SPC awarded for retention excellence

by Thomas Mooney, staff writer

South Plains College recently was awarded the Noel-Levitz Retention Excellence Award for 2008.

South Plains was chosen from among colleges and universities across the nation, Canada, and Mexico. South Plains was one of three schools to receive the Noel-Levitz Retention Excellence Award for 2008. Other recipients include Grand View College of Des Moines, Iowa and Virginia Commonwealth University of Richmond, Va.           

What makes the retention program at SPC so distinguished among its peers is a three-part plan that has been able to unite the campus and has made not only more students stay in the classroom, but has also developed relationships between different departments on campus.

“Without all departments working together, there wouldn’t be nearly as much success,” according to Kimbra Quinn, director of enrollment management at SPC. The three main focal points of the retention program are academic advising, The Early Alert System, and individualized success plans.

SPC follows a proactive approach to advising and puts a major influence on advising three specific populations: academic probation students, suspension students, and students who haven’t passed the college placement test. All three groups of students are required to meet with their advisors before enrollment begins to take a “Student Success Exercise” that helps advisors and students alike to find the problem and reasons why they are not in good academic standing. They also help set an outline of goals for the semester and additional recommendations.

The Early Alert System does exactly what the name suggests, helping to identify students who are having trouble during the semester with certain classes. Faculty members who recognize these students fill out an online Early Alert form.  The form is sent through the Office of Enrollment Management, who contacts the student by letter, email, or phone call with a description of the alert and resources that are available for the student to have success.  The Individualized Success Plans are designed to give students their own recommended personal road map for their stay at SPC. 

The results of this program are phenomenal for both students and SPC, which saw a jump from retaining 69 percent of students from the fall to spring semester to 73 percent. The fall-to-fall retention rates increased from 35 percent to 44 percent.  What is impressive about these numbers isn’t just the increase, but also just how short the program has been in effect.

In 2004, South Plains College was award a Title V grant.  A Title V grant is available to higher education institutions that enhance and expand capacity to serve Hispanic and low-income students by providing funds to improve and strengthen the academic quality of the institution.

After many years of growth, South Plains still didn’t have a solid comprehensive retention program. Under the leadership Quinn, and Christina Conner, retention specialist, along with numerous others, they started to come up with a plan that had a hard learning curve to meet the standards of that first-year Title V grant.

According to Quinn, “We started out studying great retention programs and former Noel-Levitz Retention Excellence Award winners so we could get a great idea on what works best without needing a great amount of funds.” 

There were also more than 300 employees that participated in multiple projects who helped jumpstart the program.

What also amazes many is that although the retention program is now in full swing with an extensive network, it uses very little or no funding to keep intact. From just a short four years, SPC went from researching top retention programs of Noel-Levitz winners to becoming one, having one of the greatest retention programs in the nation.

Things have really become full circle in that now universities will be researching South Plains program to help better their own programs.