Educational Opportunity Program Annual Report 2020-2021

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 July 2021):

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, 3)
2. EOP will promote social, cultural, and ethnic diversity in the CSU, Chico campus population. (Division goal 2; University strategic priorities 4, 7, 8)
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, 5, 8)
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 2, 4, 5, 8)
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, 4, 6, 7, 8)

Department Accomplishments

• Successfully continued EOP services in virtual modality
• Increased use of social media platforms as another avenue to communicate with students and the campus community
• Increased collaboration with a variety of departments with the goal of sharing the history of EOP and encouraging more collaborative efforts
• EOP representation in the 2020-21 CSU’s Middle Leadership Academy and the CSU’s Analytics Certificate program
• Partnered with the Math department and Chico STEM connections for the 2nd year to offer 50 graphing calculators and professional financial calculators for students to check out.
• Successful laptop loan program that provided students the opportunity to check out a laptop for the semester or the academic year.
• Virtual End of Year event for our first-year students (~100 students in attendance out of 175)
• Collaborated for a 2nd time with Center for Healthy Communities to participate in a systemwide pilot assessment (Basic Needs Student Success Survey Pilot #2) with 2 other CSU’s (CSUN & Fresno State)
• Participated in the Virtual Chico Preview Day Diversity and Inclusion panel
• Staff assists in coordination and support of many of our Multicultural Welcomes and Celebrations
• 2nd year of the 1st Gen Podcast—highlights stories of our 1st Gen students, Staff and Faculty.

Highlights:

• Increased use of social media platforms as another avenue to communicate with students and the campus community: Utilized professional and student staff to increase EOP’s presence on social media. Paraprofessional Advisors hosted weekly campaigns on social media (Motivational Mondays and Parapro Tips), the Communication Intern advertised a variety of events utilizing social media and professional staff collaborated with the Office of Admissions to host an Instagram Live event for applicants and prospective students.
• Increased collaboration with a variety of departments with the goal of sharing the history of EOP and encouraging more collaborative efforts: EOP collaborated with the Book in Common committee and facilitated a podcast “EOP: A Commitment to Anti-racism, from 1968 to Today” based on Kendi’s “How To Be An Antiracist” book.
• Virtual End of Year event for our first-year students (~100 students in attendance out of 175): Developed and executed the first virtual End-of-the-year celebration for first-year students. This annual culminating activity provided the professional and student staff an opportunity to connect with students as they ended their first year of college.

Diversity Efforts:

• Presented and participated in virtual PAUSE
• Collaborated, planned, facilitated and participated in the campus-wide virtual Tipping Point- Student Success Summit
• Organized a team of Black faculty and staff to participate in the CSU Men of Color workshop series
• Professional staff contributed and assisted in organizing multicultural welcome receptions and graduation celebrations
• Professional staff assisted with the coordination of the Student Community Check-in and the API Heritage Month activity: Of Hmong Roots & Culture
• Professional staff assisted with the coordination and participated in the first new Black Student and Family Summer Orientation session sponsored by BFSA
• Two professional staff members graduated from the Diversity Certificate program
• Continued partnership with the Adelante program (collaborative student trainings and co-sponsored workshops)

Changes In Policies And Procedures

• EOP admissions allowed freshman applicants to complete admissions process in spring 2021, all in attempt to aid the University in meeting undergraduate admission targets.
• EOP admissions did not require high school transcripts from all applicants, only applicants that did not meet CSU admissions criteria
• Changed requirements for the EOP Incentive Grant to include regular attendance of Supplemental Instruction
• Summer Bridge was offered in a virtual modality for the second year. Collaborated with several student support programs and lecturers from Orientation Programs, the Math department (early start), School of Education (to complete MOCCA assessment), the English department, the Natural Sciences department to provide a series of zoom workshops and webinars to help prepare students for the fall semester.

Resources Summary

Note: EOP received base funding dollars for staff positions in 2020-2021, since we have had multiple retirements and also one departure, there were salary savings. 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. Due to pandemic SB 2021 would have been residential and we would have zeroed out our balance.

Human Resources

EOP has experienced multiple retirements (1- A/AS in January and 1 ASAII in June) in a short time-frame (less than a year), along with a recent long-term employee (20 years) who accepted another job opportunity on-campus (SSP III in May). We are also anticipating an upcoming retirement in September of our ASC II. These are 4 major positions in our unit that are essential for our program to continue to be successful in serving our first generation, historically low-income students. In order for our department to continue to successfully serve our students, we need our team to be complete again.

Facilities/Equipment

• New furniture was purchased for offices and student computer lab.
• New computers/monitors were purchased for our student staff cubicles.
• New laptops were purchased to support distance learning and rotation of our laptop check out program.
• New camera and video equipment were purchased to support our online services.

Program Assessment Of Past Year

Program Objectives for 2020-2021

1. EOP will continue to meet with all continuing students who are on academic probation. Met/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 reminds them of programming to support their success.
3. Continue to enhance support for our students, especially first-year, through communication via electronic technology.
   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. The EOP community within Blackboard Learn has been another successful method for communicating with first year students. ADVISOR is in the testing phase of a texting tool and we anticipate utilizing that program soon to offer yet another means of communication.
4. Continue to focus on professional development and more intentional programming for our continuing students.
   Met/Ongoing EOP has initiated more intentional collaboration with the Career Center along with encouraging students to participate in their Focus2 assessments. Language is included in our second-year success contract to ensure students will meet with the Career Center and develop workshops focused on our students. Several emails were sent reminding students of online platforms (i.e., LinkedIn) to continue their professional development online.

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—services transitioned to virtual modality.

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 11th 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, 89.2% of our first-year students passed ENGL 130PW on their first attempt; 85.3% passed ENGL 130W on their first attempt.

SLO #2 – As a result of participating in the “Reality Check 101” series, fewer students will be on academic probation after their first semester - During the fall semester, students receiving two or more negative progress reports (C- or below) or who were referred by their paraprofessional advisor, were encouraged to participate in Reality Check. Slight revisions were made to the format of Reality Check, to allow students to participate in a manner that allowed flexibility within our remote learning environment. Twenty-nine students were invited to take part in these meetings designed to strengthen academic performance and avoid academic probation. Topics 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
• Reviewing course enrollment for spring 2021
• Examining course drop options

FYE students who finished the fall 20 semester with a GPA below 2.0, totaled 25 students:

• 11 of the 25 students invited to the Reality Check meeting earned GPAs above 2.0
• 3 of the 25 students invited to the Reality Check meeting earned GPAs below 2.0
• 6 of the 25 students invited to the Reality Check meeting did not continue to the spring 2021 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 2.0 after their first semester are required to attend a series of workshops called “Fresh Start” in the spring. 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.

Due to the nature of remote learning, “Fresh Start” was revised to allow the students to participate at their own pace. Students were required to attend at least one of the workshops through Zoom and had access to the other workshops through the Fresh Start Community in Blackboard.

Workshop curriculum included:

• Workshop 1 – Growth Mindset
• Workshop 2 – Social and Emotional Learning
• Workshop 3 – Values and Beliefs
• Workshop 4 – Goal Setting

In spring 2021, 22 first-year students out of 184 were required to attend “Fresh Start”. This was 11.9% of first year students (compared to 12.5% in spring 2020, 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).

VI. ANALYSIS

• Partnering with the School of Education and providing our first-year students access to the reading comprehension assessment MOCCA remains a productive effort. This practice will continue along with providing opportunities for all students to participate in the assessment as well.
• Given the trends of higher education and career development, focusing on life-after-college preparation for our students will remain a priority. EOP will initiate more collaboration with the Career Center and the Adelante program to ensure our students are aware of the opportunities available.
• As the University returns to offering in person services, EOP will continue to follow the lead of our technology specialist Thang Ho, to make sure EOP students, student workers and staff are getting their technology needs met through this transitional period. Providing EOP students with the opportunity to “check-out” technology (i-clickers, calculators, laptops) has proven to be a service quite beneficial to students.
• Returning from three semesters of virtual learning and services, 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. Providing assessments to FYE, SYS, transfer and continuing students remains an essential element in ensuring EOP is serving students in the best manner possible. However, with the loss of the EOP assessment coordinator in late spring, the results from those assessments have not been compiled and analyzed.

VII. PROGRAM OBJECTIVES FOR 2021-2022

*Note: due to the transition of providing services virtually and in person, the majority of program objectives will remain unchanged to allow EOP advisors the opportunity to focus on providing services to the students with the greatest academic needs.

1. EOP will continue to meet with all continuing students who are on academic probation.
2. Enhance virtual and physical support to students equally, during the hybrid fall semester. With paying particular attention to the fall 2020 cohort and those participants of the Second Year Success program.
3. Continue to enhance support for our students, especially first-year, through communication via electronic technology and social media.
4. Will continue to focus on professional development and more intentional programming for our continuing students.