College of Alameda Fall Flex Presentations Highlight Recent Accomplishments and Focus on the Future

CoA President Dr. Nathaniel Jones III kicked off the Fall Flex presentations on August 19, 2022, with a State of the College address that celebrated the College’s accomplishments from the past academic year (AY), reviewed the imperative for implementing Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) measures going forward, and detailed the College’s AY 2022-2023 priorities and key goals.

The College achieved many significant milestones in AY 2021-2022, including ending the year within budget with an increased ending fund balance, achieving greater community engagement, increasing faculty diversity, funding the Race and Equity Alliance, advancing the important work of Guided Pathways, and spearheading the development of a new Educational Master Plan through a series of forums, retreats, focus groups and other efforts.

Looking ahead, the College faces a number of factors that will drive the need for change and continuous quality improvement. These include external factors such as economic, social, and political; internal factors related to identifying and meeting students’ changing needs; and using internal data to improve operational effectiveness measures.

The College must continue to strive for more inclusive excellence, and challenge the various systems within the institution that potentially serve as barriers to growth, success, and equitable outcomes for the College’s diverse community of faculty, staff, and students.

CoA’s AY2022-2023 goals include:

• Developing a new Education Master Plan;
• Designing and implementing strategies that ensure enrollment recovery;
• Aligning CoA budget process to the new Resource Allocation Model;
• Improving key student success and equity measures, and
• Fostering a campus climate and culture of inclusive excellence.

Office of Instruction Celebrates Key Accomplishments

Vice President of Instruction Dr. Diana Bajrami highlighted an impressive list of accomplishments and actions at her Fall Flex Day presentation. She also emphasized her Division's commitment to providing prompt responses and support to faculty, staff, students, and members of the community.

Among the important milestones achieved by the Office of Instruction were:

• Streamlining the scheduling processes to eliminate dynamically dated courses based on individual preferences;
• Organizing course offerings into relevant, short-term cohorts;
• Creating Intentional marketing efforts for each cohort of sections;
• Collaborating directly with counselors to promote low-enrolled courses;
• Ongoing simplification of course notes to improve student experiences and explain diverse teaching modalities;
• Participating in and organizing several community events;
• Organizing an Equitable Scheduling and Data Coaching Retreat, with all chairs and discipline leads;
• Supporting robust Contract Education International classes;
• Creating effective teaching and learning environments (for example: an anthropology lab, and a chemistry lab);
• Creating a robust curriculum for the Math Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) Connect Grant;
• Working closely to improve the quality of teaching and learning for Puente students;
• Supporting UMOJA, Puente, and the new Salaam Learning Communities;
• Improving the FTEF Allocation Formula to align with Student-Centered Funding Formula (SCFF) Metrics;
• Organizing several Guided Pathways retreats;
• Improving partnerships with K-12 schools;
• Focusing on the importance of diversity and inclusion in hiring processes; and
• Improving retention and equitable student success.

Office of Instruction AY2022-2023 goals include: Creating and staffing Student Success Centers; continuing to improve the class scheduling processes; leveraging resources to provide the best quality of teaching and learning; continuing to collaborate to provide the best services for students and community members; strengthening dual enrollments; and providing additional professional development opportunities for classified professionals.

 Student Services Accomplishments Are Aligned with CoA Priorities

Student Services Vice President Dr. Tina Vasconcellos talked about her Division’s alignment with the College’s AY2021-2022 priorities of Diversity, Guided Pathways, Strategic Enrollment Management, and Fiscal Stewardship during her Fall Flex Day presentation.

In the area of diversity, equity, and inclusivity, Student Services lead the charge on the College’s website redesign, which focused on student and community accessibility and inclusivity.

Additional Student Service Division accomplishments include:

• CoA Mobile App Development- Student engagement mobile app, which is available on both Google Play and Apple stores.
• Unity and Inclusion Center Planning and Plan Development- created intersectional space focused on inclusivity, antiracism, accessibility, and basic needs.
• Inclusion taskforce- launched- needs to be picked up 2022-2023 to address exclusive versus inclusive practices and language across campus.
• Salaam Learning Community- developed and launched a unique learning community for South West Asian and North African (SWANA) and Arab-American students.

Guided Pathways

• Counseling Department Chairs served as Co-leads for Guided Pathways work college-wide.
• Counseling Department Liaison transition to Guided Pathways discussions- leading to a case management practice based on Fields of Study.
• Professional Development- Counseling Faculty, Staff, and Administrators attend professional development to support CoA implementation.
• CoA Website Redesign- focused on directing students to fields of study, courses, and student support services based on New, Returning, and Current student status.
• ConnexEd software development partnership project- Common Application and Case management Tool development, with implementation planned in 2022-2023.

Strategic Enrollment Management

• CoA CARES- Brand Promise update. Developed advertising collateral around the revised brand promise and aligned goals and priorities with the new brand promise for marketing planning.
• CoA Website Redesign- focused on directing students to fields of study, courses and student supports based on New, Returning, and Current student status.
• Enhanced the College’s marketing efforts- Increased Marketing budget by $75,000. Focused on expanding brand awareness and increasing enrollment, including advertising placement on broadcast and digital radio stations, movie theaters, four social media platforms, and bus stop signage.
• Call Center- Launched CoA CARES call center focused on access, retention and success, and proactive interventions.

Fiscal Stewardship

• ACCJC Follow-Up Report- Successfully completed the College’s Follow Up report focused on district fiscal and board recommendations as well as financial aid.
• HEERF II & HEERF III- Distributed HEERF II and the majority of HEERF III direct student aid allocations per federal guidelines as grants for all students in varied amounts by criteria.
• CARES Act- MSI- Minority Serving Institution Funds-Distributed MSI I and II grants to ANAPISI and Hispanic students per Federal guidelines.
• Continuous Manager budget/expenditure oversight- Student Services managers conduct monthly reviews to align budgets and expenditures throughout the year.

Rock EnRoll Events and $500 on Us Campaign Synergies Improve the Enrollment Outlook for Fall 2022

This summer, College of Alameda introduced Rock EnRoll Days, a series of on-campus enrollment events designed to provide hands-on support with all aspects of the enrollment process, from submitting applications to counseling, and from registration for classes to financial aid applications. Students also had access to representatives from student success programs, learning communities, the Career Center, Career Education programs, and faculty. In total, over 580 students attended CoA’s four Rock EnRoll Days (July 20, August 8, 15, and 22, 2022).

College of Alameda Dean of Enrollment Dr. Amy Lee reports that Rock EnRoll events combined with the College’s $500 On Us initiative, resulted in strong enrollment ads.

On the First Day of Fall 2022 (which coincided with the fourth Rock EnRoll event) the College saw a 78% increase in enrollment adds in comparison to the First Day of Fall 2021.

As of August 25, 2022, CoA had exceeded enrollment adds for August 2021 by 14%.

Pell Grant Students

As of August 22, 2022, the first day of class, the College saw an 81% increase in federal Pell grant students compared to the first day of class in Fall 2021.

$500 On Us Student demographic

As of August 22, 2022, compared to last year, the College showed a 26% increase in the population of students enrolled in at least three units majoring at CoA, who completed a financial aid application, and enrolled in at least three units at CoA.

This article is an excerpt from the President’s Report, written by Dr. Nathaniel Jones III, College of Alameda President, that was presented to the PCCD Board of Trustees during their regular meeting on Tuesday, September 13, 2022. To view as a pdf, click here.