Response to HCR69/Student Achievement

Nunez Community College's Strategic Plan

Nunez Community College's Goals

Nunez Community College's Student Success (Grad Act)

Nunez Community College's Response to the HCR 69:

I. Institutional/Student Profile

Purpose/Mission

Go to College Navigator - Nunez Community College to view the following statistics. Be sure to click on expand and scroll down to view all statistics.

  • Admissions Standards
  • Number of Students Admitted
  • Percent of Students Admitted
  • Number of Resident
  • Number of Non-Resident
  • Average Student Loan Amount
  • Percent on Financial Aid
  • Average Financial Aid Award
  • Campus Crime Statistics

ACT Class Profile Report

II. Student/Faculty Engagement

Percent of Developmental Classes Taught by Full-Time Faculty: 56%

Average Teaching Load by Discipline

  • Humanities, Social Sciences, Mathematics: 5 3-credit lectures
  • Natural Sciences: 3 3-credit lectures, 3 1-credit labs
  • Nursing: combination of lecture, lab, and clinical

Number of Type of General Education Courses Required for Degree Programs

Board of Regents General Education Requirements Matrix
Course TCA/TD CTS c AAS AA AS A AALTL

ASLT

English Composition

 0 0 3 3 6 6 6 6 6
Mathematics 0 0 3 3 3 6 3 6 6
Natural Sciences 0 0 0 3 6 6 6 9 9
Humanities 0 0 0-3 3 3 3 3 9 9
Fine Arts 0 0 0-3 0 3 3 3 3 3
Social/Behavioral Sci* 0 0 0-3 3 6 3 6 6 6

* In the A. A., A.G.S., A.A.T.L., and A.S.T.L. degree programs, three of the six required hours in social/behavioral sciences must be at the sophomore (2000) level.

Transfer Criteria

This question applies primarily to four-year institutions and their criteria for accepting transfer students, as Nunez, like other community colleges, is an open-admissions institution. However, here are the admissions policies affecting transfer students, as described in the 2016-2017 College Catalog:

Transfer Students

A transfer student is any student who has been previously enrolled at any postsecondary school. Transfer students may enroll at Nunez if they are eligible for readmission at the last school attended. Transfer students are admitted provisionally until all required transcripts have been received. An official transcript is one mailed directly from the Registrar of the previous institution to the Nunez Admissions Office. Failure to acknowledge attendance at any college or university may result in immediate dismissal. If official transcripts have not been received at the time of registration, the student may be admitted provisionally.

Transfer credits from all regionally- accredited institutions of higher education are recorded on the student’s permanent academic records. Nunez will compute the grade point average for transfer students in the same manner as is done for a Nunez student.

Upon receipt of each transcript, Admissions Office personnel determine if the institution where the credit was earned is accredited or recognized. All credits earned at regionally-accredited schools are accepted in transfer; however, not all credits earned may apply toward a particular degree or certificate. Acceptance of transfer credits to meet degree/certificate program requirements will be governed by the following guidelines:

  1. Acceptance of courses taken more than 10 years before a student transfers to Nunez Community College is determined by the Chair of the Department in which the student’s program of study resides.
  2. Acceptance of courses that are not equivalent to courses taught at Nunez Community College is determined by the student’s Department Chair.
  3. Grades for transferred courses will be interpreted according to the Nunez grading scale and will be recorded as follows:
    1. Plus (+) or minus (-) symbols will be disregarded.
    2. Grades of Satisfactory, Pass, and Credit will be treated alike and will count only in hours earned.
    3. Failing grades, including WF, will count as hours attempted.
    4. Grades in developmental courses are treated the same as grades in other courses.
    5. Grades of NC (no credit) will not be recorded.
    6. Incomplete ("I”) grades will be treated as "I” grades issued by Nunez and will be converted to "F” if not converted to a passing grade by the Nunez deadline.
  4. Transcripts will be evaluated for degree-seeking students during their first semester at Nunez by Admissions Office personnel.
  5. A transfer grade of "D” will not meet the course pre-requisites for courses in a sequence. Refer to the Course Descriptions section of the catalog to verify minimum grade requirements for specific courses.
  6. If the transfer work was earned in quarter hours, the credits will be converted to semester hours. (The number of quarter hours times 2/3 equals the number of semester hours.)
  7. The Louisiana Board of Regents Student Transfer Guide and Articulation Matrices (http://regents.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/Data/MASTER_COURSE_ARTIC_MATRIX_2011-12.pdf ), as well as individual transfer guides from institutions with which Nunez has entered into transfer agreements, will be used to determine course equivalencies.

Courses taken at institutions that are not accredited by regional associations that accredit institutions of higher learning are generally not accepted at Nunez Community College. However, students transferring from non-regionally accredited institutions can request credit, provided the College itself can document that faculty qualifications and student competencies in the transferred courses are equivalent to its own courses.

Students may pursue one of the following avenues to gain acceptance of this coursework:

  1. Use the coursework as a basis to apply for Credit by Examination.
  2. Use the coursework as a basis to apply for LEAP (Life Experience Assessment Program) credit.
  3. Establish that a regionally-accredited institution has accepted the courses in question toward a degree or certificate.

A student who transfers to Nunez with an adjusted cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.00 or higher will be admitted in good standing.

A transfer student with less than a 2.00 adjusted cumulative GPA will be admitted on probation. If in the first semester, the student fails to achieve a semester grade point average of 2.00 or higher, the student will be suspended for one semester.

Transfer students who were on academic suspension at their previous institution may not be admitted to Nunez until their suspension period has ended. Students may appeal in writing to the Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs to enroll while on academic suspension. However, students who intend to transfer back to the previous institution should get express written consent from the suspending institution granting the student permission to enroll at Nunez while on suspension.

Process for Evaluating Program Effectiveness

Nunez uses a 3-year cycle of Academic Program Review to evaluate program effectiveness.

Explanation of Student Outcomes for Each Program

The College Catalog program page for each program describes the student outcomes for that program.

Satisfactory Academic Progress Definition

Here is the definition of satisfactory academic progress from the 2014-2015 College Catalog:

Satisfactory Academic Progress

To be eligible for Title IV Federal Financial Assistance, a student must be in good academic standing and enrolled in an eligible program. To retain eligibility, a student must maintain a satisfactory overall (from all colleges attended) cumulative and Nunez cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) and a total earned/attempted credit hours ration in accordance with the set standards.

Satisfactory academic progress (SAP) policy provides the guidelines for monitoring academic progress and determining eligibility for all federal financial aid, scholarships, and other aid programs. All students receiving any financial aid or scholarships from Nunez must abide by this policy as well as any other specific requirements for scholarships or waivers as applicable.

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) has three parts: a qualitative standard (grade point average standard); a credit hour standard (based on the completion of a minimum number of hours attempted); and a time standard (the maximum number of credits a student may attempt in completing his/her course of study). These standards are used consistently for all Nunez students who apply for Title IV Federal Financial Assistance. This includes all new, transfer, re-entry, re-admit with transfer work, and continuing students at Nunez.

All transcripts for transfer students must be received by the Admissions Office before satisfactory academic progress for financial aid eligibility can be determined.

Grade Point Average and Credit Hour Standards

The grade point average standard requires that as the number of hours a student has attempted increases, the student’s minimum required cumulative grade point average (CGPA) increases. Students on academic probation who have an adjusted cumulative GPA below 2.00 at the conclusion of any term are placed on financial aid probation for one semester. The student may receive financial aid for one semester. If at the conclusion of the probationary semester the student fails to raise his/her cumulative GPA to 2.00, the student will be suspended from receiving all financial aid.

The credit hour standard requires that a student satisfactorily complete (earn a passing grade in) a minimum number of the credit hours attempted. The following chart indicates the hours that must be satisfactorily completed based on the hours attempted. A student who attempts fewer than 3 hours must successfully complete all of them.

Credit Hours Attempted Minimum Hours to be Earned

3 - 6

 3

7 - 11

 6
12 - 23 9
24 - 35 18
36 - 47 28
48 - 59 38
60 - 71 49
72 - 83 60
84 - 95 72
96 - 99 84

Time Frame for Achievement

For financial aid status, students are advised to enroll only in courses required in their program of study so as not to exceed the time standard prior to completing their program. Students are allowed Title IV funding for up to 1 1/2 times (150% of) the hours required for their program. Degrees require about 60 hours; therefore, the maximum number of allowable hours attempted for degree programs is 90 hours. Certificates require about 30 hours; therefore, the maximum number of allowable hours attempted for certificate programs is 45 hours. Adjustments may be made for programs that are longer or shorter than 30 and 90 hours.

Hours removed through academic amnesty will count toward hours attempted for the time frame standard. Additionally, courses taken toward a different program of study and courses for which no financial aid was awarded will count toward this limit unless a student is admitted into a limited admissions program.

For students enrolled in a limited admissions program, the hours earned that do not apply to the program are excluded from the time frame standard. Currently, the limited admissions programs offered at Nunez are Emergency Medical Technology, Industrial Technology, Practical Nursing, and Teaching.

Credits earned more than 10 years prior to the date of enrollment will not be included in hours attempted if these hours don’t apply toward the student’s degree or certificate. Affected students must get written documentation (usually a completed degree or certificate form) from the VCASA in order to have the older credits excluded from the computation of hours attempted.

Measuring Academic Progress

A student’s progress will be measured at the end of each semester or session in which the student is enrolled. Grades of "A,” "B,” "C,” "D,” and "P” will be counted as satisfactory completions; grades of "F,” "W,” "I,” and "NP” will be counted as unsatisfactory attempts. A student who fails to meet SAP requirements may continue to receive financial aid on probation for one semester. If the deficiency is not corrected by the end of the probationary semester, the student will be ineligible to receive further aid until the SAP standards have been met.

A student who is re-enrolling after a semester on academic suspension will not be able to receive any financial aid until he/she is making satisfactory academic progress as defined by both the Grade Point Average and Credit Hour standards.

Following academic amnesty, a student who has not exceeded the time frame standard will be placed on financial aid probation and must satisfactorily complete all hours attempted every enrolled term in order to continue receiving Title IV financial assistance.

Hours attempted include hours earned, incompletes, failures, and withdrawals. These limits apply even when a student has not received financial aid funds during the entire period.

A second degree or certificate may be pursued but must be completed within 150% of the allotted time frame of the program requiring the most credit hours. For repeated courses, the hours deleted under the College’s repeat/delete policy will not be counted.

Percent of Faculty Who Possess the Highest Degree Possible in Their Given Fields

  • Liberal Arts Faculty: 30% (20 faculty: 2 Ph.D., 4 M.F.A.)
  • Business, Technology, and Health Sciences: 20% (20 faculty: 2 J.D., 2 Master’s & industry certifications)

III. Academic Achievement

Freshman to Sophomore Retention: 52.79%

Graduation Rates (Uses IPEDS GRAD Rates):

  • 150%: 16%
  • 200%: 19%

Percent of Students Taking Remedial Courses: 23%

FTF Average Time to Degree: 4.4

Measurements of Student Satisfaction: Student Satisfaction Survey Results

Measurements of Employee Satisfaction: Employee Satisfaction Survey Results

Average Scores on Outcome Assessments (Grad School Admissions Test, Licensure Exams)

Graduate school admissions test: N/A
Licensure exams, as described in the College’s 2010-2011 GRAD Act Report:

Currently, licensure and certification exams are required for four programs at Nunez: Practical Nursing, Nursing Assistant, Emergency Medical Technology, and the Associate of Science in Teaching.

Graduates of the Practical Nursing program must sit for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) for Practical Nurses. Nunez receives information directly from the Louisiana State Board of Practical Nurse Examiners regarding its graduates’ performance on the exam. We have just received notification that for the December 2010 graduating class, 94.74% (18 of 19) of the candidates passed the exam on the first attempt. The one student who did not pass will repeat the test shortly. The recent performance history for the program is as follows: for the July 2007 class, 16 of 16 (100%) passed the test on the first attempt; for December 2007, 10 of 10 (100%); for the July 2008 class, 17 of 17 (100%); for the December 2008 class, 18 of 18 (100%); for the July 2009 class, 26 of 27 (96.3%) and the other student successfully passed the retest; for the December 2009 class, 12 of 13 (92.3%), and the other student successfully passed the retest; for the July 2010, 22 of 23 (95.7%), and the other student successfully passed the retest.

Students in the CNA program must pass the final exam to complete the Technical Competency Area (TCA) and be eligible to be registered with the State of Louisiana as a Certified Nursing Assistant. The last five CNA classes (Summer 2009 through Fall 2010) have had a 100% passing rate on the final exam.

From June 2007 through November 2010, 23 of 47 EMT students have passed the Cognitive Exam at the Paramedic Level and are registered with the National Registry of EMT.

Admission Rates into Grad Programs: N/A

Admission rates of Baccalaureate degree recipients into graduate program: N/A

Job Placement Rates by Discipline: Nunez Job Placement Rates By Discipline

IV. Institutional Efficiency/ Fiscal Conditions

Percent of Budget Spent On:

  • Instruction: 32.14%
  • Public Service: 0.0%
  • Academic Support: 5.35%
  • Student Service: 7.43%
  • Institutional Services: 16.58%
  • Depreciation:  6.05%
  • Scholarships/Fellowships: 19.28%
  • Plant Operations/Maintenance: 11.02%
  • Auxiliary:  0.07%
  • Interagency:  2.07%
  • Total E & G Expenditures: 99.99%
  • Athletics: 0.0%

Ratio of Administrative Staff to Total Staff: 1:12

Classroom and Lab Space Utilization

General Fund Appropriations (including ARRA) Per In-State Full-Time Equivalent Student: $2,415

Total Expenditures Per Full-Time Equivalent Student: $6,628