Sixty-four percent of all Mississippi freshman students are in community colleges, JSU’s Dr. Priscilla Slade told a packed audience at this year’s Academic Partnership Program Summit held at the Student Center auditorium Thursday.
Some 74 percent of those freshmen are in associate degree programs intending to go to four-year colleges and universities. “But only 22 percent of those make it,” she said.
“Mississippi, we have a problem!” said Slade, special assistant to the provost for community colleges and international programs, who organized the event.
“We’ve got to roll up our sleeves and get to work!” she said.
The summit, third in a series alternating between JSU and Hinds Community College (HCC), was designed to do just that.
Titled “Completion and Transition, ” the summit began with a welcome by JSU President Dr. Carolyn W. Meyers, who noted that top state leaders and JSU’s top talent were there for strategy sessions.
Students, said Meyers drawing upon her own youth, are filled with doubts, questions and, perhaps not the least: dreams. Noting that “all in the room have a wealth of talent, passion and commitment,” the collaboration will help in “enabling the realization of those dreams.”
Among the special presenters were HCC President Dr. Clyde Muse; Dr. Glen Boyce associate commissioner of academic and student affairs with the Mississippi Institute of Higher Learning; Dr. Joan Haynes, associate executive director for academic and student affairs with the Mississippi Community College Board; and Dr. Tyronne Jackson, associate vice president for student services at HCC.
Dr. Evelyn Leggett, associate vice president for academic and student affairs, expanded on the “charge to craft a partnership,” saying “our theme is student success.” The goal is a seamless transition for transfer students.
Pointing to the number of deans, faculty and support personnel among the 100 or so in attendance, Leggett, who is also dean of undergraduate studies, said: “We feel that we are moving in the right direction.”
Apparently so, as outlined by IHL’s Boyce, who said that in 2013, JSU had an astounding 31.6 percent of students age 25 years or older. These “nontraditional” students are often overlooked among Mississippi’s eight universities, but JSU has actually increased its number, becoming one of the state’s top transfer schools.
Those figures were no surprise to Muse. With 32,000 students at six campuses, HCC is the largest community college in Mississippi, and “the highest percent of students go to Jackson State,” Muse said. He credited “programs such as this.”
Gary Fretwell, senior vice president and principal of Noel-Levitz, a higher education consulting firm, was the summit facilitator, helping to develop strategies on improving completion rates, encouraging enrollment and transitioning to JSU.
