Action Pillars: Pillar 2 | New Jersey Council of County Colleges

Pillar 2: Fostering Student Success and Completion in Postsecondary Education and Training

It is not enough to enroll students in postsecondary programs: we must ensure that more students earn a credential or degree. New Jersey’s Community Colleges serve an incredibly diverse population of students with multiple goals. Many intend to complete an associate degree and/or transfer to a four-year institution; others seek to complete one or more credit or noncredit courses, sometimes culminating in a certificate and often geared to career advancement. Many students face exceedingly difficult life circumstances that can interfere with their plans. While in school, most NJ Community College students have full- or part-time jobs. A 2019 survey* of NJ Community College students breaks down the numbers.

*SurveyResults

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Strategy 1: Further expand access to the Community College Opportunity Grant (CGOG) program

Solution: New Jersey should further invest in the CGOG program to ensure that all individuals with an adjusted household income of $125,000 and lower can attend community college tuition free.

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Strategy 2: Launch an expanded, evidence-based Community College Student Success Initiative

Strategy 2: Launch an expanded, evidence-based Community College Student Success Initiative

Solution: NJ should invest in a statewide student success initiative that would enable the 18 Community Colleges to provide intensive and robust evidence-based supports to all students who need them. This would include supports targeted to particular populations, including student parents, justice-impacted students, students with disabilities, veterans, and others.

Strategy 3: Commit to broader, sustained partnerships to address the basic needs of students

Solution: NJ state agencies, local social service agencies, Community Colleges, employers, and community-based organizations should continue to work together to build new partnerships to address students’ basic needs.

College Examples

Brookdale Community College Caroline Huber Holistic Wellness Center

The Caroline Huber Holistic Wellness Center is located on Brookdale Community College’s main campus in Lincroft and provides access to mental health and social services, as well as student basic needs through the college’s Nutrition Hub. Brookdale partners with agencies throughout the county (e.g., Lunch Break, Preferred Behavioral Health, Parker Family Medical, RWJBarnabas Health, etc.) that schedule time to be on campus to meet with students, employees, and members of the community who need to access services. A county social worker is present full time to assist as well. The Center includes space for private visits, conference rooms, and a meditation room that students, employees, and clients can visit for quiet meditation or prayer. The Center’s services also involve programming such as yoga, meditation, and lectures centered on holistic well-being and thriving. All services are available for students, employees, and community members at no cost.

Hudson County Community College Hudson Scholars

In 2021, Hudson County Community College (HCCC) launched Hudson Scholars. Drawing on promising aspects of both the New Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund and the City University of New York’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, the pillars of Hudson Scholars are:

Personal and intensive academic advising, coaching, and mentoring;
Financial stipends awarded for achievement of specific monthly academic milestones;
High-impact educational experiences such as undergraduate research; internships; field trips; student leadership; attendance at museums and Broadway plays; visits to corporate, industrial, health care, and other organizations; and many others; and
Systemic use of a faculty early alert system to inform advisors, mentors, and coaches of concerns and student accomplishments as soon as they surface.

Hudson Scholars students meet regularly with academic counselors who have caseloads that are 80% smaller than other advisers. Counselors monitor academic progress, help students set academic and career goals, and connect students to academic and basic needs resources to help them persist.

Hudson Scholars students complete an associate degree within two years at three times the historical rate for students of the same academic profile. Among traditionally underserved and underrepresented groups, fall-to-fall retention of Hudson Scholars Latino students was 46% greater than the retention rate of HCCC Latino students historically, and African-American student retention was 83% greater. Increased retention of Hudson Scholars students has produced annual tuition and financial aid revenue that has exceeded the costs of the program, making the Hudson Scholars program model financially self-sustaining. More than 2,300 students are currently enrolled in Hudson Scholars, and HCCC will scale the program to all students over the next several years.

Middlesex College Center for Justice Impacted Students

The Center for Justice-Impacted Students at Middlesex College was founded in 2021 to advance higher educational opportunities for justice-impacted students, both in carceral settings and on campus. The Center grew from Middlesex College’s longstanding relationship with the Middlesex County Juvenile Detention Center, and it then expanded to include programming for the Camden County Juvenile Detention Center, a liberal arts associate degree pathway program for students incarcerated within New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission facilities, and programming for on-campus justice-impacted students.

Students receive academic support from a student success coach, receive access to a minimum of two office hours per class per week from each of their professors, have the opportunity to participate in a weekly policy reform advocacy program funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and receive extensive reentry support as they approach their release dates.

For justice-impacted students on campus, the Center oversees the Justice Scholars Program, which supports reentry for formerly incarcerated students as well as offers support to students on parole or probation, students who have prior histories of arrest or adjudication, and students who have immediate family members who were or are incarcerated. Justice Scholars earn a $500 stipend each semester for participation in the program, and they participate in a pre-semester student orientation to increase college readiness, leadership development and networking opportunities, and opportunities to collaborate with currently incarcerated students on policy reform efforts.

Union College of Union County, NJ, Project Achievement and Inspire the Future

Union College of Union County, NJ is a Minority Serving and a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution intently focused on transforming the local community, one student at a time. Based on the data, Union College recognized that the African-American/Black male graduation rate was not appreciably increasing despite the overall consistent climb in graduation rates. Union College, in turn, has aggressively addressed the equity gap for underrepresented and low-socioeconomic students for a decade.

Two of Union College’s programs that advance student success and social justice include Project Achievement and Inspire the Future. Project Achievement is a Black male mentorship program that reinforces students’ sense of belonging by connecting Black males to professional Black male mentors. Project Achievement provides proactive academic advising, tuition assistance, linkages to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and life skills development. Intrusive advising led to a Project Achievement graduation rate increase from 5% in 2014 to 32% in 2023.

Inspire the Future is a student success program that supports Latinx men and women via career service opportunities, workshops, and various social engagement events related to personal and professional development. The graduation rate for Hispanic students increased from 6.9% in 2014 to 32.6% in 2023. Additionally, the college’s foundation works closely with the financial aid office and student advisors to distribute over a million dollars annually to provide cohort students with completion scholarships.