ASPEN Newsletter

Allied Strategic Planning Engagement Network | Spring 2022 | Volume 1

About ASPEN

In 2020, Westchester Community College launched a new, decentralized strategic plan governance structure, the Allied Strategic Planning Engagement Network (ASPEN). ASPEN replaced traditional, hierarchical committees by using agile principles where democratic co-creation supersedes participatory input. The result is a network of teams that are nimble and adaptive to user experiences and frequent feedback loops.
Learn More About Our Strategic Plan

What’s New?

In this Issue

ASPEN Enrollment Summit Spring 2022
WCC Successfully Increases Graduation Rate
The Registrar’s Office
Student Support and Advising
Viking ROADS
Mental Health
Extension Centers
Pathways Campaign

ASPEN Enrollment Summit Spring 2022

On April 1, 2022 SUNY Westchester Community College held a campus-wide summit on strategic planning (ASPEN) and enrollment management. The event began with an update on the status on recommendations from the Fall 2021 enrollment summit “Reimagining and Innovating Strategies for Enrollment (RISE!).” The college learned about the opening of the new Yonkers Branch Campus, the work on a SUNYWCC micro-credential policy, and a strategic enrollment planning initiative, under the guidance of SUNY.

SUNYWCC’s President, Dr. Belinda Miles, offered remarks on the occasion and SUNYWCC’s positionality to meet the needs of our students. The summit continued with two presentations to inform strategic planning: “Emerging Market Opportunities” and “Emerging Student Enrollment Trends”. The morning ended with five breakout sessions to engage summit participants in meaningful discussion about current initiatives within the college. The breakout session titles were: “Expanding Market Share in the Highschool Pipeline”, “Offering New Career Pathways in the 4th Industrial Revolution”, “Remaining Relevant for the New Traditional Learner”, “Teaching and Learning where Students Live and Work”, and “Seeing it Again for the First Time: A Data Deep Dive”. The event was well attended with over 100 participants including administrators, faculty, and staff.

WCC Successfully Increases Graduation Rate

The data collected for the federal IPEDS Graduation Rates report includes the cohort of full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students and calculates their completion rate within 150% of the normal time (3 years for associate degrees, 1.5 years for certificates) to completion of degree requirements. The graduation rate of our most recent Fall 2018 cohort is 24.5%, which is an increase of almost 10 percentage points when compared to the Fall 2012 cohort. The collaborative college-wide effort to move the needle is profoundly evident in our student success outcomes.

This data is provided by Institutional Research, Planning, and Effectiveness, which is responsible for the preparation, analysis and distribution of internal and external data reports primarily related to enrollment and student outcomes. The department is also responsible for coordinating state and federal reporting processes for the college. Many departments contributed to this significant success. Below are just a few examples of how our employees make a difference in the lives of our students and their families.

The Registrar’s Office

The increase in the graduation rate is due to a campus-wide awareness and the ongoing coordination of support efforts across departments. The Registrar’s Office interacts directly and regularly with students, academic counselors, faculty advisors, navigators and curriculum chairs to make certain that all prospective graduates are captured. The implementation of the interactive platforms such as Viking Success, configured by the Registrar’s office, Degree Works, and system customizations have played a role in student success and the increase in our graduation rate.

Viking Success allows students, faculty, and staff to collaborate towards improving academic achievement and facilitating easy outreach and communication targeting student support, while Degree Works is an interactive audit tool providing students a hands-on review of their graduation application status and courses applied for their degree.

The Registrar’s initial focus for assisting students with the graduation process was developing an online graduation application to be used by students to initially apply. With the help of the IT department, the Registrar’s Office developed a process which integrates the student’s ability to apply online for graduation and have the information viewable in Degree Works to display the students’ application status, along with percentages completed for their degree. Secondly, the Registrar’s Office also targeted their focus on the students who may have forgotten to apply for graduation and those who previously applied and were denied and might be now eligible. To assist with these goals, IT was instrumental in creating a systematic checking mechanism for students who previously applied and were denied. The system is designed to poll and review for any academic changes since the last denial such as additional transfer credits and increases in GPA. The system also identifies students who might have forgotten to apply for graduation, as it monitors degree audit percentages for 100% completion. These student records are systematically selected, and a new status is assigned “In-review” for final approval by the curriculum chair.

In addition, another contributing factor for the increase in the graduation rate has been implementation and design of the People Soft “Grad Track” function used by our curriculum chairs. Again, IT has assisted the Registrar’s Office in creating a comprehensive workspace by importing data from Degree Works, ultimately providing a uniform streamlined review process for monitoring degree approvals, substitutions, and notations.

Lastly, the Registrar’s Office contributes to the graduation rate by helping students who have left the college without finishing the required credits for their degree. The “Reverse Transfer” process was designed for these students who can send in their official transcripts from other colleges to be evaluated for the missing credits needed for their degree here at WCC. Once the official evaluation is completed by the Registrar’s office for the additional transfer credits, these students are entered into the next graduation processing and are ultimately awarded their degree.

The Registrar’s Office also acknowledges that the increased number of Transfer Agreements (currently with 30 colleges) allows our students who achieve their associate’s degree to continue at a four-year institution at the status of a junior. This provides motivation for completion and persistence for many of our students.

Student Support and Advising

There have been several key changes that have contributed to student success, including the introduction of Viking Success (Starfish) Early Alert to students in development courses. Viking Success, an interactive platform, makes outreach easy and allows faculty and staff to work as a team to ensure students are given the necessary tools to succeed.

Developmental education reforms, including the introduction of multiple measures in 2019 and the introduction of English and math co-requisite courses, allowed students to get to and through gateway courses instead of needlessly placing them in developmental courses.

Success Navigators (formerly known as Coaches) work closely with curriculum chairs to identify students eligible to graduate and assist them through the process. Academic Counseling has also done work in this area.

Additional initiatives have been implemented more recently and will hopefully continue this upward trend in graduation rates. These include:

Through Title V efforts, first-time full-time students were case-loaded to Academic Counselors starting in 2019
First-Year Seminar, launched in 2019
Viking Success (Starfish) Early Alert extended from developmental to gateway and then to pre-transfer courses
Expansion of multiple measures and the introduction of placement waivers
Directed self-placement was introduced in 2020 and our use of co-requisite courses expanded as well.

Viking ROADS

Viking ROADS (Resources for Obtaining Associates Degrees and Success) is a replication of CUNY’s highly-successful ASAP program, which has a proven record of increasing graduation rates among ASAP participants to over 50% within three years. The program is a comprehensive system of supports that center on an intrusive counseling model and active case management by a dedicated academic counselor.

This counselor meets with students regularly, monitors their academic progress, arranges for additional workshops and activities, and connects them to college resources to help ensure success both in and out of the classroom. Students also receive some financial assistance in the form of tuition gap funding, and textbook and transportation vouchers.

Westchester Community College received a grant from Arnold Ventures (previously the Laura and John Arnold Foundation) to replicate the ASAP program, and we started implementing this in 2017. The project received critical support from Dean Carmen Martinez-Lopez and the faculty of the School of Business and Professional Careers, who agreed to help pilot the effort. The Viking ROADS program welcomed its first cohort of students in the 2018-19 school year: 101 students were recruited from the Accounting, Business Management, Computer Information Systems, Criminal Justice: Police, Human Services, and Marketing programs. The pilot cohort has an official three-year graduation rate of 51.6%, more than double the baseline SUNYWCC graduation rate when we were first awarded the replication grant.

In addition, we have also been participating in the same randomized controlled trial conducted by MDRC that was able to prove ASAP’s success. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and remote operations, Cohort 1 (Fall 2019) is on track for a three-year graduation rate of over 40%, and Cohort 2 (Fall 2020/Spring 2021) has a one-year retention rate of 75%. We are expanding the eligibility to include almost all college majors, adding a STEM pathway in coordination with Mercy College, and are starting to recruit for our 5th cohort of students to start in Fall 2022.

Mental Health

Westchester Community College’s Department of Mental Health & Counseling Services recognizes that student wellbeing is critical to student academic success. In the 2022 academic year, of the students who engaged in individual therapy with the Department of Mental Health & Counseling Services, over 65% endorsed Feeling Depressed as their reason for seeking support, over 80% endorsed Feeling Anxious as their reason for seeking support, and 69% endorsed Difficulty Managing Stress as their reason for seeking support.

Mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety are strong negative predictors of academic outcomes such as persistence/retention and grade point average (GPA). From Fall 2021-Spring 2022, just over 76% of students who received individual DMHCS services in the Fall semester re-enrolled in the Spring 2022 semester, and 4% graduated or transferred. Despite, the evidence of worsening mental health among college students, accessing services can be made difficult due to resources, circumstance, identity, and stigma.

DMHCS provides a range of clinical and psychoeducational services to the SUNYWCC community. Our services are provided at no cost to students and are offered in English, Spanish, and American-Sign Language. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, DMHCS clinicians have utilized Zoom for Healthcare to provide tele-mental health services to students remotely. In addition to individual therapy, DMHCS offers ongoing support groups including a Healthy Relationships Group, a bi-weekly support group for student parents, and our general mental health support group, COPING. These groups are offered in the evening and remotely to increase accessibility to students.

To address the stigma related to mental health and educate the community on both signs and symptoms, DMHCS facilitates workshops and trainings throughout the semester. Workshop topics include Stress Management, Mindfulness, Communication, and Mind-Body Health. The ASCC-Supporting Students in Distress Training is offered to faculty and staff multiple times a semester and has successfully trained over 200 SUNYWCC employees to date. The Help a Friend training is a peer empowerment training offered to SUNYWCC students. This training educates students on how to recognize and support their friends and peers who may be struggling with their mental health.

In the Fall of 2022, DMHCS welcomed 2 new adjunct clinicians to the team to help meet the increasing demand for mental health support. In the Spring of 2022, DMHCS officially opened their new suite located next to Health Office in the Student Center. This new space offers a warm, inviting, and private location for students to seek information and connect with mental health support. DMHCS also continues to expand use of innovative technologies to increase access to mental health support including the recent launch of the free, self-help platform TAO, or Therapy Assistance Online. Maintaining meaningful partnerships with organizations such as The Steve Fund and The JED Foundation continue to be critical to strategic planning and fostering a college environment that prioritizes student mental health.

Extension Centers

There are a variety of factors that have led into the Extension Centers contributing to the increase in graduation rates at Westchester Community College. Many of these factors exist in the student services area. The extensions are known for their one-stop shopping services model. This expedites intake and increases the likelihood of registration and retention.

Additionally, the extensions provide flexibility by providing both evening and weekend services both in person and remotely. But what’s new? Extension Centers now all have their own dedicated Academic Counselors and have expanded their service hours for counseling. The centers know their students from intake through completion. Counselors input notes into Degree Works and Office Assistants follow up with students to ensure registration. The small intimate settings of extensions allow for staff and faculty connections with students and lead to a friendly and personable environment. The centers are also offering block schedules, weekend courses, and a variety of course patterns to meet our diverse student bodies’ needs.

Pathways Campaign

Westchester Community College Foundation’s (WCCF) Pathways Campaign has funded the creation, piloting, and bringing to scale new initiatives that have increased college readiness, ensured a strong start, and provided appropriate support along the way – all roads that lead to success.

The following initiatives have all been supported by the WCCF.

StepUp: High School Transitions – This partnership with Westchester public high schools has developed a supplemental 12th grade curriculum for seniors deemed on track to graduate but not college ready. To date, over 1,000 students from twelve high schools have gone through the program and arrived at SUNYWCC college-ready.
Viking ROADS – SUNYWCC was one out of only two institutions nationwide chosen to receive a $1 million grant from the Arnold Foundation to replicate CUNY’s ASAP program. This is the only proven model of community college reform to effectively promote timely degree completion by erasing all impediments to graduation. This program is described above.
Veteran’s Resource Center – SUNYWCC is designated a “Veteran-friendly” campus, and over 200 veterans participate in this program annually. It was created to address the need for support of veterans and reserve component personnel, as well as active duty, family members, and dependents to make a seamless transition to the college environment.
Completion Connection – In addition to college counselors and academic advisors, Completion Navigators help keep students on track to degree completion through monitoring, mentoring, tracking, and early warning systems.

Scholarships – SUNYWCCF distributes over $2 million in awards annually. These funds, as well as other assistance programs including the Emergency Aid Program the Office of Student Support Services, ease many of the burdens and stresses that might otherwise prevent students from reaching their completion goals.

Final Note

These are just a few of the ways in which we all make a difference in the lives of our students. We applaud each and every one of you for your efforts on behalf of the students we serve.