FY 2017 *Strengthening Institutions (SIP) 84.031A*

**Abstracts**

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*FY 2017 SIP 84.031A Abstracts*

# Table of Contents

Table of Contents	2

P031A170110 - Columbus State Community College, OH	1

P031A170122 - North Arkansas College, AR	2

P031A170140 - Front Range Community College, CO	3

P031A170152 - Gateway Community and Technical College, KY	4

P031A170164 - Santa Fe College, FL	5

P031A140181 - Brookdale Community College, NJ	6

P031A170194 - Northwest State Community College, OH	7

P031A170217 - Crowder College, MO	8

P031A170237 - Housatonic Community College, CT	9

P031A170243 - Schenectady County Community College, NY	10

*FY 2017 SIP 84.031A Abstracts*

# P031A170110 - Columbus State Community College, OH

**Project Title**: Creating a Comprehensive Student Completion Model

This proposal is submitted by Columbus State Community College (Columbus, OH).  The College has a large, diverse student body of 34,962 (annual unduplicated 2015-16). Columbus State proposes a comprehensive student completion model to increase student completion through a single activity with three major components.  The student completion model is based upon extensive research, national best practices, literature review, and consultation.  A logic model is included in the proposal.  The Project Director, Dr. Rebecca Butler, is the Vice President of Enrollment Management & Student Services.  Dr. Butler has extensive experience in managing projects to improve student completion and has the requisite authority to implement the project activities.  The College agrees to institutionalize and sustain all key personnel, processes and procedures created for the new student orientation, advising, mentoring, and career planning, and new IT systems.

**Summary of Title III Proposal:**

**Context:** The College has low student success and low student retention; students earn more credits than needed for desired credentials; there are performance gaps with students of color; student advising is ineffective leading students to self-advise; the Ohio higher education funding model is based on targeted completion data.

**Goal:** Credential Attainment: The number of Columbus State students earning degrees and certificates within five years will increase 48 percent from 6,077 to 9,000 by Autumn.

**Objectives**(Attainable by 09/30/2022): 

1. Increase the percent of students earning 15 college credits within their first year of college enrollment from 30.7 percent to 40 percent

2. Increase the percent of students completing gateway College Mathematics and English courses within their first year of college from 18.9 percent to 30 percent

3. Increase the percent of students who persist from their first year to their second year from 45.2 percent to 55 percent (base on Aspen Institute and Pathways benchmarks)

4. Increase the percent of students earning 24 college credits within their first year of college enrollment from 12.4 percent to 20 percent

**Major Activities:**

1. **Student Entry**: Improve student entry into the academic programs for both high school graduates and non-traditional adult learners.

2. **Student Progress**: Shift from transactional to transformative advising for students as they progress through the student lifecycle.

3. **Student Completion**: Develop a completion support model that assists students as they approach graduation.

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

1. **Student Entry**

1a) Expanded orientation and first-year experience; 1b) Multiple assessment measures for placement; 1c) Comprehensive rapid entry interventions

2. **Student Progress**

2a) Student planner dashboard; 2b) Individualized co-curricular plan; 2c) Pathway-driven master schedule of courses; 2d) Professional development plan for faculty/staff

3. **Student Completion**

3a) Individualized completion plans

# P031A170122 - North Arkansas College, AR

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**Institutional Profile:**North Arkansas College (Northark) is a public two-year community college located in Harrison, Arkansas, serving six state-designated counties covering 3,989 square miles. Two-thirds of students (69 percent Fall 2016) receive federal need-based financial assistance, and 51 percent have an Expected Family Contribution of zero. More than half of Northark students enter degree programs underprepared. The college has served the area since 1974 and in 1993 was the first Arkansas merger of a technical school and community college. Northark offers the Associate of Arts, Associate of Science, and Associate of Applied Science degrees, along with 46 certificate programs.

**Activity Title:**Increasing Student Success through Systems and Support (IS4)

**Problems:**Northark’s key problems include **low levels of student success**as evidenced by an average fall-to-fall retention of 46 percent, leading to low graduation rates.  Of first-time, degree- seeking students, 66 percent enter underprepared.  Only 19 percent of students who began a degree program in 2011 completed within 150 percent of normal time to completion, below the national average of 22.1 percent (ACT, 2016).  **Ineffective information management systems** also limit the College’s ability to predict trends in student characteristics and success and ultimately impacts student retention and graduation.  **Intake and support systems are underdeveloped**creating inefficiencies and a lack of adequate access to student data. 

Together, these issues contribute to an ongoing **loss in revenue**, and the College is experiencing state mandated outcomes based funding, which will require increased retention and completion for continued operations.

**Key Goal:**improve student success by **reducing institutional barriers**to **persistence and completion**through integrated data tracking and strengthened academic support services

**Outcomes:**The College plans to completely redesign student processes, increase cross- departmental access to data, and improve and intensify academic support for high-risk students.  To do this the College will to upgrade the information management system, completely redesign intake, advising, and student tracking, and create a Learning Resource Center (LRC) with a full- time Learning Resource Center Director to coordinate increased academic support activities.  The LRC will house increased peer tutoring, improved study spaces for varied learning styles, and one-on-one faculty tutoring.

**Key Institutional Objectives:**Through this activity the institution plans to increase the graduation rate from 24 percent (2014 baseline) to 30 percent; increase the fall-to-spring retention rate from 74 percent (2014 baseline) to 77 percent (full- and part-time; increase the fall-to-fall retention rate from 46 percent (2014 baseline) to 55 percent (full- and part-time); increase the developmental course success rate from 53 percent (2014 baseline) to 63 percent; increase tuition and mandatory fee revenue per student FTE by five percent through increased retention; and reduce institutional expenditures per full-time-equivalent by taking advantage of the new information management system to work more efficiently.

**Funds Requested:**$2,247,524

# P031A170140 - Front Range Community College, CO

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Front Range Community College (FRCC) is the largest community college in Colorado with campuses in three counties: Adams, Boulder, and Larimer. FRCC’s fall 2016 unduplicated headcount was 18,822 (5,259.65 FTE); over half (66 percent) of full-time, first-time students received financial aid (46 percent received Pell grants) (IPEDS AY15).  FRCC’s commitment to student success is demonstrated by: **1**) Implementation of a redesign of developmental education in 2012; **2**) Efforts to adopt the Guided Pathways model (FRCC is one of thirty institutions selected as Pathways Project Colleges by the American Association Community Colleges in 2015); and **3**) Recognition as a High-Performing Community College by the Aspen Institute and the Community College Research Center, in their 2016 study of transfer outcomes of community college students. FRCC is committed to addressing its challenges to: **1**) reverse a long-term trend of low retention and completion rates; **2**) improve advising and onboarding of first-time students; **3**) increase academic support in gateway/milestone math courses; **4**) increase professional development for Pathways model; **5**) utilize technology to improve student outcomes; and **6**) minimize the impact of decreased state funding.  Based on a thorough analysis of strengths, weaknesses and problems, FRCC proposes a singular, comprehensive activity: ***Building Pathways: From Connection to Completion***to address these challenges and achieve 14 objectives by Sept. 30, 2022.  **Funding Request: $2,248,271,**of which FRCC will request/match $0 for endowment.

**Objectives: 1**. Increase fall-to-fall retention rate to 50 percent (Baseline 43 percent: Avg. AY 2010-15).  **2**.Increase semester-to-semester persistence rate to 65 percent (Baseline 55 percent: Average AY 2014-16).  **3**. Increase student graduation rate within 150 percent of normal time to 23 percent (Baseline 18 percent: Average AY 2010-13).  **4**. Increase first-time student transfer rate within 150 percent of normal time to 29 percent (Baseline 24 percent: Avg. AY 2010-13).  **5**. Increase the percent of first-time students who complete three onboarding tasks – orientation, selection of CAC (meta-major), and adoption of a MAP – within their first year to 85 percent (Baseline 0 percent: AY17).  **6**. Increase avg. # of college-level credit-hours earned by first-time students in their first term to eight (Baseline 6.1: Avg. AY 2010-16).  **7.**Increase the percent of students who complete college-level English and math courses in their first year to 20 percent (Baseline 14 percent: Average AY 2014-16).  **8**. Decrease the average number of excess credits at graduation for students obtaining AA to 11.0 (Baseline 13.5); AS to 14.0 (Baseline 17.1); AGS to 11.0 (Baseline 13.4); and AAS to 16.0 (Baseline 19.6). (All baselines are Avg. AY 2010-16).  **9.**Increase # of high-enrolled, high-failure gateway (MAT 121, 135) and milestone (MAT 166, 201) math course sections with SI to 110 per year (Baseline 4: AY 2017).  **10**. Increase percent of students earning a grade of C or higher in gateway math courses utilizing SI to 65 percent for College Algebra (MAT 121) (Baseline 57 percent) and to 75 percent for Introduction to Statistics (MAT 135) (Baseline 68 percent) (Both baselines Avg. AY 2014-16).  **11**. Increase percent of students earning a grade of B or higher in milestone math courses utilizing SI to 45 percent for Pre-Calculus (MAT 166) (Baseline 37 percent) and to 53 percent for Calculus (MAT 201) (Baseline 46 percent) (Both baselines Avg. AY 2014-16).  **12**. Increase percentage of FT faculty, Student Affairs staff, and PT faculty participating in formal *Pathways College*professional development to: 80 percent FT Faculty; 80 percent Student Affairs staff; and 60 percent PT Faculty (All baselines zero percent: AY 2017).  **13.**Increase the number of data-rich student progress reports available to inform advising (onboarding, progression and academic performance) to 100 percent (Baseline 0: AY 2017).  **14.**Increase tuition revenue by 3.9 percent based on first-time fall-to-fall retention increase (Baseline $38,074,434: Fall 2016 tuition revenue).

# P031A170152 - Gateway Community and Technical College, KY

Gateway Community and Technical College’s (Gateway) F2P Project proposes an overarching solution to improve the fiscal stability of the organization by moving from a culture of fundraising to a culture of philanthropy. Its purpose is to reduce the reliance on state appropriations and tuition and to increase philanthropy through a comprehensive development strategy. The F2P primary activity addresses the problem of ***too little private funds raised***. The infrastructure that will strengthen the institution will improve the development capabilities in order to ensure the long-term fiscal stability of the college.

Kentucky ranks 6th-worst among states in the percent change to higher education funding per student since 2008. As the overall economy improved and other states began to reinvest in higher education, Kentucky is one of only three states to cut higher education funding for the past two years in a row. As a community college in Kentucky, Gateway’s plight of declining state appropriations reflects this reduction in higher education funding. Since 2012, the college has seen a nearly $1.9 million decrease in state appropriation.

The overarching solution to improve the fiscal stability of the organization is to move from a culture of fundraising to a culture of philanthropy. The elements of a culture of philanthropy include: most positions in an organization act as ambassadors and engage in relationship-building; all can articulate a case for support; fundraising is valued as a mission component; and systems are designed to support donors. Organizations that understand the need to combine fundraising and engagement tend to operate differently, recognizing the need to train all levels of the organization and to engage the community in different ways1. The F2P activity areas will address these concepts by incorporating an ***inclusive case development process***, ***training across all levels of the college***, and a ***development space that will bring the community to campus providing the opportunity for meaningful experiences on campus***.

These activities will lead to attaining the following institutional goals:

**Goal 1:***Strengthen the infrastructure of the Development Division to build the overall*

*philanthropy program*

**Goal 2:***Increase institutional capacity to implement innovative and sustainable approaches*

*to philanthropy*

**Goal 3:***Increase the institution’s physical and organizational capacity to carry out its*

*community and alumni development strategy*

1 1 Bell, Jeanne and Marla Cornelius, *UnderDeveloped: A National Study of Challenges Facing*

*Nonprofit Fundraising*(San Francisco, CA: CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, 2013)

# P031A170164 - Santa Fe College, FL

Santa Fe College (SF) located in Gainesville, FL seeks $2,072,043 in Title III SIP funding to expand its capacity to serve low-income students by improving academic quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability.  The College will increase completion for at-risk underrepresented students, employ evidence-based interventions, and conduct a rigorous evaluation of those interventions.

The 2013 Florida Senate Bill 1720 exempted incoming students from mandatory college placement testing and enrollment in remedial, otherwise known as developmental education (DE), coursework.  As a result, the large number of underprepared students who enroll at SF are now opting out of DE and enrolling directly into college level courses, courses that do not to include remediation.  These students are by-passing advisement best-practices and are not receiving remediation in foundational skills or college success skills.  Steadily declining enrollment in DE is resulting in increasingly low retention and completion rates, revealing the need for revised curriculum.  Declining success rates in the college gateway courses of College Composition (ENC1101) and Intermediate Algebra (MAT1033) jeopardize degree completion.  SF has explored strategies designed to help retain underprepared students and move them rapidly through core courses and ultimately through program completion.  In the current environment, this could only be accomplished by re-envisioning an entire approach to remedial education. Thankfully, the What Works Clearing House Practice Guidei provides the structure for the college’s DE redesign efforts.  ***The Practice Guide***contained six recommendations which were consulted during the Title III design meetings.  The college proposes to meet all six guidelines by implementing creative new activities.

Proven research informed the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) that led to the identification of strategies to increase student success: 1. Centralization of delivery of critical student services from seven separate labs into one central Learning Commons to ensure the inevitability of students *receiving*the services; 2. Mindset interventions designed to enhance students’ belief in their ability to experience academic growth; 3. Tutoring by College certified tutors; 4. Co-requisite instruction for at-risk students; and 5. Use of Digital Learning Plans.

The project is wholly aligned with the CDP-identified weakness, addressed as summative objectives which are linked to research-based tasks.  Continuous progress is monitored through assessment of progress on the formative objectives.  Results of the monitoring reports are analyzed and used to implement project modifications, if needed.  A rigorous third-party evaluation is based on a quasi-experimental design that meets What Works Clearinghouse standards with reservations.

Staffing is adequate to the purpose of the project and sufficient funding is provided by the College to maintain staffing levels in the post-award period.  All project components will be institutionalized at the end of the project period.

i Institute of Education, “Strategies for postsecondary students in developmental education – A practice guide for college and university administrators, advisors, and faculty”, November 2016, https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/wwc_dev_ed_112916.pdf#page=19

# P031A140181 - Brookdale Community College, NJ

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Brookdale Community College's (BCC) proposed Student Success through *Compressed*Schedules and Enhanced *Technology (Comp-Tech)*project is based on a comprehensive institutional analysis, strategic planning, and self-study processes taking place at the College.  *Comp-Tech*will build on its identified institutional strengths to develop and implement solutions that address challenges identified as critical to the College's growth, self-sufficiency and fiscal stability.

The long-term goal of *Comp-Tech*is to substantially improve student persistence, retention , and completion rates, especially for high need students including low-income and minority students.  Two comprehensive activities have been designed to meet this goal: (1) implementing a compressed scheduling format and enhancing online and hybrid courses through quality standards and interactive content to improve accessibility and flexibility of programs required to improve student outcomes ; and (2) enhancing student engagement through technology-based targeted interventions and regular communication using social and mobile technologies enabled by implementation of a Customer Relations Management (CRM) system.

To put into effect compressed scheduling and enhanced and interactive online/hybrid courses, BCC will implement the following activities:

restructure processes and procedures in student services and enrollment management to accommodate compressed scheduling format;

modify its Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP) to accommodate compressed schedules;

revise all data collection, analysis, and reporting done by Planning and Institutional Effectiveness to reflect compressed format;

provide faculty professional development and assistance in best practices for design of compressed courses and syllabus redesign, and

provide faculty professional development and assistance with online and hybrid course redesign.

To enhance student engagement, BCC will implement the following activities:

implement a CRM system to communicate with students from enrollment through college  completion;

provide training for core Student Success staff on the CRM system;

track student academic progress using the CRM system and provide appropriate interventions; and

establish and implement a system to send messages delivered via text or smartphone app for targeted and personalized  student outreach.

These proposed activities will improve persistence during semesters, retention across semesters, and completion to degree or certificate, especially for high need students including low-income and minority students.

# P031A170194 - Northwest State Community College, OH

Northwest State Community College (NSCC) is a public two-year institution of higher education and serves a rural six county area in northwest Ohio.  The college is the only public college located in this region and 84 percent of NSCC alumni continue to live and work in the service area.  The college has a total enrollment of just over 6649 students with an average student age of 32.  Nearly 90 percent of NSCC students attend part-time and more than 70 percent of degree-seeking students receive some form of financial aid.

Over the past five years, NSCC’s enrollment and student credit hour production has dramatically declined.  This factored with State of Ohio’s tuition freezes and performance based funding model, the college has experienced significant revenue reduction.  Based on a comprehensive analysis of institutional strengths, weaknesses and problems, NSCC has developed a four-prong approach to improve student success and support revenue growth.

NSCC has identified several problems within the institution, including low completion and transfer rates, which is an academic problem for the institution, but it also results in a large revenue loss, which impacts NSCC's fiscal stability.  **The Graduation Pathways for Success (GPS) project**will 1). Increase student success through advising 2). Establish a culture of professional development to support student success, 3). Develop data capacity to increase data informed decision making, and 4). Improve fiscal stability through increased tuition revenue. The GPS project will achieve 10 objectives by September 30, 2022:  **OBJ 1.1**Increase implementation of two, three, and four-year pathways plans to 100 percent (Baseline zero: Fall 2016).  **OBJ 1.2**Increase the percentage of students with individualized Degree WorksTM Plans to 50 percent (Baseline 18 percent: Fall 2016).  **OBJ 1.3**Increase CCSSE career advising component scores by 15 percent to 2.58 on 4-point scale (Baseline 2.24 on four-point scale: Fall 2016).  **OBJ 1.4**Increase the average number of credit hours/semester to nine to shorten time to completion (Baseline: 6.6: Fall 2016).  **OBJ 2.1** Increase the number of student success focused core campus professional development advising modules to eight (Baseline zero: Fall 2016).  **OBJ 2.2**Increase the percentage of faculty who participate in student success-focused best practices professional development opportunities to 80 percent (Baseline 10 percent: 2015-2016).  **OBJ 2.3**Increase the percentage of staff who participate in student success-focused best practices professional development to 50 percent (Baseline 20 percent: 2015-2016).  **OBJ 3.1**Establishment of a data warehouse will be 100 percent complete (Baseline zero: Fall 2016).  **OBJ****3.2 a,b,and c**To define, adopt, and utilize a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) for institutional decision making will be 100 percent complete (Baseline zero: Fall 2016). **OBJ 4.1**Increase average tuition revenue by $378 to $1416 per student each term (Baseline

$1038/student/term: Fall 2016).

Utilizing the Completion by Design Loss Momentum framework, NSCC will build a student success framework to increase student success through advising, data informed decisions and strengthened revenue.

**Funding Request:** $2,248,760 of which NSCC will match $180,000 in endowment.

# P031A170217 - Crowder College, MO

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Crowder College, in Neosho, Missouri, is a public, open-enrollment, comprehensive two-

year college serving southwest Missouri (pop. 327,248, *Census 2015*), with transfer- and career- oriented Associate degrees and Certificates, adult/continuing education, high school/college con-current enrollment, and workforce development; our mission is *“Building a civil, serving, literate, learning community of responsible citizens.”*Five sites reach throughout the nine-county service area. Joplin, 20 miles north of Neosho, is the largest city, and outside of Joplin the area is rural. Disadvantage is widespread throughout the area: 14.8 percent of residents live in poverty, 45.2 percent are low-income, and only 17.4 percent hold Bachelor’s degrees (*Census 2014*). Nonetheless, Crowder’s enrollment has grown 240 percent since 2000. However, only **29 percent**of our students complete degrees within 150 percent of program time, some Certificate completions are **zero**, and fall 2015 – fall 2016 retention, **40 percent**, is far below the national average (56.5 percent, *ACT 2016).*So, after decades of focus on access, Crowder’s priority now is to help students not only ***get into college***but also ***get out with credentials***that have value in the workplace and meaning in their lives.

Several problems stall our students. More than a quarter of those in 22 widely-required courses that also make up a popular, transfer-oriented Associate of Arts (AA) degree fail those courses, and failure rates are as high as **41 percent**. Analysis shows weaknesses in instruction, classroom offerings tied to the traditional 16-week semester with no options for accelerated completion, and limited academic support for struggling students. Students in key Career/ Technical Education (CTE) programs do not have sufficient intermediate credentials and degree pathways, adequate advising, and effective Orientation or developmental courses. Finally, aging and inadequate wireless access to information and communication and outdated classroom technology, both critical to student engagement and success, make completing college programs harder than it needs to be.

Crowder therefore proposes ***Connect***, a project adapted from the **Guided Pathways**model demonstrated nationwide to boost progress and completion.  The model seeks to reduce enrollment in inappropriate courses, delays when courses are full or not offered, withdrawals and no-credit repeats, and changed majors. It promotes effective advising, full-time enrollment, block scheduling, feedback about progress, and, for CTE programs, links to the work place.

***Connect***will use these strategies to improve the effectiveness of 22 general education courses that also comprise an AA degree, compressing them for cohort, Learning Community-like delivery, so that students who complete them earn their AA degrees in four semesters. Second, ***Connect***will improve four high-opportunity **CTE programs**(EMT/ Paramedic, Diesel Tech, Construction, Computer Networking Support), some in compressed, accelerated formats, so that students who complete them will earn Associate degrees or CTE Certificates in four semesters or less. Finally, the project will build infrastructure for **wireless access**and **classroom technology**to support increased communication and learning. **Outcomes**(increased course success, retention, completion) address ED Strengthening Institutions Program and GPRA **Performance Measures**for **retention and graduation.**

# P031A170237 - Housatonic Community College, CT

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Housatonic Community College (HCC) is applying for a Title III Strengthening Institutions grant for its “Student Success Grant at Housatonic Community College” initiative.  HCC is requesting

$1,820,875 in funding from the U.S. Department of Education over the five-year grant period.

Housatonic Community College, a national Achieving the Dream institution of higher education, is an urban community college located in Bridgeport, Connecticut.  The proposed program design strives to increase HCC’s current completion rates.  The proposed project’s overall academic goal is to increase the 3-year completion rate for first-time full-time degree seeking students from the current rate of 8 percent to 12 percent by 2022.  The College’s Student Success Committee in collaboration with various faculty, staff, and administration reviewed institutional research and determined that the following four proposed activities will help to address academic, financial and personal barriers to retention and completion: Learning Communities, Mandatory Orientation, Success- Coach Approach/Proactive Advising Model, and Professional Development for Faculty and Staff.

As shown in the Program Logic Model, the expected outcomes for the four activities are as follows: Learning Communities will lead to an increase in student retention, increase completion rates for developmental students, and reduce student expense by decreasing the amount of financial aid utilized for developmental coursework.  With Mandatory Orientation, the proposed project looks to increase the number of students experiencing orientation, thereby gaining the framework and knowledge base to start off their academic career at HCC with the relevant information incoming students need to know.  Professional Development for faculty (full-time and part-time) in addition to staff will foster enhanced instructional methods that lead to an increase in student engagement, and raise rates of student retention and completion.  The Proactive Advising Model will lead to an increase in the number of students attending college full-time, the number of students who are advised, the number of students enrolled in pathway programs, and the number of students who formulate a career plan thereby increasing retention rates for all students and ultimately increasing completion rates.

The project will be led by a Project Director and a Project Coordinator both of whom have extensive experience implementing federal grants.  They will have direct line of communication to HCC’s President, the administration team consisting of divisional deans, and the College Cabinet, comprised of faculty and staff from a cross-representation of college employees.  An ad hoc Title III Implementation Committee will be formed as a result of this initiative and will fall under the auspices of the College’s Student Success Committee.  The project will be housed in the Student Services division and report to the Dean of Students.

# P031A170243 - Schenectady County Community College, NY

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**Contact Person for the Title III Proposal:**Schenectady County Community College, 78 Washington Ave., Schenectady, NY 12305; Dr. Steady H. Moono, President, moonosh@sunysccc.edu, (518) 381-1304.

**Institutional Background:**Schenectady County Community College (SCCC) was officially established in 1967.  SCCC operates as a small, yet comprehensive community college under the programs and standards of the State University of New York (SUNY).  The College’s mission emphasizes high quality academic programs, broad access for students, and responsiveness to the needs of the community.  SCCC offers over 50 transfer degree, career degree and certificate programs.  The College has a committed, accessible teaching faculty and an attractive campus, located in the community of Schenectady along the Mohawk River, in the heart of the New York State Capital District.  Situated 165 miles (nearly three hours) from New York City, SCCC’s service area is in a rural river valley with many students commuting from a distance.

Our student body is diverse in gender, ethnicity, and age.  Students from ethnic minorities comprise 28 percent of the full-time student population.  The majority of students are residents of Schenectady County.

**Implementation Strategies:** The project will (1) increase first to second year retention and completion by implementing a Success Coach model of proactive support incorporating non- cognitive assessment; (2) improve success rates in online, developmental and gateway courses through comprehensive faculty professional development and redesign of courses; (3) increase institutional research capacity, reporting, and a culture of data-informed decision-making; and

(4) improving resource development capacity through a fundraising audit and development of a fundraising strategic plan.

**Objectives:**By September 30, 2022: (1.1) increase the number of first-time, degree/certificate- seeking students retained from first enrollment to fall of the next year; (1.2) increase the proportion of first-time, degree/certificate-seeking students retained from first enrollment to fall of the next year; (1.3) , increase the number of students graduating within 150 percent of the normal time; (1.4) increase the proportion of students graduating within 150 percent of the normal time; (1.5) close the gap between success rates (A, B, C or pass) in online courses and face-to-face courses; (1.6) students in pilots of newly redesigned developmental courses succeed (A, B or C grade) at rates 10 percent higher than those in traditionally-delivered sections; (1.7) students in pilots of newly redesigned gateway courses succeed (A, B or C grade) at rates 10 percent higher than those in traditionally-delivered sections; (1.8) 80 percent of initially-identified staff participate in training and demonstrate competency to extract, aggregate, and present data in useful formats for decision- making at the 70 percent proficiency level compared to zero in 2016-2017; (1.9) increase the number of standard data reports customizable by the end user; (10) increase annual gifts $992,339  by 20 percent.

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