[Wsssc] WACTC Ed Services Draft Minutes
Lauren Hibbs
lhibbs at sbctc.edu
Mon Oct 23 19:55:56 PDT 2023
Dear WSSSC Colleagues,
On behalf of WSSSC Exec, I write to share the draft WACTC Education Services minutes from 10/19/23 and supporting WSSSC documents, below and attached. WSSSC contributed a large role in this meeting and these updates will be both helpful to you, and likely also to keep your Presidents informed of WSSSC efforts. Since these minutes are still in draft form and will not be voted on until November, we do ask that you use your best judgement in sharing and acknowledge that items may be adjusted. Of significance, please read the section near the bottom on our response to the RFP for Student Success tool.
For those new to the group, Education Services is one of 5 WACTC committees (capital budget; operating budget; equity; technology committees) that our Vice President of Student Services commission staffs to inform policy, practice, and priority setting; to inform continuous system learning; and to provide cross-communication between commission and councils. The structure of WACTC (the President's commission) can be found on page 23-24 of your New Vice President Orientation Handbook (attached).
Please let me or your mentor know if you have any questions or clarifications on the topics below or attached. A special thank you to Michele Waltz who sat in on this Ed Services session on behalf of WSSSC President Claire Peinado.
Attached and Below
* New VP Orientation Handbook (see page 23-24 for WACTC committee structure)
* 10/19/23 Education Services draft minutes (SS areas highlighted below)
* Mental Health Counselor Pilot (2-page overview for WACTC)
* HB 1835 Financial Aid Outreach Pilot (2-page overview for WACTC)
* 2023-24 Promising Practice Exchange recommendations (to be voted on in November)
Ed Services Attendees:
John Mosby, Chair
Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap, Vice Chair - not present
Marty Cavalluzi - not present
Kathi Hiyane-Brown, Whatcom - not present
Rachel Solemsaas, Seattle Colleges
Joyce Hammer, SBCTC
Kristen Finnel, IC, Lower Columbia - not present
Michele Waltz, WSSSC Bellingham Tech
Rip Heminway, IT, South Puget Sound
Jason Engle, RPC Columbia Basin
Lauren Hibbs, SBCTC
Monica Wilson, SBCTC
Thursday, October 19, 2023
2:00-4:00 p.m.
Zoom
* Meeting called to order at 3:05pm by President John Mosby
* Personal call to how important it is to take care of health and wellbeing.
* Approve the Minutes from July meeting (November Action Item)
* Postponed until November meeting when a quorum is present.
* Guided Pathways/GPAC Update (Monica)
Highlights:
* The initial WA Institutie for Public Policy December 2023 Guided Pathway preliminary report has been postponed until March 2024. The final evaluation for Guided Pathways implementation is due to the legislature in 2029. We have the opportunity to scale practices and see the impact of that work in that time.
* College Spark WA report coming soon. Not only do we need to keep students on their path, we need to stay the course as well. We are hoping for a 1 page brief for the upcoming 2024 legislative session.
* CCRC has published their report, "Whole-College Guided Pathways Reform Practices: Scale of Adoption by Community Colleges in Three States<https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/publications/whole-college-guided-pathways-reform.html>."
* GPAC will work to reconsider the organization of their cohorts by areas.
* Retreat for Executive Leaders in January: The purpose of this retreat is to provide an opportunity for executive officers from Presidents, WSSSC, IC, RPC, and DEOC to meeting, discuss, and align their goals, strategize for the future, and strengthen collaboration to advance equity and student success.
* Re: Student Success Tool RFP: Taking time to learn lessons from ctc-adoption for the new SS software RPF. Examining RFP from California for software insights.
* Student Services Updates (Lauren)
Highlights:
* Both the financial aid outreach and mental health pilots seek to address similar outcomes grounded in equity, persistence, completion, and success. Both mental health and financial stability are fundamental needs to success in life and especially college.
* When faced with an inability to meet basic needs, students are less likely to complete their classes and stay enrolled in college. This becomes a key consideration for investment for individuals, colleges, communities and ultimately the nation.
* Two 2-page handouts provided to overview each pilot.
HB 1835 Financial Aid Outreach Effort (Lauren)
* WA offers one of the most generous and accessible financial packages yet maintains one of the lowest national FAFSA application rates.
* HB 1835 was designed to provide outreach teams of a ratio of 1 staff to 600 high school students to increase the yield of completed FA application in the two lowest ESD regions of the state.
* What we Have Learned from Year 1 of the Pilot:
Shared Awareness and Accountability
* Challenges due to a lack of understanding of the intent of the bill between K-12 & HE professional. Significant time spent on informing school officials.
Data and Tracking
* WSAC financial aid portal vs. tracking engagement presented challenges.
* Inconsistencies in data collection and reporting of time investment.
* WHAT WE RECOMMEND:
Strengthen College Relationships with K-12
* Foster greater collaboration with the K-12 sector.
* Partner with other sectors for clear and consistent messaging.
* Address Perceived Punitive Nature
* Engage with OSPI, ESDs, Principals, and Counselors to view mandates as working towards similar goals .
* Consistent Tracking Software
* Adopt uniform tracking methods and/or invest in similar CRM.
* Staff Capacity and Funding varied over the first year of implementation.
* Adequate funding for staffing.
* No administrative funding was provided to support this work. Consideration of SBCTC's limited capacity is necessary.
* Recommended investment in advanced technology and software.
Mental Health Pilot (Lauren)
* Inadequate campus support for student mental health, such as student isolation, depression, anxiety, difficulty accessing care, extreme wait times, understaffing, and underfunding, predates the taskforce report completed in 2019.
* The COVID-19 pandemic, however, exacerbated preexisting conditions.
* Systemic inequities, disparities and higher levels of harassment and violence, combined with pandemic trauma rendered these populations more vulnerable to mental health challenges and suicide risk than peers from less marginalized groups.
* Arriving from the 2019-20 Mental Health Taskforce report, four colleges (Grays Harbor, Lake Washington, North Seattle, and Wenatchee) were selected and provided $125k/each to participate in the Mental Health Pilot. Each college examined individual, group, and institution wide approaches to the meet the intent of the pilot in a culturally inclusive and compassionate way.
* WHAT WE LEARNED:
* The infusion of $125,000 annually per pilot school provided an overall increase in capacity to provide mental health counseling and services for all students.
* The flexibility in how funds were used allowed one college to change directions and contract with a third party tele-behavioral health provider.
* Increasing visibility of services resulted in increased demand for services.
* RECOMMEND:
* Make permanent existing funding for four pilot colleges; taking away this funding will have negative impacts.
* Expand and extend the current mental health pilot by bringing four more colleges on board and extending the funding through June 2027 (n=8).
* Emphasize a systemwide need to lower student to counselor ratios (range = 900-4800).
* Explore additional partnerships and capacity developing solutions with other state agencies such as the Washington Student Achievement Council and counseling groups.
Proposed Promising Practices Exchange Topics (Lauren)
Lauren provided handout of all submitted topics.
* Summarized topics were widely solicited, provided by SBCTC Directors, and prioritized by Commission leadership teams (IC, WSSSC, RPC, DEOC)
* Top 5 topic areas identified by commissions (below)
* To be reviewed by Ed Services to identify a fall, winter, spring professional development series at the November meeting:
* IC & DEOC: College in the High School and SBCTC Funding Opportunities and Challenges: An in-depth look at the current funding landscape, identifying the opportunities and challenges presented by CiHS and SBCTC funding programs.
* IC: Aligning Guided Pathways with CLNA Strategies: A thorough examination of how planning processes intersect and align between Workforce, Transfer, BEdA, and Equity initiatives, providing a cohesive approach to Guided Pathways.
* DEOC: Lower Columbia College Summer Scholars Program: A program for male BIPOC students enrolled in a college success course attended lunch help sessions. In addition to building a community, they were also invited to give feedback on course content and language used in the admissions process.
* SS: Practical Strategies: How colleges are integrating Starfish, EAB, etc. into the work. How does the tail not wag the dog? Sharing processes that effectively integrate shiny tools into day-to-day operations and equitable impacts.
* SS: Integration of AI. Let's have a shared conversation. What are the things that are going to move our system forward? Is anyone using AI usefully yet? If not, can we bring in external SMEs to help shape our vision and policies for this new reality?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology (Lauren)
i. WSSSC is examining three potential areas for professional development to include staff professional development; policy development; and opportunities for experimentation.
ii. AI will continue to be discussed in the wider commission workplan during the winter meeting.
* Commission Report-Outs (Commission Representatives)
Instruction: Not Present
Information Technology (Rip Heminway)
Highlights:
* Great collaboration between RPC and ITC on a successful data summit this summer at Highline. A goal is for this to be held at least annually to allow us to leverage collective knowledge on ctcLink data structures, data replication processes and reporting strategies.
* ITC meeting last week in Spokane where we agreed on a draft workplan to be finalized between now and the December meeting. Draft workplan includes;
* As per WACTC motion approved in October, Support the development of a Student Success Software.
* As per WACTC motion approved in October; Support the development of ctcLink common processes to improve efficiencies and college workflows.
* Cybersecurity Education and Improvements
* Support student MFA adoption for ctcLink and local college Single Sign On,
* Develop and roll out College Okta login federation with SBCTC to remove student access barriers,
* Support for colleges to adopt new cybersecurity tools and services such as free opportunities through CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency). This would be built into a more focused workplan and mentorship of the IT Security Council.
* AI in higher education
* Developing roadmap for AI development in systems that impact college operations. This includes sharing third party applications that leverage AI, AI Risks, how can be used for cybersecurity enhancement as well as the vulnerabilities that AI will expose.
* Research & Planning (Pending Jason Engle)
Highlights:
* Offered ongoing support to Student Services and other commissions for the Student Success Tool RFP adoption.
Identified three areas for commission workplan; intent to finalize in winter:
1.
2. DEI
3. Accreditation and planning
* Student Services Updates (Michele Waltz)
Highlights Include:
1. RFP for Student Success tool
* This is a huge WSSSC priority for which the commission would like a significant stake in conversation and decision making. The shared development of guiding principles for decision making is paramount.
* There was note of the surprise of the motion passing so quickly with limited communication.
* WSSSC council staff have voiced concern about the lingering physical and emotional toll from ctcLink adoption, reduced staffing levels, existing staff retention and turnover issues; fear for similar implementation without teaching and learning support; appropriate staffing budgets to support the implementation; clarifying timelines, and scale of system adoption.
* Like any change management process, we hope to carry the lessons and principles learned from ctcLink which include:
i. Understanding the need for change and acknowledging the existing pain points and limitations is crucial to kickstart this transformation.
ii. Once the need for change is established, the next step involves defining clear objectives, outcomes, and business processes.
iii. Selecting the right system is a critical decision. It involves thorough research, consultation, and sometimes trial and error. The chosen system should align with the defined objectives, be user-friendly, and have the capacity to adapt to evolving needs.
iv. System adoption is not just about technology; it's about people. Creating a supportive environment and open communication is essential.
v. Expecting some level of disruption and being prepared to address it is key. Testing and adjusting will need to be normalized.
vi. Patience is perhaps most crucial during the post-adoption phase. Reinforcing a long-term focus will be critical for all stakeholders.
vii. Continuous Improvement
1. FAFSA Simplification: We continue to learn and hope to preserve and support our FA teams as we head into this new model. Support from the presidents in this effort (particularly implementation timelines and impacts on SEM) is much appreciated.
2. Legislative Agenda: There are a number of items directly impacting Student Services. We would like to reframe the recent legislative move toward higher education as social services agencies, and instead reinscribe our primary mission of teaching, learning, and student development. While we welcome community-based partnerships, we want to prioritize our most critical higher ed staffing needs and functions (such as financial aid, advising, tutoring, mental health support, athletics, etc.). Recent moves to reposition community colleges as social services agencies spread our limited staffing too thin and divert us from our central mission.
* Strengthening Council/Commission Structure
* Postponed discussion until a quorum is present.
Meeting called to close at 3:54pm
[Compass]
Lauren Hibbs, Ed.D
Director, Student Services
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
lhibbs at sbctc.edu* o: 360-704-4334 *
sbctc.edu<https://www.sbctc.edu/> * Twitter: @SBCTCWashington<https://twitter.com/SBCTCWashington> * Facebook: @WASBCTC<https://www.facebook.com/wasbctc/>
SBCTC Vision:
"Leading with racial equity, our colleges maximize student potential and transform lives within a culture of belonging that advances racial, social, and economic justice in service to our diverse communities."
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