In compliance with SACSCOC standard 7.2, all Collin College constituencies were sent an email invitation in May of 2022 to participate in a quality enhancement plan survey and contribute ideas to improve student success and learning across the district. The invitation encouraged faculty, staff, and students to think broadly about what they experience in every day interactions with peers and personnel, and which areas of student success should be addressed over the five-year period from 2025-2030.
The result of the survey was the contribution of 121 ideas from 72 faculty members, 46 staff members and administrators, and 3 students. A QEP review team of 8 faculty members and administrators from both academic affairs and student services was organized and tasked with sorting and categorizing survey responses into related groups of ideas. From this process emerged 8 distinct categories of ideas on how to improve student success and learning:
- Ideas relating to dual credit
- Ideas relating to expanding the Student Experience beyond the Classroom
- Ideas relating to Expanding Outreach to Students Through Student Services
- Ideas relating to Addressing Outcome Inequities of Underserved Students
- Ideas relating to Faculty retention/Development and Instructional Design
- Ideas Relating to Campus Logistics
- Ideas Relating to Student Welfare & Wellness
- Miscellaneous Ideas
After discussing and reviewing these 8 categories with several different stakeholders throughout Collin College, including conversations with the dual credit advisory board, reviewing student enrollment services initiatives already underway, and discussing initiatives undertaken by Collin’s Center for Teaching and Learning, the QEP evaluation team narrowed the ideas to the following recommendations for the 2025-2030 QEP:
- Ideas relating to Expanding Outreach to Students Through Student Services
- Ideas relating to Addressing Outcome Inequities of Underserved Students
- Ideas Relating to Student Welfare & Wellness
Once these three categories of ideas were selected, they were presented to Collin’s Academic, Governance and Strategy Council, as well as the executive leadership team, all of which recommended the QEP topic of the first-year experience (FYE), with the following items being most consistent with the institution’s strategic goals:
- Expanding outreach to students through student services to include improved programs and initiatives to assist first-year students in their transition to college life; targeted initiatives for first generation college students and students of color; a redesign of the college’s Introduction to College experience for new students by instituting a Freshman Seminar experience to introduce instruction on classroom learning skills, academic planning and awareness of college support services (academic and non-academic).
- Addressing outcome inequities of underserved students to include gaps in academic success and fall-to-fall persistence.