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During a meeting of the Navajo County Community College Governing Board Northland Pioneer College Controller Amber Hill addressed the board regarding improving student services.
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Hill began, “There are three prongs to this initiative. The first of which was to implement a web-based payment system for students. This phase has gone pretty seamlessly because we have had a lot of third-party support.”
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She explained that the third-party payment system, called Nelnet was successfully implemented as of March this year. “It was on time and on budget and it cost $10,000 to integrate it with student accounts. Students can now see their accounts in real time. A part of that cost, $4,000, was offset by Nelnet since they were forcing us to do the integration (with their update). We do have an ongoing $400 monthly payment for Nelnet maintenance of the system.”
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Hill explained the benefits an online payment system has offered to students. “Right away we saw some fruits of this labor. Over $30,000 has been received online through today. Students no longer have to call the business office or walk in to a campus to make their payments.”
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According to Hill student response has been positive. “Only eight students returned the survey, but of those, 75 percent said the new system is an improvement, it is easy and fast.”
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The next phase of the improvement plan is the enhancement and implementation of a web-based registration option. Hill said, “Students are online, we need to meet them where they are.” There are currently multiple ways to register at NPC. In person, over the phone or on an existing NPC account, which still gets manually entered by staff.
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Hill continued, “We perceive that as an issue. The timeline for this project began in November 2018, when we came together to discuss how to implement this system. Right now, we are not done designing this online process, we just aren’t there yet. Our big push is the enrollment application and that will go live in April 2020, in time for the fall 2020 registration period.”
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The third phase is enhancing student support delivery. Hill talked about plans to implement a text based advisory system.
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“Again, students are online but they may not be using a desktop computer. The original plan was to put together an online chat feature for student advising. We determined that an online chat function wasn’t relevant to our students. We think that texting is more relevant, so we shifted gears. The fact is, we need to stay flexible because our students are and they are so technologically connected that we need to be as well. We have already begun the text movement in our marketing department and for sending out surveys. We will be integrating text for advising and connecting it with the registration piece between April and August of 2020.”
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Board member Derrik Leslie asked if the system could be utilized to notify students of financial aid or verification status. “Yes, that is part of what we are working on,” Hill answered,
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In other business, Vice President of Administrative Services Maderia Ellison gave the financial report for the period of July 1-Aug. 30.
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In her report, Ellison said, “As you know we talked about the fact that we received appropriations from the State of Arizona for additional rural funds late. We didn’t get it until after we had completed our budget. That additional funding of $889,200 will show in the general fund.”
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She continued, “We are two months into our budget and we are exactly where we anticipated we would be. We have received a small amount of our primary tax levy but the first big incoming amount happens in September. We are at 13 percent of our proposed budget for revenues and expenditures are at 12 percent.”
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She mentioned a $12.5 million budget item set aside for improvements at the White Mountain campus, “We have not spent that money yet but you will start to see those numbers trickling in next month.”
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Ellison also reported on the component audits of the Northeast Arizona Training Center and NPC Friends and Family.
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“Both audits were given an unmodified opinion, which means there are no material misstatements and nothing has to be modified, what we would call ‘clean’ audits.”
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In the NPC Friends and Family report, Director Betsy Ann Wilson said, “Our Pedal the Petrified event was the best net we have ever had. I originally reported that we brought in a little under $34,000 but we have had more come in, so we are now a little over $35,000.”
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Wilson also reminded the board and students of scholarship opportunities available online at www.npc.edu.
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In the absence of board member Elias Jouen, the governing board:
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* Awarded a contract to Sentry Fire for welding equipment and supplies. This is an annual contract renewable for up to four additional years. The amount of the contract varies based on annual need from $80,000 to $250,000.
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* Awarded a contract to SPS+ architectural firm for updating of the facilities master plan in the amount of $188,600.
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* Approved the purchase of Cisco network routers in accordance with a budgeted lifecycle schedule in the amount of $111,059.
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* Approved a dual enrollment agreement between the Navajo County Community College District and the Show Low Unified School District.
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Heard an update on bills due to Northeast Arizona Training Center. Currently, all paying members are current with the exception of the Holbrook Police Department.
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* Were updated on the governing board vacancy. College President Mark Vest explained that interviews are underway and he hopes to have a candidate to bring before the board by the Nov. 13 meeting.
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* Approved a date change for the next board meeting for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 13, in the Tiponi Community Center, located at 2251 E. Navajo Blvd.
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