In the Strategic Planning and Accreditation Steering Committee (SPASC) report for Northland Pioneer College, Vice President Mark Vest explained to the Navajo County Community College Governing Board new solutions to common student problems.
Most notable are the issues of transportation to and from classes, and childcare. “We put together review teams a year and a half ago to study these two issues,” Vest said. At the end of that spring semester, the teams presented their studies with a set of recommendations to the college, according to Vest. SPASC then reviewed those recommendations and planned pilot programs to address the issues.
“What we found,” said Vest, “is that childcare and transportation do not affect a majority of students at NPC. But for the students that they do effect, they are a significant barrier.”
To address transportation concerns, SPASC is planning to experiment with a test group of students before, “sinking a significant amount of college time and resources into this project,” Vest explained. That project is the development of two programs. “We have two different types of students who are affected by transportation issues,” Vest began. “We have students that have access to a vehicle, but do not have the funds to travel long distances required on a regular basis to get to a campus or center.”
To alleviate strain on students in that category, the plan is to establish a transportation scholarship with a limited amount of money. “Students will apply for that scholarship using a lot of the same parameters that we put in place for the housing scholarship. Your advisor will have to sign off on the fact that this course is actually mandated by your degree plan and that it is not available to you locally,” he explained.
The scholarship would be awarded based on mileage range and the number of days that travel is required. During the pilot program, Vest said, “We can track the success rates of those students compared to those that didn’t have the scholarship and also were taking the same class to see if it has a measurable impact.”
The second transportation concern facing NPC students is not having access to a reliable vehicle or other method of transportation. In those cases, Vest said, “We are going to identify a specific group, and right now we are focusing on lab science courses, because that is where a lot of the demand is. We will assign a fleet vehicle to the location where we have identified a group of students, and those students will be able to carpool and travel to the location where the lab science course is.”
According to Vest, in the past, the college has allowed students to use fleet vehicles for travel to assigned lab sites with little to no problem. “We have had very few mechanical problems, and very few law enforcement problems associated with vehicle use,” he said.
Students will also be provided with online training courses in driving etiquette, and hands-on courses in basic car care, including tire changes, before being assigned a vehicle. This program will also be tracked to monitor success.
Childcare is the other barrier faced by some NPC students, and SPASC has a pilot program in mind for that as well. “We asked the childcare study group to find a potential partner that was in a community where we have a campus or center that we could potentially work with on identifying slots in a child care facility, or developing a facility where students, as well as faculty and staff, would have the option of placing their children,” Vest stated.
The success rates of those students will be tracked, and if the program is successful, Vest said, the college may choose to move forward in that direction.
These programs are in their infancy, but the goal of SPASC is to have them working by the spring semester. “Transportation is the easiest, because we control a lot of that. The vehicle use is targeted for spring. Childcare, because it is a partnership, may be a year, or year and a half before that works itself out,” Vest said. Students will have responsibilities, he explained, which will include, but are not limited to maintaining a certain grade point average and attendance record.
