As Richmond Community College President Dr. Sharon Morrissey guided the Board of Trustees through her last meeting as president Tuesday night, presentations by four faculty and staff members proved the college is taking action on findings resulting from the development of a strategic plan developed a year ago.

“After completing extensive listening sessions with faculty, staff, students, and community members, we compiled data on both counties and revised our mission and vision statements and developed new strategic directives. Our leadership team spent a day sorting through our many goals to come up with four to focus on immediately. Faculty and staff were assigned to four teams and have worked very hard over the past nine months to come up with ways to improve our services to students,” Morrissey said.

The directives involved strengthening and expanding general education core courses, increasing the graduation rates of underserved and underachieving students, improving advising of all students to improve retention and graduation rates and exploring new programs and courses in the areas of industrial, engineering, construction and transportation technologies.

Arts and Sciences Division Chair Kevin Parsons said faculty have created student handouts which outline the learning outcomes for each course and the instructor’s expectation of the students.

His team will take these outlines and develop five to seven measurable learning outcomes that will strengthen the division which includes social sciences, humanities, natural sciences and mathematics.

Students taking these general education courses and transferring to senior institutions will have a stronger foundation which will increase their success rates.

Developmental Studies Chair Sharon Reid found 60 percent of students entering RCC take remedial courses to improve their skills levels and their chances of being successful in curriculum courses. This is fast becoming a nationwide statistic.

“We found one of the largest barriers to students is math. Surprisingly, after looking at our data, we found students in the 19- to 24-year-old range need the most remediation. Two years ago we began offering Math 050, which is very basic math and found we needed to reduce the number of students in a class because they need more one-on-one attention. We’re monitoring the results of that action to determine if it improved student retention,” said Reid.

Reading and English skills are also a problem for many students. This team is recommending students scoring below the 10th percentile be referred to the college’s Basic Skills programs for remediation at no charge. The challenge will be to get the students to be committed to improving their skills so they can return to campus and be successful in curriculum programs.

Reid said students who enter now with very low scores may be required to take two years of remedial courses before even attending a course in their major. By then, they have exhausted their financial aid resources.

“We’re also recommending short-term courses during the summer to help high school students who have completed the higher level math courses the opportunity to brush up on algebra skills so they can pass our ACCUPLACER assessment for entrance into the college. Many of them have not had algebra since junior high, so it’s not an ability issue,” she said.

Director of Counseling Sharon Goodman said students are not taking full advantage of the guidance provided by their advisors, which can result in reduced retention and graduation rates.

“It is not unusual for students to think of their advisors only at registration times, but they actually need to remain in contact with them throughout their time at RCC. We’ve begun giving students in our College Student Success course a checklist of questions to ask their advisors as a class assignment. We’re also developing checklists for students and advisors to use to make sure all courses for graduation are taken so students graduate on time. We will monitor the results and implement new strategies as needed,” she said.

Director of Engineering and Industrial Technology Amir Niczad brought his team’s recommendation to implement automotive systems technology, construction management technology, tool and die manufacturing, electrical power production technology, architectural technology and sustainability technology. Courses that could possibly be taught through the college’s Continuing Education Department deal with communications, data and TV cabling; security and fire alarm systems; and fabrication.

The Board immediately discussed funding sources and possible partnerships with industries.

Following the presentations, the Board took action of the following items:

Renewal of an agreement with Fayetteville Technical Community College to offer the Biotechnology curriculum.

An amendment to the Associate Degree Nursing Program admissions policy stating admission decisions are based upon the Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS) and achievement in related courses.

An internal audit report for Continuing Education classes.

Routine budget transfers.