May 27, 2021 Minutes

Steering Committee Minutes

Committee Members Present:

  • Joe Arrington - Division Chair, Human Services & Education
  • 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
  • Frank Graves – Dean, Workforce & Public Service
  • Fred Hills – Vice President, Instruction & Student Engagement
  • Paul Hoffman – Director, Student Development
  • 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:
  • Lisa Elliott – Director, Marketing & Communication
  • Fred Hills – Vice President, Instruction & Student Engagement
  • James Kubacak – Director, Financial Aid
  • Aranzazu Torres - Recruiter

Guest:

  • Jessica Shelton - Assistant Professor, Mental Health/Social Work

Meeting start time: 2:00 p.m.

Agenda Topics:

  • Welcome and Opening Discussion
    • 12-week study for survey started in June.
  • Strategic Enrollment Plan:
    • Goal to have everything out in March
    • Newer version out in June.
  • Subcommittee Reports: 
  • Admissions & Marketing – Karen Clark
    • Jessica will speak about their committee’s recommendation, how it overlaps and how to collaborate together.
    • Staff engagement for Pilot Program.
    • ExpressPath was held at the Bellmead Civic Center in mid-May. Approximately 30 people signed up to attend but only seven showed up. Thirty shows there is interest. As a group, we need to start working with students and figure out what are things people need to know.
    • Communication update 
  • Finance – Dr. Benson gave this report in the absence of James and Grayson.
    • Continue talking about options in expanding and changing the grants.
    • Met with Lisa to talk about marketing budget.
    • No recommendations have been given yet. 
  • Research & Growth Opportunities: Sharon Kenan, Joe Arrington
    • Still researching ideas for changing the College’s name.
    • Non-degree options: Express Pathway working group has been talking and interviewing people on campus and have four possibilities to include for a recommendation.
    • Address hesitation to accept and consider the importance in Continuing Education.
    • The need to map pathways - A need to build awareness of every program.
    • The need to access and share Workforce Programs on campus. 
  • Joe Arrington – (Working Group)
    • Working with Londa to find connections to begin an influencing effort in building relations with high schools to help influence teachers to influence students to come to MCC. 
  • Laura Wichman – (Working Group)
    • Revisions on feedback received.
    • Made decision to change the questions regarding food and housing security. These were taken from Trellis Survey. 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Concern was asking questions may give a negative perception, will we be able to address the community? We didn’t want to give the false perception that we are tackling this to help. Therefore, these questions were removed from survey.
    • Question was added posed about the name change for MCC to the community.
    • Survey will offer incentives of $500 worth of giving 37 gift cards at random drawing. The winner will need to provide contact information but will not be tied back to their survey.
    • Employees and current students are ineligible due to taxing purposes.
    • Asking library to help pass out gift cards.
    • Survey dates June 7th – July 7th.
    • Marcom is creating flyers and email scripts to announce the survey. QR codes will be included for easy access. Distribution list will include the Chamber, cities, organizations, staff, past students, and social media. Please feel free to forward the email or Facebook posts to help spread the word.
    • Share in Neighborhood Watch Groups on Facebook, Next Door, I.S.D. Parent group pages, and other FB pages.
    • Reoccurring list every 3-5 years in actively working towards increasing enrollment. 
  • Follow-up to College Name Change:
    • McKown has files from years ago when a group researched changing MCC’s name. These files were sent to VP’s and Kim Patterson.
    • Should we change the name of the college?
    • Should “Community” be removed from McLennan Community College?
    • Any additional thoughts or suggestions on changing the name of the college.
    • McKown will send a copy of the survey to Board. 
  • Retention – Paul Hoffman & Jessica Shelton 

Recommendation #1: Acquire, implement, and utilize CRM and predictive analytics technology and data

  • Select the program that best meets our needs.
    • Identify the parameters the ideal product will meet.
    • Search for software that best matches those parameters.
    • Conduct a cost-benefit analysis, weighing expense with ability to meet all parameters.
  • Develop a data analysis structure to create the predictive models.
    • Communicate among departments to determine who our most at-risk students are.
    • Periodically update these models as our student population changes.
  • Develop an intervention structure for students identified as at-risk.
  • Train departments utilizing this software to enhance communication among employees. 

Recommendation #2: Establish “circles of care” for students, where cohorts of students have assigned connections with staff members across multiple departments (Admissions, Financial Aid, Advising, Completion Center, NSO, Learning Framework, etc.). 

Recommendation #3: Expand childcare services on campus for students.

  • Local and national data shows access to childcare is a barrier for prospective students.
  • Students are a small percentage of the current model’s clientele
    • The cost and wait list make it difficult for our students
    • Our students don’t necessarily need 8am-5pm daycare
  • Develop a “drop-in” model, like the YMCA does for its members.
    • Laws of staff ratio may be different if the parent is still on campus and if the child is in the daycare for a limited amount of time.

Feedback:

  • Daelynn – Accredited childcare in CA is state funded. MCC Childcare is parent funded. If we move to drop off child care – we will need guaranteed tuition, consider wait list (families on list for several years), if we take parents off so we can potentially fill, then we have to embrace it. YMCA drop off models are licensed child care. We have to consider child teacher ratio. We will have to save spaces in classroom, sometimes drop off exacerbates because parent shows up to drop off child and no spaces are available. Need to keep immunization records up to date. It’s not truly a drop off like at the YMCA. 
  • Benson suggested that Jessica & Paul should speak with Daelynn further and come back with further recommendations. 
  • The committee was not able to review item #4 due to the lack of time. We will continue at our next meeting. 

Meeting adjourned at 3:00 p.m.