Student Success Council (SSC) 2022-23 End-of-Year Report
A Look Back
The Student Success Council, Highline’s accountability committee for the college’s Strategic Plan for Equitable Student Success, oversaw the implementation and execution of strategic priorities throughout the 2022-23 academic year. From choosing to invest in a Customer Relationship Management tool that will help track prospective students through graduation to reimagining how the Financial Aid department communicates with students through an innovative partnership with Amazon Web Services, the priorities established by Executive Cabinet and carried out by teams across the college will have a positive impact on Highline’s enrollment and recruitment efforts for years to come.
In a collaborative approach, teams across divisions made significant strides to better serve our students, improving retention and increasing enrollment as a result. Multiple departments in Student Services, Academic Affairs, Information Technology Services, Institutional Advancement and Administrative Services were responsible for accomplishing the tasks outlined in the strategic priority goals. The goals below represent the culmination of a year’s worth of work to ensure student success at Highline College.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tool
Over the past year, a cross-divisional team led by Information Technology Services (ITS) completed the process of selecting, purchasing and implementing a CRM tool to support the recruitment-to-enrollment process. Winter quarter, the team decided to implement Recruit by Watermark, the CRM module addition to Aviso. The team established the organizational structure, process and data decisions required to support prospective student recruitment. The technical implementation of the Watermark CRM module was completed by the end of June. A full inventory and review of all current outreach activities was done and a structure for moving the Outreach and Recruitment department to Student Services was finalized. ITS completed the testing phase for the Recruit by Watermark CRM module summer quarter and the CRM will go live in the 2023-24 academic year. The CRM will be used by departments and staff within Student Services and Academic Affairs who are actively involved in outreach and recruitment efforts.
Financial Aid
The Financial Aid department accomplished its ambitious goal of increasing capacity for financial aid application review, reducing wait times by 75%. The department is currently reviewing applications within 30 days of completion, down from 120 days originally. Wait times to meet with a Financial Aid staff have been reduced significantly. Typical wait times during peak operating periods, such as week 1 of the quarter have been reduced down to 30-50 minutes instead of 2-3 hours. By filling all open positions, fully training staff, adopting Aviso and redesigning the office’s space, they increased the number of scheduled and walk-in appointments to more than 120 per week. During individual appointments, students now meet with financial aid staff to ask questions, get assistance, and complete their funding process. The Check My Status tool, created through a partnership with Highline’s ITS department and Amazon Web Services, is operating and students are utilizing it. The Financial Aid office identified key metrics for tracking student success and engagement in the financial aid process as well as important demographic data. The Student Services Survey helped to identify areas for improvement, including increasing available appointment times in the office. This summer, the Financial Aid office has been undergoing training on the new Simplified FAFSA, which will replace the current FAFSA application for the 2024-25 award year. Training and policy and procedures updates will continue through next year.
Website Review and New Content Management System (CMS)
With a goal to provide clearer direction and greater access to information for prospective student enrollment, the Communications and Marketing team did a significant audit of the college’s top-level website and the three most commonly visited subdomains –– admissions.highline.edu, registration.highline.edu and financialaid.highline.edu. The team recommended rewriting web copy to meet plain language and accessibility standards, eliminating redundancy, and improving navigation to help students as they search for information. In collaboration with Admissions, Registration and Records and Financial Aid, website updates were made throughout the year. During this process, the team also identified the need for a new CMS and a shift to a more centralized model of website management. Upon deciding to move forward with Modern Campus’s Omni CMS, a budget and timeline were established and design work is currently underway. Highline is planning to launch a top-level site, which will include enrollment services and financial aid, by the end of the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Aviso
As a result of the Aviso launch last fall, a team of Academic Affairs and Student Services staff focused the past year on creating awareness about Aviso amongst students by providing clear and frequent communication. Fall quarter, the team implemented a student communications plan about using Aviso for advising support to four student beta groups. The communications plan included targeted text messaging, posters, flyers and rack cards. These students provided feedback on ways to improve the communication for future students. The team also incorporated Degree Pathways program maps into Aviso and added information into the COL 101 curriculum for students on how to contact their advisors. Winter quarter, the team expanded the use of Aviso to support all four phases of Highline’s advising model, so that –– from entry through completion –– students feel supported in choosing a program and completing the related certificate/degree requirements as efficiently as possible. In-depth training sessions supported faculty and staff in becoming familiar with Aviso as well.
High School Engagement
The High School Engagement team worked with internal stakeholders to build buy-in and collaboration in key areas to facilitate the implementation of a new engagement plan. The Financial Aid department provided training to college and career counselors in high schools, and the High School Engagement team created admissions workshops and a process to track prospective students. Using feedback from the October 2022 CollegeCon event with Highline Public Schools, the team planned Highline Expo, an April 2023 event, for students from Highline and Federal Way Public Schools. The event brought 11th and 12th-grade students to Highline College to attend Degree Pathways workshops, a resource fair, classroom presentations, and campus tours. Seniors had the opportunity to connect with staff around admissions, financial aid and entry advising before leaving campus.
Adult Learning Recruitment
During the 2022-23 year, Highline became more intentional in targeting some marketing efforts toward adult learners. A cross-divisional team of Academic Affairs and Institutional Advancement completed the foundational research and program mapping needed to develop an adult learner recruitment and marketing strategy. This strategy focused on the development and implementation of a recruitment campaign that included creating new microsites featuring five high-wage, high-demand program areas: Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS), STEM, Cybersecurity, Business and Paralegal. Strategies to drive visitors to these new microsites were included in the marketing plan. By the end of spring quarter, the five microsites were live and targeted web and social media ads began running. Summer quarter, a reconnect campaign focused on former Highline students who started but never completed a degree in business, paralegal, cybersecurity or STEM fields. The team worked with the CRM team to identify how to track the progress of a prospective student from outreach to enrollment. Aviso was used to send these identified reconnect students an email and text message. Postcards were also sent. The team is tracking the students who engage with the campaign. In the future, recruitment campaigns like the reconnect campaign will be managed through the new CRM module in Aviso.
Looking Ahead
Continue to improve outreach and recruitment
Continue work to develop effective outreach and recruitment strategies, supported by the new CRM, and continue the focus on outreach to adult learners as well as high school students
Continue to improve funding supports for students
In addition to supporting implementation of the new FAFSA form, use demographic data to identify and address equity gaps in funding
Continue to improve the campus website
Launch the top-level of the new college website, including information on enrollment services and financial aid, by the end of 2023-2024
Retention
Dr. Mosby invited leads for Advising, Retention and Title III to streamline efforts and develop a coordinated plan focused on improving student retention in the 2023-24 academic year. Leaders from these areas have proposed the formation of two subcommittees which would report to the Student Success Council; Academic Standards Policy Subcommittee and Four Phase Advising model Subcommittee. The broad goal of these sub-committees is to unify divisions and departments in order to collaboratively increase student retention with an intentional focus on achieving equitable retention rates and closing equity gaps for Black and Brown students. Examples of objectives for the Four Phase Advising Model subcommittee include, but are not limited to: define the transition from Entry Advising to Pathway Advising to Faculty advising and ensure Career & Transfer information and supports are infused through all phases of the model. Provide professional development opportunities and resources for all who advise and promote consistent use of tools like Aviso to communicate and coordinate to support student success. Examples of objectives for the Academic Standards Policy subcommittee include but are not limited to; scale up interventions and supports for students identified through the academic standards policy, use already established tools like Aviso and ctcLink service indicators to notify, monitor and communicate collective supports for students on Academic Standards Policy, identify and develop benchmarks and objectives for students who participate in the Academic Standards Policy interventions ensuring data is disaggregated by race and ethnicity.
Support and encourage faculty
Develop a coordinated plan to support faculty professional growth, and encourage faculty to maintain their enthusiasm for teaching and professional improvement