July 28, 2021 Minutes

Steering Committee Minutes

Committee Members Present:

  • Stephen Benson – Vice President, Finance & Administration (Co-Chair)
  • Meredith Brown – Program Director/Assoc. Professor, Radiologic Technology
  • Londa Carriveau – Director, High School Pathways
  • Karen Clark – Director, Admissions & Recruitment
  • Daelynn Copeland – Asst. Professor/Facility Director, Child Studies & Education
  • Lisa Elliott – Director, Marketing & Communication
  • Frank Graves – Dean, Workforce & Public Service
  • Fred Hills – Vice President, Instruction & Student Engagement
  • Sandi Jones - Director, Financial Aid
  • Johnette McKown – President of McLennan Community College
  • Kim Patterson – Executive Director, Foundation/Institutional Advancement (Co-Chair)
  • Phil Rhodes – Vice President, Research, Effectiveness & Information Technology
  • Lise Uhl – Division Chair, Visual & Performing Arts
  • Laura Wichman – Director, Institutional Research
Committee Members Absent:
  • Paul Hoffman – Director, Student Development
  • Kim Patterson – Executive Director, Foundation/Institutional Advancement (Co-Chair)

Meeting Start Time: 10:01 a.m. 

Discussions:

  • The website is up to date and all meeting notes can be found on there.
  • The latest version of the Strategic Enrollment Plan is on our website.
  • Report of Enrollment Process Improvement - We have received many compliments from the consultants about our staff. It speaks very highly about our culture and how we do things at MCC. Process mapping is in the validation stage now. Next step is to meet with Directors to make sure the map is accurate, collect more data through surveys and then make more recommendations. 

Updates: 

  • The Board approved changes to the McLennan Scholarship and the Rising Star Scholarships.
  • Letters were sent to all students informing them they are able to use COVID Funds to discharge debt that was incurred while they were here during the pandemic.
  • Emails were also sent to students explaining what was happening, and waiving funds. We hope this opens doors for them to come back. We have had many responses from students. 

Committee Reports: 

Admissions & Marketing: Lisa Elliott & Karen Clark 

  • Kayla created a Brightspace training course. Some modules will be face-to-face and will have information from Brightspace to refer to after training.
  • Website Development - Dr. Benson asked this committee to look at the website from a perspective student’s standpoint. We are recommending that webpage managers trade off and partner up in assisting each other. There are 1,700 pages on website.
  • Student process side - AEL students will be graduating soon and we plan to ask them to sit in the computer lab and navigate through our website. We hope they will provide positive feedback.
  • Possibly getting a student advisory group to assist with our committee. 

Finance Group: Sandi Jones 

  • The committee looked at the cost benefits of hiring additional success coaches. The average cost is $78K. Based on data from the completion center, we didn’t believe it would beneficial to hire additional success coaches. 

Research & Growth: Joe Arrington 

  • Currently working on a survey for underutilize programs on campus.
  • Change focus on pathways and encourage students to go to MCC.
  • Encourage various departments at MCC to have programs that incorporate non-credit course work as a pathway.
  • Formalize a process for mapping non-credit courses to a degree.
  • Developing career pathway programs for students to see the start and end point.
  • Market career pathways on campus.
  • Establish a process for all areas to work together. 
  • Benson asked who would like to follow through with these recommendations.
  • Recommendation was accepted and approved. 

Retention Committee – Paul Hoffman & Jessica Shelton

  • No Report 

Enrollment Report: 

  • Benson shared the Enrollment Report.
  • Still lacking students in Continuing Ed.
  • Duel Credit, first time transfer, first time in college and returning students column is up.
  • Contact hours are low compared to a few years ago.
  • Contact hours on Enrollment Report for the Fall will be down some but will be rewarded for those hours in spring. 

Reskilling Grant: 

  • Since students need to be returning at 50% complete of their program, Massage Therapist won’t qualify for the Reskilling Grant.
  • Students that don’t have a financial need for the Grant can still be awarded up to $500.
  • Money doesn’t need to be spent until mid-February of 2022. It can be used through the Spring.
  • Karen Clark is organizing a calling campaign to have employees call students once again this year to get them registered. 
  • We’re getting a little more aggressive in talking about spending COVID money.
    • 2021-22 Department has waived the verification process. 

Community Survey:  Laura Wichman 

  • Final count of survey:
    • 1,703 people responded
    • 1440 were in McLennan County
    • 45 were from Falls County
    • 218 were outside of McLennan/Falls County 

Meeting adjourn: 10:43 a.m.