Excels
A Strategic Initiative for the Future of Erie Community College
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Excels Erie Community College (ECC) has developed a planning initiative called ECC Excels, informed through goals stated within the SUNY Excels Performance System, and with a specific adherence to ECC’s enduring education-based mission. The initiative is meant to tackle current institutional challenges while, at the same time, capitalize on opportunities available within our college and across the reinvigorated Buffalo Niagara region. Funding of ECC Excels requires an increase of at least $4 million in operating support and a target of $5 million per year over five (5) years for a total of $25M in capital support. The initiative will address challenges concerning: – – – – –
Enrollment Funding Infrastructure Labor Technology
ECC Excels focuses on five areas of growth, each with a set of goals and with several specific outcomes: Access Goals • Educating ECC students for the jobs of tomorrow • Continue success of WNY Workforce Development Center • Increase student and staff diversity • Develop new offerings • Expand online course offerings • Maximize ECC’s student recruitment plan • Accurately forecast student enrollment Completion Goals • Improve student retention • Decrease time to graduation/completion • Simplify student orientation • Expand online orientation programs • Increase transfer rate • Help drop-outs “drop back in”
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Engagement Goals • Gain approval of ECC’s START-UP New York plan • Continue to be the regional leader in Workforce Development • Engage the communities around ECC • Nurture and expand public/private partnerships • Create a high-performance culture centered upon student success • Increase philanthropy to ECC Operations Goals • Settle outstanding labor contracts • Complete Academic Master Plan • Enhance Facilities Master Plan • Create and execute campus beautification/enhancement plan • Establish a signature ECC School of Nursing Downtown • Pursue student housing at all campuses to increase enrollment and reduce chargebacks • Address deferred maintenance projects • Increase productivity and efficiencies • Construct the STEM Building • Upgrade existing infrastructure
Success Goals • Decrease student default • Expand Student Success Centers to all three campuses • Lead New York in Next Generation jobs • Promote ECC’s many success stories to surrounding communities and stakeholders.
Erie Community College’s needs are great, but our financial resources are constrained. We pledge to work collectively with all constituencies to create a better ECC. With Executive and Legislative support, we will be positioned to educate the workforce of tomorrow and ensure that ECC truly Excels.
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Excels
The mission of Erie Community College has always been singular: provide an affordable, career-focused education for those invested in the opportunity. The college hosts more than 100 programs to help local students start, restart or redirect their education—and all while benefitting from one of the region’s most affordable tuitions. These programs produce transferrable credits to dozens of four-year colleges and universities. Over 300 Buffalo Niagara business partnerships help ECC students land internships, jobs or training. ECC boasts more than 50,000 identified alumni currently living and working in Western New York; national champions in athletics; and future local leaders now enrolled at all three Erie County campuses. Despite these positive attributes, we can and will do more. With the help of our partners in county and state government, we will establish the foundation for the future of Erie County’s community college. With decreased enrollment, rising costs and increased competition for students, the college will navigate these challenges. With a reinvigorated region and changing local economy, it’s imperative to accommodate the enhanced education and training needs of our students and future workforce. This is the motivation behind our new initiative, ECC Excels—and we need your help to make it work.
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How will
Excel?
The vital tenets of ECC Excels—all of which specifically address our institution’s challenges and opportunities— require an increase of at least $4 million in operating support and a target of $5 million per year over five (5) years for a total of $25 million in capital support. In addition to sponsor support, ECC leadership is committed to seeking additional resources through other means (state, private support, public/ private partnerships). This burden cannot fall solely on the shoulders of our students.
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What is
Excels?
ECC’s proposed planning initiative is aligned with the college’s strategic plan; informed through the major tenets of the SUNY Excels Performance System; and adheres to ECC’s enduring education-based mission. It’s designed to tackle current institutional challenges while, at the same time, capitalize on opportunities available within our college and across the reinvigorated Buffalo Niagara region. SUNY Excels is the state higher education system’s performance measurement process, and is the key driver for the SUNY Strategic Plan. ECC Excels is based upon the following five tenets: • • • • •
Access: Enrollment at all three campuses; a wide array of cutting-edge programs; a diverse college community; space capacity; affordability; and accessibility. Completion: Student persistence; transfer opportunities to four-year institutions; higher graduation rates; and shorter time from enrollment to completion. Engagement: Maximizing opportunities through START-UP NY; enhanced alumni support; and reinvigorated engagement with our community partners. Operations: Settlement of labor contracts; implementation of an academic master plan; enhance facilities master plan; 21st century technology upgrades; and infrastructure improvements at all three campuses. Success: Improved job placement for graduates; higher transfer rates for continuing students; and reduced student debt.
Before providing some of the key deliverables envisioned through ECC Excels, the following is a brief overview of some of the major challenges facing our community college.
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ChallengesAhead
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Enrollment challenges – Since reaching an all-time enrollment high in 2010-2011, ECC’s enrollment has followed national enrollment trends and has declined 20%. This year, we anticipate our enrollment to fall to levels not seen since 2002/2003. Because enrollment drives 80% of ECC’s revenue, our goal is to stabilize enrollment in 2016/2017.
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Funding challenges – The New York State Education Law states that SUNY community colleges are to be funded based upon a simple formula: 1/3 from students, 1/3 from the state, and 26.7% from the sponsoring county. Neither Erie County nor New York State meets the aforementioned requirement of NYS Education Law. As a result, fund balances have been depleted and the bulk of the burden has been unfairly shifted to our students.
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Infrastructure challenges – ECC’s buildings and grounds are owned by Erie County. The ECC Board of Trustees has the fiduciary responsibility to maintain those facilities and relies on Erie County funding to do so. As a result, ECC has been forced to use operational funds to address deferred maintenance, and the college is currently years behind in this schedule due to lack of funding. Consistent funding from the County needs to be implemented in order to meet maintenance needs.
A 2009 SUNY study showed ECC had a $38.3M deferred maintenance backlog and required, over the next 10 years (with inflation) $80.2M in capital investment to avoid falling further behind.
From 2010/11-2014/15 ECC has only received on average $4.56M (combined state/county) pushing the college further behind.
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Labor challenges – 98% of ECC’s valued workforce is represented by one of four collective bargaining agreements. The two largest unions at ECC, the FFECC and AAECC, have been working under an expired agreement since September 1, 2009 and September 1, 2011, respectively. Negotiations have been ongoing for many years, but have significantly intensified in recent months. A “win/win” contract settlement is priority one at ECC in order to bring about fiscal stability.
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Technological challenges – ECC became autonomous from Erie County in 2002 and took over responsibility for payroll and purchasing. Payroll, Human Resources, Finance and Purchasing are largely paperbased. As a result, we cannot extract information to facilitate data-driven decision making, strategic planning, or efficiently utilize human capital. The college must be equipped with new data systems to ensure its future as a more efficient institution.
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OpportunitiesAhead Access Goals • Educating ECC students for the jobs of tomorrow • Continue success of WNY Workforce Development Center – Establish an ECC presence at the NYS-funded center, offering degrees and certificates for in-demand programs in advanced manufacturing and technologies. • Increase student and staff diversity – ECC student and staff enrollments should mirror Erie County’s demographics and SUNY community college sector staff/faculty diversity rates. SUNY rate is 15.4%; the ECC rate is currently is 12.3%; ECC Goal: 15% • Develop new offerings – ECC faculty and staff will continue to explore new program opportunities commensurate with the needs of local industry. • Expand online course offerings ECC Goal: Grow online sections 3-5% annually. • Maximize ECC’s student recruitment plan – Significantly increase prospective student communication and develop recruitment analytics to optimize our use of resources. • Accurately forecast student enrollment – Proper enrollment forecasting is critical for planning, control, and resource allocation. ECC will therefore engage a “blue ribbon” panel to help determine optimal enrollment using data driven analytics. ECC Goal: Panel Report due June 30, 2016.
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Completion Goals • Improve student retention – Enhanced interaction between students and faculty, which is the number one indicator of student success and higher graduation rates. – Track academic performance and increase engagement between faculty and students to increase the likelihood of degree completion. – Increasing ECC’s retention rates will require dedicated resources for case management of students. Current retention rate for full time students is 53.5%. SUNY Goal: 61.9% ECC Goal: 62%
• Decrease time to graduation/completion – Community College Time to Completion: 2013-14: ECC Years to Degree: 4.01 SUNY Years to Degree: 3.75 ECC Goal: 3.75 years • Simplify student orientation – Another predictor of student success is participation in orientation. ECC has increased student attendance at orientation by 66%. ECC Goal: Make orientation mandatory. • Expand online orientation programs – Create online orientation modules to serve online students and facilitate ECC’s recently re-engineered orientation program. • Increase transfer rate – Emphasize SUNY transfer paths to both promote opportunities for students and facilitate four-year degree completion. • Help drop-outs “drop back in” – Encourage former students to complete their degrees or seek new ones. ECC Goal: 200 by 2017 -2018; 400 by 2020-2021
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Excels
Engagement Goals • Gain approval of ECC’s START-UP New York plan ECC Goal: Target one business in the first year • Continue to be the regional leader in workforce development – Create degrees and certificates that are responsive to our changing economy (concerning advanced manufacturing, Solar City, Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, and other opportunities aided by the Buffalo Billion). • Engage the communities around ECC – Create a sense of place to support learning by leveraging existing partnerships and entering into new partnerships to enhance the student experience. ECC is engaging its neighbors around all three campuses to enhance the campuses, create partnerships and find creative facility opportunities. • Nurture and expand public/private partnerships – Continue to encourage student engagement in three campus communities. – Add to ECC’s more than 300 business partnerships. • Create a high-performance culture centered upon student success – Inspire enhanced employee engagement. • Increase philanthropy to ECC – Increase scholarships, annual giving, special event revenue, and donor retention annually. – Implement major gifts initiative in conjunction with college’s master plan. – Develop new engagement strategies for alumni recruitment & retention.
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Losses to NCCC Nursing: FTE’s Total FTE’s
117 1,377
Losses to NYS Total FTE’s
1,964
Operations Goals • Settle outstanding labor contracts – A “win/win” contract settlement will create fiscal stability. • Complete Academic Master Plan – Adhere to findings compiled throughout 2013 JMZ study concerning needs, location and design of specific career-focused programs. • Enhance Facilities Master Plan – A 2009 SUNY study showed ECC had a $38.3M deferred maintenance backlog and required over the next 10 years, with inflation, $80.2M in capital investment to avoid falling further behind. From 2010/11-2014/15 ECC has only received on average $4.56M (combined state/county) pushing the college further behind. – Address deferred maintenance projects, prioritizing safety and security needs. • Create and execute campus beautification/enhancement plan – Create clear and logical signage and way-finding because appearance is a top issue for students and parents when they visit ECC campuses. • Establish a signature ECC School of Nursing Downtown – Increase available nursing student seats from 210 to 240 by 2017-2018; 270 by 2020-2021. – Extend the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) to include ECC training facilities. – ECC loses $1,170,000 annually in chargebacks because Erie County nursing students attend NCCC.
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Operations Goals (Cont.) • Pursue student housing at all campuses to increase enrollment and reduce chargebacks – The only SUNY community colleges that increased enrollment over the past several years have added student housing. To remain competitive, student housing is essential for ECC. • Increase productivity and efficiencies – Statewide, ECC ranks first in lowest dollars spent per FTE for administrative expenses. ECC can achieve far more with the introduction of modern systems. – Investing in upgrades to our existing systems presents a potential opportunity to reallocate resources to improve student and employee engagement and success. • Construct STEM Building – ECC and Erie County will break ground on this project in the Spring of 2016. • Upgrade existing infrastructure – Programs moving into the STEM Building will vacate current space. Opportunities will emerge to enhance student learning with the restructuring and renovation of classroom space. – Continue to invest in smart classrooms. ECC Goal: Add 20 smart classrooms per year
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Success Goals • Decrease student default – Reduce student indebtedness and default through improved communication and enhanced technology that enables student self-service and promotes financial literacy. NYS Average Default Rate 17.4% 2011 ECC Default Rate 23.1% 2012 ECC Default Rate 19 % ECC Goal: Default Rate 15% • Expand Student Success Centers – Build on the effectiveness of the City Campus Student Success Center by expanding to North and South Campuses. • Lead New York in Next Generation jobs – According to the New York State Department of Labor, ECC has led statewide community colleges in the Next Generation Job Linkage Program for two consecutive years. ECC graduates secure better jobs with better wages. • Promote ECC’s many success stories to surrounding communities and stakeholders – ECC is developing and will implement an integrated marketing plan to promote ECC’s success stories.
TheAsk ECC requires an increase of at least $4 million in operating support and a target of $5 million per year over five years for a total of $25 million in capital support for all three campuses, to address the critical needs of Erie County’s community college. These funds will be used for the strategic initiatives outlined above. ECC is committed to seeking additional support through other means to ensure that the financial burden does not fall solely on the shoulders of our students. ECC’s needs are great. Financial resources are constrained. We pledge to work collectively with all stakeholders to create a better ECC. With Executive and Legislative support, ECC will be positioned to educate the workforce of tomorrow and ensure that ECC Excels.
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