Institute's $1 million prize eludes Maricopa County colleges

By Carmela Kelly, December 2011
Editor-in-Chief

When the Aspen Institute gifts $1 million to a community college in December, Paradise Valley Community College and other Maricopa County community colleges won’t be there to receive it and retention may have played a factor.

The first annual Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence may be shared by up to three runners-up in what began from a selection 1,200 community colleges.  The Aspen Institute named their top 120 eligible community colleges for the prize in April. Estrella Mountain Community College in Avondale, and Cochise College in Douglas, were recognized from Arizona.

The Aspen Institute named 10 finalists for the prize in September. None were based in Arizona.

Using publicly available data, such as retention and college completion rates, the non-profit organization based their selection on student success in persistence and completion, consistent improvement in outcomes over time, and equity in outcomes for students of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, says the Aspen Institute website. None of the 10 finalists named in September hailed from Arizona.

President Obama announced the $1 million prize competition at the first ever White House Community College Summit in October 2010. The president’s announcement accompanied his goals toward education: by 2020 America will have the world’s highest number of college graduates with community colleges producing an additional 5 million graduates by then, says a White House press release.

PVCC administration officials and student leaders indicate a commitment to raising retention and completion rates. The college has faced some organizational challenges. For example, for several years the college had an interim president and other interim-occupied positions. Dr. Paul Dale, PVCC president, was made permanent last year. Becoming permanent empowers him to fill key positions with his staff.

“We are incrementally filling our previous interim positions beginning with the hiring of Dr. Miller Holst (PVCC’s vice president of Student Affairs),” says Dale. “The Office of Financial Assistance is also in the process of filling an assistant director’s spot and one support role. A permanent director of the Learning Support Center has also been filled with Mary Early.”

He says that while the interim leadership across the college did a great job, that the hiring of permanent staff and leadership allows for a unit to plan and move beyond a one year time window in terms of program development and expansion.

While the Aspen Institute considers more than retention and graduation rates, it is an area PVCC could improve in.

Statistics show low graduation rates at PVCC. The 2009 national average for first-time, full-time students who enrolled in 2006 is 32.4 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. For full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking undergraduates, PVCC weighed in at 17 percent in 2009, according to the same source. By comparison, Northeast Iowa Community College, one of the 10 Aspen Prize finalists, had a graduation rate at 34 percent.

However, PVCC’s Sandra Miller-Holst, vice president of Student Affairs, doesn’t see the comparatively low numbers at PVCC as a mess.

“Retention is something that continuously needs to be fed, supported and improved,” says Holst. “I also think people need to understand that retention does not belong in one area, does not belong to one individual, or to one segment of the campus population. Retention belongs to all of us.”

Holst says communication is one of the critical tools to use at PVCC if it wants more student involvement and better retention rates.

William Mask, PVCC’s Student Leadership Council chair, says communication between students and administration is better this year. Mask meets with Dale and communicates student needs and feedback. Mask says administration appreciates the input.

The SLC recently set up a suggestion box in the Kranitz Student Center to hear more of what’s on students’ minds. SLC also plans to do a survey, and they want students to see them doing it.

SLC meets bi-weekly in the KSC building. They welcome any student to meetings and encourage students to join the council that fell from 15 to 6 in the past year. Mask says they would love to have more people. He also says that even though there are fewer people the quality over quantity is better.

“Last year (the SLC) was about getting students involved. This year it’s about how to keep them involved,” says Mask.

Mike Ho, PVCC Student Life Center’s director, emails, “Retention is important for several reasons. I can tell you that data from ASU indicates the more credits a student completes before enrolling at ASU, the more successful they tend to be once they arrive at ASU (or the other state universities). 

Meanwhile, Ralph Campbell, Estrella Mountain’s director of marketing, public relations and recruitment, says that the Aspen Prize criteria are complex. Estrella is almost on a par with PVCC’s graduation rate at a bare 19% for 2009. Campbell says that, while the college didn’t receive any specific information as to why they were selected, it may have been that Estrella scored high in the equity section of the selection panel’s criteria. Estrella is a designated Hispanic Serving Institution. The student body is 40 percent Hispanic.