August 4, 2021

Retention Subcommittee Minutes 

Members present: Paul Hoffman, Jessica Shelton, Herman Tucker, Mario Leal, Staci Taylor, Tisha Monsey, Tina Lyles

Members absent: Mandy Morrison, Starlen Roddy, Brian Jackson, Tamara Culver, Claudette Jackson, Estella Lopez, Paula Unger

Members met on 8/4/21 via Zoom.  Members discussed feedback on our previous recommendations, as well as several ideas for new recommendations.  

Completion Center staffing recommendations

  • Our Coaches are already operating at capacity, and we anticipate the workload to increase with more concentrated early alert efforts, and an increased need from our incoming students.
    • Coaches are averaging 72-89 students, while the goal is 40-60.
    • They also do an average of 445 outreaches, plus events/guest speaking.
    • An average of 842 students are referred each semester.
    • They have not been able to guarantee walk-in availability since October 2020 when staffing changed.
      • Additionally, they are recommending students come in no more than once a month.
    • In Fall 2020, even with the small percentage of faculty who were correctly using the Brightspace tools linked to early alert referrals, Coaches saw 3.3x the number of contacts, which resulted in 161 self-referrals (versus 12 self-referrals the prior fall semester).
      • We expect this to increase with Performance Plus, and a Coach will need to be the run running the reports to see which students need outreach.
    • We asked Grayson Meek to help estimate cost/benefit of hiring a new Coach.
      • A new Coach position does not generate enough revenue to pay for itself.
      • The institution would have to make the decision to hire a new Coach based on more than generating revenue.
        • If it helps with retention, which has trickle-down effects for our students and their families, is it still worth it?
        • Another concern is that the current staffing levels could lead to those employees burning out faster. These students have high-level needs, and that can lead to burnout without a reasonable balance of workload.
          • There’s value in retaining the staff who are trained, who know our campus and community, and who have relationships with their students.
        • Could other people help offset the workload (the new Highlander Ambassadors? The 1st Gen Coach?)?
          • Part of the difficulty is that someone would need to spend time in “triage” to make sure students with higher needs were referred to Coaches.
          • Another difficulty is that sometimes students seem like they’ll be “an easy case,” but once you start talking with them, they actually have a high level of need. Then they’d have to go back to the Completion Center anyway. 
          • Students visiting with Coaches usually have a high level of self-disclosure. Would they be as comfortable doing that with the Ambassadors?
          • The Ambassadors will be trained as generalists, rather than the Coaches, who are specialists.
          • The Completion Center is already looking into training campus-wide so that anyone can make a referral to community resources; a Coach doesn’t have to be the person to do that. That would reduce workload.
        • So where to do we go from here with this recommendation?
          • Could we use Cares Act funding for part-time or temporary Coaches?
          • Do we ask for 1? Do we ask for what we really need?
          • Many offices on campus are feeling the pinch of losing positions now that we are returning to normal workloads. Perhaps our committee should look at a recommendation not just for the Completion Center, but instead a system to help prioritize the needs of these offices that relate to retention.  There should be some type of way to evaluate who needs a position and when they should be filled, rather than it being more random.  What is the overall plan/strategy?

Early Alert Software

  • Staci reported that a decision has been made to move forward with Brightspace Performance Plus.
    • No matter what we purchase, it will not be effective if we are not using tools in Brightspace like attendance registers, gradebook, etc.
    • This new software will be able to tell who is using these tools and who is not.
      • It would help if Administration could use this information to work with those not using these tools.
    • We would like to pursue working with Faculty Council to develop training, encouragement, etc. so that faculty use these tools, which will then generate the information needed for Brightspace Performance Plus to help with retention.
      • We would like to discuss new ways to train and engage the faculty and build commitment to using these tools, instead of doing what we have always done.
        • We’ve had training available and administrative encouragement to use it, but there’s not been a way to follow up to see who was or was not using it.
      • What is preventing you from using these tools?
      • This folds into the pilot program mentioned below.

Value in listing current initiatives related to retention?

  • Many of the ideas we have come up with in this committee have not been formally recommended because they are already in progress within their respective departments.
  • It may not be in this committee’s purview to list those efforts.
  • It might be worth asking the steering committee what their goals for retention are: 1/% increase? 10%? Then we can formalize a strategy for helping them meet that goal.

Pilot Program – Best practices in instruction

  • Could we identify 25 faculty who “are all in” for their students in the first 25% of the semester?
    • Use best practices in instruction, including things like using the Brightspace attendance register and gradebook, learning and using student names, assigning a major grade early in the semester (first 2 weeks), referring to the Completion Center early based on first grade, etc.
  • We could invite faculty to join the pilot program if they agree to use these techniques.
  • Once the semester is over, we can look at completion data to see if there is a difference compared to campus as a whole.
    • If so, we could scale up these strategies to all instructors.

Other comments:

  • Advisors are being asked about childcare services by incoming students. We need to be sure this is still part of the conversation.

Next meeting: TBD