June 1, 2015 | SharkAdmin Complete College America recently released a report titled, “The Four-Year Myth” which addresses the unfortunate reality that most college students will not graduate in the “traditional” four years and/or they incur unnecessary expense due to them taking more college credit hours than were necessary for completing the baccalaureate degree. While this report’s major focus was on the four-year college student, Alamo Colleges and Northwest Vista College students experience a similar reality. On average, Alamo College students have completed an average of 90 credit hours in route to a two-year degree before they graduate. In addition, national data from this report documents that only 5 percent of full-time students who are seeking their associate degree actually complete on time. Alamo Colleges are in the process of creating a strategy to reduce the average number of credit hours that students take from 90 to 65 hours. Our intent is to provide students with clear degree and certificate pathways through a much more intrusive advisement process. If the Alamo Colleges are successful in reducing the average number of credit hours that students take from ninety 90 to 65 hours in route to graduation, the cost for unnecessary courses to Bexar County taxpayers would be reduced from $46 million to $20 million; and the loss of transfer credits would be mitigated from an average of 30 percent to an 8 percent loss. The goal is to develop and implement a plan to realize these improvements by August 2017. The strategy that the district has embraced – with the help of former Alamo Colleges Student Board Trustee Jacob Wong and Trustee Clint Kingsbery – is called AlamoINSTITUTES – which are transfer and/or career pathways which provide students with the knowledge of the shortest route to graduation at one of the Alamo Colleges in 65 credit hours or less. While we are cognizant that not every student will graduate on time, some may decide to take additional courses of interest and some student’s educational goal may only include a few courses, we also need to do our part to make sure our students are provided with the shortest pathway to completion. Texas is among 35 states right now trying to develop new strategies to help students focus on a career pathway and timely degree and certificate completion in an orchestrated effort to reduce costs for the student and the state. AlamoINSTITUTES is broken down into six career clusters leading to associate degrees or certificates: Creative and Communication Arts – for students who have interest in areas such as, but not limited to, the Arts, Audio/Video, Technology and Communications. Business and Entrepreneurship – for students who have an interest in areas such as, but not limited to, Business Management & Administration, Finance, Hospitality & Tourism and Marketing. Health and Biosciences – for students who have an interest in areas such as, but not limited to, Health Sciences. Public Service – for students who have an interest in areas such as, but not limited to Education, Training, Government, Public Administration, Human Service, Law, Public Safety, Correction and Security. Science and Technology – for students who have an interest in areas such as but not limited to Agriculture, Food & National Resources, Information Technology, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics – for students who have an interest in areas such as, but not limited to, Architecture, Construction, Manufacturing, Transportation, Distribution & Logistics. I am requesting your comments and concerns regarding AlamoINSTITUTES. On June 23 at 1 p.m. in the Palmetto theater, we will hold a college-wide forum to discuss AlamoINSTITUTES with faculty and staff. As we move forward with the development and implementation of the AlamoINSTITUTES, some of the milestones that NVC and the district hope to achieve include adding the institutes to ApplyTexas – the state-wide admissions application form for students; and identify internships and service learning opportunities within the institutes in order to better prepare our students for their careers and/or transfer to a university. While this may appear to be a cultural change for NVC and the Alamo Colleges, the overall goal is to better serve our students by providing them with clear pathways and as a result of our efforts, enhance the number and percentage of students who complete degrees and certificates in a timely manner. To learn more about AlamoINSTITUTES, go here.
