2P1 Current and Prospective Student Need

• Determining new student groups to target for educational offerings and services
• Meeting changing student needs
• Identifying and supporting student subgroups with distinctive needs (e.g., seniors, commuters, distance learners, military veterans) (3.D.1)
• Deploying non-academic support services to help students be successful (3.D.2)
• Ensuring staff members who provide non-academic student support services are qualified, trained, and supported (3.C.6)
• Communicating the availability of non-academic support services (3.D.2)
• Selecting the tools, methods and instruments to assess student needs
• Assessing the degree to which student needs are met

Determining New Student Groups to Target for Educational Offerings and Services AND Meeting Changing Student Needs, AND Identifying and Supporting Student Subgroups with Distinctive Needs (3.D.1)

Southeast Tech’s process for Determining New Student Groups to Target for Educational Offerings, Meeting Changing Student Needs, and Identifying and Supporting Student Subgroups with Distinctive Needs is all part of the Institute’s larger and more encompassing retention process.  Therefore, a description of that larger process will provide a better understanding of how Southeast Tech meets the above objectives.

So imagine an hourglass.  Allow the sand within the hourglass to represent the student, and imagine that the flow of sand through the hourglass represents the rate of speed toward student attrition.  Should all the sand pass through the middle of the hourglass, the student fails to be retained.

But there isn’t just one hourglass, just as there isn’t just one student.  Since no two students are exactly alike, what works as a retention solution for one student, fails to work with another. So imagine thousands of hourglasses, one hourglass for every student.  Look carefully at each hourglass and you will see that every hourglass is unique.  Some hourglasses are full of sand.  Others appear nearly empty.  Some hourglasses are losing sand quickly, while others are barely losing sand at all.

Students with hourglasses full of sand and losing sand very slowly are currently at a low risk of attrition.  Those with little sand and those losing sand quickly are currently at high risk for attrition.  To further complicate things, the amount of sand in the hourglass and the flow of sand through the hourglass can change at any time for any student.

Regardless of the amount of sand in the hourglass or how quickly it is flowing, it is Southeast Tech’s retention goal to stop the flow and retain the student.  A limitation exists, however.  It is not possible to penetrate the inside of the hourglass.  Therefore, it is not possible for anyone, other than the student, to add sand to the hourglass or to hold back the sand from falling.  Only the student can control this.

Finally, imagine that the hourglass is opaque, not clear.  While direct student interactions, predictive modeling, and past student success can provide us with a glimpse within, it is nearly impossible to gauge how much sand is in the hourglass or how quickly it is falling.

Considering these restrictions, how can we expect to impact student retention?  How do we help the student add sand to their hourglass?  How do we help the student slow down the flow of sand, or better yet, stop it?

CAPTURE

Southeast Tech’s retention process (Figure 2P1.1) begins with the top half of the hourglass.  Along its edges are the process inputs - the methods the Institute has available for detecting potential student attrition.  Capturing these inputs is the first step in retaining students.

Institutional employees and departments who interact with our students on a daily basis have the greatest opportunity to observe student needs and concerns.  Every day each Southeast Tech employee, from the President to custodian, has the opportunity to evaluate the status of our students and determine when student issues need to be addressed.  Based on what they observe either with the student directly or through other students, what they see in the student’s academic work, or what they observe through social interactions and other observations, our employees have the unique opportunity to provide the Institute with information about the needs and concerns of individual students or groups of students.

But employees are not the only inputs.  Student surveys, such as the College Readiness Inventory, GRIT and the Student Satisfaction Inventory, as well as predictive modeling based on information such as incoming student demographics, past student attrition, and student grades, provide additional inputs.  Table 2P1.1 provides a listing of input sources and input methods used to capture important retention data and student information.

These inputs are funneled down the outer edges of the top half of the hourglass and are captured at the midsection by the Institute’s Student Success Team and Retention Office through team meetings, Institutional Research reports, assessment data, surveys, informal communications and Southeast Tech Cares, the Institute’s internal communication and at-risk student identifier software system.

DEVELOP 

At the midsection of the hourglass, the second step in retaining students is developing a plan of action.  This occurs at two levels:

Immediate Student Support:  Southeast Tech employees are empowered to respond directly to meet student needs.  When this is not possible, employees use our Southeast Tech Cares system, an internal student retention communication software, to submit a Student Care Referral, which is received by the Southeast Tech Retention Office.  The Retention Office determines who can best meet the student’s or student group’s needs and assigns an intervention request to the appropriate Southeast Tech employee where a plan of action is developed.

Future Student Support Initiatives:  While responding quickly to immediate student needs is critical, Southeast Tech realizes that improving student retention is a long term goal requiring the development of new and the improvement of existing campus retention initiatives.  

To meet these long-term and overall student needs, the Institute’s Retention Office responsibilities are shared with the Institution-wide AQIP Student Success Team.  This team, composed of employees from across campus, and including the Retention Coordinators, reviews and analyzes retention and other inputs and develops campus-wide retention initiatives such as the Southeast Tech Attendance Challenge, Academic Recovery, Emergency Loans, Student Clubs and Organizations, and many more.   

The Student Success Team holds a summer strategy retreat to analyze the captured input and develop action projects and targets for improving services to meet the changing needs of Southeast Tech’s students as well as to identify new key student groups.  Depending upon the key student group affected, action projects are developed and activated to meet the targeted student needs by the appropriate student success department or area using the same Deploying Actions Process (6P1). 

DECIDE

Once a plan of action has been developed, the third step of the retention process is deciding if the action will be deployed. Just as there are two levels in development, there are two levels for decision making:

Immediate Student Support:  Based on the inputs, Southeast Tech’s Retention Coordinators make decisions on the appropriate actions to be taken to immediately assist the student.  In some cases, a Southeast Tech employee has already assisted the student and has documented the outcome within Southeast Tech Cares, which allows all other users connected to that student to view the interaction and the results.  In other cases, the Retention Coordinators receive Care Referrals, submitted by Southeast Tech employees.  These Care Referrals are reviewed by the Retention Coordinators who then assign interventions to the appropriate employees. Depending upon the student support need, an intervention may be assigned to an Academic or Success Advisor, Financial Aid staff, Tutoring Coordinator, Personal Counselor, etc.   

Future Student Support Initiatives:  The Student Success Team and its various subcommittees determine what action projects will best meet the needs of Southeast Tech students, develop a plan of action with targets, and seek approval for implementation as needed.  In many cases, no approval other than that of the Team is required.  In cases where approval of administration or other entities is required, the Team works with these individuals to obtain permission for implementation.

DEPLOY

Regardless of whether responses to students’ needs are immediate or long term, deployment is key and is the fourth step of the process.  Once the Retention Office determines that an individual student needs immediate care assistance, or the Student Success Team develops a retention initiative, deployment takes place at the bottom of the hourglass.

Passing deployment on to other individuals or groups is purposeful.  Southeast Tech recognizes that the Retention Office and the Student Success Team, while valuable to the Institute’s retention efforts, cannot do it alone.  Effective deployment of student interventions and retention initiatives requires the involvement of all our employees.

Student interventions are assigned to the individual who is most able to meet the student’s immediate needs.  This could be a Student Success or Academic Advisor, faculty member, Financial Aid or Admissions Counselor, or the Tutoring or Disabilities Coordinator.   The retention initiative deployment may involve teams, committees and individuals from anywhere across our campus.  Southeast Tech strives to develop its interventions and initiatives to involve the most appropriate people to guarantee successful implementation.

Although the Student Success Team meets only four to six times a year, the process has been successful through the use of subcommittees, which work on assigned student support action projects and meet as often as biweekly.  Subcommittees report their progress at each Student Success Team meeting, providing input on future direction and adjustments to current projects as necessary. Subcommittees are developed as needed. 

If a new key student group is determined, a key student group champion is assigned to the new group. Assigning champions to target groups allows Southeast Tech to more appropriately and accurately target each student group and address needs.  For example, the Team recognized the need to develop a plan to assist a new student target group, Students of Diverse Ethnicity.  After studying the student body ethnicity trends, the Team determined that the Institute had reached a point where more specific outreach and support of students of diverse ethnicity was necessary.  After analyzing the metropolitan growth in ethnicity, the Team worked with Admissions to include ethnic diversity as an outreach for new students as well.  An AQIP Action Project resulted and is currently underway. 

EVALUATE

Once deployed, the fifth step of the process is to track the effectiveness of the initiatives and/or interventions that have been deployed.  With the help of the Office of Institutional Research, those involved in the deployment collect and analyze data and compare results to established targets to determine overall effectiveness.  These results are filtered back to the Retention Office and Student Success Team for further analysis and reflection. 

PUBLISH

Publishing and communicating the overall results, the sixth step in the process, provides the framework that supports the process.  Through the use of Southeast Tech Cares, the Institute is able to effectively collect, monitor and share student retention information.  Emails, notes, referrals, predictive modeling, student interventions and other data is made available to all employees who have the opportunity to support the student in need of intervention.  This collective sharing of individual and team efforts to support our students assures that interventions and initiatives are neither duplicated nor ignored.

REFLECT

Finally, the last step is to reflect on and improve the retention process itself.  During its summer retreat, the Student Success Team uses the collected data and personal experiences to reflect on how the process has worked and how it can be improved.  Adjustments are then made to the process, which begins again by capturing the inputs.

By using this centralized approach, Southeast Tech is able to integrate its entire retention process from capturing and analyzing inputs, to deciding, developing and deploying interventions, to collecting and analyzing data, to reflection and future improvements.

So imagine a student.  Imagine that within that student is an hourglass full of falling sand.  How much time is left?  How long will it be before the sand runs out?  At Southeast Tech, we recognize that although we cannot see the hourglass, it is there, and that for any student at any given moment, time may be running out.  But we also know that by working together we have the means to do everything we can to make sure we leave no student behind.  We believe this is our goal and our mission, and we work every day to achieve it.

Identifying and Supporting Student Subgroups with Distinctive Needs​ (3.D.1)

Through the retention process described above, Southeast Tech identifies and supports all students, including student subgroups with distinctive needs.  Currently, the Institute has identified the following key student groups, main support actions, and student group champions (Table 2P1.2):  

* Indicates key student groups with expanded services since last portfolio.

Beyond the Institute’s formal process for meeting student needs, Southeast Tech’s program teams have their own processes for meeting specific program student needs. When possible, the data collected by the Office of Institutional Research is disaggregated by program, and all the data is made available to all employees for review.  Program teams use the data to set direction for the program to meet student needs, including setting targets, developing actions and updating results annually as part of Institutional program requirements.  This information is documented in the Institute’s Planning and Assessments database.

​Deploying Non-Academic Support Services to Help Students be Successful (3.D.2)

While the Retention process provides the mechanism for developing new and improving current student non-academic support services, and while both the Retention Office and the Student Success Team are responsible to assure that the Institute continues to improve support services as well as measure support services against established targets, once a specific non-academic support service is established and is institutionalized, ongoing deployment is turned over to the appropriate department: 

• Student Success Center: Established in 2009, the Student Success Center provides a one-stop shop and a centralized access point for student assistance. Student Success Advisors, Career Center, Library, Student Government/Student Activities, Student Retention, and Registrar services are all provided within the same location. The Vice President of Student Affairs and Institutional Research and Center employees are responsible for deploying the support services associated with the Center.  Additional resources, including counseling, tutoring, disabilities, and housing, while not located in the Center, are directly connected and are part of the Center.  Regardless of a current student’s need, the student can be directed to the Success Center for assistance (3.D.2).  
• Student Success Seminar Course: Students who have not demonstrated prior success at the college level are required to take a two-credit Student Success Seminar course. The goal of the course is to help students develop general academic skills, communicate Southeast Tech-specific Institutional information and requirements, introduce students to Institute resources, and foster a feeling of connectedness between the students and Southeast Tech. The course addresses goal setting, study skills, financial literacy, available resources such as library, personal counseling, and within the community, and more (3.D.2).
• Personal Counselors: Southeast Tech maintains two licensed professional counselors on staff who are available to meet student counseling needs. Their primary role is to provide intervention, helping students address issues which may interfere with their learning. Counseling sessions are offered in person, online, and via telephone – accommodating the individual needs of the student. Both counselors hold a Distance Certified Counselor (DCC) designation. Counselors also provide psychological screenings and referral services. 
• Disability and Tutoring Services: Southeast Tech provides accommodations as needed for students with documented disabilities. Additionally, a tutoring coordinator organizes tutoring services for students requesting assistance. Both services are available to all Southeast Tech students free of charge. Deployment of services is the responsibility of the Disabilities Coordinator and the Tutoring/Disabilities Facilitator (3.D.2).
• Learners to Leaders Program: Southeast Tech offers a Learners to Leaders program in conjunction with the Sioux Falls School District. The program allows at-risk high school students to take classes on campus and earn high school and Southeast Tech credits. A halftime Learners to Leaders facilitator provides support for these students, and the program is funded by Smithfield Foods (3.D.2).
• On Campus Events: Non-academic support services can also be fun! Special events on campus foster the feeling of community. Students are introduced to the campus during spring and fall campus picnics featuring entertainment and activities. Graduation ceremonies in December and May include graduation receptions for our graduates and their families. Throughout the academic year, the Student Government Association sponsors dances, a talent show, and other all-campus student activities.  Deployment is the responsibility of the Student Activities Coordinator and the Student Government Association.
• Intramural Sports: All credit students and Southeast Tech employees have the opportunity to participate in organized intramural sports – basketball, volleyball and bowling. The Student Activities Coordinator oversees the program with designated employees providing individual sport assistance.
• Student Organizations/Clubs: Southeast Tech has sixteen student organizations, which offer opportunities for students to participate in professional organizations, build leadership skills and participate in service-oriented activities. Students can also compete in local, regional, and national competitions, or attend various professional conferences. All student organizations have a Southeast Tech employee as an advisor, providing additional opportunities to develop relationships (see 1P2 for listing). It is an Institutional requirement that student organizations be directly related to programs.  Students may also join a variety of on-campus clubs from gaming to photography.  These clubs are student led and are determined by student interest.  A Southeast Tech employee serves as the club sponsor, and all clubs are required to complete a service-learning project.
• Career Center Office: The Career Center Office assists students in developing job seeking skills and writing effective resumes and cover letters. The Office also assists employers in finding qualified candidates to meet their employment needs through job postings and on-campus Career Fairs.  Students can meet with the Career Center Officer to discuss job opportunities either by walk-in, phone or email. The Career Center Officer also visits classrooms to meet and work with students (3.D.2). 
• On-Campus Housing: Southeast Tech builds a community of 202 on-campus housing students through the efforts of the housing staff. The Director of Housing and the Assistant Housing coordinators work directly with the Success Center to identify and assist housing students who may be struggling, either academically or personally. Housing staff also hold housing events to connect students with each other and with the staff.

Ensuring Staff Members Who Provide Non-Academic Student Support Services are Qualified, Trained, and Supported (3.C.6)

Ensuring high quality non-academic support services requires that Southeast Tech hire qualified staff, train staff effectively, and provide them with the necessary support structures to meet department and support area goals. Similar to the response provided on program quality in 1P4, this requires the integration of processes from across the portfolio categories. Therefore, references and links are indicated below to provide quick access to these processes.

• Hiring Non-Academic Support Staff:  Ensuring high quality non-academic support services begins with the hiring process.  Southeast Tech relies on the hiring process to assure new hires meet required job qualifications, including appropriate credentials and work experience.  The initial step of that process requires the creation or review of the job description to assure that all necessary adjustments are made to expected qualifications and job responsibilities.  The final steps of that process requires that the Human Resources department verifies that the successful candidate meets the required qualifications (3P1) (3.C.6).
• Staff New Hire Training:  The initial training of new hires is critical to their success; however, Southeast Tech recognizes that its process for new hire staff training has been inconsistent, leaving some new staff to receive training that is below the Institute’s standards.  Therefore, Southeast Tech is developing a stronger new staff training program that better meets these needs. Included in this training is a stronger review of Southeast Tech, its mission, vision and values, as well as a better connection to the staff’s assigned area, a mentoring program and a review of job responsibilities within the first three months of employment.  This allows time for positions with numerous duties spanning across a semester to experience these duties and provide a variety of services prior to review.  It also assures that a formal review takes place regarding job responsibilities to assure that the training has not missed any key elements (3P1) (3.C.6). 
• Staff Evaluation: New staff are evaluated by their immediate supervisor within the first 60 days of employment to assure that proper training and support are being provided and that job responsibilities are being full-filled.  All full-time staff are then evaluated on an annual basis.  In 2014-2015, Southeast Tech piloted a new evaluation process that not only provides the opportunity for all staff to set goals for the upcoming year as well as receive feedback on their previous performance, it also assures that the set goals are directly tied to the Institute’s mission and/or strategic plan.  Southeast Tech is currently expanding this evaluation process across campus.  Staff who do not meet minimum expectations may be required to complete a Plan of Improvement. Part-time staff are evaluated informally.  (3P1) (3.C.6)
• Professional Development:  Southeast Tech believes in continuing professional development, and therefore provides funding and training options for support staff throughout their career at the Institute.  Each functional area develops a professional development budget and determines how that funding is used to support staff development.  To assure that professional development needs are discussed and therefore addressed, the staff evaluation process includes professional development as part of the annual review process and directly relates professional development to the mission and/or strategic plan (3P3) (3.C.6).
• Staff Expectations: Southeast Tech has defined and documented its expectations for staff in its Code of Conduct policy. This includes information on expected behaviors and mirrors the expectations the Institute places in its Common Learning Outcome of professionalism.  These expectations are reinforced as part of the mentoring program, in department (weekly or bi-weekly) and all-campus meetings (monthly), during yearly evaluations, and on an as-needed basis.
• Student Satisfaction Inventory:  The satisfaction of students with their non-academic support services is the greatest indicator of providing high quality services.  Therefore, satisfaction results play a major role in department assessments, and meeting targets in these areas is critical to the success of the Institute.  The measures that are specific to a program are included within the department assessments and are measured for department effectiveness.
• Internal Program Review:  Southeast Tech is currently piloting an internal program/department review process as part of the Institute’s Annual Planning process. Through this process, all departments are reviewed annually to determine future direction and continuation.  Key indicators are measured against targets, providing an annual assessment of the overall effectiveness of the support service.  Key indicators include areas such as internal assessment results, student satisfaction with services, employee satisfaction rates, retention of key student groups, and other indicators that are specific to a particular department or area. The review includes a look at any revenue and expenditures associated with the support service as well as any support service program resource needs (1P3 and 4P2). 

Communicating the Availability of Non-Academic Support Services (3.D.2)

Communicating non-academic support services is vital and never-ending.  Therefore, communication is part of any new service implemented through the Retention process or is ongoing once implemented. The Student Success Team oversees the overall communication process; however, individual department and service areas are responsible to assure that communication takes place for the assigned area. Communication success is reviewed during the Retention process reflection.  Certain measures have been developed to help gauge support service use and student engagement and satisfaction to assure communication processes are working.  As shown in Table 2P1.3, services are communicated at various intervals throughout the time the student is involved with the Institute (3.D.2).  

Selecting the Tools, Methods and Instruments to Assess Student Needs

The Student Success Team selects the tools, methods and instruments, as well as targets, used to assess student needs and how well the Institute is meeting those needs.  This generally takes place during the refection time of the Retention process; however, whenever the Institute develops a new service to implement, assessments and targets are developed at that time and used in the evaluation process to determine effectiveness.  Results are then documented in the Planning and Assessments database and used in the Annual Planning process (4P2). 

Assessing the Degree to Which Student Needs are Met

Assessment of how well the Institute meets student needs is part of the Retention process and is the responsibility of the Student Success Team.  It is the Institute’s belief that it can best assess the degree to which it meets student needs through measures of Institutional and key student group retention and graduation rates, individual support service area satisfaction and new service implementation assessments.  In developing these assessments, the Student Success Team also assures that targets are included as part of the assessment process.   

Currently, the Institute develops annual fall degree-seeking student cohorts that are tracked institutionally and by program (2R2).  These same cohorts are then used to track retention rates for the Institute’s key student groups:  First Time, Transfer, Low Income, Students of Diverse Ethnicity, Online, Nontraditional (Age and Gender), Pre-Academic, Veteran, Tutoring, Disability, Housing, and Academic Recovery.

Based on analysis of previous performance results, the Southeast Tech Council set the fall-to-fall Key Performance Indicator (KPI) retention rate target at 68%.  Therefore, the Institute has adopted the fall-to-fall KPI for all key student groups.  Information on enrollments is also provided to give guidance to the Student Success Team on key student group population changes as well as which groups provide the greatest opportunity for Institutional retention gains.  

While student satisfaction does not directly measure whether the Institute is meeting key student group needs, it is still a valuable indicator.  Therefore, the Institute uses the Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory, given every three years, to gauge student satisfaction levels on areas related to current and prospective student needs.