2015 NYSFAAA ConferenceWednesday, October 28,201511:00am to 12:00pm

STUDENT SUCCESS !

Patricia Thompson, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Student Financial

Aid Services

State University of New York (SUNY) System Administration

Email: Patricia.thompson@suny.edu

James Trimboli, Director of Financial Aid

SUNY Niagara County Community College (NCCC)

Email: jtrimboli@niagaracc.suny.edu

Carissa Uhlman, Vice President of Student Success

Inceptia

Email: carissau@inceptia.org

Presenters

Discuss known and new strategies to improve studentsuccess including tips for communicating with millennialstudents. Presenters will review/seek feedback on"Best Practices" and will identify emerging strategies forcommunicating with students- including the use of SocialMedia Messaging and Student Blogs.  

Session Objective

• The nation’s largest comprehensive system of public higher education • 64 institutions: including research universities, acad. med centers, liberal arts colleges, cc’s, agric. + tech. institutions and a growing online learning network • 465,000 students and 2.4 mil alumni worldwide • 88,000 faculty + staff

SUNY is …SUNY is…

• A traditional community college located between Buffalo, New York and Niagara Falls, New York- two of the poorest cities in America • The first SUNY CC to participate in the Smart Track Student Engagement Project • Continues to show downward CDR trend

NCCC is…

Building upon nearly 30 years of higher education experience, helping more than 2 million students in their pursuit of higher education and financial management success, Inceptia was the successful bidder and vendor for SUNY Smart Track’s Financial Literacy Initiative.

Inceptia is…

Student Success with a Student Retention Twist!

Session Concept

Who is a Millennial and Why Should We Care?

Who is a Millennial and Why Should We Care?

Millennials, defined as between 18-34 in 2015, represents the largest student-college population group

Who is a Millennial and Why Should We Care?

According to projections by the U.S. Census Center, during 2015 Millennials are projected tosurpass the Baby Boomers as the nations largest living generation.

Just the facts…

• It is well know that Student Success is directly equated to academic completion;

• Equally well known is that… Effective student communication is directly related to Student Success!

Just the facts (cont’d)…

• Annual Freshman Surveys, such as the distinguished Ruffalo Cody-Noel Levitz Annual Freshman Attitudes Report, continue to report that a large percentage of incoming freshman are:

• Not academically prepared, and

• Experiencing financial distress with both current finances and their ability to pay for college

What can you do to improve Student Success for incoming students and all students?

STAY TUNED!!!

How to Improve Student Success

The 2014 Ruffalo Cody High School Students’ Perceptions and Preferences for Communicating With Colleges report revealed that the majority of incoming college students…

How to Improve Student Success

… prefer to communicate via email!

Let’s remember that!

How to Improve Student Success

There are some statistical theories and social media assumptions which may imply that texting is the preferred method for students to communicate with friends… but not Campus Administrators

How to Improve Student Success

• A 2014 Pew Internet and American Life Project Report also found that 64% of online teens have participated in multiple content-creating activities on the internet including online blogs

• Does your campus currently promote the use of relevant ‘student themed blogs’ to enhance communications and Student Success?

• Carissa will have more to share on that later…

According to an early 2015 PEW Research Center Teens, and Social Media and Technology report:

• at least 91% of teens either regularly or occasionally go online from a mobile device;

• 91% of all teen cell owners use text messaging – either directly through their mobile phones or through an app or a website;

According to an early 2015 PEW Research Center Teens, and Social Media and Technology report:

• the Mean Number of texts received/or sent by teens in a day is 67 and the Medium Number is 30;

According to an early 2015 PEW Research Center Teens, and Social Media and Technology report:

• Facebook is the most popular of all the social media platforms; and

• More than half of all teens report using Instagram to share photos and video with friends

• Students’ natural uses of Facebook (social information seeking, reflecting on their experiences, exchanging academic information, etc.) promote social and academic integration (Selwyn, 2009).

• Facebook use has direct impact on: self-esteem, satisfaction with university life, and students’ performance proficiency (Yu, Tian, Vogel, & Kwok, 2010).

Social Media and Retention

• Interacting with students on Twitter as part of a first year seminar improved their engagement and their academic performance in all courses (Junco, Heiberger & Loken, 2011).

• Students who used Twitter were more likely to persist: 88% of students in the Twitter group persisted into the second year, as compared with only 70% of students in the control group (Junco et al., 2011; Junco, Heiberger & Alonso-Garcia, in preparation).

• Students who used social networking sites to learn about on-campus activities participated in face-to-face activities at higher levels and were retained at higher rates (Ward, 2012).

Social Media and Retention

• Social listening is a good place to start

• Develop a strategic plan first

• Feedback can be your friend

Financial Aid Best Practices

• Give students something with which to engage

• Use peer stories to lend credibility

Inceptia Best Practices

NCCC Student Success Examples

Default Threat to Community Colleges

DefaultStudent loan default is an institutional problem not a financial aid problem. • All departments on campus must take a proactive role in

preventing default. (including the President ,Vice Presidents, and Area Managers).

• 3 leading factors of Default prevention are:• Retention• Financial Literacy• Student Social Economic Background

NCCC Student Success Examples

Default Threat to Community Colleges

• Not only are community college students borrowing more money, community colleges now have the largest two-year default rates of any higher education sector according to recent U.S Department of Education study.

• Three-year community college CDR was nearly 21 percent for FY 2010 cohort.

• (Source NASFAA Reporter Brittany Hackett)

NCCC Student Success Examples

How is NCCC Reducing its Default Rate?• Student loan clerk hired to work the NSLDS Delinquent

Borrow report(phone and emails)• Partnership with Consumer Credit Counseling of New

York (Only state accredited debt counseling agency)• Working with Nelnet (proactive approach) • Student engagement with financial literacy component

(website, touch points for students, open houses, and orientations)

• (NCCC’s default rate dropped almost 5% in the last two years just using these prevention methods)

NCCC Student Success Examples

NCCC in 2012• In 2012 NCCC’s 3 year default rate was 20.4%

• In 2013 NCCC’s 3 year Default rate dropped to 19.5%

• In 2014 NCCC’s 3 year Default rate fell again to 15.6 %

• In 2015 NCCC’s 3 year Default rate is 14.1%

• NCCC’s Default rate has dropped 6.5% in the last 4 years.

Important to note that NCCC is located between Buffalo and Niagara Falls, two of the poorest cities in America.

NCCC Student Success Examples

SUNY Smart Track & NCCC• NCCC is the first pilot community college In the SUNY’s

Smart Track Default Prevention Program.

• Smart Track involves using NSLDS reporting data to

extract student loan borrower information to establish a proactive communication platform to prevent student loan default and promote financial literacy.

NCCC Student Success Examples

• Smart Track Student Engagement Project

• SUNY-Nelnet Withdrawn Borrower Project

• Smart Track Re-enroll to Complete Project

• Smart Track Financial Literacy Website • These services reach prospective students, current students, their families, and SUNY alumni

SUNY is …SUNY Student Success Examples

Open forum for session attendees to share unique or proven methods of Student Success-including examples of effective communications.

Student Success is directly related to College Completion and …

Effective Student Communication isdirectly related to Student Success!

So keep sharing those effective Student Success ideas… as it’s all about COLLEGE COMPLETION!

Questions?