CCSN overhauls student services

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 | 9:44 a.m.

Community College of Southern Nevada President Richard Carpenter is overhauling the administrative structure of the college's student services department in hopes of better serving students.

Carpenter's overhaul includes axing an associate vice president position and putting deans in place at each of the three campuses to ensure consistency in the way student services is being administrated, he said Monday. He also has placed one person in charge of each of the major areas student services encompasses to make sure programs are being administrated the same way across all campuses. "We want to provide a consistent level of student support no matter what campus you are on," Carpenter said.

Previously, the college's campuses were operating student services independently of one another and with little communication between the various branches, Carpenter said. That caused a lot of inefficiencies and inconsistencies in service.

For instance, student testing, career services and disability services were operated under a different individual at each campus, Ann Johnson, current interim vice president of Student Affairs, said. Under the restructure, only one person will be in charge of in those areas for the whole college.

"I'm kind of excited about it," Johnson said of the restructure. "I think we were able to consolidate some services and focus on what we want to accomplish."

Johnson will serve as an interim executive dean under the new vice president Art Byrd under the restructure, Carpenter said. Her job will be to investigate student complaints and handle other day-to-day problems that crop up on the campuses.

She will oversee Dean Cip Chavez on the Cheyenne campus, Dean Larry Mason on the West Charleston campus, and Interim Dean Chemene Crawford on the Henderson campus. Chavez will receive a $5,600 raise and Crawford will receive a $9,400 raise in their new positions. Mason, who was already a dean, will keep the same salary and Johnson will make slightly less because she will no longer be a vice president.

The restructure will result in a net savings of $112,000 in the first year and $352,000 in the second year, Carpenter said. The money will be redistributed to other student service needs, such as disabled student services. Some of the money may go toward more academic advisers.

The drastic difference in savings the second year comes from salaries that will drop off, Carpenter said. The college has to give a year's notice to the associate vice president, Arlie Stops, whose $116,000 a year position is being eliminated.

Stops will be eligible to apply for some of the other positions being created in student services, such as a position as registrar, Carpenter said.

The new administrators will be in charge of developing a new student enrollment plan and advising policy for the institution in order to improve retention and graduation rates, Carpenter said.

Tracking student success is difficult at a community college, Carpenter said, because most students enrolling in courses aren't there to earn a degree. But only 1,700 out of 35,000 total students graduated this May, and Carpenter said that should be closer to 5,000 for a student body that large.

Of the students who enrolled in Fall 2003, only about 61 percent reenrolled in Spring 2004, Frank DiPuma, director of institutional research and planning, said. Only 43 percent of those students enrolled again in Fall 2004.

About 24.5 percent of students who enrolled in a class in Fall 2004 dropped out before the end of the semester, DiPuma said, and 10 percent received a D or and F. The rest earned a C or better.

If student services is able to do a better job tracking and advising those students, there's a good chance they could keep students from dropping out, Carpenter said. He wants the new administrative team to develop a better enrollment management plan, including possibly adopting an early warning system where a student would be contacted immediately by student services if they fail their first test.

Failing the first test is a key indication they'll drop out later, Carpenter said, but the college has counselors and tutors who can help turn the grade around.

Just as Carpenter did with the deans and department chairs on the faculty, he said each student services employee will be working with their supervisers to establish written job descriptions and performance measurements to make sure they are individually meeting their performance goals and that the department as a whole is meeting their goals.

Accountability is a major focus of Carpenter's administration. Also on Monday, he announced the consolidation of six academic departments into three and changed some department chair positions to director positions to save about $90,000 a year.

Carpenter also reduced the number of credit hours professors were able to waive to work on other projects. Professors must teach 15 units a semester each, but can receive reduced loads if they have other college-related responsibilities, he said. The college then has to hire someone else to cover those courses.

Previously, there were enough waivers to hire 60 fulltime faculty members, Carpenter said. He's reduced that to 28.