Dalton State College Campus Plan Update 2015

Institutional Mission and Student Body Profile

Dalton State College (DSC) is dedicated to providing broad access to quality higher education for the population of Northwest Georgia, thereby enhancing the region’s economic vitality and quality of life.  In pursuit of that goal, DSC offers targeted bachelor’s degrees, associate’s degrees and career certificate programs, and a wide variety of public service activities. The College’s work is strengthened by partnerships with regional businesses and industries, governments, and schools.  DSC seeks to prepare and inspire its students to be active members within their professions and communities. As the College looks to the future and its place in a competitive, global society, it seeks to build upon its strengths as an academically respected, student-oriented, and community-centered institutions of its kind.  At the same time DSC has expanded programs and maintained rigor in its academic programs, it maintains its status as one of the most affordable four-year colleges in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Education, with a yearly cost of $5,914 for tuition, fees, books, room and board, and supplies, far below the national average of $11,877.

As a regional access institution, DSC enrolled a relatively stable student population of approximately 4,800 in 2014-2015 and exceeded 5,000 in Fall 2015.  Of these, approximately 25% are adult learners (mean age of DSC students is 23), about 40% are part-time, 70% are first generation college students, and over 80% receive need-based aid such as the PELL Grant.  The male/female ratio is 40.5%/59.5%. Further, over 2324% of students disclose themselves as being are of Hispanic heritage and about 54% are as African American.  Sixty-three percent of our students are pursuing a bachelor’s degree, thirty-two percent are seeking an associate’s degree, and the remainder are in certificate programs.  Finally, 35.5% attend part-time, a challenge for ensuring timely graduation. 

Like many access colleges, DSC has faced challenges with completion rates, although they are slowly improving.  For the cohort of first-time, full-time students who began bachelor’s programs in Fall 2007, 20.69% earned their four-year degree at DSC by Summer 2013. The comparative cohort that began bachelor’s programs in Fall 2008 achieved 20.4% completion rates, which is slightly higher.  However, both of these rates are much higher than the preceding year’s rate of 14.93%.  Since a significant portion of DSC’s population has traditionally entered declaring associate’s degrees (largely in the health professions), the three-year graduation rate for those entering in 2010 was 6.18%, in 2011 was 7.4%, and in 2012 was 6.61%, a slight decline.  As detailed later in this report, these changes can be traced to retention efforts but also the deactivation of several A.A. and A.S. transfer programs and the initiation of more bachelor’s programs.

The characteristics of our student population have affected our completion rates, as our students often face many challenges juggling work, family, and school responsibilities; they are reliant on financial aid,; and they often require support beyond the capacity of our regular programs and services.  Unfortunately, those programs and services have either been limited, or at least not grown to meet the demand, because of the past several years of budget cuts.  Consequently, our Complete College Georgia plan is focused primarily on efforts to expand and/or enhance programs, services, and interventions that will provide additional support, flexibility, and options to help our students succeed.   At this time our main goals are to increase the number of degrees and certificates awarded by providing more effective advising, supporting alternative methods for earning credit hours, transforming remediation, and restructuring instructional delivery to include an expansion of both hybrid and online offerings as well as promoting high impact learning practices inside and outside the classroom.

Institutional Completion Goals and Strategies (from Campus Plan Strategy Survey)

Goal 1 – Increase number of undergraduate degrees – Strategy 1.1 – Target increases in completion for underserved populations

Beginning in the late 1990s, Dalton State College transitioned from a two-year college to a bachelor’s degree-granting institution.  From that time to 2015, the College has increased its four-year programs to a total of twenty.  Conversely, the number of associate’s degrees has decreased to three concentrations in the A.A. degree, eight concentrations in the A.S. degree, eight A.A.S. degrees, and the associate of science degree in nursing (ASN).  Therefore, numbers of bachelor’s degree graduates has increased incrementally (e.g., 221 in 2010 to 289 in 2015) while numbers of associate’s degree graduates has slowly decreased (353 in 2010 to 305 in 2015). This trend is mirrored in the number of degrees awarded to underserved populations.

In terms of first-generation students (70%), military veterans, part-time students, minority students, Pell-eligible individuals (the vast majority of our students) and those 25 or older (about 25%), increases in the conferral of bachelor’s degrees has ranged from 400% (military) to 77% (first-generation) to 61% (Pell-eligible) to 60% (25+) to 41% (part-time) (from 2010-2015).   At the same time, the decreases in conferral of associate’s degrees among these populations has not been as dramatic, and actually has increased in the case of minority students and military veterans.  These data indicate that DSC is serving the traditionally underserved populations rather well.  However, it would violate Federal confidentiality laws for our disability services office to disclose personally identifiable information of students they serve. Inasmuch as students receiving Disability services here at DSC are identified in our data files and their status is self-reported only to the Disability Services office, there can be no accurate representation of the attributes of those individuals.

Goal 1 – Increase number of undergraduate degrees  - Strategy 1.2 - Increase degree completion in STEM fields

Dalton State’s trend in increased numbers of bachelor’s graduates and decreased numbers of associate’s graduates (except in some health profession fields) is mirrored in the number of degrees completed in biology, chemistry, secondary science, pre-engineering, math, and health professions.  By 2015, 52.8% of all graduates (associate’s and bachelor’s) were in STEM fields. 

Goal 4 – Intrusive Advising -- Strategy 4.2 – Predictive analytics

In order to understand reasons for low retention and graduation rates, several sources of data were investigated.  In an effort to increase the effectiveness of academic advising, we determined a need for predictive analytics to help advisors improve guidance of students in selecting the appropriate major based on their abilities and skills, identify students who are off track, and help students understand the likelihood of success in a given program of study.  We believe that better matching of students with majors as early as possible will reduce the number of D/F/Ws, course repeats, major changes, and credit hours in excess of what is required for a given degree or certificate, thus reducing time to degree and increasing the likelihood of successful completion.  First, primary reasons for withdrawals from classes was determined.   Data collection on these points revealed that over a period of two years (2013-2015), student claimed to withdraw from classes primarily for academic-related reasons, not personal ones as commonly assumed; 25.3% reported withdrawing in order to protect GPA, 21.8% due to academic difficulty, 18.4% due to work conflicts, and 9.6% due to “course not needed.”  Additionally, IPEDS data was accessed to discern the number of graduates who earn 150% of required hours for the credential (or less), which indicates the number of graduates who are taking excess hours.   For the 2006 cohort, 20/134 earning the bachelor’s degree earned within the 150% benchmark (14.9%); for the 2007 cohort, 24/116 (20.7%); for the 2008 cohort, 40/196 (20.4%).  In terms of all credentials (bachelor’s, associate of science, arts, applied science, and certificates), the respective numbers are 114/662 (17.2%), 110/768 (14.3%), and 102/745 (13.7%).  Finally, the number of major changes was found to be significant:  766 students changed their majors in Fall 2013 and 508 in Fall 2014. 

These three sources of DWF rates and low retention:  excess hours, reasons for withdrawing, and--changes in major can at some level be attributed to advising gaps; therefore, attention to advising forms a basis for our strategy.  In an effort to increase the effectiveness of academic advising, we determined a need for predictive analytics to help advisors improve guidance of students in selecting the appropriate major based on their abilities and skills, identify students who are off track, and help students understand the likelihood of success in a given program of study.  We believe that better matching of students with majors as early as possible will reduce the number of D/F/Ws, course repeats, major changes, and credit hours in excess of what is required for a given degree or certificate, thus reducing time to degree and increasing the likelihood of successful completion. 

The initial impediment to this strategy of improving advising was funding to purchase and implement the necessary software.  Thus we requested and were approved for funds in our FY15 budget to join the Education Advisory Board’s (EAB), which included purchase and implementation of their predictive analytics software.  The EAB platform, which is being used at other USG institutions successfully, provides advisors with relevant student data that is formatted to expedite and facilitate the advising conversation.  The interface indicates risk levels of students in terms of likelihood of successfully completing their programs, the strength of the advisee in different academic area, likelihood of successful completion of courses, and recommendations and information about majors that are deemed a good fit for the student based on past academic behavior.

During FY2015 and 2016, an EAB dedicated consultant has worked closely with Office of Academic Affairs, professional advisors, informational technology staff, and department heads to install and implement the predictive analytics advising program, create success markers for academic programs, and train faculty in its use.  After a pilot stage in Summer 2014 involving some professional advising staff and some faculty in the STEM disciplines, the EAB dedicated consultant visited the campus for a kickoff in August.  At this plenary session, the faculty were introduced to the platform’s functionality. Beginning January 2015 through July Fall 201515, 16 multiple training sessions were held for faculty and new professional advisors, allowing 102 160 personnel to become proficient in the basic use of the platform.  EAB sends DSC monthly usage reports; as of now, the professional advisors are the primary users, but by April 20 there had been 1386 logins by users, with 167 in March alone.

Now that over 960% of the faculty have been trained and have been provided with follow-up materials, the next step is to continue to grow usage of the platform.  The first target is to increase utilization of the EAB platform.  EAB provides monthly reports of utilization.  To this point, the primary users of EAB have been the eight professional advisors assigned to the five academic schools.    Additionally, a student survey of satisfaction with advising has not been performed in several years, so a survey will be administered in early Fall 2015 to gauge students’ attitudes on strengths and weaknesses of advising in general.  Because faculty and advisor utilization of the EAB platform is beginning to gather steam now in 2015, we we currently have no long-term data to support its efficacy, but the college will continue to track DWF, course repeats, major changes, and credit hours at graduation as well as utilization to assess EAB’sits value. 

However, as of this point, DWF rates have declined since 2011 due to several reasons, one being that students are required to obtain the faculty member’s signature before dropping a class.  Other efforts at improved teaching, raising entrance test scores, emphasizing DWF rates in faculty evaluation, addressing “killer courses,” and improving remediation have also addressed DWF rates. In Fall 2011, over 20% of hours resulted in DWF grades, so that the completion rates of courses was 79.26% (46,834 hours completed out of 59,090 attempted).  By Fall 2013, the course completion rate was 85.32% (46971 hours completed out of 55054 attempted), and in Fall 2014, 85.82%, thus, a 6.5% improvement. 

Goal 6 – Shorten Time to Degree -- Strategy 6.1 – Dual enrollment for high school students

For several years Dalton State has actively pursued increasing the number of high school students participating in dual enrollment, which serves to shorten time to degree.  An earlier challenge with this strategy was the inequity imbalance in funding established by the state, which penalized local high schools if their students were dually enrolled in an institution in the USG but not so if they were dually enrolled in a TCSG schoolinstitution.  In addition, USG academic standards for participation in dual enrollment exceeded those of the TCSG.  The funding policyissue has since been corrected revisedand high school standards have increased; consequently, our dual enrollment numbers have also begun to rise. As the number of dual enrolled students increases, we would expect it to have a larger impact on our overall completion time.  Further, we have increased our outreach activities with local high schools, including having faculty visit high school classrooms, having hosting high school classes visits on campus, certifying high school teachers to teach some dual enrollment classes at their own schools, and having our DSC faculty teach classes at the high schools.  Many of the dual enrolled students attend classes on campus in contrast to the instructor visiting the high school.  We also offer assistance with completing financial aid applications and conduct an annual conference for high school counselors to update them on programs, services and activities available on campus..  In Summer 2015 the Office of Enrollment Services hired a Coordinator for the Dual Enrollment program, with the goal of further outreach and growth in the program. 

Due to these outreach activities, dual enrollment has greatly increased.  Since Fall 2011, Hhead count has increased by 205300%, enrolled credit  and student credit hours by 220278%, and earned credit hours by 270%. From Fall 2010 to Spring 2015 DSC enrolled 984 students in dual enrollment , achieving at 95.2% success rate. Dalton State teaches dual enrollment students from 18 local high schools and offers dual enrollment courses in three five high schools.  Courses in English, math, science, history, social sciences, and foreign language are taught in the dual enrollment program. Fall 2015 saw a 43% increase in the number of dual enrolled students. 

Ideally, the increase in dual enrolled students should also be accompanied by a long-term increase in the number of those students who enroll at Dalton State and finish a credential.  Unfortunately, this has not been the case.  In 2011-2012, 64.71% Of the 102 students who had been dual enrolled in the 2011-2012 AY, 64.71% enrolled at Dalton State for their credential.  This percentage dropped to 40.22% for the 179 students who were dual enrolled in 2014-2015 AY.  One area of improvement should be to raise the percentage of students who choose to attend Dalton State for their credential as well as increasing the number of dual-enrolled students. .  In Summer 2015 the Office of Enrollment Services hired a Coordinator for the Dual Enrollment program, with the goal of further outreach and growth in the program. 

Another substantial increase has been seen in DSC’s granting of credit for Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate work in high schools.  The number of AP credits brought in by students increased almost tenfold over five years, from 47 in Fall 2010 to 437 in Fall 2014, and IB credits increased by three times between Fall 2011 (9) and Fall 2014 (27).  Although not relegated to high school students, the number of student credit hours granted by CLEP test has increased from 216 in AY 2011 to 958 in AY 958, a rise of 443%, thus allowing expedited graduation. Although not an alternative method, DSC has increased its number of hours achieved through CLEP and credit by exam; however, AP, IB, and DSST credits have decreased, offset by the strong increase in dual enrollment options for local high school students.

Goal 7 – Transforming Remediation -- Strategy 7.1 – Enroll students needing remediation in gateway collegiate courses in English and math with co-requisite learning support

Enrolling students in need of remediation in gateway collegiate courses with co-requisite learning support is an effort to improve first-time pass rates out of learning support and shorten time to degree.  Since students are limited as to other courses they are allowed to take prior to completing their learning support requirements, this strategy will make a significant impact on degree completion time.  We are not able to implement this practice for English at the present time because our SACS/COC Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), of which we are beginning Year Four, is focused on an alternative model for our learning support English classes. The QEP plan includes the following: Small class sizes (18 students), sections taught as learning communities with First Year Experience sections, computer- assisted writing assignments, and at least five visits to the writing Writing labLab. These changes increased the success rates for students exiting learning support English from 54% to 80% in just one year (AY 2013), gains which have been replicated in the following years.  It also led to higher pass rates in the English 1101 courses for those students who passed English 0098. Because we are committed to the QEP until the end of AY 2016-2017, the state requirements regarding co-requisite learning support for English and reading will not begin until Fall 2017.

However, we have begun to implement the practice of co-requisite learning support in math for all three courses that satisfy the Area A Core Curriculum math requirement.  We began the process two years ago when the USG offered special training for faculty in new models of math remediation.  Our faculty who attended returned to campus and began developing the necessary courses to implement the co-requisite model.  In a co-curricular model, the students needing learning support take both the college level and the learning support class; if the student passes the college level course, they also receive a satisfactory (S) grade in the learning support.  The new courses were approved through our Academic Programs Committee and implemented for the first time in Fall 2013. That year, the completion rates for  the 0091/1001 co-curricular combination were 79% in fall Fall 2013and 36.4% in sSpring 2014; completion rates for the 0092/1101 co-curricular 65.2% and 55% in the same fall and 55% in spring.  In AY 2014-2015.  Completion rates for the co-curricular MATH 0091/1001 sections was 67% in Fall 2014 and increased to 80% in Spring 2014; completion rates for the MATH 0092/1101 sections was 62.5% and 69%, respectively.  A total of 359 students were able to complete successfully the learning support and benefit from this program in the two-year period.  The overall success rate is 63%, which is higher than the success rates for learning support math instruction prior to the institution of the co-curricular model..  It should also be noted that the co-curricular learning support classes are taught using the emporium model of instruction.   Two different adaptive learning products have been used, Cengage’s and Prentice-Hall’s. 

In terms of plans for the co-requisite instruction, in Fall 2015, It should also be noted that the co-curricular learning support classes are taught using the emporium model of instruction.  The Two different adaptive learning products have been used, Cengage’s and Prentice-Hall’s.  First, the course formerly known as MATH 0098 (now MATH 0999) will be paired with MATH 1111 (College Algebra).  Second, the numbers will be changed on the learning support courses to MATH 0997, 0998, and 0999, in compliance with USG policy.  In Fall 2015, according to USG policy, DSC’s placement scores for learning support were lowered and students needing learning support in three areas (reading, English, math) were admitted.  It is projected that this will affect success rate somewhat in the next few years, but mechanisms are in place to meet these students’ academic needs. 

Goal 8 – Restructure Instructional Delivery -- Strategy 8.1 – Expand completely online opportunities

As noted earlier, the majority of students at Dalton State are challenged by the need to juggle work, family, and school responsibilities.  Expanding online opportunities offers students more flexibility and often enables them to enroll in an increased number of credit hours, as it eliminates the need to schedule time on campus.  We began addressing this need in 2011 when we became an eCore affiliate in the USG.  Combining eCore and Dalton State-based online courses, 695 students (438 unduplicated) enrolled in 164 course sections with a total of 1976 credit hours in Fall 2014.  In Spring 2015, 973 students (duplicated) took 207 combined eCore and Dalton State based online courses, for a total of 2733, which indicates a significant rise (40% in duplicated headcount, 38% in credit hours).   Of these attempted hours, 1374 (Fall 2014) and 1608 (Spring 2015) were eCore.  Additionally, many of our faculty teach for eCore.  One challenge has been the success rate in online courses.  Of the 137 sections offered since Spring 2011, the overall average completion rate has been 74%, but sometimes as low at 59% (high of 90%). 

To add to our success as an eCore affiliate, we offered to become the first institution to collaborate with Valdosta State University in the development of a shared eMajor program.  We were approved by the BOR to join the eMajor program in 2013, offering the B.S. in Organizational Leadership, for which we developed and are offering a concentration in Health Care Administration. The Organizational Leadership degree is specifically designed to be an adult completion degree, and with the entirely online format, we anticipate shortened time to degrees for this population. In early 2015 DSC was approved to collaborate with Georgia Southwestern State University on an online Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice; later in the year DSC was approved to offer its own (non-collaborative) four-year degree in Health Information Management Systems, which will offer its upper-level coursework online.  Upper-division courses for the Health Information Management Systems degree will begin in Fall 2016, and those for the eMajor B.S. in Criminal Justice in Fall 2015. Enrollment in these programs has slowly increased; for example, the total enrollment for the B.S. in Organizational Leadership eMajor has grown from ten students in 2011 to fifty-three in 2015; currently twenty of those are Dalton State students, and there are eighty Dalton State students taking courses in eMajor programs.    

In early 2015 DSC was approved to collaborate with Georgia Southwestern State University on an online Bachelor of Science in criminal justice and to offer (by ourselves) a four-year degree in Health Information Management Systems.  Classes for these courses will begin in Fall 2015.   In addition, we are encouraging faculty to develop more completely online courses, especially those at the 3000 and 4000 level and those lower-division courses which that are not available through eCore.  We have been hampered in that regard because of loss of funding for our Instructional Technologist position in an earlier round of budget cuts.  However, that position was restored in Spring 2015 and the position filled in July 2015.  The individual who took the position has been able to offer enhanced training in online course development for our faculty.  The Center for Academic Excellence (CAE) will be holding a sustained learning community for faculty desiring to build online courses.  Interest among faculty appears to be increasing with new hires who are more comfortable in an online environment and with increased promotion, training, and support for online instruction from our Center for Academic Excellence and library staff.  The college is now a member of Quality Matters as part of the University System of Georgia’s membership in that organization.  Additionally, the campus’ Online Education Committee is working to revise rubrics, approval processes, and registration processes for online courses to ensure quality and better student retention in those courses. Finally, beginning Fall 2015, faculty are being given the opportunity to apply for grants to develop new online and hybrid courses.  Two-thirds of the grant goes to the faculty member and one-third to the academic department. 

Hybrid instruction has, in general, been more popular than fully online courses with our faculty and students.  In Fall 2011, 864 students were enrolled in hybrid classes; in Fall 2014, 936, which was a percentage increase of 3.55%.  In Fall 2013, 3034 credit hours were attempted through hybrid instruction, an 8% increase from the Fall 2012 number of attempted credit hours.  Successful completion of hybrid hours has remained fairly consistent with an average of 86% from Fall 2011 to Spring 2015.

Goal 8 – Restructure Instructional Delivery – Strategy 8.2 – Implement alternative delivery models

Alternative models of instructional delivery have been shown to increase student engagement and student success (Barr and Tagg, 2012).  Examples include online courses, hybrid (blended) courses, flipped classrooms, emporium model, and incorporation of interactive technologies and social media.  Further, increased student engagement leads to decreased D/F/Ws and improvements in student learning, which, in turn, promotes confidence, persistence, and increased likelihood of program completion.  In 2010, Dalton State became a part of AASCU’s Red Balloon Project, focusing on redesigning undergraduate education, and launched a campus-wide, faculty-driven course redesign initiative in the 2011-2012 academic year. Combined with this desire to re-imagine classroom instructional activity to be less instructor-based and more learning-centered, the faculty and administration have learned what does and does not work well with DSC students.

With a new Director for our Center for Academic Excellence in Summer 2014, the college began a focus on “high impact practices” as defined by the AACU through their LEAP (Liberal Education and America’s Promise) initiative.  Almost every event was related to incorporating the high impact practices into the classroom and curriculum. During the 2014-15 academic year and continuing into 2015-16, the CAE is providing training and leadership in service learning, writing intensive classes, common readers, first year experience and freshmen year courses, internships, capstone courses, undergraduate research, collaborative learning projects, and global learning.  For example, this spring the various undergraduate research programs were combined into a full day of presentations in various disciplines as the “Student Scholarship Showcase.”

To be specific, in 2013 learning support math initiated an emporium model which has raised success rates to over two- thirds of enrolled students; numerous instructors utilize a flipped classroom, and increasingly, more students are being taught in hybrid/blended formats. For example, 3034 credit hours were attempted in hybrid courses in Fall 2013, with an 85.8% success rate; 8% more students were enrolled in hybrid classes in 2014 than in 2011. In the same period, 710 students participated in the first year experience course, which is now being expanded to include thematic courses (students with SAT scores over 1300 are exempt from the first year experience course).  The freshmen enrolled in FYES 1000 will all be reading The Other Wes Moore and in 2014 read The Happiness Project as a common intellectual experience.  The Office of Student Life directs a civic engagement program, and DSC has a growing international education program that enlisted 42 students and 9 faculty members to participate in 9 study abroad programs in 2013–2014 Academic Year.  In the 2014-2015 Academic Year, 36 students and 7 faculty members participated in 10 study abroad programs.

Another alternative strategy that has gained some traction nationally is that of the “flipped classroom,” where direct instruction through reading and video is done outside of class meetings and class time is used for active learning strategies.  The Center for Academic Excellence has hosted workshops on this methodology and several instructors in the STEM disciplines and elsewhere have experimented with it.  Preparation demands for the flipped classroom, such as creating instructional videos, is high, and student resistance is also an issue.  To this date, no consistent data has been collected on classroom flipping.  However, the ASN program began a fully flipped classroom mode of instruction Fall 2014.  This move was partially in response to lower-than-normal first-time pass rates of ASN graduates on the NCLEX (69% in Spring 2014). In Fall 2014, instructors were required to flip at least one lecture period, and by Fall 2015 all lectures were flipped.  Data collection in terms of student evaluation of instructors (and thus satisfaction with the class experience) has been done, but the most important data will be the first-time success rates of ASN graduates on the NCLEX in Summer 2016.  Among other reasons, the ASN program was changed to a flipped classroom model in order to address the high content nature of the coursework and the increased emphasis on critical thinking on the NCLEX.

Although not an alternative method, DSC has increased its number of hours achieved through CLEP and credit by exam; however, AP, IB, and DSST credits have decreased, offset by the strong increase in dual enrollment options for local high school students.  An additional strategy that we are pursuing iswas targeted ttargetingo the recruitment, support, and program completion of adult learners and military personnel.  Dalton State has been a member of the USG’s Adult Learning Consortium since fFall of 2010, employing a variety of strategies to support adult and military learners.  These efforts include our push to offer more online courses and programs, targeted advertising, designated Quick Admit Days, the establishment of a military resource room, a pilot program for pre-admission career counseling, and a pilot to offer “concierge” type services to adult students to assist them in successfully navigating the initial admissions/financial aid/registration process.   However, with the termination of the ALC, these offerings have been reduced in scope.

Observations

Beginning in the late 1990s, Dalton State College transitioned from a two-year college to a bachelor’s degree-granting institution.  From that time to 2015, the College has increased its four-year programs to a total of twenty-one.  Conversely, the number of associate’s degrees has decreased to three pathways in the A.A. degree, eight concentrations in the A.S. degree, eight A.A.S. degrees, and the associate of science degree in nursing (ASN).  Therefore, the numbers of bachelor’s degree graduates have increased incrementally (e.g., 221 in 2010 to 289 in 2015) while numbers of associate’s degree graduates have slowly decreased (353 in 2010 to 305 in 2015). This trend is mirrored in the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded to underserved populations.

In terms of first-generation students (70%), military veterans, part-time students, minority students, Pell-eligible individuals (the vast majority of our students) and those 25 or older (about 25%), increases in the conferral of bachelor’s degrees has ranged from 400% (military) to 77% (first-generation) to 61% (Pell-eligible) to 60% (25+) to 41% (part-time) (from 2010-2015).   At the same time, the decreases in conferral of associate’s degrees among these populations has not been as dramatic and actually has increased in the case of minority students and military veterans.  These data indicate that DSC is serving the traditionally underserved populations rather well.  However, it would violate Federal confidentiality laws for our disability services office to disclose personally identifiable information of students they serve. Inasmuch as students receiving Disability services here at DSC are not identified in our data files and their status is self-reported only to the Office of Disability Services, there can be no accurate representation of the progression, retention, and graduation of those individuals. However, records kept by the Office of Disability Services show that 166 students were served by that office in FY 2015, a number confirmed by the Director to be about the average over the last five years. 

Based on the potential for DSC to become a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in the near future and on the basis of the data about underserved populations, we project that our completion rates for underserved populations will increase slowly but steadily in the next five to ten years, specifically with Pell-eligible and minority students.  At least a 5% increase every year over the next five years in conferral of bachelor’s degrees to underserved population is a reasonable expectation, since we have seen a 15% (2014) and 16% (2015) increase in Pell-eligible students earning bachelor’s degrees since 2013.  Additionally, we have seen a 73.5% increase (2014) and 25% increase (2015) in minority students earning bachelor’s degrees since 2013.  This trend may be attributed to three sources:  attempts to recruit and engage minority students, increased retention efforts, and the availability of more baccalaureate degrees.

Dalton State’s trend in increased numbers of bachelor’s graduates and decreased numbers of associate’s graduates (except in some health profession fields) is mirrored in the number of degrees completed in biology, chemistry, secondary science, pre-engineering, math, and health professions.  By 2015, 52.8% of all graduates (associate’s and bachelor’s) were in STEM fields.  This represents an increase from 29, 8% in 2010-2011 of graduates in STEM fields, which constitutes a 77% increase over five years.  It is unlikely that such a dramatic increase will continue.  The STEM disciplines will continue to be a strong attraction for DSC students, with the 2014 dedication of a state-of-the-art science building (Peeples Hall), a strong undergraduate research program in the natural sciences, initiation of two new majors (Bachelor of Science in Scientific Technology Management and in Health Information Management System) and a job market looking for STEM and health profession graduates.  We project that the 52.8% rate will be maintained and grow to 55% by 2020.

For many years, Dalton State has prided itself on being mission-driven, student-oriented, and rigorous.  In the days of the system-wide Regents Exam, Dalton State enjoyed extremely high pass rates, and in our past as a two-year institution, the College’s reputation for successful transfer students was stellar.  Our pass rates on health profession certification exams, such as in Radiological Technology, reach 100% regularly.  However, a rigorous access institution often translates into high DWF rates if supports are not offered to students, and funding cuts and compression have stifled some of our ability to maintain the rigor and the support.  In DSC’s choices for strategy focuses for Complete College Georgia, we honed in on those areas where we could achieve the most reasonable but also worthwhile gains:  increased completion in courses and decreased D/W/F rates; improved and widened instructional delivery, especially in learning support courses; increased opportunities for online and hybrid instruction; and increased outreach to local high school students who are ready for college work.

Overall, we are making progress in most areas we have targeted.  We are in the process of full implementation of the EAB/SSC advising software to help identify students needing intervention early in the semester.  We are offering an array of options for students to achieve credit in alternative ways, and we are now offering three entirely online degree programs in collaboration with other USG institutions.  We are making significant progress in getting students through learning support faster, and we are investing in faculty development to improve the quality of classroom instruction.  We are seeing improvements in our D/F/W rates, fewer course withdrawals, higher GPAs, increased retention, and increased completion for our four- 4-year programs.  We are increasing our efforts to recruit and retain adult learners, and we believe we will soon meet the requirements for being named a Hispanic Serving Institution. 

It seems our main challenges continue to be economic and cultural.  Even though we are a low-cost institution, many students cannot afford to attend or continue once started, even with financial aid.  Over 80% of our students receive Pell assistance, but there are still expenses they cannot handle on their own.  We are also in an area that historically has not placed a high value on education, especially post-secondary.  Over 70% of our students are first- generation college students and many do not receive the level of support from home that they need to persist in their academic programs.  We would like to offer additional support on campus, but we are limited by a lack of resources as well, such as having two personal counselors for 4800 5000 students, one of whom also provides career services. 

The administration of the institutionof Dalton State College is optimistic about these improvements and about our ability to navigate the challenges.