student equity plan executive summary - columbia college€¦ · executive summary introduction...

2017 - 2019

Student Equity Plan

Executive Summary

College: Columbia District: Yosemite

Executive Summary Introduction Columbia College is committed to supporting all students in developing and reaching their educational goals. The Columbia College Integrated Plan details the College’s efforts to ensure equal educational opportunities and promote success among all students regardless of gender, race, disability, or economic status. The plan was developed based on the results of campus-based research designed to identify inequities and barriers to success among student subgroups. The plan describes activities designed to promote student success and eliminate the inequities which were identified through campus-based research; and a budget describing how resources will be allocated in support of these efforts. The College’s efforts to promote student success and equity support the College’s mission, core values, and goals. Columbia College Mission Columbia College is a dynamic institution of learners and creative thinkers dedicated to high standards of student success. We prepare students to be fully engaged in an evolving world by offering comprehensive and high quality programs and services. Columbia College is committed to a culture of improvement through measuring student learning across the institution. We strive for excellence, foster a spirit of professionalism, and embrace diversity. Columbia College Core Values Related to Student Equity Academic Excellence and Success: We value the commitment to quality and support continuous improvement through student learning outcomes. We are committed to a comprehensive curriculum and services that support and foster a culture of academic wellness for all of our students. Innovation, Professional Development, and Commonality: We value creativity, risk-taking, and vision. We value others, ourselves, and our students as unique individuals and embrace the commonalities and the differences that promote the best of who we are. Vital Community and Access: We value and believe it is essential to assist the broader community in gaining access to higher education and achieving success in their chosen endeavors. Columbia College values its role in the community and is dedicated to strengthening and enriching the quality of life of all those we serve.


Institutional Wellness: We value an institutional environment and culture that promotes and supports total health and wellness of staff and students.

Columbia College Goals Related to Student Equity

Goal 1 – Student Success

Students at Columbia College shall develop and reach informed self‐identified goals in a timely manner. Our students shall master relevant theory and practice.

Goal 2 – High Quality Programs and Services

Columbia College shall develop and maintain high quality programs and services that support the college mission.

Goal 3 – Institutional Effectiveness

Columbia College shall demonstrate institutional effectiveness through ongoing and systematic cycles of improvement that lead to the accomplishment of the College Mission and guide the allocation of its resources.

Goal 4 – Campus Climate

Interactions among all constituencies at Columbia College shall be characterized by respect for all individuals and ideas. Campus policies and procedures shall be inclusive and encourage participation by all in the college community. Both the physical and intellectual environment of the campus shall encourage personal reflection and inquiry.

Goal 5 – Community Connections

Columbia College shall foster mission-focused partnerships and the economic development of its surrounding communities. The college shall promote social and civic responsibility through activities and programs for its students.


Target Groups: In order to address inequities identified through campus-based research, activities have been developed to address “disproportionate impact” on student groups in the following areas: Access: African Americans, Veterans Course completion: Foster Youth, Hispanics ESL and basic skills completion: African Americans, American Indians Degree and certificate completion: African Americans, American Indians Transfer: American Indians, Hispanics, Individuals with Disabilities, Low Income Students


Goals and Activities: Access

A.1 The goal for 2017 – 2019 is to increase the number of veterans enrolled at the college by approximately 3% per year. Achievement of this goal will be supported by the following activities:

Veteran campus and community outreach

Increase interaction with community partners (exp: VFW) to promote enrollment of veterans.

Sponsor veteran appreciation and outreach events.

Provide professional development for faculty / staff working with veterans.

Additional Veteran support services

Provide additional support for veterans including textbook vouchers and gas cards

Provide support for the on-ramp program and encourage participation by disproportionately disadvantaged students including African Americans and Veterans.

Veterans Inquiry

Continue to refine methodologies for determining the actual, and expected, enrollment among veterans.

A.2 The goal for 2017 – 2019 is to continue to increase the number of African Americans enrolled at the college by approximately 3% per year. Achievement of this goal will be supported by the following activities:

African American Student Outreach

Increase interaction with community partners to promote enrollment of African American students, through programs such as MEOC.

Provide support for the on-ramp program and encourage participation by disproportionately disadvantaged students including African Americans and Veterans.

Expand college offerings at the local prison where African Americans are over-represented.

Provide orientation, assessment, and educational planning services at the prison and prison camps.

Provide support for expansion of the incarcerated, and formerly incarcerated, student support programs, including funding for instructional materials


Course Completion Goals and Activities

B.1 Continue to develop and implement activities to increase course completion rates among foster youth, which research suggests to be disproportionately impacted. The goal for 2017 – 2019 is to decrease the gap in course completion rates between foster youth and their peers by 3% per year.

Provide Foster Youth mentoring and peer support

Provide funding for Special Programs Counselor to provide counseling and advising for Foster youth.

Provide funding for Foster Youth Student Ambassador to support foster youth with matriculation.

Provide Foster Youth additional support services

Provide additional support for foster youth including textbook vouchers, gas cards, and access to a food closet.

Provide support for “Overcome” student club.

Provide funding for tutoring and supplemental instruction, and encourage foster youth to participate in tutoring and supplemental instruction

B.2 Develop and implement activities to increase course completion rates among Hispanic students which research suggests to be disproportionately impacted. The goal for 2017 – 2019 is to decrease the gap in course completion rates between Hispanic students and their peers (currently 5%) by 1% per year.

Promote use of academic support services among Hispanic students.

Identify specific barrier courses for Hispanic students.

Provide and promote services to Hispanic students in barrier courses including: supplemental instruction, tutoring, writing and math labs, etc. for barrier courses.

Encourage Hispanic students to participate in special programs and services.

Increase support program outreach to Hispanic students.


ESL and Basic Skills Goals and Activities

C.1 Develop and implement activities to improve basic skills progression rates among African Americans and American Indians. The goal for 2017 – 2019 is to decrease the gap in basic skills progression rates between African American and Native American students and their peers by 2% annually, or until there is no longer disproportionate impact.

Continue to develop accelerated and alternative options for basic skills coursework / Math and English progression.

Provide professional development to support faculty efforts to develop accelerated versions of existing coursework / pathways.

Provide professional development to support faculty efforts to develop alternative coursework (such as Path to Stats and co-requisite remediation) to support student completion of the basic skills sequence.

Continue to examine and refine the use of multiple measures placement for students in Math and English.

Explore appropriate use of multiple measures for student placement in English and Math including self-report and self-placement where appropriate

Explore barriers to success for Native American students and provide additional supports.

Develop a Focused Inquiry Group (FIG) to explore challenges for Native American students.

Develop a peer support and advising group for Native American students.


Degree and Certificate Completion Goals and Activities

D.1 Develop and implement activities to improve degree and certificate completion rates among African Americans and American Indian students, This will be accomplished by increasing the degree and certificate completion rate (6 year rate) among African Americans and American Indians by 2% per year.

Promotion of special programs (such as EOPS and TRIO) to African Americans, Native Americans, and other educationally disadvantaged students.

Utilize student ambassadors to market special programs to educationally disadvantaged students.

Provide additional support for students who are disadvantaged in their efforts to earn a degree or certificate due to lack of access to cultural and social capital.

Utilize student ambassadors to contact undeclared students, and students who have not completed a comprehensive education plan, by the time they earn 15 units in order to encourage students to meet with a counselor.

Develop major advising guides and guided pathways to make paths to degrees and certificates more clear.

Conduct major program pathway reviews and eliminate barriers to completion of certificates and degrees.

Launch think 30 campaign including marketing materials to educate students regarding the benefits of enrolling in enough units to complete “on-time” when appropriate.


Transfer Goals and Activities

E.1 Develop and implement activities to improve transfer rates among Individuals with Disabilities, American Indians, Hispanic students, and low income students which research suggests to be disproportionately impacted. Increasing the transfer rates among these disproportionately impacted groups by 2% per year.

Develop meta-majors to encourage student progress prior to student finalizing educational goal / major.

Increase completion of comprehensive educational plans among these disproportionately impacted students.

Provide funding for tutoring and supplemental instruction, and encourage disproportionately impacted students to participate in these support services.

Develop peer support group for Native American students and encourage Native American student participation in TRiO.

Provide counseling and advising services at tribal education center.


Progress made in Achieving Prior Equity Goals

The table below, describes the progress made toward achieving the goals outlined in your 2015-16 Student Equity plan.

Goal Progress

Student Equity Goals

Access: Increase the number of African American students enrolled at the college.

As research suggested African Americans were underrepresented at the college, and overrepresented in the criminal justice system, the college sought to provide access to African American students in non-traditional settings including the area prison, Sierra Conservation Center (SCC). The college partnership with SCC began with the offering of three courses in the Fall of 2015 and has grown to approximately 20 face to face courses per term in 2017 – 2018. Research suggests inmates enrolled in the college program at SCC had course success and retention rates which are slightly higher than those of their peers at Columbia College. As a result of providing previously underserved students at SCC with access to face to face courses, the number of African Americans enrolled at the college has increased from 20 in fall 2014 to 47 in fall 2016. Additionally on the main campus the college has taken additional steps to promote success among African American students including offering additional support in coursework in which African American students had lower success rates than their peers.

Increase the number of participants receiving DSPS services.

The college sought to increase the number of participants in DSPS through improved outreach and collaboration. The college is now working closely with the Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools Transitions Programs to support students with disabilities to transition to post-secondary education. This has included “transition” student participation in non-credit courses such as adaptive PE and Applied Skills.


Additionally, special programs such as CalWORKS, EOPS, and DSPS have increased efforts to collaborate to serve students with disabilities. DSPS participation has increased from 386 students in 2014 – 2015 to 473 in 2016 – 2017.

Increase the number of veterans enrolled at the college.

The college has undertaken a number of initiatives to make the college a more welcoming and supportive environment for veterans. These steps have included the development of a new Veteran’s Center, hiring of a Veterans Student Coordinator, and provision of additional services to veterans including textbook vouchers and gas cards. Data on the number of veterans enrolled at the college is still somewhat unreliable as not all veterans declare veteran status, however the number of veterans certified dropped from 161 in 2015-2016 to 138 in 2016 – 2017.

Decrease the gap in course completion rates between the disproportionately impacted ethnic groups (African American students, students from more than one race, Hispanic students, and Native American/Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islanders) and their peers by 1% per year.

The college had higher course completion rates for most ethnic groups than the state-wide averages, but several groups had slightly lower completion rates than the college-wide average. As a result, the college has taken on a number of initiatives to eliminate these gaps in completion rates including:

Expansion of supplemental instruction in barrier courses.

Provision of embedded tutoring in ESL and other courses.

Increasing the proportion of first time students receiving comprehensive educational planning

The course completion rate for African American students was 69% for Fall 2011-2015, and in fall 2016 was 72%. The course completion rate for Hispanic students was 67% for Fall 2011-2015, was and in Fall 2016 was 66%. The course completion rate Native American/Alaska Native students was 69% for Fall 2011-2015, and in fall 2016 was 79%.


The course completion rate Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students was 71% for Fall 2011-2015, and in fall 2016 was 91%.* *Only accounts for 33 courses.

Decrease the gap in course completion rates between foster youth and their peers by 3% per year.

The college hired a Special Programs Counselor who supports foster youth. The college also dramatically expanded the foster youth program (Phoenix Scholars) which now serves over 50 students. As a result of the expansion, current and former foster youth now have access to a peer mentor program, book vouchers and gas cards, and a food closet. Additionally, a student organization for current and former foster youth was launched (Overcome). The college applied for, and received, a $20,000 grant from AT&T to support foster youth. The course completion rate for foster youth was 43% for Fall 2011-2015, the course completion rate for Fall 2016 was 60.8%

Decrease the gap in basic skills progression rates between the disproportionately impacted ethnic groups (African American students, students from more than one race, Hispanic students, and Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islanders) and their peers.

The college has taken a number of steps to shorten the time students take to transition to, and complete, college level English and Math. These efforts have included improving student placement in order to reduce unnecessary participation in remedial coursework. This has included employing additional methods for placing students which rely on high school performance measures that are better predictors of students’ performance in college level coursework than traditional placement tests. Additionally the college has taken a number of steps to increase student performance in basic skills courses such as offering supplemental instruction and embedded tutoring in basic skills courses.

Increase the degree and certificate completion rates and transfer rates among the disproportionately impacted groups.

One of the primary strategies the college has undertaken to increase completion and transfer is to encourage student completion of comprehensive educational planning. In the fall of 2016 nearly 75% of the college’s first time students who enrolled in 6 units or more completed a comprehensive educational plan. Additionally the


number of traditionally underserved students being served by special programs has increased dramatically. For example, in 2014-15 EOPS was serving 201 students and DSPS was serving 386 students, but by 2016 – 2017 EOPS served 307 students and DSPS served 473 students.


Student Equity Funding and Expenses As a result of the College’s efforts to promote student success and equity being well integrated throughout the institution, the funding for the activities described in this plan come from a variety of sources including Student Equity funding received from the California Community College Chancellors Office, Basic Skills Initiative funds, Student Success and Support Program funds (credit and non-credit), federal work-study funds, AEBG funds, Strong Workforce funds, etc.

Institutional Resources Successful implementation of this plan requires the participation and support of the following:

Academic Senate

Admissions and Records

Adult Education Program

Associated Students of Columbia College

Basic Skills Initiative

CalWORKs Program

Career and Technical Education

Columbia College Foundation

Cooperative Agency Resources for Education Program (CARE)

Counseling Department

Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSPS)

Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS)

Financial Services

Institutional Research and Planning

Office of the President

Student Learning

Student Success and Support Programs

TLC (Teaching, Learning, and Community)

TRiO program


Accounting of 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17

Student Equity Expenses

Object 2014/2015 2015/2016 2016/2017

Faculty

$5,073 104,527.90

Administration

$49,533 55,570.29

Non Instructional Faculty $7,249 $45,991 7,704.20

Research $1,500 $55,283 57,751.21

Student Ambassadors $51,982 $42,192 3,726.21

Instructional Aide $200 $- -

Benefits $1,305 $50,436 98,539.33

Instructional Supplies $- $- 83.47

Non Instructional Supplies $6,810 $7,050 1,410.29

Hospitality $12,218 $3,084 5,386.54

Coping $1,291 $218 847.21

Travel – In district $1,556 $197 86.33

Travel – Out of District $33,191 $6,810 7,201.91

Fees $4,163 $915 -

Contracted Services $22,562 $1,534 656.40

Equipment $32,122 $ -

Bus Passes

1,459.01

Other Aid

$2,506

$ 176,150 $ 270,822 $ 344,950

Contact Person / Student Equity Coordinator Dr. Brandon Price Dean of Student Services Columbia College [email protected] / 209.588.5079

mailto:[email protected]

student equity plan executive summary - columbia college€¦ · executive summary introduction...

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