Educational Opportunity Program Annual Report 2019-2020

I. Mission Statement

The mission of the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) is to provide access and support services to first-generation college students who have experienced economic, educational, and/or environmental barriers, but display the potential to succeed in post-secondary education and to assist the university in the matriculation, retention, and graduation of EOP students.

Department Goals (Last reviewed August 2020):

1. EOP will provide a comprehensive program of support services that will enhance the knowledge, understanding, and skills necessary for the academic success and the social and emotional personal development of EOP students. (Division goals 1, 2, 3; University strategic priorities 1)
2. EOP will promote social, cultural, and ethnic diversity in the CSU, Chico campus population. (Division goal 2; University strategic priorities 1)
3. EOP will educate and inform students, faculty, and staff about program services and accomplishments. (Division goal 1, 2; University strategic priorities 1, 2)
4. EOP professional staff will maintain currency in the fields of college student retention, academic advising and obstacles encountered by first-generation and other historically marginalized college students through memberships in professional organizations, reading appropriate research journals, and professional development opportunities. (Division goals 1, 2; 3; University strategic priorities 1, 2)
5. EOP will encourage student participation and involvement in the CSU, Chico campus community and the community of Chico as a whole. (Division goals 1, 2; University strategic priorities 1, 2)

 II. Department Accomplishments

• Successfully moved EOP services to online/virtual format
• Distributed survey for remote learning needs
• Collected EOP student stories about remote learning
• Student staff offered significantly more study skills workshops for entire campus community
• Developed a first-generation podcast
• EOP admission file reviews completed early March
• Hosted the EOP 50^thAnniversary Banquet
• Calculator Check-Out program

Highlights:

• Hosted EOP 50th Anniversary Banquet: October 12, 2019 EOP welcomed over 150 alumni and guests to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of EOP’s existence on CSU, Chico’s campus.

• Collected EOP student stories about remote learning: After the decision to move all services to a virtual format, one of our advisors decided to conduct an ongoing archive to allow students to share thoughts about their experience. This provided the opportunity for advisors to reach out to students who were having an exceptionally difficult time with the transition. Additionally, students were invited to add songs to an EOP playlist on Spotify.  Students were definitely using music and finding it to be one source of solace they could rely on during this transitional period.

• Calculator Check-Out program:  In collaboration with Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), College STEM Connections Collaborative (CSC2) and the Math Department EOP was able to secure Student Learning Fee funding to start a calculator check out program.  70 calculators were purchased, additionally the collaboration was able to pay for 20 of the required online math accounts (ALEKS) for students.  The program was funded prior to remote learning and the collaboration was able to transition to organize a pick-up plan for local students.  For students not in the area, calculators were mailed to various parts of California and even all the way to Virginia. 

Diversity Efforts:

• Presented and participated in PAUSE 2020
• Collaborated, planned, facilitated and participated in the campus-wide Tipping Point- Student Success Summit
• Developed API Support group for students/staff/faculty experiencing anti-Asian racism surrounding COVID-19 (with EOP, APIC & CCLC)
• Supported CCLC by participating in several key events:
  • Dinner and a Story
  • Black Student Retreat
• Developed Hmong Men Interest Club
• Several staff participated in the Nor-Cal mixer planning committee for APAHE (Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education)
• Support and participation in multicultural graduation celebrations
• Facilitated Inclusive Teaching Academy Workshop
• Facilitated Diversity Training for Connection Course Peer Mentors
• Participated and supported several CSU, Chico organizations
  • Asian/Pacific Islander Council
  • Black Faculty Staff Association
  • Chicano Latino Council
  • Foster Youth Task Force
  • 1st Gen Faculty Staff Association

III. Changes in policies and procedures

• Extended EOP admissions deadlines for applicants with incomplete files and allowed for late applicants to complete admissions process, all in attempt to aid the University in meeting fall 2020 undergraduate admission targets.
• Dismantled the official course-link, however new first year students were still required to enroll in specific EOP created sections of general education courses.
• Summer Bridge transitioned to an online platform. Collaborated with several student support programs and lecturers from the math department to provide a series of Zoom workshops and webinars to help prepare students for the fall semester.
• EOP new student contracts have been revised. There are now separate contracts for upper division transfer students and first-time freshmen along with different goals and milestones each population need to complete during their years as an EOP student.

IV. Resources summary

Note: EOP received base funding dollars for an SSP II position in 2019-2020, which was hired in November. We had salary savings for 2 positions that started in November 2019. The balances for both EOP and SB funds were impacted by COVID-19 which resulted in stopping travel, programming, professional development and providing a residential Summer Bridge program. There were programmatic changes in 18/19 due to EO1110 which resulted in cost savings. Due to pandemic SB 2020 would have been residential and we would have zeroed out our balance.

Human Resources

• Hired two new Student Services Professionals (SSPII’s) as part of the advising and admissions team. Aiko Reed moved to an off-campus position, therefore leaving one vacancy. EOP received GI 2025 base funding for the second position. EOP has been down one SSPII position for many years, so this influx in funding provided an opportunity to re-establish staffing levels to better serve our students.

Facilities/Equipment

• New furniture was purchased for the lobby and student staff cubicles.
• New laptops were purchased for our students to support distance learning and rotation of our laptop check out program.
• Professional staff were also due for a technology upgrade.

V. Program Assessment of Past Year

Program Objectives for 2019-2020

1. EOP will continue to meet with all continuing students who are on academic probation.

Ongoing – EOP Advisors and Interns focused on reaching out to EOP students on AP to meet with them on a regular basis to develop a plan of action for getting off of AP.

2. Enhance contact and support of continuing students who are in good academic standing.

Ongoing - EOP has increased intentional contact to all good academic standing students and offer programming to support their success.

3. Increase support for our first-year and second-year students through communication via electronic technology.

Met/Ongoing– EOP has previously used apps (REMIND and GroupMe) to offer a mechanism to share information and send out reminders. These methods have proven to be effective in delivering our messaging to our students.  Will continue to try a variety of social media platforms and look forward to utilizing a program that will provide us the opportunity to communicate via text messaging.

4. Implement professional development and career readiness for our continuing EOP students.

Met/Ongoing – EOP has initiated more intentional collaboration with the Career Center. We will include language in our second-year success contract to ensure students will meet with the Career Center and develop workshops focused on our students.

5. As a result of current staffing re-assignments, assess workloads and productivity and reorganize accordingly.

Met/Ongoing– EOP continues to adjust to the transitions that have occurred with the unit’s promotions and new members. Ongoing meetings to communicate transitions and expectations helped to foster a smoother transition.

Ongoing Assessment Efforts:

Note: This is a new table for Graduation Initiative purposes.

*Note: During the Spring 2015 semester, our lab check in system data got corrupted in the Cbord database. We had to replace the check in system and lost all of the data associated with that semester. **During the fall 2017 semester, the lab check in machine broke. The check in system had to be replaced and all of the data associated with the fall semester was lost. ***With the purchase of additional loan out laptops Fall 2019, we are seeing a decrease in students coming into the lab providing bandwidth for other students to spend more time in the lab. ****COVID-19 pandemic shut down campus on March 17, 2020.

Student Learning Outcomes 

SLO #1 – As a result of participating in the English “Stretch Model”, students should be able to successfully pass ENGL 130. - This is the 10th year that ENGL 130 was moved to the spring semester. Students have the option to take English 130PW or 130W. English faculty collaborated with the campus FYE program to create an English “stretch” model for students enrolled in the EOP Course Link for the fall and spring semesters. This past year, despite the move to remote learning, 96% (61/63) of our first-year students passed ENGL 130PW on their first attempt; 89% (76/85) passed ENGL 130W on their first attempt. In total, 92.5% (137/148) passed ENGL 130PW or 130W in order to complete their General Education Area A2 requirement.

SLO #2 – As a result of participating in the “Reality Check 101” series, fewer students will be on academic probation after their first semester - EOP staff are constantly looking for ways to provide earlier intervention for students having academic difficulty. During the fall semester, students receiving two or more negative progress reports (C- or below), or were referred by their paraprofessional, had a negative service indicator (NSI) placed on their accounts. The NSI was not released until they attended a “Reality Check” workshop or made special arrangements. Twelve students were required to attend the “Reality Check” workshop during the fall 2019 semester. This one-hour workshop, facilitated by EOP Advisors, was held in the fall and designed to strengthen academic performance and avoid academic probation at the end of the semester. Some of the workshop activities included:

• Helping students reflect on their academic performance
• Identifying challenges or obstacles, on and off campus, from fall semester
• Discussing academic probation (Chico or cumulative GPA below 2.0)
• Discussing reality of disqualification (Chico or cumulative GPA below 1.5 for students with less than 30 units)
• Goal setting by identifying three things the students will change to enhance their engagement and academic achievement. 

FYE students who finished the fall 19 semester with a GPA below 2.0, totaled 30 students.  At the end of spring 2020:

• 8 students improved to have a cumulative GPA above 2.0
• 10 students improved yet their cumulative GPAs stayed below 2.0
• 5 students’ GPAs remained the same (they either withdrew or received all NC grades in the spring)
• 1 student’s GPA was lower after the spring semester
• 6 students did not return for the spring semester

SLO #3 – As a result of participating in “Fresh Start”, fewer students will be on academic probation after their first year. – EOP first year students with a GPA below a 2.0 after their first semester are required to attend a series of workshops called “Fresh Start” in the spring. (This program was also extended to PATH Scholar first-year participants; however, the results below are only applicable to EOP students.) The purpose of “Fresh Start” is to present a structured set of workshops that provide students on academic probation university policy information and an opportunity to explore social and emotional learning (SEL) so they can clear their academic standing with the university as well as increase their understanding of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and decision making, and how they inform their academics. Ninety-minute workshops were held for five weeks and facilitated by EOP Advisors and Paraprofessional Advisors. Workshop curriculum included:

• Week 1 – Reflection – How did I get here? /AP and DQ information, Social Emotional Learning and Community Cultural Wealth
• Week 2 – Personality Assessment, Growth Mindset, Grit, What is success to you?
• Week 3 – Challenges and Obstacles, Values, Attributes and Shortcomings, Navigating Campus Resources, Academic/Classroom Strategies
• Week 4 – Skills to Enhance Learning
• Week 5 – Goal Setting

In spring 2020, 22 first-year students out of 176 were required to attend “Fresh Start”. This was 12.5% of first year students (compared to 12.8% in spring 2019, 23% in spring 2018, 23% in spring 2017, 16% in spring 2016, 12.1% in spring 2015, 15% in spring 2014; and 13% in spring 2012. Seven (31.8%%) ended the semester in good academic standing (Chico GPA above 2.0), 6 (27.2%) improved yet remain on academic probation, 4 (18.1%) students improved but are in DQ range, while 5 (22.7%) students’ GPA’s remained the same or declined and are in DQ range. Four of students from the last group withdrew (we don’t know if it was a result of remote learning). Overall, 16 (59%) of the students improved their GPA.

VI. Analysis 

• We were able to partner with the School of Education to provide our first-year and second-year students access to the reading comprehension assessment MOCCA. We can continue this partnership to provide access to the assessment for all other EOP students (new transfers and all other continuing students).
• We need to focus more on life-after-college preparation for our students. We can collaborate with the Career Center to have our students take the career exploration assessment Focus2.
• EOP implemented various assessments to FYE, SYS, transfer and continuing students. Data indicated (in 2018-2019) that a majority of students feel confident, positive and supported by EOP’s efforts. Data from our remote learning survey indicated that despite moving to online support for the end of the spring 2020 semester, a majority of the students we heard from felt EOP was still supporting them.  
• With fall 2020 services all virtual, we will need to continue to survey students in order to keep a pulse on how they are feeling about the experience, what type of access they have and how we can best support them. We can also continually provide them with newsletters and announcements to ensure they are at least made aware of various resources, events and workshops to help them navigate the term.
• Will continue to follow the lead of EOP's technical support team, facilitated by Thang Ho, to make sure EOP students, student workers and staff are getting their technology needs met to keep up with EOP's virtual services. 
• EOP has utilized every platform possible at the moment to keep our students engaged and also facilitate communications with our First Time Freshman to ease the transition into college. For example; Avaya, Zoom, Qualtrics, Outlook, Videos via email, Facebook Group, Microsoft Bookings. As more technology is rolled out, we will be sure to access what we can to reach our students. 
• EOP will focus on enhancing the transfer student experience with the implementation of a new transfer student contract that requires transfer students to contact EOP staff and other entities on campus. 
• EOP will work to admit more eligible transfer students. We can work with our feeder junior colleges to make sure their students have completed EOP files. 

VII. Program Objectives For 2020-2021 (slight modifications from previous year due to working remotely)

1. EOP will continue to meet with all continuing students who are on academic probation.
2. Enhance contact and support of continuing students who are in good academic standing.
3. Continue to enhance support for our students, especially first-year, through communication via electronic technology.
4. Will continue to focus on professional development and more intentional programming for our continuing students.