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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

President's Wednesday Message


This week’s message is the last on the factors influencing enrollment, focusing on culture.

Unlike the other three external factors, which MCC has limited ability to influence, culture is entirely within our control. It is internal. It defines how we think about our students and our responsibilities toward them. It asks us to commit to our values: integrity, empowerment, excellence, inclusiveness, and collaboration. It calls on us to think about how we can live these values to inspire our students every day. Our institutional culture should promote the success of these students, supporting them in persisting toward their goals. It should be student-ready.

The most common measure of student persistence to degree is retention. What does MCC’s data on retention tell us? It’s not good. Almost half of the students who start in a fall will not come back the next fall: about 47 out of 100 will walk away. It is hard to fathom, 47 out of 100, and this number has not changed much over time. In total, the figure is even more difficult to grasp: 6,174 students who enrolled in fall 2014 did not return in fall 2015. They did not transfer or graduate. They simply stopped coming to MCC. The number of students who did not return to our College is almost equivalent to the total headcount enrollment at FLCC or GCC. It is an entire community college.

When some say our enrollment strategies are not working, imagine the enormous effort that it takes to recruit enough students to cover this loss every single fall. Then, imagine the future of the students who have just walked away: some with debt, some with exhausted financial aid, most with unfulfilled dreams, none with a college credential.

We may tell ourselves that as an open access college, we are likely to draw students who are just not prepared for the rigors of college work. That’s why they leave. But, that’s not what our data says. The average GPA of those who were not retained fall 2014-2015 was 2.23, a solid C. Over 28% of those dropping out had GPAs of 3.0 and higher.

In each office, each classroom at MCC, each person at our College is working hard for our students: recruiting, advising, teaching, counseling, mentoring, tutoring, and so much more. There is no question about this at all. We are inspiring every day at the individual level. You are inspiring.

Yet, despite all your dedication and commitment, almost half of our students, academically successful students, still walk away from our College and from their dreams. Why? Ask students and you will hear different answers, some far outside of our control but many well inside of it. The thread connecting the reasons MCC can impact is just that: connection. A review of MCC programs with higher retention and completion shows that they are built—intentionally--around connection: between students and faculty, students and students, students and mentors, students and clubs/organizations, students and active learning, students and support offices, and more. These programs are designed with the student at the center: they are student-ready. Imagine how such a design might keep some of the 47 out of 100 here, working toward their MCC degrees.

When we think about the intersection between enrollment and culture for MCC, then, we need to ask two questions: (1) should we be talking less about enrollment and more about retention?; and (2) should we be thinking about how to design a structured, networked culture of student success? The answer to both is yes.

Answer 1: Our mission calls on MCC to provide much more than access: it calls on us to provide access to a “dynamic learning community” in which we “educate and prepare diverse learners to achieve scholarly, professional and individual success ….” We seek to “transform lives and communities” through our commitment to “opportunity, innovation, and excellence” in education. To achieve this mission, we need to support the persistence of students who access MCC. In other words, we need to shift from a focus on enrollment to a focus on retention. We are.

Answer 2: Our values call on us to achieve more than disconnected islands of success with our students. We need to work together to create connections across our islands, showing students how to move through this unfamiliar landscape toward their destination and connecting them to future careers and studies. If we were to create such a navigation system, we would design an academic pathway that increased the likelihood of student retention and success. We would empower students to work with each other and with us, building their accountability for achieving their goals by owning our institutional responsibility for helping them get there. We are …

And during All College Days, you will hear from a panel of inspiring leaders: colleagues on the front lines of the MCC Schools, the transformation of MCC’s academic programs into pathways structured to increase student success and retention. Over the past three weeks, I have written about the need for MCC’s enrollment management strategies to address external factors, but in keeping with our mission, the most impactful and important enrollment we can build—for our College, our community, and our students—will come from our students’ persistence toward and achievement of their goals. I look forward to moderating Thursday’s panel on the Schools, to gaining the insights of faculty, staff, and administrators who are leading this culture shift, and to seeing you there. If you have a question for our panel of MCC experts, please share it in the comments section of the blog.

Anne M. Kress
President
08/31/2016