March 5, 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
  • Paul Hoffman – Director, Student Development
  • James Kubacak – 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
  • Aranzazu Torres - Recruiter
  • Lise Uhl – Division Chair, Visual & Performing Arts
  • Laura Wichman – Director, Institutional Research
Committee Members Absent:
  • Sharon Kenan – Librarian/ Professor, Library Services

Kim Patterson called the meeting to order 2:02 p.m.

Updates:

Marcom - Lisa Elliott:

They have hired a Webpage Content Designer, named Phillip Esparza. He comes to us from Hill College using the same software they currently use. He also has other I.T. experiences. “He will be a great addition to our team!”

The MCC website is current.

Process & Improvement Management:

Dr. Benson spoke with Ruffalo Noel Levitz and the Huron Group. Others didn’t get back to us.  Both are very confident and could do this work for us. It’s possible we may have other vendors that are interested. We will have to do an RFP and funds were moved during budget revision to pay for this. He will move forward with this after Spring Break.

Lisa asked who was the vendor MCC looked at getting years ago was. Kim said they were more about branding, but couldn’t remember their name. Kim will research and let us know.

Strategic Enrollment Plan:

Dr. Benson has a great plan. He will send out a draft by the end of March and will update quarterly.

Subcommittee Reports:

Admission & Marketing (Karen & Lisa)

The committee has met three times since February. They will give three recommendation in March.

  1. Local ISD parent outreach
  2. Researching new target audiences
  3. Faculty & Staff Engagement Program

Recommendation:

They looked at focus group information and saw interest from faculty and staff in “telling the MCC story”. They would like to have a Faculty and Staff Outreach Program for those who want to engage and tell the story. Employees can give the “elevator speech” in what we say at MCC and say it consistently until we get a different one.

Levels of Partnerships:

They incorporated “Levels of Partnership” to provide options knowing that everyone won’t have the same desires and everyone can be involved.

  • Level 1 - Commit to a class that explains things like, “what is an elevator speech” or if a student says they want to sign up, how to keep track of that person. Get everyone involved so that wherever they are, they represent MCC and can help reach out to our community. For example, on Facebook, employees can share a link for MCC. The goal is to have a very high level of participation. 
  • Level 2 - Commit to making phone calls to prospective students. (MCC had employees calling students to follow-up in whether they plan to return in the Spring 2021.) 
  • Level 3 – (Biggest Part) Assign a perspective student to a staff member to “Adopt a Student Program”. Ideally continue relationship until they graduate. 

Aranza Torres added that this program allows for students to speak to an actual person directly. Plus this is a perfect opportunity to have students get involved and participate in more events. 

  • Benson added that this fits into being an ambassador.
  • Lisa Elliott stated this is a Proposal action item. (You can add to it and continue on.) Faculty Council and the Advisory Committees could help by being a part of the program, and help sustain it. She feels very comfortable that we will have people that are willing to help with this.
  • Daelynn Copeland stated that the calling campaign in the fall helped because she received many calls from students. 

Dr. Benson asked the committee if they were all ok with moving forward?

  • McKown stated she likes the idea presented by this committee. Good Job!
  • Benson asked the committee to move forward with their plan. 

Finance Sub-Committee: (James Kubacak and Grayson Meek)

Issues foresee in changing the census date to 12 class date to match the course class date.

They are trying to find other schools that will give guidance. 

Research & Growth – (Jeff Martin and Sharon Kenan)

This committee hasn’t met since Sharon Kenan has been out sick, but he did get feedback from their smaller research group with the sub-committee. He also added that Joe Arrington will temporarily replace Sharon during her absence.

Research & Growth Sub-Committee Analysis: 

  1. How Workforce Programs factor to our presence in local high schools. Take advantage to students who are not currently looking at pursuing Higher Ed. 
  1. Five different Research Groups looking at growth opportunities:
    1. Enrollment Incentives Programs
    2. Communication of Successful Programs – marketing Workforce Programs.
    3. Offering non-degree options
    4. Outreach to Hispanics
    5. Working with public, private, and homeschools to increase enrollment.

Retention Committee: (Paul Hoffman & Jessica Shelton)

Due to the winter ice storm, the committee was unable to meet. Their next meeting will be on March 17th.

Paul Hoffman gave an overview of the committee’s discussions:

Support of doing a process review:

  • Meeting where challenges wouldn’t benefit from process review. Focus on Instruction, Advising and Career Services. Building areas of rapport, and how to repair relationships.

Finding Goals:

  • Need “all in” culture for first year experience. This helps identify critical points of failure.

Identify change so we can change student outcomes.

Outreach :

  • Identifying roles where we can address duties and responsibilities. This will increase morale and better student experience. There are lots of people interested in giving back and getting involved. “Competitive instead of collaborative approach.”

What kind of critical strategy will make a difference to us as faculty and staff? Paul mentioned this is something the committee will discuss at their next meeting.

Discussion:

Dr. Benson asked if there is anything the sub-committees need to be looking at that we think they haven’t thought about? Is there something that we want to ask them to start thinking about? 

  • Frank Graves referenced #2 in Lisa’s presentation and asked if we can reach out to non-traditional students in efforts to coming back and looking at them as potential students? 
  • McKown asked for an update with the community survey?
  • Joe Arnold, Sharon Kenan, and Jeff Martin-Moreno are still working on it, but it hasn’t been sent out yet. The survey is to ask people for feedback about MCC. They plan to send it out by email but they haven’t figured out which groups they need to send it to.
  • Laura Wichman suggested to contact the Workforce Advisory Committees to help with the survey. She also recommended to purchase information from Household Services & Demographics.
  • Jeff Martin-Moreno stated the sub-committees are getting the word out through PSA’s.
  • Benson mentioned the CollegeApp could get verified email addresses for us.
  • Jeff Martin-Moreno asked if we can publish a link to verify the email address. Lisa Elliott said a QR code can help get them verified.
  • Lisa Elliott recommended getting a mailing list since it’s verified but agreed that an email list is easier.
  • Laura Wichman suggested calling individuals about the survey and recruit help from people around campus.
  • Daelynn Copeland suggested putting the survey link on social media.

 Current Enrollment Report:

  • Benson shared the Spring Enrollment Report with the committee.

 Discussions: 

  • Kim Patterson asked when F2F classes will be reinstated.
  • Hills shared that we are looking at three fully F2F and hybrid classes. Although the room capacity is holding us back, we are watching room capacity carefully. Paul Hoffman has been in contact with the Deans to find out if we need more classes. The goal is to get F2F in the Fall 2021.
  • Lisa Elliott added that it is important to provide F2F but we need to make sure we are going to have in-person classes and we have a choice. In person is critical!
  • Laura Wichman added we might want to inform students they may not be able to endure the 6 feet rule.
  • Daelynn Copeland asked if we will be offering any Zoom class sessions.

Dr. Hills stated we are adding Hybrid F2F and looking at a blend of using Zoom    options for students. We are looking at implementing this in Fall 2021 as well. 

  • Laura Wichman showed the committee statistics from a student survey in whether they plan to return if F2F classes are offered. She will share with committee. 
  • McKown will hold another Student Advisory Committee for feedback as well. 
  • Rhodes mentioned the surveys might be a little bias since the ones responding have easy access to technology. We think students want to come back to F2F classes but we don’t know for sure. He suggested possibly running the survey again in mid-April. We also need to talk about how we can get it to students that don’t have technology. 
  • In Summer I, we will see an impact whether people want to come back. By then, more vaccines will be offered. The Summer semester will be a critical point for us. 

Over View of Enrollment Initiatives:

  • Frank Graves would like to award three thousand more students. We have a new Grant that focuses more on Occupational Skills, which is a financial aid eligible program. If students demonstrate a need, they will be eligible for the full amount. We are trying to get the word out for students to come in and enroll. This is a good starting point for us.
    • Lisa Elliott will get with the Workforce Board. They have included our information about the Reskilling and Restarting and the ExpressPath Programs.
    • Laura Wichman said that EOC Grants bring additional money that will help students that don’t have high school equivalencies. 

Marketing, Admission, and Recruiting updates:

  • Lisa Elliott stated there are a lot of projects in working with Admissions and Recruiting. She will send it out to committee members.
  • Benson mentioned they were looking into planning more ExpressPath Open House events to the community. The new CollegeApp will help us figure out what communities target certain people. We hope to get this started in June or July 2021 to help with enrollment.
  • McKown asked how we plan to promote the Debt Program promotion. She doesn’t want to forget about this program.
  • Benson stated the Open House is critical to have Financial Aid available. Reskilling and Restarting and the financial parts of getting them back in is critical. Open houses are good options to show a path back in.

In Closing:

Dr. Benson expressed that he appreciates all the hard work, especially from the co-chairs for the sub-committees.

McKown closed in saying “Steering and Strategic is an investment for the community and our future. There’s a hope that we can make a difference. You’re doing incredible work”.

Kim Patterson wished everyone a nice and restful Spring Break. She added, “It’s great to see the progress were making”!

Dr. Benson asked the committee if there were any concerns:

  • Hills mentioned to let them know if there is anything we can do to help people help others. Also, if there is anything we can put out there to help people help students, please let them know. He also recommended we add students to this list.
  • Kim Patterson mentioned that the need to train people to help them get past the hurtles.

 Meeting adjourned: 2:08 p.m.