St. Louis Community College has a lot of work to do. But the question is: does it have the leadership to get it done?
The college recently got stinging reviews of the admissions, registration and financial aid departments, according to two commissioned studies of the college’s functions.
Under former Chancellor Myrtle Dorsey, the college hired two consulting firms to review the way it conducts business and give recommendations. The findings were released in December.
The reports state that the four campuses lack unity and have completely different ways of registering students for classes and advising them on financial aid. The college’s practices and technology are at least 10 years behind the norm, according to the report.
This is not the first time STLCC leaders have heard this news. At least twice in last five years, the college has hired and paid consultants to tell them exactly what needs to be improved. Yet little has changed, stated the AACRAO Consulting firm in its report.
Because the leadership changes so frequently and leaders have a “lack of authority,” nothing gets done, the report states.
“It was also reported that some very long-term employees basically dug their heels in and refused to change,” AACROA stated. “They would just wait it out until leadership changed.”
Many of these recommendations are repeats from previous consultants, it states. AACRAO’s question to STLCC is: “What will make the change happen this time?”
Interim Chancellor Dennis Michaelis arrived a couple months before the reports were released. A retired community college president with more than 20 years of experience, he said his role is to make the college functional and attractive for potential chancellor candidates, who would take over in July 2015.
“I hope to affect enough change in direction, enrollment, budget and most of all in positive, optimistic attitude that this will be a place where really bright people want to apply for this position,” he said.
If the college does not make certain changes, it could faces losing its accreditation, he said. “I don’t think that’s eminent, but I think that unless some of these trends are reversed, it could lead to that,” he said.
His ultimate goal is to get enrollment up. The student population has dropped from 29,000 at one time to 21,000 currently.
Aside from loss of students, there are other looming threats, Michaelis said. First, what he described as the “discord” on the board. He said he wants “to make sure they bring someone in that can provide stable leadership and not be at the whim of board members who don’t get along and who are not trying to move in the same direction.”
Admissions and registration
STLCC uses the motto “One College,” but in practice, it’s four campuses operating separately, the report states. That’s why Michaelis is hiring a vice chancellor of student services to bring all of the services – including admissions and financial aid – under the same procedures and guidelines, as AACROA recommended. This piece will be in place by next year, he said.
AACROA had a lot to say about the admissions and registration departments. First there is no leader for admissions in the district office, which makes managing enrollment and recruitment difficult.
Admissions applications are “cluttered with unnecessary information and requests for student information,” the report states. Admissions requirements are interpreted differently on each campus, and “there is a training deficit.”
The firm recommended the college use already existing technology, its Banner system, and get rid of any paper files. Admissions advisors on all campuses should use the same checklist and be trained together.
In registration, the “degree audit programming” is incomplete and “contributes to inaccurate advising and the high volume of substitutions and waivers.”
“STLCC has never engaged in a study to measure if students can complete any degree offered in a reasonable timeframe based on class offerings term to term,” the AACROA report stated.
In September, The St. Louis American reported that many students with Pell grants were amassing incredible amounts of credit hours without obtaining degrees when Dorsey arrived at the college in 2011, according to inside sources. College counselors are supposed to ensure that students take mainly the courses needed for degrees and prevent them from spiraling into unnecessary student debt. However, these students were taking elective classes that didn’t apply to their degrees – some of which were taught by their counselors.
The report also found that, “The class schedule offerings do not appear to be driven by student demand and educational plans.”
“We need serious work,” Michaelis said. “I see myself as not only a change agent, but also a person who can help emphasize the positive impacts of what we are trying to do.”