Program Review Self-Evaluation Form2013-2019 Student Services

Program Review Self-Evaluation Form2013-2019 Student Services

Department Name: Veterans Center

Purpose of Program Review
The purpose of Program Review is to provide a venue through which the college can evaluate its programs in relationship to the College Mission and its Strategic Goals and priorities. The program review process promotes a self-reflective evaluation of programs in a manner in which faculty can identify programmatic successes within their disciplines, identify areas in need of improvement and establish departmental goals for enhanced programmatic and student success.

The values of program review:

• Strengthening of programs through faculty led self-evaluation and goal setting;
• Fostering inter-departmental cooperation and communication;
• Stimulating dialog on student success and programmatic improvements;
• Evaluating each programs unique contribution to the College’s Mission and Strategic Goals;
• Promotion of long-term planning focused on the use of data;
• Ensuring that curriculum and offerings meet student needs and promote student progression;
• Providing a venue to justify programmatic augmentation and to connect program needs to resource allocations.
• Enhance transparency about college programs to the broader community.
  

The value of self-evaluation is enhanced with the broad inclusion of individuals contributing to your department or unit. It is recommended that each department or unit make all efforts to include all faculty, staff and administration. Each department or unit may include additional information in their Annual Update Plan as needed to fully describe their department or unit. The Program Review focuses on the identified Programs of Study and Services provided by each department or unit. Each question is identified with P(Program) or D(Department) to denote whether the question should be answered at the program or departmental level.

The Office of Institutional Effectiveness is available to assist each department or unit in their efforts to complete their self-evaluation. The office has provided instructions on completing this document and resources to interactive datasets. In addition, to the generic instructions, the Office is available to assist all departments and units by providing individual training sessions, hosting departmental training meetings, and providing desk-side assistance through the Program Review Process.

Please submit your completed Program Review Self-Evaluation Form 2013-2019 to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness by email addressed to Maribel Carbajal-Garcia, no later than Tuesday, September 30, 2014. Following submittal, validations teams organized through the college’s existing committee structure will review your document and provide feedback and recommendations for your department’s review. The Program Review and Viability Committee will provide the final recommendations for your review and feedback.

Section I. Program Description

College Mission:

East Los Angeles College empowers students to achieve their educational goals, to expand their individual potential, and to successfully pursue their aspirations for a better future for themselves, their community and the world.

1. Based on the information provided by the Learning Assessment Coordinator, the following programs are housed in your department/unit. Please review this list and provide any additional programs not already listed. (D)

(LAC to provide list)

Student Services
Veterans Resource Center

1. Briefly describe each of your programs and answer the following question for each of your program(s) of study/service. In what ways does the program support the College Mission and its Strategic Goals?(D)

Program Mission:

The Veterans Resource Center acknowledges the unique challenges student veterans experience. Our Mission is to assist all student veterans through these challenges with the goal of increasing student veteran retention and completion, and to foster the development of skills needed to succeed in their transfer and career goals.

Program Description:

The Veterans Resource Center serves all veterans, reservists and their dependents, regardless of whether or not they are requestingDepartment of Veterans Affairs (VA) educational benefits. The center offers a computer lab, lounge, individualized access to campus and community resources, and a full-time counselor. The role of the center is to increase access, retention and completion rates, as well as to educate the campus community about our student veterans' needs. These goals are addressed through academic guidance, wellness, camaraderie and faculty/staff development.

The Veterans Resource Center directly supports the College Mission and its strategic goals through the holistic support offered to veterans, by working directly with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness to identify at-risk students, and by developing partnerships with community organizations such as the TELACU Veterans Upward Bound Program, East LA Vet Center, CalVets and the American Legion, to name a few.

1. Please describe the positions that are budgeted for your department, including the number and function for which they are budgeted.(D)

Total Headcount / Function(s)
Academic Administrators
Classified Managers
Classified Supervisors
Regular Faculty / 1 / Full-time VRC Counselor; coordinates VRC services; creates SEP for all veterans; provides student veteran awareness training for faculty
Other Faculty (Limited Position/Long-Term Substitute Position)
Adjunct Faculty
Classified / 1 / Assists new student veterans with intake, AOC and GI Bill information; provides resources to students; provides clerical support to VRC counselor; maintains daily function of VRC
Other (SFP)
Unclassified
Student Workers / 4 / Assists new student veterans with intake, AOC, and GI Bill information; serves as peer mentors for continuing students; provides clerical support to VRC counselor
Unclassified
Tutors
Unclassified
Professional Expert

1. Please list all faculty members on reassigned or release time.

Jessica Peak, Counselor, full-time

1. List the district and campus-wide governance and decision-makingcommittees with which your department is involved. (D)

Transfer Committee

Veteran Success Advisory Board

Student Services Meetings

Violence Intervention Team

Graduation Committee

DSP&S Advisory Board

Professional Development

1. Describe the state of your department’s equipment and any unmet equipment need. Please give a specific rationale for these needs.(D)

Currently, the VRC is equipped with eight computers. The VRC would like to invest in assistive technology, particularly to assist student veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury. A large percentage of this population served in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and/or Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). While in ground combat, many of our student veterans were victims of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED). Traumatic Brain Injury is a direct result of IED explosions. Symptoms from TBI, including memory deficit, visual and hearing impairments, and headaches, to name a few, have a profound affect on academic progress. The CCCCO has recommended that Veterans Resource Centers provide assistive technology for student veterans. In an effort to provide optimal services for student veterans, the VRC would like to purchase this software and upgrade our current computers to allow for this advanced technology. Therefore, our unmet equipment need is to replace the 8 existing computers with 8 newer computers, printers and larger 23"-25" monitors. The purpose of the larger screens would be to accommodate those student veterans who are visually impaired and/or who have TBI.

The Veterans Resource Center counselor ran a total of 22 workshops for student veterans in Fall 2014, including Academic & Transitional topics, New Student Veteran Orientations and Academic/Progress Probation workshops. A tamis order was filled for all workshops at the start of the semester, requesting IT to set up and take down a laptop for each session. The VRC's unmet equipment need would be a designated laptop to be used by the VRC counselor for meetings, conferences, reports, workshops, trainings and guest presentations.

1. Describe the way your department’s current facilities meet the needs of your programs, including your classroom environment. Detail any unmet facility needsand steps taken to address any persisting issues.(D)

Currently, the Veterans Resource Center is located in an office within the Student Services building. The existing space provides a computer lab, lounge, and designated space for staff. The veterans counselor is housed in the Counseling Department. Attaching the physical location of the veterans counselor to the department will add convenience for students and comprehensive services. The Veterans Resource Center anticipates moving to the new Student Activities building upon its completion in 2015. The new space will continue to provide a lounge, computer stations, and space for staff. An office for the veterans counselor is also planned, as is additional surrounding conference rooms to be used for a Wellness Counselor and quiet study rooms when not in use. The space will be ADA-compliant and accessible to people with disabilities.

1. Describe any trends, recent events or activities that have impacted your program(s). Please be specific to each program provided in the list above.(P)

1. Which of these changes or trends have most impacted your programs?

1. What efforts have been made to address these changes?

1. What effect have these changes had on student goal attainment?

Trend #1: Military drawbacks and cuts within all branches is creating a national increase in enrollment of student veterans in community colleges.

Students are particularly inclined to attend college and use the Post 9/11 GI Bill offered through the VA. ELAC has seen an increase in student veteran enrollment as well. According to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, in Spring 2014, there were 550 veterans active in our system with assigned registration appointments. This semester, Fall 2014, there are 673 active veterans in our system with assigned registration appointments. This is a significant increase of the ELAC veteran population. As a result of increased enrollmentof student veterans and the need to address unique challenges veterans encounter while in college, a full time counselor was appointed to serve veterans, reservists and dependents. It is unclear on the result of student goal attainment, as the hiring of a veterans counselor was effective as of 08/2013.

Trend #2: Loss of priority registration from academic and progress probation, as well as an excess of 100 units, affects VA educational benefits and timely GI Bill payment.

Although there are a reported 673 veterans in our system, approximately 180 veterans request GI Bill benefits during the Fall and Spring semesters, with about half of those requesting during intercessions. Loss of priority registration directly impacts these students due to the fact that the VA will only fund courses required for a certificate, graduation or transfer. If students can not add courses approved on their Student Educational Plan, they run the risk of not qualifying for full-time benefits with a Monthly Housing Allowance. As non-traditional students, veterans rely on this funding to support themselves and if applicable, their families. Without it, stress levels increase and have a profound affect on satisfactory course completion. The result often times is withdrawal from school or inability to buy books leading to course failure.

Trend #3: The VA will only pay for courses needed to complete a certificate, graduate and/or transfer requirements. As a result, student veterans requesting VA certification are not enrolling into Personal Development courses. Students have explained that they would rather not take an extra course that will not be part of their 12 unit load, or that they would rather focus only on courses they need to complete their goals as quickly as possible.

One of the challenges student veterans encounter is transitioning from military to civilian life. Added to this stress, students are underprepared and not ready to take on a full-time academic load as requested by the VA to receive full GI Bill benefits with a monthly housing allowance. Personal development courses would introduce students to topics such as effective study habits and time management skills. Some colleges offer a Boots to Books course and offer a book stipend to veterans as an incentive to enroll into the course. This would be an option if the VRC had a budget that would fund this stipend.

To compensate for low student veteran enrollment into Personal Development courses, the veterans counselor developed a series of workshops for Fall 2014 called Warriors to Scholars: Academic & Transitional (A&T) Workshops for Military Veterans and Reservists. Topics include Time Management, Note taking skills, Effective study strategies, and choosing a major. In addition, skills and training methods from the military are applied whenever possible. Topics in readjustment, PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury and Military Sexual Trauma are also addressed. Students who attend 10 out of 12 workshops will receive a Certificate of Participation. In the military, certificates are a thing of honor and pride. As a result, a consistent group of veterans have attended the workshops and are working toward earning a certificate from the veterans counselor. It must be noted that students clearly understand the workshops do not carry units, are extracurricular, and will not reflect in their transcript as an earned certificate. Nevertheless, mission-driven veterans are determined to accomplish this goal and complete the series.

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Section II. Program Assessment

In order to fulfill the College Mission, the college has developed four goals. These goals serve as the broad planning objectives through which all other college planning documents and departmental plans will be based. Together these goals provide a foundation for building a true agenda of student success.

Goal 1: Increasing student success and academic excellence through student-centered instruction, student-centered support services, and dynamic technologies.

1.How has your department evaluatedthe impact that your program(s) has on student learning and achievement? (D)

The VRC has recently began to implement the practice of providing surveys to students after workshops and orientations to evaluate their overall effectiveness.

2.The college has a goal of increasing first-year persistence and completion of certificate, degree and transfer programs. What efforts are being conducted to improve student academic performance? (D)

1. What are the results of these efforts to date? (D)

In Fall 2014, the veterans counselor developed Warriors to Scholars: Academic and Transitional (A&T)Workshops for Military Veterans and Reservists. As mentioned previously, these workshops cover time management, study skills, learning styles, notetaking, and test taking skills. While the workshops are open to all student veterans and reservists, the A&T Workshops are highly recommended for first year student veterans, as well as those students who are on academic or progress probation. Students attending 10 out of the 12 workshops will receive a certificate of participation from the VRC at the end of the series. It is with great anticipation that we see an improvement of grades for those who have consistently attended each week.

Another avenue to promote and improve student academic performance is the prospect of starting a Peer Mentor & Tutor Network. Funding for these positions would be through VA work study. These mentors and tutors would only be allowed to work with student veterans; their positions would be funded by the VA. To qualify for VA Work Study, a student must be a veteran carrying 75% of a full time course load. Although the VRC promotes reintegration of student veterans and interactions with non-veteran tutors, VA Work Study limits the selection of mentors and tutors to veterans receiving benefits only.

If funded through the VRC, the Center would have flexibility to hire any veteran, regardless of whether or not they are receiving GI Bill benefits, or even non-veterans. All mentors and tutors, veterans and non-vets, would undergo Kognito interactive computer trainings on how to assist student veterans with PTSD, TBI or Military Sexual Trauma.

Academic and Progress Probation workshops were offered in Spring 2014 and Fall 2014. Spring 2014 workshops were offered in collaboration with DSP&S. For Fall 2014, with the support of the VRC, the veterans counselor worked from a list of students provided by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness. Individual phone calls, emails and mailers were placed and distributed to students on the list in an effort to draw students into the workshop. Student progress has been monitored by the veterans counselor through case management; data provided by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness will be available upon completion of the Fall 2014 semester.

3.Review the provided student demographics. What efforts have been made to ensure that students are able receive services?(P)

To ensure students are able to receive services, workshop announcements and reminders are emailed to students, posters are visible in the VRC, and all events are posted on the Veterans of ELAC Facebook page. We are currently working with IT to post all workshops and events on the ELAC Veterans Resource Center website as well. Furthermore, the newly implemented Veteran Success Advisory Board (VSAB) will bring awareness to faculty and staff who will in turn advocate for student veterans in their classroom and promote VRC services to them.