Overview
One reason community college students may not persist is they lack resources to meet their basic needs. ACC Student Government reported, based on survey results, that ACC students have unmet needs but are often unaware of available resources.
To address this, ACC initiated a pilot to assess student needs and address them using the College Student Inventory (CSI) in July 2022. The CSI is the foundation of the RMS (Ruffalo Noel Levitz Retention Management System). The CSI Form C is designed especially for non-traditional learners and consists of 74 items subsumed in 13 different scales. These scales are in three main categories: Academic Motivation, General Coping Skills, and Receptivity to Support Services.
An ACC committee developed 16 needs assessment questions to add to the CSI. The Inventory and Needs Assessment provides Academic Guidance Team (AGT) members, Student Advocates, Student Life, Human Services, Clinical Counseling, and others with an Advisor/Counselor Report.
Accomplishments
During the summer, Student Advocates contacted new students who completed the CSI to help them with resources. During the fall and spring semesters, assigned area of study advisors and success coaches reached out to their assigned students who completed the CSI. Names and contact information of students who indicated food insecurity were sent to Student Life during the fall semester to connect with food resources. Names and contact information of students who indicated a need for addiction recovery were sent to the ACC Human Services Department. Human Services, in collaboration with Student Affairs, established addiction recovery groups to support these students. Names and contact information of students who indicated they were homeless or needed help with child care were sent to Student Advocates to provide housing and child care resources. Students who indicated an interest in mental health resources were referred to ACC Clinical Counseling.
Additionally, once a student completed the CSI, they received access to a Student Report with links to ACC resources, and about 3,900 students received information about these resources.
The Office of Institutional Research and Analytics analyzed survey data for 3,896 unique respondents who completed the ACC-developed items on the survey between July 2022 and March 2023. Some key findings are below (full findings available upon request).
Demographic characteristics of the respondent population were:
- 6% Asian
- 10% Black/African-American
- 34% Hispanic/Latino
- 38% White
- 11% from another race/ethnicity group.
- 36% were the first in their family to go to college
- 6% were military veterans
- 23% identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or asexual
- 21% were married or with a domestic partner
- 52% planned to work more than 20 hours per week during the school year.
Of those who completed the assessment:
- 37% had no health insurance
- 39% experienced housing insecurity
- 36% asked for ACC District Clinical Services information
- 29% had transportation issues
- 28% reported food insecurity
- 24% were caregivers of children under 18
- 16% reported a disability requiring accommodations
- 10% reported homelessness
- 10% had unmet child care needs
- 8% had legal issues they didn’t have the finances to address
- 6% were full-time caregivers to someone over 18
- 5% were in addiction recovery and asked for information about the Human Services Department collegiate recovery program
Impact
The CSI allowed us to provide students with a proactive approach in supporting their needs and helped maximize their student success. The CSI helped us identify students who needed extra support and who are at risk of academic or personal challenges by providing them resources for personalized support, which improved student retention and engagement.
In this FY23 pilot, about 3,900 students completed the assessment for academic motivation, general coping skills, receptivity to support services and resource needs. Resource links were provided and students were contacted by Student Advocates, Advising Specialists, Clinical Counselors, Student Life, and others to help students meet tutoring, child care, food insecurity, housing, transportation, disability, addiction recovery, and mental health needs.
As of January 30, 2023, the rate of students enrolled at ACC in fall 2022 who completed the ACC-developed survey items by September 30, 2022, and persisted to spring 2023 was 79.7% (1,350 of 1,693 students). The persistence rate to spring 2023 for all students enrolled at ACC in fall 2022 was 69.6% (24,100 of 34,634 students).
Next Steps
The Student Access & Social Support Resources Department will operationalize the CSI to assess new and continuing student needs for the 2023–2024 academic year. The logistical and budgetary implications of a decision to require the assessment of all incoming non-high school students will be evaluated. Along with this, resource availability and the need for expansion in high-need areas will be evaluated and communicated to stakeholders to meet our students‘ needs and help them succeed.
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