Admissions and Outreach ACADEMIC YEAR 2015-2016 6000 J Street Sacramento, CA 95819 Lassen Hall 1102 916-278-7766
Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Mission Statement 3 Counselor Connection 3 Demographic Information 4 Department Outcomes 4 Appendix A 10 Appendix B 11 PAGE 1
Executive Summary The Admissions and Outreach (A&O) welcomes students as they begin the search for a university. Whether students are researching where they want to apply, have applied to Sac State, or have been admitted, the staff in Admissions & Outreach is here to assist them on their journey to matriculation. The Admissions and Outreach goals are to help students learn about the campus through campus tours, classroom presentations, and publications; to provide the information students need to become a successful applicant; and to answer any questions they have regarding their admission. There has been an emphasis in decreasing the remediation rate for first-time freshmen students. This academic year 2015-2016, there was a 3.9% decrease in remediation from fall 2014 at 58.9% to fall 2015 at 55%. In addition to remediation, transfer student are encouraged to complete an approved Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) prior to enrolling at Sacramento State. A total of 635 transfer students with ADT were enrolled during fall 2015 and a total of 293 students with ADT were enrolled during spring 2016. A&O represented Sacramento State at 22 local, regional, and statewide events to prepare and motivate students in order to achieve optimal enrollment representation including ethnicity, gender, age, and regional diversity. The Latino population for first-time freshmen has increased from 35.2% during fall 2014 to 37.4% during fall 2015 while the African American population for undergraduate transfers has increased from 4.5% during fall 2014 to 5.3% during fall 2015. Messaging campaigns resulted in 68% view rate with the hope of communicating in a clear, concise, transparent, directive, and proactive manner. Finally, A&O participated in 583 local, regional and statewide events with 65,688 high school and community college students who attended. The unofficial enrollment for fall 2016 showed a 5% increase in the number of new students (7,744) compared to fall 2015 (7,355 students). PAGE 2
Mission Statement The Office of Admissions & Outreach facilitates access to higher education for potential students through outreach education, individual admission advising, and accurate, efficient document processing. These activities support the University in achieving optimal enrollment representation including ethnicity, gender, age and regional diversity. Counselor Connection Our Counselor Connection gives information and resources for our Community College and High School Counselor Colleagues. We appreciate the critical role that guidance counselors and advisors play in advising our Future Hornets. We thank them for the time they invest in their students as they move through the admissions process. Sac State s applicant pool is always exceptional because of the excellent students they send our way. We also appreciate their continued efforts after students receive the Sac State admissions notice. We know that they have many responsibilities and need accurate information quickly. In addition to the admissions web site and publications, we have numerous admissions counselors and outreach and recruitment staff to assist them, their students and their families. We strive to visit as many high schools and community colleges as we can and we welcome their phone calls and emails throughout the year. PAGE 3
Demographic Information First-Time Freshman: During fall 2014, there were 3,695 first-time freshman students who enrolled in the university. Majority were female (57.3%) and came from the Sacramento region (51.1%). The most common ethnicities of students were Latino (35.2%), followed by Asian (23.5%), and White/Caucasian (20.7%). Seventy two percent of students were living outside of campus. During fall 2015, there were 3,781 first-time freshman students who enrolled in the university. Majority were female (56.9%) and came from the Sacramento region (50.2%). The most common ethnicities of students were Latino (37.4%), followed by Asian (21.8%), and White/Caucasian (20.7%). Seventy three percent of students were living outside of campus. Undergraduate Transfers: During fall 2014, there were 3,577 undergraduate transfer students who enrolled in the university. Majority were female (56%) and came from the Sacramento region (53.6%). The most common ethnicities of students were White/Caucasian (37%), followed by Latino (25.2%), and Asian (15.8%). Ninety six percent of students were living outside of campus. During fall 2015, there were 3,548 undergraduate transfer students who enrolled in the university. Majority were female (55.9%) and came from the Sacramento region (56.4%). The most common ethnicities of students were White/Caucasian (36.8%), followed by Latino (23.4%), and Asian (16%). Ninety six percent of students were living outside of campus. Department Outcomes This academic year, the Vice President of the Division of Student Affairs decided to align department goals with the university s goals. The structure of this section will include the university s goals, the department goals, the strategies to achieve those goals, and the outcomes. University Goal #1 Enhance student learning and success Department Goal 1: In support of the College Ready Initiative, we wanted to: 1) decrease the number of first-time freshmen needing remediation, and 2) increase the number of students pursuing the Associates Degree for Transfer (ADT) with satisfying lower division requirements prior to transfer. PAGE 4
Students needing remediation are required to take remedial courses in math and/or English during their first year at Sacramento State. Taking remedial coursework will slow down the progress towards a degree by one to three semesters for students. Figure 1 shows the percentage of first-time freshmen who need remediation. There was a 3.9% decrease in remediation from fall 2014 to fall 2015. Figure 1. First-time Freshman College Readiness 100% First-time Freshman College Readiness 80% 60% 40% 53.2% 46.8% 58.9% 41.1% 55.0% 45.0% 20% 0% Fall 2013 Fall 2014 Fall 2015 Need Remediation College Ready Source: The University Fact Book Fall 2015, Section 2: New Students page 6. The Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act (SB 1440) establishes an Associate of Arts for Transfer (AA-T) or Associate of Science for Transfer (AS-T) degree for California Community College students and is designed to provide a clear pathway to the CSU degree major. It allows students to complete an Associate s degree while satisfying lower division general education and major requirements for transfer at the same time. Transfer students who completed an approved Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) program deemed similar to the students major at Sacramento State are eligible to graduate in 60 units. For example, an AS-T Administration of Justice at a community college is similar to the BS Criminal Justice at Sacramento State. This academic year, we collected the ADT earned in similar major and ADT earned in nonsimilar major as a baseline to monitor increase in ADT students. Figure 2 shows the number of students with ADT by semester. A total of 635 students with ADT were enrolled during fall 2015 and a total of 293 students with ADT were enrolled during spring 2016. PAGE 5
Figure 2 Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) by Semester 500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 459 218 Earned ADT in Similar Major 176 74 Earned ADT in Non-similar Major Fall 2015 Spring 2016 Source: COGNOS: Admissions ADT Report (SB1440), 07/20/16. Department Goal 2: In order to target students from historically underrepresented or underserved populations, we will maintain or enhance outreach and recruitments efforts to reflect the diversity of our student population. Figure 3. First-time Freshmen Ethnicity 100% First-Time Freshmen Ethnicity 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 35.2% 37.4% 23.4% 21.8% 20.7% 20.7% 6.6% 7.0% 0.2% 0.4% 0.9% 0.7% African American American Indian Asian Pacific Islander Latino White Fall 2014 (N=3,695) Fall 2015 (N=3,781) Source: The University Fact Book Fall 2015, Section 2: New Students page 6. PAGE 6
Figure 4. Undergraduate Transfer Ethnicity 100% Undergraduate Transfer Ethnicity 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 37.1% 36.8% 25.2% 23.4% 15.8% 16.0% 4.5% 5.3% 0.4% 0.3% 0.8% 0.6% African American American Indian Asian Pacific Islander Latino White Fall 2014 (N=3,577) Fall 2015 (N=3,548) Source: The University Fact Book Fall 2015, Section 2: New Students page 7. Our counselors represented Sacramento State at local, regional and statewide events to prepare and motivate potential high school and community college students to continue their post-secondary education at Sacramento State. There were 9,670 student interactions that happened during outreach events. Student Leadership and Transition Fair at Sac City USD Office, and Sacramento Black Expo at Elk Grove Event Center were some of the 22 outreach events that we participated in order to support the University in achieving optimal enrollment representation including ethnicity, gender, age and regional diversity. Appendix B lists all the outreach events during the 2015-2016 academic year. University Goal #3 Commit to engaging the community by building enduring partnerships that strengthen and enrich the region Department Goal 3: Admission and Outreach Department will implement new messaging campaigns aimed at prospective students and their families. Our primary objective for this new messaging campaigns was to communicate in a clear, concise, transparent, directive, and proactive manner. Our messaging campaigns target prospective students and their families as well as individuals that we know are an integral and important part of a student s support network (i.e. counselors and campus community members). In addition, we send targeted messages to constituents on behalf of academic departments and other on-campus programs. This academic year, we gathered baseline data on our messaging campaigns. In the future, we will be able to make comparisons to the baseline data and evaluate the effectiveness of PAGE 7
strategic shifts and modifications to its targeted messaging campaigns. We expect to gauge how its target audience engage (opening and interacting where appropriate) with our messaging campaigns. By measuring message recipient interaction rates, we will evaluate several factors including, but not limited to: effectiveness of subject line and message content, bounce back email server issues, and constituent responsiveness, among others. Table 1: Messaging Campaign Data Date Range # Sent # Received # Viewed # Opted Out 07/01/2015-06/24/2016 814,392 810,622 548,637 1,713 Department Goal 4: Admission and Outreach Department will create multiple platforms/events designed for potential students and school staff to have greater access and opportunities to interact and dialogue with Sac State Admissions Counselors. Our counselors played a significant role in contributing to the University s strategic enrollment plan and recruitment for other campus constituents. Outreach staff participated in a number of events at local, regional and statewide events to prepare and motivate potential high school and community college students including parents and counselors. Table 2. Platform/Events for Students and School Staff Activity Number of Events Number of Students Attended College Night (Fall Only) 87 27,652 Transfer Day (Fall Only) 87 7,230 Application Workshop 15 --- High School Visits (including Application Workshop) Transfer Center Visits (including Application Workshop) Career/College Fair (combined high school and community college) 140 7,246 172 2,552 50 5,366 Other: Community Based Programs; Early Outreach 32 15,642 Total 583 65,688 PAGE 8
There is a strong need to develop and implement a number of activities that are designed to increase the prospect (College Night/Transfer Day) and applicant pool (Application Workshops), and eventually yield events (What s Next) to meet University enrollment. The figure below reflects the enrollment data for fall 2014, 2015 and 2016. Figure 5 10000 New Student Enrollment 8000 7286 7355 7744 6000 3592 3572 3918 4000 2000 3694 3783 3826 0 Fall 2014 Fall 2015 Fall 2016 First-Time Freshmen Undergraduate Transfers Sources: 1) The University Fact Book Fall 2015, Section 2: New Students page 4 Fall 2014 and Fall 2015. 2) Unofficial new student count from Admissions and Outreach Office 08/29/16. New student enrollment has been increasing over time. For fall 2016, there was a 5% increase on the number of new students enrolled compared to fall 2015. PAGE 9
Appendix A University Goals Goal 1: Enhance Student Learning & Success Goal 3: Commit to engaging the community by building enduring partnership s that strengthen and enrich the region Department Goals 1. New incoming students are College Ready. This message is embedded in all Publications, Websites, PowerPoints, Presentations, Talking Points, etc. 2. The department will maintain and enhance outreach and recruitment efforts that target students from historically under-represented populations. 3. The department will implement new messaging campaigns aimed at prospective students and their families. 4. The department will create multiple platforms/events designed for students and school staff. What will be the standard of performance? Decrease in the number of entering First Time Freshman needing remediation. AY 2015-2016: collect baseline data on number of students pursuing the Associates Degree for Transfer AY 2015-2016: collect baseline data on number of outreach activities AY 2015-2016: collect baseline data on # of message received, # of rejections, # of bounces AY 2015-2016: collect baseline data on number of platforms/events Department Outcomes 3.9% decrease in remediation from fall 2014 to fall 2015. Fall 2015: 635 students with ADT Spring 2016: 293 students with ADT There were 22 outreach events with 9,670 student interactions. 814,392 sent 810,622 received 548,637 viewed There were 583 events with 65,688 students attended. PAGE 10
Appendix B 2015-2016 Admission and Outreach Events Upward Bound at UC Davis July 5, 2015 Focus on high school students who are potential first generation college students designed to generate the skills and motivation necessary for success in postsecondary education. Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Project at Sacramento State July 24 & 25, 2015 To build leadership potential and academic achievement for California s Chicano Latino youth. 10,000 Degrees College Fair at Dominican University July 27, 2015 Comprehensive college access and success program focused on students from low income in households from Marin and Napa counties. CSU African American Initiative Super Saturday at CSU Dominguez Hills August 8, 2015 Designed to provide students and families from historically underserved communities with information about preparing for and graduating from college. Sierra College Success and Empowerment Conference at Sierra College August 22, 2015 First annual event connecting African American students to a college. Feria de Educacion at Sacramento State September 26, 2015 Bridging the cultural gap between Spanish-speaking parents and the California s educational system. Feria de Educacion at CSU Dominguez Hills October 3, 2016 Bridging the cultural gap between Spanish-speaking parents and the California s educational system. A Taste of Soul October 17, 2015 CSU Initiative to recruit African American students. Chicano Youth Conference at Sacramento State November 6, 2015 Event highlighting the importance of higher education for Chicano/Latino high school students. Conference hosted by MECha student group. Native American Day at Sacramento State November 9, 2015 Increase college access for Native American students. Student Leadership and Transition Fair at Sac City USD Office January 14, 2016 Self-advocacy program for graduating seniors that have learning disabilities who may be considering post-secondary education. STEPS to College at Greater Sacramento February 6, 2016 Highlighting the importance of higher education for Latino students and families. This event is presented in both Spanish and English. Students will have the opportunity to meet with college representatives and apply for financial aid. PAGE 11
Education Summit/Super Saturday at CSU East Bay February 13, 2016 A CSU first generation event for African-American, Latino, Asian American, Native American students and their families. Educational and college-related workshops for students of all ages. Sacramento Black Expo at Elk Grove Event Center February 19, 2016 To build diversity at colleges and highlight the historical significance of Blacks in America. Super Sunday at Greater Sacramento venues February 28, 2016 CSU s commitment to increase college preparation, eligibility and retention among students from the African American community. This annual event is held at historically African American churches. Journey to Success at Sacramento State March 29, 2016 Program of the CSU Asian American Pacific Islander designed to provide students and families from underserved AAPI communities with important information about college. College Making It Happen April 2, 2016 CMIH serves as a mechanism to support middle school students and families by providing college and financial aid information, access to resources available, exposure to college advising and academic programs, connections to faculty and counselors, hands-on experience activities and referrals to school programs that will help them succeed in high school and prepare for college. Cesar Chavez Conference at UC Davis April 9, 2016 Honoring the legacy and life of Cesar Chavez - this annual motivational event for middle school, high school and community college students to explore college & career opportunities, financial aid, admissions and scholarship workshops. Making Waves Academy at Richmond April 16, 2016 Program that addresses the disparity in education by offering a rigorous academic preparation to urban students to achieve a post-secondary education. Southeast Asian Youth Summit at Sacramento State April 29, 2016 Serving high school male students from SCUSD and Twin Rivers about the importance of higher education. Partnering with East Bay Asian Youth Center, and Full Circle Project. Journey to Success at Fresno State April 30, 2016 Program of the CSU Asian American Pacific Islander designed to provide students and families from underserved AAPI communities with important information about college. California Boys State at Sacramento State June 22, 2016 Annual event held at Sac State of 1,000 high school juniors from across the state who are elected to become delegates and learn about the legislative process at the state capital. Also, students are invited to attend the College and Career Night hosted by American Legion. PAGE 12