specialized populations, deliver curriculum through the existing college success seminar course for first year students, and develop online modules on financial aid and financial literacy. Objective Three prepares students for the workforce by implementing a career preparation plan and connecting students with employers in the public and private sectors through the technology of uConnect and/or Handshake.

**Intended Results**: TAC will meet student challenges and strengthen institutional management and academic programs to increase undergraduate retention rates, resulting in increased fiscal stability. By year 5, retention rates will increase, the percentage of financial aid at-risk students will decrease, at least 85 percent of seniors will have engaged in career planning, there will be improved college access and success for low income students, enrollments and tuition resources will increase, over two hundred faculty members will have been trained in appreciative and intrusive advising practices, and a unified advising and registration system will be in place.

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# P031A200080 - Southern Wesleyan University, SC

Southern Wesleyan University (SWU) is a four-year, private, liberal arts institution nestled in the foothills of upstate South Carolina. Currently, SWU serves 1226 undergraduate students and 294 graduate students (Fall 2018). The University is known for its solid academic offerings, including more than thirty undergraduate majors and six graduate degrees options and a Doctor in Education with an emphasis in Curriculum and Assessment. In the past years, SWU has experienced stable enrollment in the on-campus population, with a 4 percent increase of degree- seeking students between fall 2016 and fall 2017, but a declining online population. To accommodate the growth and not strain the physical facilities, hybrid courses with a combination of online and face-to-face and accelerated formats are in the emerging stages. SWU’s traditional undergraduate students are vocal in requesting access to more flexible online and hybrid academic options. With the increasing demand for hybrid, online, and accelerated programming among our students (34 percent commuting and 32 percent athletes) and the University’s inability to commit to extensive building because of limited fiscal resources, SWU is seeking to invest in innovations in pedagogical models and distance education to foster greater access to academic programs and services for our students and ultimately career readiness.

SWU has designed a Title III project, Success through Technology with Academic Rigor and Training (START 2.0)**,**which will address voids and unmet opportunities that hinder the University from meeting our students’ needs. SWU’s proposed activities includes 3 initiatives:

*Initiative 1:***Student Success, Engagement, and Professionalism**—Patterned after the success of other institutions, SWU will develop strategies to support the prospective student’s experiences as they matriculate and progress to ultimate graduation and career readiness for employment. SWU will develop a Student Engagement Center to facilitate student orientationto online learning, mentoring, academic planning, embedded coaches, mobile and virtual services.

*Initiative 2:***Prospect-to-Graduation-to-Career**—SWU will upgrade its technology infrastructure to enhance essential requirements, distance learning infrastructure, and dynamic online and hybrid learning. Existing hybrid and online courses will be reviewed using proven pedagogical techniques to guide instructors through the development, evaluation, and improvement of the online and blended courses with its active learning emphasis, SWU will convert it general education courses to online/hybrid format and redesign its existing online/hybrid courses, adhering to rigorous Quality Matters standards to increase course rigor. Partnerships, new and existing, will be fostered to provide internships and workforce readiness.

*Initiative 3: **Faculty and Curriculum Development***— SWU will upgrade its distance learning structure to support dynamic online and hybrid learning. Instructors will be trained and certified in Quality Matters standards and exposed to various pedagogical models, such as problem-based and project-based learning, to further enhance learning among the institution’s diverse student body. Existing courses will be revised, and new courses will be developed.

The Year One budget request is $450,000

Contact: Melanie Gillespie, mlgillespie@swu.edu, 864-644-5504 

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# P031A200086 - Missouri State University

**Contact Person for the Title III Proposal:**Dr. Kelly Wood, Project Coordinator, Missouri State University- Springfield Campus. Phone: (417) 836-5990; Email: KellyWood@missouristate.edu.

**Institutional Background:**Missouri State University (MSU) is a public, comprehensive university system founded in 1905. The baccalaureate- and graduate-serving campus of the University is located in Springfield, the third largest population center in Missouri with a metropolitan statistical area population of approximately 385,000. One third of Springfield students are the first in their families to attend college, originating from small, rural, and underserved areas from throughout the State. The West Plains campus is located 110 miles southeast of Springfield. This city of nearly 11,000, located in the Ozarks heritage region of the state, serves as a regional hub for a seven-county area of south-central Missouri and several adjacent counties in north-central Arkansas.

Established in 1971, the West Plains campus is an open admission institution offering one-year certificates, two-year associate degrees, and continuing education courses.

**Project Focus:**This Title III cooperative project is designed to improve retention and student success outcomes (career counseling, financial aid literacy) for first generation college students (FGS) for both Springfield and West Plains. The project will enable the university to:

1. offer GEP 101/IDS 110 (First Year Foundations) sections specifically designed for the unique learning needs of FGS,

2. provide individual success coaching to monitor and track the progress of the students under their care and maintain communication with faculty and staff in support of these students,

3. implement a multi- channel communication system to provide academic, financial, and social support for FGS, and

4. establish a data-based program to identify at risk students based on historical and current barriers for success.

**Competitive Preference Priority:**Project activities meeting the CPP include required financial aid curricular modules and nudges to improve student completion of financial aid process and to enhance work-based learning experiences for Springfield and West Plain students through career services presentations for undeclared students and those in the three high demand career fields.

# P031A200087 - Naropa University, CO

**Project Title**: “Leveraging Educational Technology for Student Success (LETSS)”

**Institution**: Naropa University is a four-year, private, not-for-profit, liberal arts institution located in Boulder, Colorado. Naropa applies the philosophy and practice of contemplative education across all academic programs.

**Students**: Enrollment includes 409 undergraduate students and 535 graduate students (Fall 2018 census headcount). Ninety-three percent of undergraduate students are enrolled full-time; 90 percent receive some form of financial aid; 55 percent are eligible for Federal Pell Grants. The median age of undergraduate students is 24.

**Employees**: Naropa employs 63 full-time faculty and 119 part-time faculty. The student-to- faculty ratio is nine to one.

**Activity Description**: Naropa’s activity, “Leveraging Educational Technology for Student Success (LETSS)” addresses the institution’s problems of low enrollment, retention and completion rates by integrating technology across the curriculum to increase student engagement and to expand course and program delivery options beyond traditional classroom instruction.

This is consistent with a 2019 *What Works Clearinghouse*Practice Guide recommendation that IHEs “use varied, personalized, and readily available digital resources to design and deliver instructional content.”1The activity focuses on providing *technology tools*(video-conferencing software, plagiarism detection software, a learning management system (LMS), course evaluation software and a cloud-based library platform); faculty *professional development*; and *support staff*(Coordinator of Undergraduate Educational Technology and Online Learning; Instructional Designer; Course Materials Technician) to support the integration of technology across the undergraduate curriculum. As a result, all undergraduate courses will leverage the LMS; 44 percent of undergraduate courses will be available online; and at least one BA degree completion program will be available as a fully online option.

**Competitive Preference Priorities (CPPs)**: Naropa’s Title III project includes components that address CPP#1 and CPP#2. For CPP#1, Naropa is redesigning *COL450 Internship*to expand work-based learning opportunities (internships) for undergraduate students. For CPP#2, Naropa is redesigning *COL101 Living & Learning Community*to include financial literacy.

**Key Performance Measures**: Institutional objectives/key performance measures to be achieved by the end of the grant period include:

· increase the 6-year graduation rate by 10 percent;

· increase the fall-to-fall retention rate by 10 percent;

· increase positive student responses on the NSSE Learning with Technology module;

· increase student satisfaction with the type and scope of instructional delivery methods;

· increase student participation in internships;

· increase student participation in financial literacy training;

· train 85 percent of FT faculty; 80 percent of PT faculty; and 90 percent of student-facing staff in the use of ed tech;

· increase enrollment by 6 percent.

**Budget**: A total of $1,944,732 is requested over the five-year grant period. Of this, 67 percent is for personnel, including three new positions to support the integration of technology across the undergraduate curriculum; 29 percent is allocated to contractual costs, including purchasing the LMS and related technologies and hiring an external evaluator; less than 3 percent is for supplies, including upgrading all undergraduate classroom technology; and less than 1 percent is for travel.

1 Dabbagh, N., et. al. (2019). *Using technology to support postsecondary student learning: A practice guide for college and university administrators, advisors, and faculty*. Washington, DC: Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse. (WWC 20090001) Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. https://whatworks.ed.gov

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# P031A200090 - Chattahoochee Valley Community College, AL

**Strategies to Enhance New Student Engagement (SENSE):**A Comprehensive Initiative to Improve Equity and Student Outcomes at CVCC

**Applicant:**Chattahoochee Valley Community College (CVCC) is a comprehensive, open admissions, two-year institution in Phenix City, AL. Serving both urban and rural areas, CVCC provides postsecondary education and training to Russell County and parts of Bullock, Lee, Macon, and Barbour counties in east central Alabama. Fall 2018 enrollment was 1,568 students.

**Requested Funding:**$1,820,925

**Institutional Problems:**CVCC is experiencing declining enrollment and low retention, graduation, and transfer rates. The college has no First-Year Experience program with related coursework and advising/counseling, and there is not a close connection between coursework and jobs. CVCC also has low success rates in traditional developmental courses and insufficient student supports, including limited tutoring services and no early alert system.

**Project Summary:**CVCC has designed **SENSE**with an overarching goal to increase student success, persistence, and graduation rates through a comprehensive framework featuring Success Coaches, enhanced First-Year Experience, and support services for the highest-risk students (SENSE cohort students) plus tutoring enhancements, increased career pathways focus, and early alert services to produce gains among all students.

**SENSE**will pursue this goal through three objectives:

1. Expand and enhance academic programs to meet the needs of underprepared students to promote enrollment, retention, completion and/or transfer

2. Expand and enhance student services to engage students and increase enrollment, retention, completion and/or transfer

3. Expand professional development to support enhancements in student services and reinforce active engagement of faculty and staff

**Selected Project Outcomes: SENSE**will be assessed via measurable performance indicators aligned with the project goal and three objectives. Some key outcomes to achieve by the end of funding period are the following:

· Among SENSE cohort students, 75 percent of freshmen will be retained fall to fall, 65 percent will complete 30 or more credit hours over first year of study and 80 percent will earn a degree/certificate in 3 years.

· Among all first-time, full-time (FTFT) students, fall-to-spring retention will increase from 70 percent to 80 percent and fall-to-fall retention will increase from 48 percent to 60 percent.

· Success rates will increase in remedial math from 36 percent to 50 percent and in remedial English from 62 percent to 72 percent.

· Enrollment college-wide will increase from 1,568 to 1,900 during the grant, and the percent of students with an internship or similar activity will increase from 1 percent to 8 percent.

**Competitive Preference and Invitational Priorities: SENSE**responds to Competitive Preference Priority 1 and Competitive Preference Priority 2.

# P031A200093 - Concord University, WV

CU Forward

Concord University (CU) is a public, career-focused liberal arts institution located in rural southern West Virginia serving one of the poorest areas of the country. Despite an excellent history of serving the region with quality educational programs, Concord has experienced an enrollment decrease and fiscal challenges due to a declining high school aged population and significant cuts to higher education by the state legislature. To address these issues, CU completed a strategic analysis resulting in the proposed Title III project described in this narrative. The **CU Forward**project aligns with the University’s mission and focuses on the identified weaknesses: low retention and graduation rates, lack of college readiness of students, declining enrollment, need for innovative course design, use of organizational data for strategic decision making, and large, continued state budget cuts.

The CU Forward Project proposes three primary goals to address the institution’s academic, institutional management, and fiscal stability problems:

Increase affordable access to general education and market-driven degree programs through online courses;

Provide student engagement with research/internships that lead to graduation and a career; and

Develop a robust and transparent office of Institutional Research to share data with students, parents, the community, faculty, and staff. CU Forward proposes 22 measurable activity objectives related to these overall project goals. The identified solutions/goals were chosen to ameliorate the weaknesses or needs cited in this proposal, but they were also chosen because the solutions are extensions of the strengths of CU.

CU Forward provides the needed structure to increase and modernize online courses to three populations of students: high school students to increase college readiness; typical college students to increase online degree programs; and adult learners who may have some college but have not completed a degree. Second, CU Forward will create a pipeline for students to engage in high-impact practices including research and internships earlier in and throughout their time at Concord to increase retention and completion and ultimately move directly into a career. Finally, CU Forward will develop an Office of Institutional Research so that the University can continue to report to students, the community, faculty, and staff the efforts of the University in a transparent way.

Through newly developed online courses/degree programs, expanded career pathways through research and internships, and institutional research to inform decision-making, the CU Forward project will improve retention and graduation rates and strengthen enrollment by providing affordable and flexible education to students coupled with the support necessary for success. A strong management plan, comprehensive evaluation plan, based upon strong theory and the project logic model, allows for continual improvement and progress toward project objectives and goals.

Funding Request: $2,028,865

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# P031A200095 - California University of Pennsylvania, PA

Transforming Obstacles into Opportunities for Cal U Students

California University of Pennsylvania is requesting $2,080,221 in Title III SIP program funding for a project to improve the academic success of students. Achievement of institutional goals will be measured by a 10.4 percent increase in first to second year retention rates and a 6.1 percent increase in the 4-year graduation rate by the conclusion of project year five. This project is supported by the President and Provost, with leadership provided by the Associate Vice President of Student Success to ensure effective implementation and assessment of the project and its success.

Located in southwestern Pennsylvania, Cal U has over 7,300 students and 311 FTE faculty, with particular attention paid to majors within the Eberly College of Science and Technology. A large majority of Cal U students have high-risk factors for failure which include low-income, first- generation, underprepared, and probationary students. Approximately 47 percent of all students are Pell-eligible. Of the 911 students in the Fall 2018 cohort, 51 percent were Pell-eligible, with approximately 39 percent of all first-year students having an Expected Family Contribution of $0.00.

Institutional strategic planning and analysis processes have identified the need for supports to increase student engagement. To address this need, the Cal U Title III project will implement five strategic activities including Appreciative Advising, supplemental instruction, professional development to enhance classroom instruction for engaging student learning, alignment of the Academic Success Center support services with campus initiatives, and work-based learning experiences. These activities were selected due to their demonstrated effectiveness in improving student engagement and academic success, especially with at-risk students, where the impact of retention gains has the greatest margin for improvement. The funded services will be available to all students, with some additional supports specifically provided for academically at-risk students to address their individual needs.

This project address both Competitive Preference Priorities. The Cal U response to Competitive Preference Priority 1 will include establishment of work-based learning experiences designed to embed industry- recognized credentials in Cal U academic programs, provide for faculty exposure to and engagement with industry and business work sites, and implement directed internships to enhance student learning. To address Competitive Preference Priority 2, the project incorporates information about financial literacy into workshops targeted at students and parents, materials for faculty to use in advising sessions, and directed internship experiences.

Granting this Title III request will allow Cal U to address documented academic needs with timely implementation of proven academic support, retention activities, and professional development, as well as increasing the undesignated endowment funds to improve institutional fiscal stability.

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# P031A200096 - Southeastern Community College, IA

Southeastern Community College (SCC) is seeking support for *Guided Pathways for Student Success (GPS2)*, an ambitious but attainable initiative to support academic success and student persistence. The project, developed in response to quantifiably documented retention needs, is based on best practices in higher education.

The goals and expected outcomes for this project include:

1. All students will complete an educational pathway in their first semester of college (focus area: academic programs);

2. The rate at which targeted students complete a credential or transfer will fall within 150 percent of the normal completion time (3 years) increasing the rate 10 percent over the baseline by 9/30/2024 (focus areas: academic programs, fiscal stability);

3. The rate at which targeted students are retained from their first to second year will increase 15 percent over the baseline by 9/30/2024 (focus areas: academic programs, fiscal stability);

4. The gateway momentum will increase when students complete developmental courses at a rate of 10 percent over the baseline by 9/30/2024 (focus areas: academic programs, institutional management);

5. The credit momentum will increase when students complete college-level gateway courses (15 credits and above a semester) at a rate of 10 percent over the baseline by 9/30/20204 (focus areas: academic programs, institutional management); and

6. The College will hire six student advocates in 2020-2021 to provide intensive and intrusive career planning, institutional navigation, academic advising, and general support services alongside clearly defined, well communicated, and easily accessible guided pathways for all of its students (focus areas: institutional management, fiscal stability).

*GPS2*is based on the research of the Community College Research Center’s (CCRC) Guided Pathways Practitioner Packet Part One. SCC will share data results with the ongoing research at CCRC. While early indicators provide descriptive evidence that Guided Pathways work, documenting definitive evidence will take time. Davis Jenkins, Senior Research Scholar at CCRC, stated that “CCRC is doing research on the efficacy of guided pathways in three states— Ohio, Tennessee, and Washington—where we are comparing data on the scale and timing of practices adopted by colleges in those states with multivariate analysis of student outcomes by college using student unit record data shared with us by those states” (Jenkins, 2018, Redesigning the Student Experience). CCRC plans to release reports over the next three years based on research in these states and other states. The theoretical background is a model to enhance the retention and graduation rates of students which relies upon the behavioral economics, organizational behavior, and cognitive science. Guided Pathways is also a model focused on narrowing the discrepancies among diverse student groups (i.e., underserved students). Guided Pathways is an innovative approach to programs and support services that are designed to advance and prepare students for completion of a pathway. These Guided Pathways also produce a more intelligent workforce focused on labor market demands. The Guided Pathways approach presents courses in highly structured coherent program maps.

As part of the study, all students will have a designated student advocate and a guided pathway for intensive and intrusive career exploration, institutional navigation, academic advising, and general support services alongside clearly defined, well communicated, and easily accessible Guided Pathways. The population served will include all SCC students. In the fall 2018 semester, SCC students included: 60 percent first generation, 82 percent receiving financial aid, 16 percent racial/ethnically diverse, 21.4 percent non-traditional, and 58 percent female. Annually SCC enrolls approximately 2,500 students including 700-900 students enrolled in developmental education. The Guided Pathways initiative will develop a co-requisite developmental education model designed to accelerate remediation. SCC will be utilizing the key performance indicators as established by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).

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# P031A200101 - St. Francis College, NY

Advancing Student Success: Transforming Gateway Curriculum, Co-Curricular Learning & Faculty Development a proposal to the US Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education for the FY19 Strengthening Institutions Program CFDA #84.031A

St. Francis College (SFC), located in Brooklyn, NY, is a 160-year old private, not-for-profit, four-year institute of higher education accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Rooted in Franciscan tradition, SFC is predominantly a commuter-college and it’s over 2,400 students are representative of the borough it serves. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse (24 percent Hispanic, 19 percent Black, and 36 percent White) and the majority are first- generation college students from low- to moderate-income families. The College’s over 70 major and minor fields of study across 19 departments range from traditional liberal arts disciplines to pre-professional programs such as nursing and education.

Through the Comprehensive Development Planning (CDP) process of this proposal, SFC has identified retention and graduation rates as key areas that need improvement and several problem areas that negatively impact these rates:

· DFW rates in key gateway math and writing courses is too high;

· The student participation rate in for-credit co-curricular activities such as internships and understanding of the importance of experiential learning are too low; and

· Faculty development is not centralized, and low measures of student engagement demonstrate the need to implement innovative pedagogies in the classroom. An overarching theme throughout the CDP is also the need for SFC to centralize systematic assessments and measures of program efficiency.

The goals/objectives of SFC’s proposed program are to:

1. Increase two-semester (first to second year), four-semester, and six-semester retention of first-time, full- time students by 4 percent each over five years (one percent in each year starting in the second year of implementation)

2. Increase the six-year or less graduation rate from 55 percent to 59 percent over 5 years (one percent in each year starting in the second year of implementation)

To achieve these outcomes, SFC will implement the following activities:

1. Revise curriculum and increase remediation in gateway courses (decrease DFW rates);

2. Implement a formalized co-curricular learning model through co-curricular mapping (increase internship participation);

3. Establish a Center for Teaching and Learning (increase student engagement); and

4. Improve program assessments to increase efficiency and outcomes.

# P031A200102 - Delaware County Community College, DE

Comprehensive Support Services for First-Generation College Students

**Weaknesses / Significant Problems:**In spite of improvements in student services Delaware County Community College’s retention and completion rates remain stubbornly unchanged. The College continues to enroll more part-time and academically-unprepared students, populations that have low retention and completion rates. First-generation college students (FGS) – many of whom attend classes part-time and/or are academically-unprepared for college level coursework – constitute a large portion of DCCC students and are less likely than their peers to complete their credential. Although the College has streamlined processes for enrollment, financial aid, and academic advising, too often the College’s support services for students are fragmented, or unknown to the students who could benefit from them most.

**Goal:**Develop and deliver a comprehensive, college-wide approach to addressing the needs of first-generation students to strengthen academic preparation, improve retention, and increase academic success to lead to program completion, employment, and/or transfer.

Strategic Activities:

· Enhance entry processes to support FGS in college application, registration, and financial aid processes. Includes expanding Enrollment Navigator program, and developing and delivering financial literacy programming, including an online module.

· Improve advising and assessment services for FGS. Develop and deliver a free pre-semester “transition to college” program for FGS. Implement a mandatory orientation program. Provide FGS with an Educational Advisor/Retention Coach. Create Student Success Plans using Starfish. Offer a free non- credit student success course.

· Provide enhanced career planning and apprenticeship opportunities for first-generation students. Integrate career exploration advising with existing educational advising. Work with FGS in Career and Technical Education programs to increase placements in internships/co- ops. Expand placement of students into Early Childhood Education internships at state- certified providers. Expand and promote on-campus work study opportunities for students in transfer programs.

· Expand professional development for faculty, staff, and administrators to improve the ability of employees to serve and engage FGS inside and outside the classroom. Train employees in best practices for serving FGS by infusing new content into existing professional development program. Engage faculty in innovations around remedial education by establishing an Innovation Fund that implements proposals by faculty members. Provide adjunct faculty with training focused on supporting and educating FGS.

**Outcomes:**This grant will achieve the following outcomes:

**Short Term:**Increase in contact hours with FGS; Increase in knowledge of financial literacy by FGS; Increase in awareness of employees about issues affecting FGS; Increase in knowledge of employees about how to address issues affecting FGS; Increase in course success rates for FGS; Increase in semester to semester retention for FGS; Increase in remedial completion rates of FGS.

**Long Term:**Increase in graduation and transfer rates of FGS; Increase in job placement rates of FGS; Increase in FGS contribution to society.

**Competitive Preference Priorities:**This project addresses the competitive preference priorities by:

providing internship, co-op, and work study opportunities to students in career, technical, and transfer programs; and

providing financial literacy training, including workshops and online modules on household budgets, student loans, and other topics.

# P031A200113 - Columbia College, CA

**Contact Person for the Title III Proposal:**Amy Nilson, Director of Development, 11600 Columbia College Drive, Sonora, CA 95370. P: (209) 588-5055; E: nilsona@yosemite.edu

**Institutional Background:**Columbia College (Columbia) serves approximately 3,000 students annually, the majority of whom are first-generation students. Located in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills with industries largely based on tourism, the college’s surrounding communities suffer from a variety of socio-economic challenges, such as far lower than statewide average median household income levels and educational attainment among adults. The college offers associate degrees in more than 40 disciplines and over 30 different certificates that prepare students for successful employment.

**Competitive Preference Priorities:**Columbia will address Competitive Preference Priority #1 by increasing the number of work-based learning opportunities available to students and CPP #2 by increasing the quality of financial literacy education it provides to students and by increasing the number of students who participate in financial literacy education. The CPP addresses all five of the U.S. Financial Literacy and Education Commission’s literacy and education best practices for institutions of higher education (2019).

**Goals: Improve Rural Student Access and Success:**This Title III project will improve access to higher education for rural students by expanding online and offsite options, increasing student success with improved educational planning and support services, and strengthening Columbia College’s financial stability through improved enrollment management.

**Key Outcomes:**The project will increase offsite enrollment by 25 percent, average course enrollment by 10 percent and completion rates by 5 percent over baseline.

**Student Body Characteristics**

**Fall 2018 Headcount Enrollment:**2,839.

**Gender:**Female: 1386 Male: 1159

**Ethnicity**: American Indian / Native Alaskan: 44; Asian: 33; White: 2101; Hispanic: 491; African American: 88; Multi-Ethnicity: 6; Other: 76

**Five-Year Project Budget**: $2,250,000.

# P031A200115 - Kentucky Community and Technical College System, Somerset Community College, KY

**Contact Person**: Elaine Kohrman, Director of Grants, Somerset Community College Kentucky Community and Technical College System 808 Monticello Street, Somerset, KY 42501 Phone: 606-451-6918 Email: elaine.kohrman@kctcs.edu

**Overview of Project Activities**

Somerset Community College (SCC) is a comprehensive public, nonprofit educational institution and is a member of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS). Established in 1965, SCC serves 7,233 students (Fall 2018) and offers classes at two main Campuses (Pulaski and Laurel Counties) and four Centers (Casey, Clinton, McCreary, and Russell Counties). Located in central Appalachia and adjacent to Kentucky Coal Country, students face numerous challenges and barriers for successfully enrolling, persisting, and completing their education pathway. Every county in the SCC service area is categorized as either Distressed or At-Risk by the Appalachian Regional Commission. Distressed counties rank among the bottom 10 percent in the nation. At-Risk counties rank between the bottom 10 percent and 25 percent of the nation's counties. Of the fifteen counties in the SCC service area, thirteen of the counties rank in the worst 10 percent of the nation's counties and two counties are At-Risk counties but contain 5 and 8 Distressed Areas respectively.

Average income in the project area is just $16,520 compared to the national average of $40,679. The poverty rate nationally is 15.1 percent, but it is 28 percent in the project area and is over 40 percent in two of the project counties (Clay and McCreary). All related, in part, to the collapse of the coal mining industry and the opioid epidemic.

SCC awards associate degrees, diplomas, and certificates. Full-time students represent 43.8 percent of SCC’s enrollment, 61 percent are female, and 70.7 percent are enrolled in at least one online course. The ethnic student composition mirrors the region’s demographic with 92.7 percent identifying as Caucasian, 6.1 percent as minority students, and 1.1 percent unspecified. 87 percent of students receive financial aid and 79 percent (4,670) are first generation college students. The SCC Title III planning team, through a comprehensive analysis process, identified eight major problems: Low success rate in high enrollment courses, falling student retention rates, low student use of support services, static graduation rates, silos of information not shared between faculty and staff, lack of fiscal viability, declining enrollment, and outmigration of youth (18-25). The proposed Title III project addresses these problems resulting in SCC establishing a comprehensive, systematic process that supports the institution’s mission and involves all constituents.

**Activity**: $2,236,481

Somerset Community College proposes a single comprehensive activity: Raising Appalachia: Innovative Student Engagement (RAISE) with three major activity components:

Create Learning Commons for increased engagement between students, faculty, staff, and community

Create Teaching Learning Centers for intensive faculty professional development to create career pathways, redesign high enrollment low performance (HELP) courses; and Peer Tutoring/Mentoring

Implement College Navigator Program utilizing instructional scaffolding for student success coaching

Project RAISE addresses the two Title III Competitive Preference Priorities (CPPs) and the Invitational Priority (IP):

· CPP One: Programs to foster flexible and affordable Paths to obtain Knowledge and Skills – Activity Components 1 and 2

· CPP Two: Programs to foster knowledge and promote development skills that prepare students to be informed, thoughtful and productive individuals and citizens – Activity Components 2 and 3

· IP: Spur investment in Opportunity Zones – Components 1, 2, and 3

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# P031A200121 - Frank Phillips College, TX

*Frank Phillips College is a comprehensive two-year, community-based educational organization committed to providing high-quality learning experiences and services*(Mission Statement). Located in Borger, Texas (population 13,000), we are a publicly funded, open-door institution, serving approximately 995 students FTE (2018-19). FPC serves the nine northernmost counties of the Texas Panhandle. Our 9,000 square mile service delivery area is dominated by vast expanses of open territory. FPC’s service area averages a scant 7.0 persons per square mile and a population of 60,589. FPC offers two-year associate of arts (AA) and associate of science (AS) degrees, as well as associate of applied science (AAS) degrees and Certificate programs.

FPC has a relatively new faculty of 37 members. Fifty-nine (59 percent) percent have been at FPC less than 5 years and 14 percent for more than 10 years. Hispanic student enrollment has more than doubled to 41 percent. Moreover, FPC’s students are largely first generation (59 percent) and low- income (58 percent).

**Our proposed activity, “Gateways to Success,” improves FPC’s curricular, instructional, and assessment capacity through development of academic programming, strengthening institutional management, and improving fiscal stability.**Title III institutional goals and objectives define what FPC must achieve over the next five years to expand self- sufficiency and serve our increasingly changing demographic profile as an effective and comprehensive community college. FPC’s CDP clearly identifies the student retention rates in gateway courses that are unstable, almost non-existent professional development and inadequate advising methods, an inadequate student information system, and insufficient facilities and technology hindering the student learning process and ultimately their success. Clearly, helping students to persist and complete their college goals is a top institutional priority.

The Academic Improvement goals are to:

· Improve student retention in Gateway courses, and redesign First Year Institute Seminar (FYIS);

· provide intrusive supplemental instruction (SI) and tutoring for gateway courses; and

· provide professional development of faculty and staff aimed at technology-based student advising, SI, distance learning, and online course training to deliver multimodal and active learner instruction.

The Institutional Management Goals are to:

· increase student success through implementing new student information system (SIS) maximizing ability for data collection, reporting, transferability and actions for timely interventions (accountability, assessment, and learner outcomes measurement initiatives); and

· improve facilities and technology resources to promote institutional growth and student achievement through learner-centered outcomes. The goal for Fiscal Stability is to increase enrollment vertically and horizontally.

The proposed activity has been designed to institutionalize improvements incrementally with an evaluation plan that is a continuous improvement model of the *formative*and *summative*evaluation of activity objectives through quantitative and qualitative data collection methodology.

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# P031A200125 - Rowan College at Burlington County, NJ

Rowan College at Burlington County submits this Project plan for a Title III grant intended to have significant impact on the capacity of the institution to support, retain, and ultimately graduate low income students.  The attached narrative establishes the need for capacity building, as well as the project plan for developing the same.  The Project is established in four parts/activities: Momentum Year support, Support for Minority Male and Low-Income Students, Comprehensive Orientation, and Faculty Preparedness for the Classroom. 

Momentum year focuses on increasing credit loads for students in the first year of classes, with a structure and advising support that increase their likelihood of success. The Support for Minority Male and Low Income students activity focuses on intensive and directive intervention for these students to increase the likelihood of their success; while there is overlap between these two projects, the level of intervention in the second activity mirrors the college’s successful “Educational Opportunity Fund” program and focuses specifically on the needs of the targeted students from a strength approach, rather than from a deficit.  The third activity (Comprehensive Orientation) provides a redesign of orientation programming to serve all students; this redesign addresses current challenges, but also builds capacity through technology to encourage success well beyond the limits of the grant.  Finally, the Faculty Preparedness for the Classroom activity recognizes that the “captive audience” held by faculty must be leveraged in order to meet the overall ambitious goals for the project.  The focus on professional development for faculty supports future success as well as current achievement. 

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# P031A200126 - Northcentral Technical College, WI

**Project Title:**RAISE: ‘EM+UP (Risk Alert Interventions to Support Education: Early Measures + Ultra Predictives)

RAISE: ‘EM+UP will align, create, and expand initiatives to support enrollment, retention, and graduation of all Northcentral Technical College low-income students through predictive analytics, advising, and career services.

**Institutional Profile:**Founded in 1912, Northcentral Technical College (NTC) serves a 5,900 rural square mile district in the heart of Wisconsin. In 2017-18, NTC served 19,170 students in postsecondary, basic education, English language learners (ELL), and continuing education courses for a total of 3,083 full-time equivalent (FTEs): 63 percent of are low-income students who receive some form of financial aid.

**Significant problems:**Weaknesses and significant problems of NTC’s academic programs, institutional management, and fiscal stability were identified by a 19-member development team reviewing, analyzing, and synthesizing data: Low-income students, students of color, and part- time students are less likely to complete courses, be retained, and/or graduate; low-income students have non-academic challenges that limit their success; advisors and faculty do not have sufficient capacity or targeted data to provide appropriate and timely student success interventions; technology is not used to capacity; faculty and staff do not have specific training related to interventions known to successfully support at-risk students; NTC’s opportunities for increasing revenue is limited; and the NTC Foundation does not have sufficient funds to provide financial support to low-income and at-risk learners.

**Three 5-year institutional goals**:

· Improve academic success for students through provision of proactive and timely academic and career support interventions;

· improve organizational efficiencies and increase capacity to provide key academic support services through streamlining services, effective use of student information and College resources; and

· increase institutional income through tuition and fees revenue from increased enrollment and retention of students and improved performance in outcomes-based funding measures for enrollment and graduation.

**Two strategic activities with clear methods:**

1. Implement predictive analytics to drive proactive and timely interventions for at-risk students by launching predictive analytics modeling and providing proactive and timely response and interventions; and

2. Establish comprehensive career services aligned with first year and second year student needs by developing strategic plan for first year and second year career services and providing career advising and career pathway planning services and resources.

**Four measurable objectives and performance indicators:**

1. Increase percentage of full-time associate degree-seeking student enrollments by 6.7 percent by Sept. 30, 2024;

2. Increase percentage of first-time, full-time associate degree-seeking student first year to second year retention rate from 69 percent to 79 percent by Sept. 30, 2024.

3. Increase percentage of first-time, full-time associate degree-seeking students graduating within three years of enrollment from 28 percent to 33 percent by Sept. 30, 2024; and

4. Increase percentage of first-time, full-time low-income associate degree-seeking students graduating within three years of enrollment from 21 percent to 33 percent by Sept. 30, 2024.

**Funding requested**: $2,163,597

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# P031A200128 - Andrews University, MI

**Title:**Developmental Education strategies for Native Americans and at-risk students to improve graduation rates: We make World Changers

**Project Overview:**Andrews University is a doctoral research, private, non-profit, rural institution known for its rigorous liberal arts education at the undergraduate level. One of the most remarkable factors is the nearly unparalleled global and diverse campus community operated on the Berrien Springs campus. Andrews University is the recent 2018 U.S. News Best Colleges rated as the national university campus with the most campus ethnic diversity.

In this proposal, we identify the strengths and weaknesses of Andrews University in the areas of 1) Academic programs 2) Institutional management, and 3) Fiscal stability to identify problems with student success and provide solutions to increase enrollment, improve persistence and graduation rates. Our framework is built on evidence-based models of developmental education for post-secondary higher education. In addition, we will use a culturally sensitive cohort model of education for Native American students and at-risk students. The purpose of this proposal is to develop and implement innovative, evidenced-based, cohort and culturally sensitive developmental educational strategies to improve enrollment, graduation and placement rates among Andrews’s University students. We will address Competitive Preference Priority – 1 Fostering Flexible and Affordable Paths to Obtaining Knowledge and Skills and Invitational Priority--Spurring Investment in Opportunity Zones.

**Problem Statement:**Graduation rates are low. Percentage of first-time, full-time degree seeking undergraduate students graduating with in 4 years of enrollment is 33 percent, and students graduating within 6 years of enrollment is 58 percent. About 26 percent of our students transfer from Andrews University. Low enrollment for local Native American students is identified as a major problem.

**Project Goals:**The goals of the project include:

1. to expand the activities of Student Success Center where integrated, data-driven interventions will improve student success enrollment, persistence to graduation, and graduation rates;

2. to increase enrollment, retention and graduation rates of Native American students from the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Nation;

3. to establish a system of faculty support with university-wide initiatives that target Native American and at-risk students with diverse needs; and

4. to create an endowment fund to provide scholarships to Native American and at-risk students.

**Project Activities/Strategies:**The implementation plan for project activities is based on evidence-based strategies published by the Institute of Educational Sciences in which the following practices for developmental education of college students were identified:

· Comprehensive and integrated support programs;

· enhanced and early alert advising;

· practices to accelerate mainstream developmental education;

· practices to modify information used to make placement decisions; and

· practices to teach metacognition, productive persistence, and college success skills.

Implementation of strategies for success will involve the following activities/interventions:

· The use of multiple measures to assess college readiness and placement;

· Incentivize regular participation in enhanced advising activities;

· Mainstream developmental education with course design;

· Teach students how to become self-regulated learners;

· Implement comprehensive integrated and long-lasting support programs;

· Faculty training on developmental education; and

· Improving college and career readiness for Native American Students; and

· Providing scholarships to at-risk students from endowments funds.

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# P031A200132 - Indian Hills Community College, IA

Located in Ottumwa, Iowa, Indian Hills Community College (IHCC) serves a ten-county rural area in southeast Iowa that encompasses 4,891 square miles. This vast rural region has a population of 137,280. IHCC enrolls approximately 4,000 students per year and offers more than 70 academic programs in health, advanced manufacturing, transportation, information technology and liberal arts education leading to transfer. IHCC’s mission is to *change lives by inspiring learning, diversity, social enrichment, and regional economic advancement*.

**CDP Problems Addressed:**Although IHCC faculty are dedicated, caring and hardworking they would benefit from intensive, frequent professional development to improve the design and delivery of their instruction to better engage students. IHCC has no mechanism to increase faculty use and understanding of research-informed teaching practices, instructional design and the scholarship of teaching and learning, plus lacks the funds to invest in significant professional development. Better teaching and updated technology-enhanced, collaborative learning classrooms would promote better learning thus engage more students and help the College to improve its first-to-second year retention rate of first-time, full-time students. Also, the College lacks an efficient, single format procedure for tracking and sharing faculty credentialing, leaving it open to accreditation non- compliance. Better software would allow faculty and administrators to track, update and share information. Finally, a gap in student services has left students without work-based learning/career and financial literacy/life skills services. Addressing this gap would better engage students and help them to make positive life and career choices.

**Activity and Goals**

*Activity:*Boosting Student Success through Active Learning, Effective Teaching and Improved Student Services

**Goal 1**Increase faculty knowledge of instructional design and delivery methods to better engage students.

**Goal 2**Increase capacity to deliver online collaborative learning courses.

**Goal 3**Increase capacity to manage faculty credentialing compliance.

**Goal 4**Increase student access to career and life skills advising.

Tangible Results by 2024

1. 90 percent of full-time faculty have received individual advising from instructional coaches on how to improve instructional design and delivery methods;

2. 85 percent of new full-time faculty learn about curriculum design, methods of college teaching, assessment and evaluation within 12 months of hire;

3. 80 percent of part-time adjunct faculty complete training on Quality Faculty Competencies;

4. Four percent increase in first-to-second year retention of first-time, full-time students;

5. 30 new technology-enhanced, collaborative learning classrooms at IHCC locations;

6. 48 faculty members offering online collaborative learning courses, giving students the flexibility to actively take part in class from anywhere;

7. Faculty credentialing data well managed to avoid accreditation non-compliance;

8. 100 percent of students receiving financial literacy information/advising; and

9. 50 percent of CTE students taking part in WBL as a result of career/WBL coaching.

# Total Five-Year Budget Request: $2,250,000

# P031A200134 - Washtenaw Community College, MI

Washtenaw Community College (WCC) is a public, two-year institution located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the mission of Washtenaw Community College to strive to make a positive difference in people’s lives through accessible and excellent educational programs and services. WCC has been continuously accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools since 1973. The college offers 56 Associate degree programs and 79 certificate programs that provide pathways to undergraduate and graduate degrees.

**Proposed Project:**WCC is proposing a single Title III activity: Program for Academic Success for Students (PASS). The target population to be served by the project is first-time, full- time degree- certificate-seeking students enrolled at WCC. The project will serve a total of 750 students, in cohorts of 150 new students starting each year of the five-year grant period.

**Project Institutional Goals:**

1. Academic Program Goal: Strengthen and enhance student success through instruction, student services and support;

2. Institutional Management Goal: Support and increase student success, persistence, and completion through targeted strategies; and

3. Fiscal Stability Goal: Implement a customer relationship management (CRM) system to enhance student recruitment and retention.

**Project Outcomes:**To meet institutional goals, by September 30, 2024, the project will achieve the following objectives based on GPRA measures:

· First year to second year retention rates of first-time, full-time degree- and certificate-seeking program participants will increase from 70 percent to 80 percent.

· Three-year graduation rates of first-time, full-time degree- and certificate-seeking program participants will increase from 16 percent to 35 percent.

It is expected that the PASS project will contribute to the body of research associated with four basic assumptions that underlie the project:

· Fostering academic momentum to increase credit accumulation in the first year of college is a predictor of degree attainment;

· Cultivating a sense of connection, integration and belonging with students leads to improved continuation and completion;

· Access to timely and relevant support services leads to greater student outcomes; and

· Technology used in conjunction with face-to-face advising services can have an impact on low persistence and completion rates. These assumptions will be tested in practice and further evaluated to determine the degree to which they contribute to attainment of project goals.

WCC is requesting a total of $1,464,712 to implement project activities over the five-year grant period.

# P031A200137 - Delaware Technical Community College, DE

**Title:**Advancing Student Success through Flexible Courses and Enhanced Wraparound Services

Through the proposed Title III SIP project, the College proposes to redesign course offerings in four Business programs and expand supportive services to advance degree completion. Key project activities include:

· redesign 36 courses to offer a flexible, 7-week format for degree completion in General Business, Management, Marketing, and Accounting;

· provide professional development around course design and pedagogy for business and general education faculty and staff;

· implement an early alert advising system;

· implement a curriculum management system;

· implement an online data warehouse.

**Project Objectives**: The proposed project will result in the following measurable objectives:

1. Increase the number of redesigned Business and General Education courses that utilize intelligent agents and early alert tools in the learning management system by 36 courses;

2. Increase fall-to-spring retention rate for Business students enrolled in accounting, general business, management, and marketing 6 percent over baseline.

3. Increase fall-to-fall retention rate for Business students enrolled in accounting, general business, management, and marketing 4 percent over baseline.

4. Increase average number of credits taken by Business students enrolled in accounting, general business, management, and marketing by 10 percent

5. Increase three-year graduation rate for first-time, full-time Business students enrolled in accounting, general business, management, and marketing by 2 percent

6. Increase percentage of first-time, full-time Business students enrolled in accounting, general business, management, and marketing who re-enroll full-time by 6 percent

7. Create and publish degree maps for 100 percent of redesigned programs

8. Increase advisor utilization of the advising data to 100 percent

9. Increase student utilization of advising resources to 50 percent

10. Increase percentage of Business students enrolled in targeted programs earning more than 6 and 12 college-level credits in their first term by 6 percent

11. Increase the percentage of Business students enrolled in targeted courses earning more than 24 and 30 college-level credits in their first year by 4 percent

12. Increase the percentage of Business students enrolled in targeted courses completing college-level math in first year by 7 percent

13. Increase the percentage of Business students enrolled in targeted courses completing college-level English in first year by 4 percent

14. Increase the quantity of professional development activities offered to Business faculty and advisors by 400 percent.

15. Increase seats taken by Business students enrolled in accounting, general business, management, and marketing by 10 percent.

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# P031A200141 - University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville, AK

The University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville (UACCB) is a public 2-year college located in Batesville, AR. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

In Fall 2018, UACCB enrolled 1,328 students, 15.2 percent of whom were minorities, compared with just 5.7 percent of its home county population. The majority of students, 62 percent, were first generation in college, and 58 percent of students were low income. UACCB draws largely (65.9 percent of students) from rural Independence County, Arkansas, where 18.5 percent of individuals live in poverty and per capita income is just

$23,058. Nearly a quarter of families with children (23 percent) are low income, compared to the national rate of 17.4 percent (ACS, 2017). The state ranks 43rd in the nation for residents 25 years or older who have finished high school and 48th in bachelor's degree completions (ACS, 2017).

Despite several strengths in academics, institutional management, and fiscal stability, UACCB’s administration, faculty, and staff have identified serious problems related to teaching and student success. Classroom technology is years out of date. With a change to the state’s funding formula—from entirely enrollment-based to a model that relies in part on productivity, largely defined as graduation rates—UACCB now never knows what it can count on. Three-year graduation rates remain lower than a rate that would make full productivity funding a certainty.

UACCB students, especially non-traditional students, are strongly affected by work schedules, time spent commuting, and family responsibilities and increasingly turn to online instruction for flexibility in their education. With over half (53.6 percent) of all students taking one or more online courses, UACCB knows it is past time to improve student success in these classes. Analysis of course outcomes indicated that 33.3 percent of online students did not complete courses, compared to 27.8 percent of those in face-to-face classes. According to 2017 CSSE results, UACCB students are much more likely than their peers to take online courses (72 percent of local respondents), compared to the complete national sample (just 44 percent of all respondents). Face-to- face classes have their problems too: in 42.2 percent of these classes, more than 40 percent of students made a D, F, or W. Of course, online classes were even worse, with 51.6 percent of classes having more than 40 percent earning less than a C.

UACCB seeks funds to institute a massive faculty development process to bring best practices to all faculty, full-time and part-time. Relying on proven development courses offered by Quality Matters for online courses and the Association of College and University Educators for teaching generally, we expect to see increases in student success and retention. Teachers certified by these two groups have seen student success and retention in their courses increase significantly.

By the end of the grant period, UACCB expects success rates for revised face-to-face courses to be at least 3 percentage points higher than for the same courses before revision. For revised online courses, the success rate will be at least 5 percentage points higher. With greater academic success, the retention rate will have increased by at least 3 percentage points over the 2018 average of 62 percent.

This proposal addresses Competitive Preference Priorities One and Two and also addresses the Invitational Priority.

The total five-year funding request is $2,249,946

# P031A200156 - Chippewa Valley Technical College, WI

Fostering Success through a Student-Centered Approach

Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC) is a publicly funded, two-year technical college serving 11 counties in west-central Wisconsin. Located in Eau Claire, the college is one of 16 institutions making up the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS). In 2018-19, 12,009 credit students enrolled at the college, totaling 4,431 full-time equivalencies (FTEs). In the same year, 63 percent of CVTC students received financial aid and 41 percent received a Pell grant.

CVTC’s overarching goal in this project is to improve success across the college through a student-centered approach to academic, financial, and social support systems. The project will focus on several targeted strategies:

· implement guided pathway essential practices for students by developing and incorporating robust degree planning strategies and tools;

· provide e- learning support for students enrolled in online courses and faculty teaching online courses to narrow the gap between alternative delivery and face-to-face delivery methods; and

· address inequities and decrease non-cognitive barriers to success at the institution through financial literacy education, reduced textbook cost, and improved access to social support services.

Achieving four measurable objectives will advance the above strategies. For each objective, CVTC will implement key activities and tasks leading to short, medium, and long-term outcomes designed to strengthen the institution.

1. Objective 1: Increase retention rate of part-time program students from first term to second term (one- year programs) *or*first year to second year (two-year programs) by 5 percent from baseline by September 30, 2024.

2. Objective 2: Increase the graduation rate of new program students by 5 percent from baseline by September 30, 2024.

Key activities include: integrating a degree planning tool into CVTC’s existing registration and advising processes; developing and deploying an embedded online degree planning module for students in Business Management and Liberal Arts programs; and collaborating with employers to launch a business challenge program for Business Management students.

3. Objective 3: Increase alternative delivery course completion rates of program students by 5 percent from baseline by September 30, 2024.

Key activities include: providing faculty coaching and professional development on effective online course development and instructional strategies, methodologies, and technology tools; launching an embedded Online Readiness and Success module and assessment into courses with low success rates; and hosting an e-learning conference for educators across the state.

4. Objective 4: Increase the retention rate of part-time economically disadvantaged students by 5 percent from baseline by September 30, 2024.

Key activities include expanding the capacity of the *Money Matters*financial literacy program to offer additional coaching, workshops, and resources to students; offering open educational resources (OER) to students; and providing mental health services to students and identifying strategies for sustaining them.

# P031A200158 - Kaskaskia College, IL

Kaskaskia College (KC) located at the crossroads of the 19th century Illinois rail system in Centralia, Illinois (population 12,368), has a rich tradition of providing comprehensive, high quality, cost-effective educational opportunities to the 131,000 residents of its rural primary service area (2,231 square miles) in south-central Illinois. Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, the two-year, public college serves five counties, with parts of four additional counties served as well. Because of the rural nature of the service area, KC prioritizes offering postsecondary access to the isolated populations that it serves.

KC offers classes at its main campus in Centralia, along with its five outreach sites. In addition to 48 associate degrees, KC offers 97 certificate programs, preparing students for transfer to baccalaureate programs, for meaningful careers or for advanced training.

Despite lingering troublesome unemployment rates, the region looks forward to a bright future, fueled by growth potential in transportation, manufacturing, healthcare, and air cargo industries. But low educational attainment, too common in this rural area, threatens the area’s ability to capitalize on its promise; only 45.1 percent of area residents have associate degrees, compared to 88.6 percent of the state and 87.3 percent nationally (*Census Bureau, American Community Survey [ACS]*, 2017). With technological advancements in regional industries, a high school diploma is no longer adequate for entry-level positions, and future advancement is usually ruled out without a postsecondary education.

Over the past six years, KC’s student credit hour production has declined 13.0 percent, resulting in a tuition revenue decrease as well as reduced credit hour reimbursement from the state. As detrimental as those trends are, the previous failure of the state government to pass a budget exacerbated the situation. Though that situation has since been rectified, the draconian cuts in state funding challenged KC to reduce expenditures and enhance revenue streams. In order to continue its tradition of providing students with robust educational opportunities needed to secure high-paying, rewarding employment, KC must meet this funding challenge through enhanced tuition revenue derived from increased enrollment in high-demand online courses.

To respond to this challenge, KC proposes to promote enrollment growth with major curriculum reform through redesign of key core curriculum online courses. Revised courses will be supported by faculty development and student academic support, including essential online student services, tutoring and advising. The Industrial Technology program, which culminates in an associate of applied science (AAS) degree or certificate that responds proactively to area industry demands, will be revitalized and moved to a hybrid delivery format; likewise, a new manufacturing certificate and AAS degree will be developed and delivered in a hybrid format. Furthermore, internal audits have revealed a high demand for a viable transition program for licensed practical nurses seeking to upgrade to registered nurse; we propose such a bridge program delivered in a hybrid format.

The proposed Title III activity responds to both Competitive Preference Priorities as well as the Invitational Priority.

Total five-year request: $2,249,380

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# P031A200176 - Holyoke Community College, MA

Creating Opportunity, Increasing Equity, Eliminating Barriers: Strengthening HCC in Service of All Students

Established in 1946 as Massachusetts’ first public two-year institution of higher education, Holyoke Community College (HCC) is accessible to the residents of both urban and rural areas of the Connecticut River valley. Fall 2018 enrollment data for 5,206 credit students show that 59.6 percent were white, 27.4 percent Hispanic/Latino, 6.3 percent African American, 2.8 percent Asian, and less than one percent Native American. Women comprise 63 percent of the student body and 66 percent of the Hispanic population.

Between 2005 and 2016, the FTE enrollment of Hispanic/Latino students increased from 14.0 percent to 25.3 percent, meeting eligibility for designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Recent surveys show that HCC’s students face many barriers even before stepping in the classroom: in the last year, about 16 percent of HCC students experienced some form of homelessness, 46 percent were housing insecure, and 49 percent had low or very low food security.

**Title III Activity - Goal Statement:**HCC will become a culturally responsive institution (a Hispanic “Thriving” Institution) by delivering a holistic approach to student success and professional development.

**Planning Process:**The Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP), activity goal, objectives, and activities were primarily developed using the priorities, goals and strategies created during the college’s recent Strategic Planning process, which resulted in a 2019-2022 Strategic Plan.

**Title III Objectives:**Over the five-years of the grant, HCC will implement activities to:

Increase the fall-to-fall retention rate for all first time, degree seeking students of color to 51 percent

Decrease the retention rate gap (achievement gap) between first-time, degree-seeking white students and students of color to 5 points

Decrease the graduation rate gap (achievement gap) between first-time, degree-seeking white students and students of color to 7 points

Increase students’ feelings of being supported in the classroom by 3 percentage points from 53.7 percent, as reported through the Support for Learners question in the CCSSE Survey (“Encouraging contact among students from different economic, social, and racial or ethnic backgrounds”)

*Competitive Preference Priority (CPP) One:*Increase the number of enrolled students participating in work-based experiences by 2 percentage points, from 23 percent to 25 percent.

*CPP Two:*Reduce the debt default rate by 2 percentage points from 13.2 percent to 11.2 percent

*CPP Two:*Reduce the number of students taking out student loans by 3 percentage points (27 percent to 24 percent)

*CPP Two:*Decrease our students’ “lack of finances” response rate on the CCSSE survey by 5 percentage points (from 45 percent to 40 percent)

**Project Activities:**Drawing from the creation of the CDP, the following categories of activities will be developed, implemented, and institutionalized at HCC:

Coordinated Care Initiative for Student Success; and

The Center for Excellence. Funds will be used to support the development of the Center of Excellence at HCC, the purchase of a Coordinated Care Student Success Management Platform, qualitative software and survey packages, and comprehensive professional development activities.

Competitive preference priority activities will include professional development focused on increasing work-based experiences for students and community and school district outreach and workshop activities in Financial Aid and enhancement of Financial Literacy activities at HCC.

**Assessment:**Project success will be monitored by an evaluation plan that includes both formative and summative components. An external evaluator has been identified, is prepared to begin providing her expertise in October 2019, and is committed for the duration of the grant.

**Five-Year Budget:**$2,118,703

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# P031A200181 - Folsom Lake College, CA

A new institution of higher education, Folsom Lake College (FLC) was established in 2004 as the fourth college in the Los Rios Community College District. Serving more than 12,000 students at three sites, FLC’s mission is to enrich and empower all students to strengthen the community by bridging knowledge, experience, and innovation. As a fairly new school, FLC has an opportunity to build on existing strengths, such as innovative and interdisciplinary programming, to further develop academic supports, particularly for under-prepared students.

Recent changes to California law eliminated remedial coursework path and requires direct access to transfer- level classes with or without co-requisite support. Grant activities will focus on ensuring that students, specifically those who are not prepared for transfer level classes, have access to high-quality, evidence-based learning supports.

FLC will develop a comprehensive and institution-wide intrusive tutoring support for math and English. Strategies creating capacity for tutoring in-person through Embedded Tutors and a new Math Center, as well as virtually through an app. Faculty and staff will undertake professional development to ensure high utilization of these supports.

FLC will seek to meet the following goals:

· Expanding academic assistance programs at FLC;

· Increasing the percentage of students who complete transfer level math and English;

· Increasing completion rates of disproportionately impacted (DI) groups and decreasing equity gaps and;

· Strengthening the culture of learning at FLC and maintaining high-quality service.

# P031A200182 - Nyack College, NY

The Nyack College Title III Grant application requests funding from the Department of Education to launch Nyack’s *Connect for Success*program. The overall aim of *Connect for Success*is to support students’ needs to complete their degree while preparing them to enter the workforce. The program will focus on strengthening Nyack’s ability to serve, retain, graduate, and transition to the workforce minority and first-generation students. *Connect for Success*has the following institutional goals:

1. Establish a student case management approach to academic advising where unified, data- driven interventions improve student success and career development.

2. Implement a technology-enhanced advising model to support retention, improve productivity and increase career development services.

3. Expand work-based learning experiences/opportunities through a career development *referral*network.

The measurable objectives include:

· increasing four-year graduation rates for first-time full- time freshmen,

· increasing overall fifth semester retention, and

· increasing fifth semester retention of at-risk students.

To accomplish this, Nyack will establish the academic advisement and career development center, fully utilize an effective integrated early alert system for retention, expand and implement intrusive support services for at- risk students, offer career planning seminars and workshops, offer panels for first-generation students based on proven practices, and launch improved online assistance for all students.

The tangible results expected from *Connect for Success*include:

1. a six percent increase in four-year graduates,

2. a 10 percent increase in the fifth semester retention rate, and

3. a 10 percent increase in the fifth semester retention rate of at-risk students.

Nyack College is requesting $1.9 million from the Department of Education to launch *Connect for Success*, with a goal to fully institutionalize the program and its associated activities by the end of the five-year budget period.

# P031A200183 - University of Detroit Mercy, MI

University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit Mercy) is Michigan’s largest and oldest comprehensive Catholic university, with seven colleges and schools offering more than 100 academic fields of study. Since its inception in 1877, the University of Detroit has continued the Jesuit tradition of excellence in education with an emphasis upon preparing leaders with a focus on justice. Detroit Mercy’s Jesuit- and Mercy-sponsored institutions were established in the city of Detroit because of the educational and experiential benefits an urban environment afforded their students.

The goal of this Title III Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) grant is to increase the faculty support and quality of education through the creation of a Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). The current challenge is to leverage the Detroit Mercy Foundations that are rooted in our mission to revitalize educational practices and address the challenges of today. The University needs an academic resource that consolidates faculty resources, promotes high-impact teaching practices, promotes inclusion of the mission, encourages a culture of assessment, and provides collaboration opportunities between disciplines and colleges through pursuit of excellence in teaching and learning. This center will unify and augment current efforts to improve student mission awareness, engagement, and learning through faculty support and development. The CETL will address students’ academic engagement and delivery of our mission to students through targeted faculty instructional and assessment development.

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# P031A200191 - Cuyahoga Community College, OH

For more than half a century, Cuyahoga Community College has provided high-quality, affordable education for more than 900,000 students in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. As an Achieving the Dream Leader College, the College has earned a national reputation for continuous improvement by developing innovative programs and academic pathways that guide all students, especially low-income individuals, toward completion and for increasing the number of students who obtain degrees and certificates. Efforts to improve completion are guided by the College’s 2018-2022 Strategic Plan. Of the Plan’s five focus areas, the first is *Student Experience*, committing the College to provide a comprehensive student experience within a welcoming learning environment as a means toward ensuring student success.

Across Cuyahoga County there are 30,000 unfilled jobs that pay family-sustaining wages. In response, the College has improved graduation rates and number of graduates. Ensuring completion is a workforce development strategy and linking graduates to job openings is imperative to completion.

Despite its efforts, Cuyahoga Community College loses roughly one-third of new first-year students after their first semester and half of first-year students do not return for a second year. More will need to be done to connect first-year students to College resources and tie their studies to tangible career-based goals.

Based on evidence around value of goal setting, social capital and first year experiences in persistence and success, Cuyahoga Community College is seeking to leverage Title III resources to create infrastructures to deliver new interventions to first-year students:

· Tri-C Navigators – Personal contacts distinct from institutional advocates who will receive special training and connect regularly with first-year students.

· Micro-Internship Opportunities – Project-based, short-term work experiences. These innovations will result in the following for participants:

· Increased Term-to-Term Retention Rates

· Increased First Year Retention Rates

· Narrowed Gap in First Year Retention Rate between Advantaged and Disadvantaged Students

· Increased IPEDS Completion Rate

The College will engage an external evaluator to perform formative and summative evaluations to assess the effectiveness of the interventions. Each successive cohort of participants will be evaluated while receiving services to allow for rapid analysis and modification as needed by College staff.

An individual development grant will support retention-focused innovations. Institutional resources will be leveraged for project management and enhancements. The College’s contributions will include commitments of two key project leaders – the Title III Coordinator (College-wide Vice President of Evidence, Inquiry, and Retention) and Activity Director (College Provost). Micro-internship training stipends will be institutionalized gradually over the course of the grant period. The College seeks to grow its endowment, using grant funds and match funds secured by the Cuyahoga Community College Foundation to establish an endowed fund to support micro-internships in perpetuity. The funds build the capacity of the institution to support thousands of students annually in the early discernment, clarification, and focus on their career goals, which will improve student retention rate.

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# P031A200196 - Virginia Western Community College, VA

**Project Title:**Get REAL (Refocusing Education on Adult Learners)

**Project vision:**Modeling a 21st-century community college, Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) will take a “holistic college approach to improving student outcomes” (ATD) to become a more “Adult Learner Focused Institution” (CAEL).

Located in the heart of the Roanoke Valley in Southwest Virginia, VWCC opened in 1966, with 1,600 students enrolled during its first year, and now serves over 9,000 students (unduplicated headcount) in credit courses and more than 1,100 in noncredit courses per year. An increasing number of VWCC students are enrolled part-time (82 percent), and the average age of non- dual-enrolled students is 25 years, with the majority of the student body (54 percent) age 20 and older. Racial demographics are as follows: Caucasian (81 percent), Black (10 percent), Asian (4 percent) and Hispanic (2 percent). Of AY 2018-2019 program-placed students, 22 percent were first-generation college students, 60 percent of them received some kind of financial aid, and 46 percent were Pell-eligible. Like other community colleges, VWCC faces another year of declining public support, declining enrollments, declining revenues, and underwhelming outcomes, especially among underserved and adult learners. President Sandel is determined to reverse this situation, and his vision led the college leadership team to begin the work of becoming a more adult learner-focused institution.

The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) and Achieving the Dream (ATD) were consulted in 2017. Some efforts were successful, some were not, and the college is beginning to focus on adults, the new traditional student in higher education. Informed by data and best practice, this Title III SIP will promote the continued transformation of VWCC to better serve adult learners – the new majority in higher education – especially adults from low-income backgrounds. Working closely with national education reformers like CAEL and ATD, the college will assess, pilot, and bring to scale best practices, promising services, and innovative positions to **Refocus Education on Adult Learners (REAL).**The resulting college model will be more relevant, better prepared to serve adult learners, students from low-income circumstances, and all students in a more effective fashion, leading to increased enrollment, retention, graduation, and ultimately, improved labor market outcomes.

Framing the strengths and challenges of SIP priorities, college survey results, and VWCC’s own planning are three primary goals:

1. Improve **College Access**(enrollment) for all, especially underserved and adult learners;

2. Improve **Academic Success**(student outcomes), especially for underserved adult learners; and

3. Begin to track and improve **Economic Success**(labor market outcomes), especially among graduates of career and technical programs.

Strategies will include ATD provision of data coaching and technical assistance—especially for underserved students; CAEL assessment and technical assistance for adult learners; new positions to support access and success for all; Credit for Prior (CPL) learning support for adults; Guided Pathways with Loss Point Advising; much more experiential learning and career guidance, especially for CTE students; and institutionalization of best practices.

# P031A200197 - Saint Martin's University, WA

This proposal for a Title III, Part A Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) grant under CFDA 84.031A is being submitted by Saint Martin's University, an accredited Catholic private, 501(c)(3) non-profit, baccalaureate and master degree-granting institution of higher education located in Lacey, Thurston County, Washington with a branch campus located at the Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM) military base in neighboring Pierce County, Washington.

The project for which Title III Part A funds are sought is to increase the University’s six-year graduation rate from 61.57 percent to 65 percent by creating a culture of experiential learning, especially for students facing barriers. By doing this, the university expects:

· increased institutional capacity for expansion of student participation in undergraduate internship and experiential learning opportunities for students at Saint Martin’s; and

· the development and implementation of a structure to effectively address gaps in social capital to ensure equitable access to internships and experiential learning opportunities, particularly for low income and underrepresented minority students including but not limited to students of color, first generation students, women, nontraditional students, and students with disabilities.

This project is based on four underlying themes:

1. increasing student capacity;

2. increasing faculty capacity;

3. increasing institutional capacity; and

4. increasing community capacity.

The proposed performance period is October 1, 2019—September 30, 2024. This request is for $450,000 per year for each of five years for a total request of $2,250,000 over the five-year period. This request includes an endowment which will be matched by non-Federal funds to provide for sustainability of the project post-grant. This application satisfies the Competitive Preference Priority One, Competitive Preference Priority Two, and the Invitational Priority identified for this grant competition.

# P031A200200 - Hocking Technical College, OH

An Affordability Model for Achieving Prosperity (A-MAP)

Hocking College was established in 1968 in Nelsonville, Ohio, located in the largely rural Appalachian region of Southeast Ohio. Originally known as the Tri-County Institute and later as Hocking College, the institution has maintained its historic commitment to hands-on technical education for nearly 50 years while continually expanding its offerings to meet the needs of the students and communities it serves. The College provides a unique comprehensive educational experience including the highest quality career and transfer programs, on campus housing, campus life, intercollegiate athletics, clubs and organizations all serving the special interests of its student population.

Hocking College serves over 3,000 students annually in over fifty associate degree and certificate programs. The College has historically served low-income, first generation college students, including many from Athens County (the poorest among Ohio’s 32 Appalachian counties). In 2014, 50 percent of Hocking College’s students were from families with incomes of $30,000 or less, and five of the College’s six primary service counties had poverty rates at or above the statewide average. This trend continues today, as students in the region struggle to find the resources needed to successfully complete a degree or certificate and become gainfully employed.

The Title III objectives and activities proposed are all components of Hocking College’s strategic plan. *Beyond the Horizon Strategic Action Plan 2017-2022*centered on six core institutional values including excellence in education, continuous improvement and innovation, responsive and relevant programming, commitment to community, student accessibility and success, and diversity and inclusion. This plan called for Hocking to focus resources on teaching and learning, student enrollment and engagement, and student success and employment.

Executing this plan allowed Hocking to introduce new innovative programming, repurpose existing facilities to better serve academic programs, and develop new internal processes and procedures to improve efficiency and enhance the student experience. It also allowed the College to create a workforce development infrastructure that directly serves business and industry through short-term training programs that lead to an industry- recognized credential.

As the institution grows so does the need to better-respond to the needs of its student population. The College must better-identify at-risk students, deploy support services that enhance the student learning experience, and address increasing student loan debt that continues to financially cripple students before they leave College and enter the workforce. To do this, Hocking College has created a proposal titled An Affordability Model for Achieving Prosperity (A-MAP) and is requesting $2,475,000.00 over five years from the US Department of Education under the Strengthening Institutions Program, CFDA number 84.031A.

The Title III Project will increase student retention and completion outcomes through:

· creation of employment opportunities for students,

· systemic transformation of advisement via deployment of algorithms for predictive analysis of students at risk of a stop-out or a drop-out, and through

· tracking of at-risk students and optimized delivery of data-informed support and services.

Title III funding will also provide professional development for College faculty, staff, and administrators in order to equip them with the tools needed to deploy these services.

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# P031A200203 - Austin Peay University, TN

Project Title: Promoting student success through early purpose first career exploration and experiential learning with a focus on the development of student labor market readiness.

Austin Peay State University seeks to foster flexible and affordable paths for our students as they gain knowledge and skills (competitive priority 1) to improve degree completion and labor market readiness of students and impact student outcomes as well as institutional management and financial stability. APSU graduation data demonstrates achievement gaps in retention and graduation. This is evidenced by a fall 2012 cohort graduation rate gap of 13 percent for Pell-eligible students and 16.07 percent for first-generation students.

The activity for this project is “Promoting Student Success” structured as 3-component activity designed to:

1. support incoming first-year students identify a sense of purpose and community,

2. to create experiential learning opportunities focused on developing soft skills and labor market readiness, and

3. create faculty & staff professional development activities focused on embedding career exploration and labor market readiness into the student experience and program curriculum.

The work involved with this activity is the development of student community, curriculum embedded career activity, and improved faculty and staff development.

This project is influenced by successfully implemented model programs with the activity intended build on the foundation of success at APSU experienced through the implementation of game-changing initiatives for proactive advising, differentiated mathematics pathways, guided academic maps, a co-requisite model of development education, and academic recovery programs.

The outcome of project development and institutionalization is closing retention and graduation gaps of low- income and first-generation students. The institutional impact will be increased retention and graduation rates while the impact on our community will be a more extensive and stronger labor market and career-ready pool.

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# P031A200206 - Eastern Washington University, WA

**Title of Program:**“Greater Student Success and Wellbeing at Eastern Washington University (EWU) through a Coordinated Care Network.”

**Summary of Program**: This proposal is for implementation of a Coordinated Care Network (CCN) that will improve students’ retention to graduation. The CCN will connect university student supports (Academic Advising, Faculty, and Student Affairs) in order to identify barriers to student success and coordinate cross- campus support to help students navigate successfully past them. The CCN has three underlying strategies. First, students facing academic and/or non- academic difficulties will be identified and their situations recorded and shared through an online network of student support services. Second, students’ sense of engagement at EWU will be enhanced when they seek assistance and find that the support service in the CCN is appropriately informed of their issues and concerns and is readily available to help. Third, the network establishes best practices for engagement with students that can be used as a basis for faculty and staff training. A robust multi- platform student success management system (SSMS) which includes EAB’s Navigate and Smart Guidance coalesces the entire project. Primary project components include continued central academic advising revitalization including development of case management procedures and processes; development of formalized faculty advising using a strengths-based and Appreciative Advising approach; expansion of EAB technology and purchase of new technology; and implementation of an early warning system.

**Institutional Background:**EWU is a regional comprehensive university co-located in Cheney and Spokane. EWU began as a normal school in Cheney in 1882 and currently serves more than 12,607 students. At present, EWU serves a high percentage of nontraditional students; some consistent with being at-risk for not completing college. Many are low income, first generation, and underrepresented in higher education. Currently, 56.1 percent of students receive financial aid and of those, 40.8 percent receive Pell grants. Forty-one percent of entering freshmen are first generation for college and 32 percent of the student body is students of diversity.

**Goal**: Increase student success through an integrated network of coordinated care for students. 

**Objectives Related to Institutional Goals:**

· By 9/30/24, due to student’s unique needs being identified early and their needs being met in a timely manner, the number of students on warning, probation, or dismissal will decrease by 10 percent each year.

· By 9/30/24, due to students being connected to the holistic “wrap-around services”, at least 80 percent of students report that their needs have been met.

· By 9/30/24, due to clear and arcuate pathways being created and having real-time information on where they stand and have information to adjust if needed, the number on-time graduation rates for undergraduate students will increase 10 percent each year.

· By 9/30/24, there will be an increase in *1st year to 2nd year retention rates*of undergraduate students from 74.4 percent to 82 percent. 1st year to 2nd year retention is defined by the number of first-time in college students who were enrolled Fall term of their first year who also reenrolled Fall term of their second year.

# P031A200207 - Greenville Technical College, SC

Greenville Technical College (GTC) Student Transformation Center

GTC is a comprehensive technical and community college serving over 10,000 curriculum students across Greenville County, South Carolina. Recently approved to offer its first applied baccalaureate degree in advanced manufacturing, GTC has dedicated faculty and staff, multiple campus locations, and over 100 programs of study. With a strong history and multiple assets, GTC will use Title III funding to address one of its most difficult issues: low success rates for first-time students.

Funds will be used to establish the GTC Student Transformation Center, which will provide high-touch advising for cohorts of first time students with multiple risk factors. Other interventions include expansion of support services such as the Financial Education Center; logistical support for students facing financial emergencies; and professional development opportunities relative to equity. In addition, GTC will redesign an on-campus employment and internship program that leverages resources such Federal Work Study and other funding streams to address the needs of low-income and working students.

# P031A200210 - Avila University, MO

**Project Title**: *Project RISE*

**Project RISE Goal**: To increase persistence and graduation rates of all Avila students by 6 percentage points by 2024. Project RISE will increase persistence and graduation rates for all students by centralizing support service in order to serve students more efficiently and expanding Avila’s capacity to reach more students through enhanced academic and non- academic support services. This goal aligns with a key strategic priority in Avila’s current strategic plan (2016-2020): to increase student persistence to 74 percent and graduation rates to 40 percent.

**Project RISE Outcomes:**The project’s strategies are designed to achieve the following short- (S), medium- (M), and long-(L) range outcomes:

· 20 percent decrease in students who “are not aware” of support services (S)

· 120 collaborative (Faculty/staff) support strategies are deployed (S)

· 30 percent reduction in students on academic probation (M)

· 30 percent increase in students’ job placement rates (M)

· 50 percent increase in students participating in internships or research experiences (S)

· 25 percent decrease over baseline in students who drop/stop out due to mental health concerns (M)

· 5 percent increase in 1st year to 2nd year persistence (L)

· 5 percent increase in 2nd to 3rd year persistence (L)

· 5 percent increase in 4-year graduation rates (L)

**Contributions to Research and Policy:**Project RISE strategies are informed by evidence-based practices, successful program results, and Avila’s own experience educating at-risk students. The Project RISE leadership and staff are highly credentialed and respected experts in a variety of academic and non-academic disciplines and hold professional association memberships that will enable targeted dissemination of key project findings. At key intervals during and following the completing of this five-year project, Project RISE leadership will present key findings at targeted professional affinity conferences and meetings. In addition, Avila faculty will seek publication opportunities to contribute our findings to the broader body of knowledge on topics related to persistence to graduation for at-risk college students.

**Populations Served:**Project RISE will benefit all Avila undergraduate students; however, several Project RISE strategies focus on three sub-groups of students who are at greater risk of not persisting to graduation: first- generation, athletes and transfer students. During the 2018-19 school year, Avila served 1,626 students: 1,225 undergraduate and 401 graduate students. Sixty- three percent of students are minorities, and nearly half (49 percent) are Pell-eligible.

# P031A200213 - Central Georgia Technical College, GA

**Project Title:**CGTC’s Enhancing Capacity Plan

Central Georgia Technical College (CGTC) is a two-year public college and unit of the Technical College System of Georgia. CGTC is continuously proving its value to the State of Georgia as it provides educational resources for citizens residing in or near its eleven-county service area. During Academic Year 2018, CGTC produced more graduates (3,690) and conferred more awards than any other college in the Technical College System of Georgia and experienced the third highest enrollment in the state (11,973).

Workforce development is crucial to the growth and sustainability of the communities serviced by CGTC. Access to occupational training and entry into high-paying careers can end deeply rooted, generational cycles of poverty that plague many counties in central Georgia. Currently, poverty rates in nine of the eleven counties in CGTC’s service area far exceed the state average of 14.9 percent. During Academic Year 2017-2018, nearly half of CGTC’s student body received federal Pell grants, a type of financial aid awarded to students who display exceptional financial need, representing the largest number of Pell recipients among two-year institutions in the state of Georgia. Funding provided under this award will assist the College in developing capacity through personnel professional knowledge, instructional capacity, student learning, and work-based training opportunities, therefore moving the needle on institutional outcomes.

**Outcome Statement:**To strengthen the Institution by increasing instructional capacity, improving assessment and student outcomes.

**Goals:**The goals of this project are to increase enrollment, retention, and completion rates of CGTC students with an emphasis on at-risk students, veterans, women, and men of color.

**Implementation Strategies:**The College will focus on four strategies to achieve enrollment, retention and completion goals:

· Expand General Education course offerings and access to General Studies Associate Degree program - Reducing the General Studies “bottleneck” will retain students pursuing competitive selection health programs and full-time students planning to transition into four-year institutions.

· Expand accelerated occupational training in high-demand fields at partner locations – Partnering with the Georgia Veteran’s Career Transition and Resource (VECTR) Center and Robins Air Force Base to deliver accelerated training at these facilities in an effort to increase enrollment and establish clear pathways to employment.

· Manage utilization and effectiveness of strategic student support systems (advising, tutoring, wrap- around services) – Engaging at-risk students in purposeful advising, tutoring, and wrap-around support services will lead to increased retention and course completion.

· Develop opportunities for students to engage in work-based training utilizing industry specific equipment – Partnering with employers and labor unions to develop work-based learning opportunities (apprenticeships and internships) will create new pathways for students to enter the workforce and achieve economic self-sufficiency.

**Funds Requested:**$2,249,224

# P031A200215 - D’Youville College, NY

**Project Title:***Predictive Analytics and Program and Professional Development for Student Success*

**Institutional Profile:** D’Youville College is a private, independent, selective, coeducational, Masters L institution located in Buffalo, NY. D’Youville offers 32 undergraduate majors, 9 master’s degrees, and 7 doctoral degrees.

**Student and Faculty Profile:** D’Youville enrolls approximately 1,700 undergraduate students and 1,300 graduate students from 34 states and 11 countries. Approximately 12 percent of undergraduate students are transfers, 24 percent are minorities, 37 percent fall within poverty guidelines, and 23 percent are first generation. The median class size is 15, and the student-faculty ratio is 9 to 1. D’Youville has 186 full-time and 150 part-time faculty members. 96 percent of the full-time faculty members hold an appropriate terminal degree.

**Challenges:** A financially stable institution that typically earns 3.0 on the federal CFI index, D’Youville College is an enrollment-driven institution dedicated to economically disadvantaged students. D’Youville strives to adapt to market forces in its competitive region by developing new programs and degrees. To strengthen the institution, D’Youville needs to improve retention, and, in order to do so, invest in faculty development to improve pedagogy and redesign gateway courses, invest in capital improvements to create an inclusive and multi-faceted Learning Commons, adopt predictive analytics and engage in data-driven decision making, and ensure that all D’Youville students receive the support and guidance they need to graduate.

**Goal:** The goal of the project is to increase student retention, persistence and graduation. This will be attained through:

· Adopt predictive analytics for data-informed retention interventions including faculty training, hiring Data Analyst, and establishing a retention Task Force.

· Create new academic and student support program development to strengthen student success including construction of a new Learning Commons and implementation of Learning and Accessibility support programs, hiring Student Success Navigator, new First Year Experience, new Online Orientation, and adoption of student engagement mobile app.

· Professional Development for Faculty and Staff focused on improving student success rates and redesigning gateway and general education courses, and implementation of health career pathways program.

**Project Outcomes:**

1. Improve First-to-Second Year Retention from 77 percent (2017 baseline) to 82 percent for the entering 2022 cohort.

2. Reduce the gap in Retention Rate between URM students and Overall population from 6 percentage points to 3 percentage points. (2017 baseline: 71 percent URM and 77 percent overall retention).

3. Improve Persistence to the 3rd Year from 71 percent (2015 baseline) to 76 percent for the entering 2019 cohort.

4. Improve 6-Year Graduation Rates from 60 percent (2012 baseline) to 65 percent for the entering 2016 entering cohort.

**Funds Requested**: $2,241,178

# P031A200230 - Alverno College, WI

Alverno College PACS: Proactive Advising for Career Success

Alverno has long been an academic innovator and leader in providing higher education access to first- generation, low-income students, and to students of color in our region. The College’s student population reflects Milwaukee’s diversity, with a fast-growing Hispanic/Latino population and a large percentage of low- income residents for whom access to higher education is limited. With its history of strong, individualized instruction and focus on access and success, Alverno is uniquely positioned to improve the upward mobility of low-income women in the Midwest and to provide diverse professionals equipped to thrive and lead Wisconsin’s most critical workforce sectors, such as Health Care. In 2017, Alverno College became Wisconsin’s first (and only) Hispanic-Serving Institution, reflecting the College’s history and commitment to its community.

Alverno’s academic programs and student services are strong and comprehensive, but the College lags behind in the use of technology to streamline student advising and to automate data analysis. We have perfected an individualized student approach, but we rely on inefficient manual systems to identify and track at-risk students. This requires a student to manage the interplay of academic, financial, personal, and career advising herself, navigating from one department to another. Higher education systems and processes are often poorly understood by first-generation students and families, and for Alverno students with limited time, experience, and financial flexibility, advising can seem siloed, inefficient, and insensitive to their needs.

Research demonstrates that low-income, first-generation students benefit from structured, proactive advising support.

Recent investments to boost retention and graduation rates have paid off with sustained increases in student engagement and first-semester retention at benchmark levels for peer colleges. However, overall retention and graduation rates still fall below our peers and our expectations, especially in Nursing, Alverno’s largest major, where 43 percent of students do not persist to graduation. This project addresses two important areas where data and evidence suggest that building institutional capacity will produce immediate, lasting impact on student retention and graduation. Our project will strengthen student advising (academic, financial and career) to be more proactive in identifying and engaging at-risk students earlier, and we will develop new academic programs and work-based experiences in Health Care, where high student interest, Alverno’s expertise, and critical workforce need align.

With funding from the Title III SIP Program, Alverno’s proposed Proactive Advising for Career Success (PACS project) will strengthen professional, academic, financial, and career advising to improve degree navigation and provide more holistic coaching. We will also build new work-based learning experiences and three new Health Care undergraduate programs in order to expand opportunities for the large number of at-risk students who enroll intending to study nursing, but who encounter road blocks to successful degree completion. By helping these students quickly identify paths to successfully fulfill career aspirations, our evidence suggests that we can keep them on track to degree completion and prepare them to meet critical Health Care workforce needs in our state. Project outcomes also include raising one-year retention rate for all incoming students from 72 percent to 75 percent, and the six-year graduation rate for all incoming students from 47 percent to 52 percent.

# P031A200240 - Zane State College, OH

**Contact Person for the Title III Proposal:**Dr. Chad Brown, President, Zane State College, 1555 Newark Rd., Zanesville, OH 43701, cbrown@zanestate.edu.

**Institutional Background:**Zane State College (ZSC) is a public, two-year college offering both transfer programs and technical education programs. ZSC is located in Zanesville, Ohio, 55 miles east of Columbus. ZSC’s service area consists of Guernsey, Muskingum, and Noble counties in the southeastern portion of the State. These counties make up part of the Appalachian Ohio region, historically characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, and low levels of educational attainment. ZSC has been a strong workforce training partner as the region undergoes an economic revitalization through development of energy- and technology-related industries.

**Goals/Implementation Strategies:**The project will 1) improve retention and completion, 2) improve response time and track student engagement and interventions, 3) develop an infrastructure to support a growing culture of data- informed decision-making and 4) improve work-based learning and financial literacy education. The strategies to be implemented include virtual success coaching based on Bettinger and Baker’s What Works Clearinghouse- approved study of *Inside Track*; implementation of Jenzabar One Enterprise Resource Planning system to leverage business process improvements and data-informed decision-making; and improvements to financial literacy education and work-based learning.

**Objectives:**Measurable objectives to be completed by September 2024 include:

· By September 30, 2024, increase the percentage of first-time in college, full-time students in Success Coach cohorts who are retained to the next fall by 10 percent from 63 percent (3-year average baseline of F15-F16, F16-F17 and F17-F18) to 73 percent.

· By September 30, 2024, increase the percentage of first-time in college, full-time in Success Coach cohorts who complete a two-year degree within 150 percent of normal time (3-year average baseline of F13, F14 and F15 cohorts) from 37 percent to 45 percent].

· By September 2024, 80 percent of initially identified managers (20 percent by 2021, 50 percent by 2022, 65 percent by 2023) participate in training and demonstrate competency to extract, aggregate, analyze and present data in useful formats for decision-making at the 70 percent proficiency level compared to zero in 2019. Assessment by post-training demonstration of previously-identified competencies.

· By September 2024, data warehouse requests exceed 2,000 (500 by 2021, 1,000 by 2022, 1,500 by 2023, 2,000 by 2024) per year compared to zero in 2019. Relates to Institutional Goal #5 and #6 and Problem #2.

· By September 2024, 80 percent of faculty, staff and administrators surveyed can name (without prompting) 60 percent of ZSC’s key indicators of success. Survey to be administered to 90+ percent of full-time employees with at least 40 percent response rate to be valid for assessment.

· By September 30, 2024, increase the number of ZSC programs that require Work-Based Learning Experiences from the 2018-19 baseline of 7 to 17.

· By September 30, 2024, increase the percentage of first-time in college students receiving enhanced financial literacy training from 0 percent to 90 percent.

· By, September 2024, increase Success Point performance from the 2018-19 baseline of 21 percent to 36 percent.

· By September 2024, increase degree completion performance from the 2018-2019 baseline of 48 percent to 55 percent.

· By 2024, increase State Share of Instruction total formula share from the 2018-2019 baseline of 31 percent to 35 percent.

**Contributions to Research, Policy and Practice:**Whilekey research has focused on the efficacy of face to face success coaching (Bettinger & Baker, 2011), this project furthers understanding about the success of virtual success coaching (for which there is little research), particularly for first-generation and low-income students.

**Five-Year Project Budget**: $2,250,000.

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# P031A200242 - Clark State Community College, OH

**Project Title:**Trauma-Informed Practices at Clark State Community College

**Institutional Profile:**Established in 1962, Clark State Community College is a two-year, public college serving students in Clark, Champaign, Logan, and Greene Counties in Ohio. An open- enrollment institution, Clark State is committed to providing educational access to all students. The College’s mission is to serve a diverse population of learners by providing access to high- quality, learning-centered education and services while fostering individual and community success. With online, on-campus, and hybrid class options across five locations in Springfield (one on Leffel Lane and one downtown), Beavercreek, Xenia, and Bellefontaine, Ohio, students have convenient access to education that fits their lives.

**Project Goal:**To increase enrollment, student success, retention, and completion by supporting our students holistically in order to reduce stress and improve mental health.

**Activity Objectives**:

1. Establish systems and plans for ongoing trauma-informed services training for faculty, staff, work study students, interns, and board members;

2. Increase the number of mental health professionals on campus;

3. Add more support for our highest-risk students in the form of a Student Support Technician to guide them through various campus processes;

4. Establish a trauma-informed financial literacy training program for students;

5. Implement a trauma-informed probation program for students on academic probation;

6. Implement an early alert system to better support students who are struggling;

7. Expand trauma- informed education for all students participating in work-based learning.

**Project Objectives**:

· Increase fall-to-fall student retention;

· Increase course completion rates;

· Increase degree/certificate completion rate;

· Decrease the dismissal rate for students who are put on academic probation.

**Funds Requested:**$1,587,095

# P031A200243 - Chestnut Hill College, PA

Chestnut Hill College (CHC), founded by the Sisters of Saint Joseph in 1924, is a four-year, private liberal arts institution of higher education. Located in Philadelphia, PA, CHC enrolls more than 1,700 students annually. In Fiscal Year 2018-2019, racial/ethnic minorities comprised 50.3 percent of all degree-seeking undergraduates, percent were women, 48 percent were Pell eligible, and nearly 30 percent were first-generation students. The faculty to student ratio is 1:8. The College currently employs 75 full-time faculty and 202 adjuncts across its School of Undergraduate Studies, School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and School of Graduate Studies.

A holistic, student-centered strategy across all dimensions for the student experience, from the classroom to support services to campus operations to relationships with the broader community is essential to foster measurable improvements in persistence rates, time to graduation, and completion rates. To succeed in the implementation of this strategy, CHC first must address its foundational capacities.

**Goals:**Based on the comprehensive analysis of CHC’s institutional strengths, weaknesses, and significant problems, CHC’s Title III project has three comprehensive goals:

Develop and strengthen the College’s enterprise architecture;

Prepare students for 21st century careers; and

Increase enrollment, student retention, and 4-year graduation rate.

**Project Description:**CHC’s Title III grant project, Dear Neighbor Project: Building Stakeholder Engagement on an Enterprise Level, consists of one comprehensive activity, Building Stakeholder Engagement on an Enterprise Level, with two highly integrated components to achieve the goals and objectives outlines in the Comprehensive Development Plan and Activity Objectives. The activity will be overseen by CHC’s Executive Director of Business Intelligence, to be hired, and directed by the Director of Information Technology, Director of Human Resources, Director of Disability Services, Director of Career Development, and Director of Service Learning. The two components are:

1. strengthen enterprise architecture by upgrading network infrastructure and increasing organizational capacity for data-informed decision- making;

2. implement college-wide change management process to improve stakeholder engagement and increase competitive viability, and enhance and expand high-impact activities and student support services to increase student engagement and achievement. This comprehensive approach is designed to strengthen student enrollment, retention, persistence, completion, and satisfaction, while increasing institutional efficiencies.

**Outcomes:**By June 30, 2025, the project will achieve the following eight objectives:

1. implement transformational changes in six dimensions of CHC’s enterprise architecture;

2. improve 5-year staff retention rate;

3. increase the number of undergraduate students enrolled by 40 students;

4. increase the percentage of freshmen who rate their experience as “Excellent” or “Good;”

5. reduce the percentage of students who withdraw with a primary reason of finances;

6. increase retention rate from freshman to junior year;

7. increase the percentage of students who engage in a work-based learning opportunity; and

8. increase the percentage of students who graduate within four years.

**Funds Requested:**$2,249,497