2019 Community College Showcase: Promoting Equity and Student Success.

Infographic for Community College Showcase

Tuesday, July 28, 2019

Location: NJCU, Gilligan Student Union Building, Multipurpose Room, 2039 Kennedy Blvd., Jersey City, NJ 07035

2019 Event Program

Over 200 community college professionals attended the SOLD OUT 2019 Community College Showcase:  Promoting Equity and Student Success on July 28, 2019.  The conference committee received over 70 proposals for the conference. Here are a few quotes from participants:

"High quality presentations, information, and amazing leaders!"

"Strong opening and closing speakers, combined with a great variety of breakout sessions made this a very worthwhile conference.  I liked that there was something for faculty and administrators."

"It was a great balance of networking, keynotes that were inspirational, and small group presentations that were insightful."

Presentation Handouts:  When available, presentation materials are linked to titles.

Next Generation Equity: Leading from Where You Are

Michael Lawrence Collins

Michael Lawrence Collins is a vice president at JFF. He leads the postsecondary team, developing and advocating for state policies on behalf of national initiatives, such as Achieving the Dream, Completion by Design, and the Student Success Center Network. A policy researcher, analyst, writer, and strategy consultant, Michael helps states develop and implement public policies designed to increase the number of low-income and minority students who successfully transition from high school into college, persist, and earn credentials and degrees.

Michael leads JFF’s Postsecondary State Network, which provides access to state lawmakers, faculty, and college leaders in almost half of the community colleges in the nation, educating over 50 percent of the nation’s students in public two-year colleges. Michael regularly convenes education thought leaders and collaborates with public policy decision makers, state and national intermediary organizations, philanthropic organizations, academic researchers, and nationally recognized policy experts. Together, they design and execute on-the-ground policy/action agendas for dramatically improving the rates at which students reach their individual education goals and states reach their statewide education attainment and workforce goals. 

Before joining JFF, Michael served as assistant commissioner for participation and success at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. In that capacity, he worked with K–12, higher education, the business community, the Texas Legislature, and community-based organizations to increase college access and success.

Michael earned a master's degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas–Austin.

 

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Breakout sessions

Session Room

Featured Session: (Un)Stable Identities: Diversity and Inclusion in the Community College Classroom, Joyce Maxwell, Assistant Professor of English, Union County College, M. Irene Oujo, Sr. Lecturer/Asst. Director of Latino Promise & HACER, Fairleigh Dickinson University

In the field of education as well as in the classroom, social constructions of identity have remained a constant, part of a humanist, rational, Subject position that is immovable, fixed, and static. Relatively unchallenged, these conceptions continue to have an impact on pedagogical practices, as well as the research and theory about curriculum, education, and teaching. Current disruptions in identity, for example, call for alternative theoretical framings, in-the-moment teaching methods, and destabilized practices particularly as educators contend with current public discourse that too often silences a multiplicity of voices. Mindfulness methodologies offer an opportunity through reflective inquiry and engagement to interrupt prescriptive models of professional development, thus allowing practitioners to become more reflective and mindful of their own practices and help construct meaningful experiences in the classroom.

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Featured Session:  A Conversation with Community College Leaders, Paula Pando, President, Reynolds Community College (Moderator), Karen Archambault, Vice President, Enrollment Management and Student Success, Rowan College at Burlington County, Samuel Hirsch, Vice President for Academic and Student Success, Community College of Philadelphia, Christopher Shults, Dean of Institutional Effectiveness and Strategic Planning, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Michael Sparrow, Dean, Enrollment Management and Retention, Northampton Community College, David Stout, President, Brookdale Community College

Multi-purpose Room

Unnecessary Developmental Mathematics Education Holds our Students Back, Lori Ann Austin, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Raritan Valley Community College

In the USA, the current unnecessary developmental mathematics education requirements at community colleges are impeding the graduation rates of all students. Using independent research and data from national publications, evidence suggests that the current over-reliance on ineffective models of placement and remediation have a negative impact on all students and disproportionately affect minority students. Fortunately, changes to long-term practices can reverse this negative impact while decreasing the Achievement Gap

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Applying Holistic and Technology-Mediated Strategies to Serve, Retain, and Support Student Success, Alex Salas, Dean, Division of Innovation, Online Education & Student Success, Nichol Killian, Success Coach, Jehan Mohamed, Success Coach, Victoria Bowman, Success Coach,Mercer County Community College

MCCC's Success Team will showcase the iterative holistic coaching practice at Mercer County Community College that is centered on a technology-mediated, tiered and shared advising model that has enhanced the college’s ability to connect with the entire student body. This approach has fueled dynamic advising structures to address ever-changing student needs in anticipation of future trends.  

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The Family Connection, Theresa Dereme, Assistant Dean of Student Services, Suffolk County Community College

Many of the students that attend Community Colleges are first generation college students.  Their families may have had limited access to higher education.  It doesn’t serve the student well when we have processes in place that exclude their families. The processes are adding to their feeling of marginalization.  The equity begins when we welcome students with their families and show respect and an understanding of the novelty college life represents to these families.   We are all educators and we serve to educate the entire community.  Imagine the proud moment when the student and family set foot on campus.  Inclusion means welcoming the student and ensuring that we appreciate the path their family took them on to bring to our doors.

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Surveying Inclusion & Equity Climate: BMCC’s Use of Charrettes – Findings from Year One, Peter Hoontis, Assistant Professor, Business Management, Borough of Manhattan Community College

This presentation will deliver the process used and the results achieved from the first year of BMCC’s Inclusion and Equity Task force efforts to assess the equity and inclusion climate of the college community. The panel will present the model employed for surveying the college community: defining the process from both a technical and research perspective and delivering the preliminary findings of the Charrettes Process. The panel will also define the Charrette process and how it might be useful in surveying the campus as an alternative research method. Participants attending this panel will view first-hand how BMCC’s designing our future together effort was launched with a focus on surveying the college community using Charrettes to ignite a discussion on equity and inclusion.

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A Case Study of Food Insecurity and Emergency Aid on a Community College Campus and Its Impact on Student Success, Elizabeth Basile, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, Brian Mitra, Dean of Student Affairs, Kingsborough Community College

Nationally, community college students are experiencing a crisis of general needs insecurity.   At a time when a college degree is essential for family and work opportunities, spending on public higher education has decreased, while the price of college has increased, financial aid declined, and college debt is exceptionally high.  Among the most critical examples is significant food insecurity.

Kingsborough Community College (KCC) developed a strategic plan to address this growing need and roadblock to student success.   The Vice President of Advancement and the Dean of Students will present a case study of collaboration aimed at addressing food insecurity on campus.

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The Impact of Financial Aid on Student Success & Promoting Equity in the College Experience, Jeanine Murphy, Financial Aid Counselor, Jared Dowd, Financial Aid Counselor, Suffolk County Community College

Participants will learn financial resources, such as scholarships, to empower community college students to fulfill Maslow’s basic hierarchy of physiological needs; creating equity so students are able to focus on their academic endeavors.  Participants will explore the importance of bridging the role of academic advising in conjunction with the financial aid process.  Attendees will explore the significance of scratching more than just the surface during counseling sessions to lead to higher retention and graduation.  By introducing new strategies in the community college environment, Suffolk County Community College has implemented a 2018 retention initiative for our at-risk student population and participants will learn successful practices for student service areas.      

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12:15 p.m. – 1:15p.m. Lunch Discussions

During lunch, please join one of the following conversations:

Session Room

Serving Veteran Students, Wilfred Cotto – Student Life Manager, Veterans Services, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Jana Keith Jennings and Nathalie McPhun, Graduate Social Work Interns - Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College

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Meeting the Needs of Student Parents, Shirlgandy Saint Jean, Project Coordinator, Pathways for Expecting and Parenting Students, and Cecilia Scott-Croff, Executive Director, Early Childhood Center, Borough of Manhattan Community College

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Underrepresented STEM Majors, Dan Lopez, Associate Professor, Math, Brookdale Community College

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Helping Students Develop “Gritty” Narrative, Sabrina Mathues, Instructor/Department Chair, College Success, Brookdale Community College

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Experiential Learning, Peter Cronrath, Instructor, Business, Sharon Daughtry, College Lecturer, Business, Marissa Lontoc, College Lecturer and Coordinator of Culinary Arts - Baking and Pastry Option Hudson County Community College

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General Networking/Open Conversations

Multi-Purpose Room

EDLD Community College Leadership Program Cohort I, Lunch with Michael Collins, Hana Lahr, and Paula Pando (By Invitation Only)

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1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Breakout sessions

Session Room

Featured Session: Connection, Community, Completion (Credentialing): When Life Happens, Joe Falco, Coordinator, Connection Center, Rockland Community College

Rockland Community College is one of five colleges nationwide to pilot the Community School model. A holistic approach to student advocacy, the Community School model addresses the conditions of poverty and the barriers students face to successfully stay in school and earn their desired credential(s). Students continually struggle with health and human services life happens needs, while colleges struggle to meet these growing non-academic needs of their students, due to budgetary constraints.  Applying the Community Schools model to the community college setting has required us to create innovative ways of collaborating with community partners to help our students succeed. 

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Featured Session: LGBTQI+ Programming in Urban Higher Education: Identifying & Confronting Community Tensions, Emalinda L. McSpadden, Assistant Professor, Psychology, Bronx Community College

The current social justice climate in this country has made it increasingly necessary to create new inclusion-focused spaces and programming in urban community college settings, particularly for underserved LGBTQI+ college students of color. This presentation will describe the steps and stakeholders on community college campuses most integral to the process of successfully establishing novel LGBTQI+ programming, including constructing supportive arguments and conducting campus needs-assessments specific to LGBTQI+ students, faculty and staff on campus. The discussion will also include the use of a workbook designed to aid in the process of creating new LGBTQI+ spaces on campuses where none exist.

Multi-purpose Room

Ready for READY: Reconsidering Developmental English Education Utilizing the Strengths of Students, Christopher Cruz Cullari, Assistant Professor, English, Amy Vondrak, Professor, English, Mercer County Community College

There is an old narrative that suggests that only the most capable students excel in school, go on to study at selective colleges, land promising positions in their chosen careers, rise to the highest levels in their professions, and claim leadership positions in society. This is a faulty narrative. Mercer County Community College and faculty members from the English Department offer a counter-narrative through READY, Realizing Educational Access and Development for You. READY is comprehensive approach to developmental English that draws from best practices in literacy education, composition studies, and student development. Learn about the process of launching the program, its pedagogical foundations, and how it compliments New Jersey’s Guided Pathways.

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FYE and Educational Planning: Creating Pathways to Success and Completion, Michele Campagna, Assistant Dean, Learning Initiatives & Success, Westchester Community College

This session will explore how FYE program components can support the goals of career and academic pathways models at community colleges. Integrating structured curricular and co-curricular initiatives in the first year that teach students to make informed educational decisions and guide them to develop and complete education plans are essential components of pathways efforts. We will review how to strategically align curricular and co-curricular practices such as major and career exploration, intrusive academic advising, learning communities, and first-year seminars to support the student success goals of pathways programs on two-year campuses.

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Reaching the “T.O.P.” Faster: An Overview of Intensive Programs for Pre-College-Ready Students, Patrizia Barroero, Transitional Program Coordinator, Jenny Bobea, Former Transitional Program Coordinator, Honors Program Coordinator, and Joe Caniglia, Professor, English, Hudson County Community College

The Transitional Opportunity Programs  (T.O.P.) at HCCC are designed to provide faster college credit course accessibility for new students who place into developmental courses or for continuing qualifying students who did not exit their developmental or ESL course in the prior semester. The programs are tailored to offer an alternative route to foundation classes to improve placement test scores, bring students to college-ready level, and save them money and time. The presentation will offer detailed information on our mission, best practices for implementation of elements of student success in the fast-paced learning environment, our curriculum design and our assessment, and data gathering procedures
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Increasing College-Level Math Success Through Acceleration, Support, and Low-Cost Course Materials, Jennifer Applebee, Assistant Professor, Mathematics, Adrian Novio, Instructor, Mathematics, Middlesex County College

The Middlesex County College mathematics department transformed their developmental math sequence by implementing an accelerated learning program, which includes two developmental courses with co-requisite support.  Since the program was initiated, they have realized a 15% increase in the number of students completing their first college-level math course within two years.  To supplement acceleration as a tool for improving equity and success, the department has also begun a wide-scale OER implementation.  In this session, two faculty members will detail the accelerated learning program, present evidence of its success, describe their initial efforts at implementing OER, and discuss future challenges.

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The Road to Equity in Education is Paved with Collaboration and Connection, Anissa Moody, Associate Professor, Ashley Torres, Student Researcher, Denzil Rodriguez, Research Assistant, Queensboro Community College

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) can be an effective educational approach for increasing student retention and student engagement. While broadly used in graduate and professional education in the health sciences, it is less widely used in undergraduate programs. PBL is a student-centered instructional strategy where learners are tasked with critically analyzing and solving problems. There are many positive implications for diverse populations; PBL transcends language barriers, cultural behaviors, or gender and class social norms that can negatively impact student learning.  This study investigated the impact of implementing PBL on student learning outcomes over two semesters
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Strategies for Implementing Inclusion and Equity in the Community College Classroom, Catherine Roche, Faculty, Business Department, Eileen MacAvery Kane, Department Chair, Art, Rockland Community College

Diversity advocate Vernā Myers makes the distinction between diversity and inclusion very clear in this quote, “Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.

Despite the fact that all students are not created equal when they arrive at our institutions, we must ensure equity—providing all students with an equal chance for success. The presenters will focus on strategies for adopting a welcoming, respectful, and responsive inclusive classroom that includes, meets, and supports the needs of all students regardless of their knowledge, differences, and abilities.

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2:45 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. Breakout sessions

Session Room

Featured Session: Removing the Remediation Barrier: Lessons from the Field, Karla Fuller, Associate Professor, Biology, Naveen Seth, Professor, Business, Guttman Community College

This presentation explores the design and implementation of an interdisciplinary first-year experience consisting of three integrated components containing embedded developmental content. This model allows students to forego traditional remediation pathways and build developmental skills in math, reading and writing while earning college credit. Through the use of best practices, including contextualized learning and learning communities, we set out to improve retention and graduation rates for underprepared community college students. The data from our graduating cohort show that our model has improved 2- and 3-year completion rates compared to other community colleges.

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Featured Session: Guided Pathways:  Where are We? Michael Collins, Vice President, Jobs for the Future and Hana Lahr, Research Associate, Community College Research Center

In this interactive session, the presenters will provide an overview of how previous student success efforts informed the field’s current understanding of institutional transformation and guided pathways. Then, we will explain how states are leading reforms efforts, and how institutions are responding to the call to increase student success and close equity gaps.

Multi-purpose Room

First-Generation Community College Students: Casting a Social Safety Net to Ensure Success, Ben Laudicina, Associate Professor, Counseling, Malika Batchie, Assistant Director of Campus Activities and Multicultural Affairs, Suffolk County Community College

The fact that a significant number of first-generation community college students drop out within the first year speaks to the unique struggle they face.  Although previous studies have observed this phenomenon, not many have purposefully explored the experiences of the students themselves.  Student success is more than just a set of skills or intrinsic abilities.  Community colleges have a crucial role in facilitating networks that enable the acquisition of social capital (belongingness)—an equally important subject deserving attention and resources.  This workshop will provide for much needed discourse of the intersectionality of first-generation students, the systemic and institutional barriers to success, evidence-based practices and approaches to student support and services, building celebratory campus environments, and strategies for developing networked campus approaches to increase support structures.  

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Redefining Student Success: Advising as a Path for Improving Student Outcomes in the Community College, Karen L. Archambault, VP, Enrollment Management & Student Success, Rowan College at Burlington County / NACADA President, Jarrett J. Kealey, Director, Advising, Rowan College at Burlington County

National conversations around student success are occurring in a way that is different than ever before. Among national organizations, there is an even louder chorus of calls for: examining retention and graduation rates; delivery of developmental education; and equity between sub-populations. Advising has been a vital part of these conversations and should be given the potential that exists to influence change, especially at community colleges which often serve the most vulnerable of our students. Join us as we discuss the role of advising in improving student outcomes including the changing nature of advising in the community college and the best practices for improving student outcomes.

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Wellness and Emotional Literacy in the "Safe and Well" Classroom, Laura McCullough, Professor, Humanities, Brookdale Community College


Colleges across the country are seeing a spike in student anxiety, depression, and mental and emotional fragility and instability, which is impacting all areas of education and comes up in writing classes from composition to creative writing. Often faculty are working in anxiety and fear of emotional triggering in the classroom. Students are requiring more and more accommodations. But what if we could shift our pedagogical paradigms to include the “whole being” on an intra--, inter--, and transpersonal basis, fostering individual and communal safety and wellness into our educational aims? This presentation will focus on reimagining curricular practices and workshop management strategies infusing what neuroscientists now know about positive epigenetic and brain changes, and will draw on polyvagel theory, heart math, mirror neurons and empathy research, and what trauma experts such as Bessel Van der Kolk and Marc Wolynn have explored about the use of narrative, storification, and meaning making in writing to foster post traumatic growth, emotional resiliency, and bio-emotional healing. Writing classes can be made safer for all triggering issues, psycho-emotional health can be enhanced, and faculty can be given resources to understand changing needs in students individually and in group settings, to develop more resilient teachers and healthier educational settings, as well as produce writing that is richer, deeper, and more attuned to human complexity while also focusing on skills, aesthetics,  and craft development.

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Open the Gate: Accelerated Learning for Underserved Nontraditional Learners, Francie Woodford, Associate Professor, English, Community College of Philadelphia

Most college preparatory programs are designed with a hierarchical structure that may hinder student success in typical gatekeeping fashion. Using Bloom's Taxonomy with the findings of cognitive science, however, we can open the gate to higher learning as we increase student motivation. To this end, we may need to unlearn outdated teaching methods in order to redesign courses that will reach all our students. The pedagogy of Accelerated Learning includes methods that encourage students to succeed by combining innovative ideas (such as backward curriculum design, thinking-focused pedagogy, growth-centered assessment, low-stakes assignments and triage) with the traditional scaffolding of Bloom’s Taxonomy

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Do Students Engage More with Course Materials That Are Provided to Them Rather than Purchased by Them? Kathryn Suk, Associate Professor, Education and Student Success, Raritan Valley Community College

Through application of the COUP Framework provided by the Open Education Group in concert with the Open Textbook Network, researchers can examine faculty, student, and institutional impact related to "cost, outcomes, use, and perceptions" when open materials are implemented in educational settings. Investigators often focus on faculty and student "use" of open materials in regard to their production and consumption of the same and their application of the various levels of copyright within the Creative Commons licensing models. During this presentation, attendees will be invited to consider the "U" in the framework through another lens. During her dissertation research, the presenter used a functional definition of "use" to mean the level of student engagement, or time spent using course materials, in a community college student success course. She will share the analysis of learning analytics data that was generated from two consecutive fall terms: the first, when students were required to purchase commercially published course materials that included an access code to a publisher's digital learning support platform, and the second, when students were provided no-cost (free and open) course materials via integration in the campus LMS. An independent samples t-test of the mean times from each sample were compared, and the results may surprise you!

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3:45 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.  Closing Plenary

Taking Action to Promote Equity

Paula Pando Event Headshot

Dr. Paula Pando was appointed the 4th president of Reynolds Community College in Richmond VA in September 2018. Reynolds is a majority minority institution, serving 15,000 students each year in the greater Richmond region on three campuses. Prior to this role, Dr. Pando had a distinguished 25 year career in higher education in NJ, with over 15 of those years at Hudson County Community College where she served as Senior Vice President for Student and Educational Services. In 2017, she was one of 38 educational leaders from across the country selected to participate in the prestigious Aspen Presidential Fellowship for Community College Excellence. She holds a BA from Stockton University, an MA from Saint Peter’s University, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Rowan University. The daughter of Chilean immigrants, Dr. Pando is fluent in both Spanish and English and was the first in her family to attend college.

Want to earn an Ed.D. in Community College Leadership? 

NJCU offers a practice-focused 55-credit online program with 1-week summer residency requirements that is designed to be completed by working professionals in 3 years. 

Doctoral students get the opportunity to have lunch with plenary presenters during the conference!

Learn More about the Ed.D. in Community College Leadership