Piedmont Tech to expand advising center
Piedmont Technical College’s push to improve student retention seems to be working, the administration reported at Tuesday’s Area Commission meeting.
CAREplan is a redesign of the college’s advising plan for students in health care programs. Last year, the college unveiled the CARE Planning Center, a one-stop-shop on the Greenwood campus for health care students’ advising needs.
President Ray Brooks said the goal was to make sure students didn’t waste their time and money jumping among programs, trying to make up their minds regarding what exactly they wanted to study.
As the Index-Journal reported in January, the persistence rate among CAREplan students from fall 2018 to spring 2019 far exceeded expectations, Karla Gilliam, an instructional specialist at Piedmont Tech, told commissioners.
Architects of CAREplan hoped that 55% of the students who took advantage of the service would come back for a second semester. More than 80% did.
The administration also tracked the percentage of students who had made degree plans and followed through on them. Gilliam said the goals were ambitious: 100% of students were expected to complete a plan by the end of the semester, and two-thirds were expected to be following it.
About 90% of students eventually made degree plans. A little more than half of the fall 2018 cohort and just under two-thirds of the spring 2019 cohort were following them by the end of the spring semester.
Smaller planning centers will open at Piedmont Tech’s Laurens and Newberry counties’ campuses this year. In year three, centers will open at the remaining satellite campuses.
Randy Cooper, of the Brittingham Group, presented the commission a summary of his firm’s audit of the college. Cooper said it received an unmodified, or clean, opinion.
In other business:
– Jack Bagwell, vice president of academic affairs, said Piedmont Tech recently signed an articulation agreement with Anderson University. According to a press release, students from PTC who meet transfer requirements will be guaranteed admission to Anderson. Bagwell said that similar discussions are taking place with Lander, Augusta and S.C. State universities.
– Commissioner Y.J. Ahn asked Brooks whether a projected shortfall in Greenwood County’s Capital Project Sales Tax revenues would jeopardize the Upstate Center for Manufacturing Excellence. It is financed partially though the CPST. Brooks said the project was one of the first on the list to receive funding and, as such, is safe.
Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Sep 19, 2019
By ALEKS GILBERT agilbert@indexjournal.com
Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/piedmont-tech-to-expand-advising-center/article_a961934c-59dc-5891-a178-174a0b8ac0cd.html