EGCC, YSU plans to regents focus on course, degree completion

YOUNGSTOWN

New plans submitted by Youngstown State University and Eastern Gateway Community College to the Ohio Board of Regents focus on course and degree completion.

The plans, approved by YSU trustees this month and EGCC trustees in May, are a requirement from the Ohio Board of Regents for all of the state’s colleges and universities.

YSU wants to increase course completion rates to 82 percent each semester, according to the plan submitted to the board of regents.

“Our course completion rate was 77.3 percent in fall 2011 and it’s now up to 80.6 percent,” said Jack Fahey, vice president for student affairs.

Another element of the completion plan is ensuring that courses are available when needed.

EGCC’s plan also addresses the need for student completion.

To increase term to term and year to year retention, the strategy outlined in the plan calls for assigning each student a professional adviser/coach who will “offer intrusive advising, interventions and academic planning” and monitor students’ success and failure rates.

Another focus in EGCC’s plan is to “remove barriers to graduation."

Fahey expects the plans to be one of the items on the agenda at the fall meeting of vice presidents of Ohio’s public universities.

“I’m sure if one of the universities comes up with a successful plan for course completion, we’ll all steal it,” he said.

Read more about the plans in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.