Improve Bay College's advising practices by streamlining the advising process, developing a faculty advisor training program and handbook, and collecting and reviewing data related to student success and student satisfaction with adacemic advising.
Bay de Noc Community College
Active in Achieving the Dream:
2007 - present
Leader College:
2012 - 2015
Leader College
Participating Institution
What We Are Doing:
Bay de Noc Community College is creating a comprehensive culture of student-success by truly integrating intervention strategies into the campus and the mindset of its students, faculty and leadership.
Bay de Noc Community College interventions demonstrate great improvements in student success which include:
- Expanding FY 101 (the First Year Experience course), which was initially required of students testing into all three developmental areas; now required of students testing into any developmental course.
- Having over 50% of all administration and faculty involved with Achieving the Dream.
- Prioritizing student success: listed first among the college’s list of priorities in the Strategic Agenda for the coming years.
- Summer 2011 two-week Boot Camps which are two-week alternatives to semester-long courses for developmental students.
- A Transitional Studies Team and Combined Orientation and Advising sessions which have led to demonstrable improvement in student performance in developmental Math courses.
- A Local College Access Network (LCAN) which provides prospective students with informational resources via collaboration with local community-based organizations, and local four-year universities and
- E3 (Excellence in Education and Employability), designed in collaboration with MWorks (the Job Force Board).
Who We Are:
The college’s main campus is in Escanaba, and it maintains a branch campus in Iron Mountain, Michigan. Bay de Noc Community College enrolled 2,740 students in the Fall of 2009 from a service area located in a rural, economically depressed area on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The college’s student population majority is white, and 38% of Bay de Noc Community College’s student population received Federal Pell Grants. That percentage was 10% higher, 48%, for Bay de Noc Community College’s First-Time-in-College (FTIC) students. Bay de Noc Community College’s faculty and leadership are fully committed to growing a “culture of evidence.”
More than half of the college’s students require at least one developmental course. However, the college is committed to improving student success, retention, completion and graduation rates. Bay de Noc Community College has implemented Placement for Success, a comprehensive assessment program used to evaluate the academic skills of incoming students, and to place them in the appropriate courses.
Student Success Strategies
Bay de Noc Community College is using the following strategies to impact student success:
Development of a three-credit college success course (FYE101) based on the On Course textbook by Skip Downing. The annual offering of the On Course workshop has also become an important part of this and the professional development intervention.
Make improvements to Bay College's transitional (developmental) studies offerings, including new course designs, the hiring of full-time faculty, and policy changes.
Improve Bay College's orientation program, thereby enhancing new students' first experience with Bay College by providing a more accessible, relevant, and effective orientation experience.
2012-13 Orientation Activities
This intervention aims to establish a Supplemental Instruction program at the College.
Offer a variety of professional development opportunities to Bay College faculty that supply them with a variety of active and engaging pedagogical techniques. The On Course workshop, which is encouraged of all employees, is also part of this intervention.
