The mission of Georgia Highlands College, a state college of the University System of Georgia, is to provide access to excellent educational opportunities for the intellectual, cultural, and physical development of a diverse population through pre-baccalaureate associate degree transfer programs, career associate degree programs, and targeted baccalaureate degree programs that meet the economic development needs of the region. The college mission influences our work by allowing us to focus on specific programs offered to our students across Northwest Georgia.
Below is an overview of our student body profile for Fall 2021.
Data come from internal enrollment reports and may not perfectly match USG enrollment reports, but variance is within an acceptable range.
Our enrollment trends over the past several years were very strong until the COVID-19 pandemic. The graphs below highlight some of those trends. Growth was marginal but steady between 2015 and 2019. In 2020 and 2021, we saw drops in our enrollments due to COVID-19.
Data used here are internal GHC data and may not match USG Census Report data. Variance in reporting comes primarily from students who were counted at ADC Census 1 but who received no grade (including W) for the term.
Of note, GHC has seen an increasingly diversified student body. Hispanic/Latinx student populations increased from Fall 2015 to Fall 2018 by nearly 40%. Even accounting for the pandemic, Hispanic/Latinx students increased by nearly 5% from Fall 2018 to Fall 2021. However, Black/African American student enrollment fell by 10% from Fall 2018 to Fall 2021. White student enrollment fell by nearly 20% from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020. We are closely monitoring all groups and thinking about ways that we might better support these students and reduce barriers to their enrollment and completion at GHC.
Pell Eligibility has steadily but meagerly declined in recent years. In Fall 2015, 46% of students were awarded PELL. By Fall 2021, that number was 35%. National data[1] show a similar, but less steep decline with the national average being 34% of all undergraduates being eligible.
In terms of self-reported First-Generation status (FGS), there has been a sharp decline in recent years. In Fall 2018, 2,176 (35.2%) reported FGS. However, by Fall 2021, that number has dropped to 309 (5.9%).
The one-year retention rate for Fall 2020 GHC students was 54.2% at GHC and 59.4% within the USG. Across our sector, state college retention was 52.6% at the institution reporting and 58.3% within the USG. We continue to see our full-time students retained at higher rates (57.4%), supporting the Momentum Approach of fuller schedules. We continue to outperform our sector, as we have for several years. Regarding our QEP, which addresses many aspects of the Momentum Approach, we see our one-term persistence down slightly but still strong at 73.9%, compared to 71.4% for those students not in the QEP. For our one-year QEP retention, we see 53.6% retained versus 47.1% of those not in the QEP.
What are your priority programs/projects/activities/initiatives related to student success?
Activity/Project Name |
Momentum Faculty Development
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Activity/Project Overview or Description (what this is?) |
Create and sustain faculty book talks, workshops, and faculty learning communities to promote growth mindset and purpose.
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Activity/Project Activity Status (where is this in process? E.g., studying, initiating, piloting, scaling, maintaining, retiring, etc.) |
Scaling |
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Evaluation/Assessment plan (Key Performance Indicators, assessment plan, anticipated time period, reporting and review) |
Evaluation Plan and measures: Faculty Mindset Survey and Faculty Mindset Lab In AY22-23, each School will be expected to assess a subset of Area F courses on one of three foci: Mindset, Purpose, or HIPs. Given the prominence of Mindset and Purpose in existing Momentum work, this gives faculty an opportunity to report on activities already undertaken or to incorporate this essential work into their courses in a meaningful way. Schools will submit a plan in early Fall, implement and assess throughout Fall and Spring, and review data the following August.
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Baseline measure: We currently have no baseline for this measure. However, 100% of Schools had at least one person participate in Momentum oriented initiatives.
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Goal or targets The objectives for the Faculty Mindset Lab are:
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Time period/duration: Ongoing |
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Update for 2022 |
Progress and Adjustments |
Schools within the college were encouraged to submit Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Plans (TLAPs) focused on these areas. Because of personnel changes and college-wide reorganization, progress in this area has been slower than anticipated. However, these elements remain part of the GHC strategic plan and will be reinforced going forward. |
Plan for the year ahead |
Due to personnel changes, it is unclear at this time what steps will be taken in this area in 2022-23. |
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What challenges will affect your ability to do this activity? |
Personnel changes and competing projects make this somewhat more challenging than anticipated. With lots of new leadership coming, we need to determine the right priorities for the future of this area. |
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Project Lead/point of contact |
Josie Baudier and Jesse Bishop |
Activity/Project Name |
Fuller schedules |
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Activity/Project Overview or Description (what this is?) |
This project aims to encourage students to take fuller schedules to keep them on track to graduate. Specific activities include:
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Activity/Project Activity Status (where is this in process? E.g., studying, initiating, piloting, scaling, maintaining, retiring, etc.) |
Maintaining |
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Evaluation/Assessment plan (Key Performance Indicators, assessment plan, anticipated time period, reporting and review) |
Evaluation Plan and measures: To assess the effectiveness of this plan, we will review the number of students enrolled in full-time (12+) schedules, and those who are taking 15+ hours in a term. We will compare those numbers year-to-year, Fall-to-Fall, to account for the effect our QEP and Momentum has had on this effort. We are tracking a variety of characteristics and measures, including average hours taken by student types and percentage of students falling into FT/HT/PT classifications. |
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Baseline measure
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Goal or targets
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Time period/duration: We will measure this Fall over Fall enrollment. |
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Update for 2022 |
Progress and Adjustments |
Fall 2022 Updates:
We met our target goal of New Freshmen average at 12 hours or more, so we think our work in moving the needle. We fell short of our target goals for percent of New Freshmen carrying FT loads, but the percent did increase from fall 21 to fall 22, so we see some improvement. |
Plan for the year ahead |
Continue to work closely with our academic chairs on providing our students with courses at the times/days that they need based on the data we receive from the Pre-Orientation questionnaire. Research course scheduling software solutions to assist in building term schedules to meet the needs of our students. Continue to talk with students about the benefits of taking a fuller schedule. |
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What challenges will affect your ability to do this activity? |
Being able to offer courses our students need at a multi-campus institution is always a challenge. Many of our students are taking classes around work schedules or when they have a ride to class. If we are not able to offer a robust schedule of classes based on student need and availability, we will not be able to build schedules that include 15-hours fall and spring. |
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Project Lead/point of contact |
Laura Walton |
Activity/Project Name |
Identify undecided students and create a plan to intervene |
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Activity/Project Overview or Description (what this is?) |
Form a team that will determine how to identify undecided students. Create a plan to intervene early with undecided students to connect them with resources to help them make a purposeful choice. |
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Activity/Project Activity Status (where is this in process? E.g., studying, initiating, piloting, scaling, maintaining, retiring, etc.) |
Maintaining |
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Evaluation/Assessment plan (Key Performance Indicators, assessment plan, anticipated time period, reporting and review) |
Evaluation Plan and measures: Quick Poll through Navigate to general studies students. This will provide us with the opportunity to follow up and help connect the student with tailored resources. |
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Baseline measure
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Goal or targets
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Time period/duration Ongoing for fall and spring. |
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Update for 2022 |
Progress and Adjustments |
We met our goal with this activity/project by decreasing the percent of New Freshmen in the General Studies pathway from 11.2% to 7.3% and decreasing overall enrollment in General Studies pathway from 30.8% to 18.24%.
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Plan for the year ahead |
Attending CCRC’s Summer Institute gave us renewed focus on the need to guide students into a pathway as soon as possible. We will continue to look at the structure and content of the orientation session for undecided students and maintain training for advising on working with undecided students. |
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What challenges will affect your ability to do this activity? |
Student engagement and student follow through. Limited personnel.
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Project Lead/point of contact |
Elizabeth Tanner, Laura Walton, Jennifer Hicks |
Activity/Project Name |
Academic Interventions |
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Activity/Project Overview or Description (what this is?) |
This project aims to put in place academic interventions for student populations identified as at-risk (i.e. students with multiple early alerts, students on academic warning and probation, students who withdraw frequently). |
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Activity/Project Activity Status (where is this in process? E.g., studying, initiating, piloting, scaling, maintaining, retiring, etc.) |
Scaling |
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Evaluation/Assessment plan (Key Performance Indicators, assessment plan, anticipated time period, reporting and review) |
Evaluation Plan and measures: Our KPIs have focused on student persistence/retention and performance. While we have not seen much improvement in performance, we are seeing definite connections to interventions like tutorial center outreach (and promising signs for high-risk outreach) for persistence and retention. |
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Baseline measure
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Goal or targets Determine if student persistence/retention can be increased with targeted outreach and intervention to at-risk students. |
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Time period/duration: Ongoing |
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Update for 2022 |
Progress and Adjustments |
We are currently implementing our pilot outreach campaign to high-risk students. We are learning a lot from the students who respond that we will share with our advisors and Academic Deans. For the warning/probation student project, we will move to phase 3 after fall 2022. This phase will seek to determine which students completed their GPA improvement requirements for the term and which students need continuous assistance. |
Plan for the year ahead |
Beginning spring 2023, students who finish their first semester at GHC with a GPA of less than 2.0 will remain assigned to a professional advisor rather than being assigned to a faculty advisor. Professional advisors will engage the students with targeted outreach and advising sessions will focus on connecting students to resources to help improve GPA. |
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What challenges will affect your ability to do this activity? |
Limited personnel. |
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Project Lead/point of contact |
Jeannie Blakely, Jennifer Hicks, Michelle Lockett-Lewis |
Activity/Project Name |
Momentum Communication and Data |
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Activity/Project Overview or Description (what this is?) |
Communicate Momentum plans, activities, and outcomes to the GHC community. |
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Activity/Project Activity Status (where is this in process? E.g., studying, initiating, piloting, scaling, maintaining, retiring, etc.) |
On hold |
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Evaluation/Assessment plan (Key Performance Indicators, assessment plan, anticipated time period, reporting and review) |
Evaluation Plan and measures: We will evaluate this aspect of our work by assessing how familiar faculty and staff at GHC are with Momentum concepts and practices. We will also track how many individuals attend Student Success (Momentum) Town Halls. |
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Baseline measure We currently have a baseline of zero. In Spring 2022, we are conducting a survey to gauge familiarity with and implementation of Momentum approaches. These data will not be available for analysis until April 2022. |
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Goal or targets We would like for 70% of faculty to attend a Student Success Town Hall event in Fall 22. While we don’t yet know the baseline, we would like to see a 3-5% improvement in employee familiarity with Momentum, as measured in the Spring 23 Organizational Climate Survey. |
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Time period/duration Spring 22 to Spring 23 |
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Update for 2022 |
Progress and Adjustments |
This project was put on hold with the hiring of our new president, Dr. Mike Hobbs. |
Plan for the year ahead |
We will look to spring 2023 and decide how to relaunch this project. |
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What challenges will affect your ability to do this activity? |
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Project Lead/point of contact |
Jennifer Hicks, Jesse Bishop, Nick Godfrey, Josie Baudier, Clifton Puckett |
[1] Percent of Undergraduates Receiving Pell Grants. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/TrendGenerator/app/answer/8/35