Diversity

Develop and implement strategic marketing and recruitment activities for the 5 targeted Kentucky schools. The expected outcome from this strategy was to assist with raising the total underrepresented student (URS) enrollment by 14.2% in Fall 2019 and 14.0% in Spring of 2020.  

How did you implement this strategy with fidelity? 

The Marketing and Communications team created marketing materials that included underrepresented student population (URS) images in most promotional materials and all materials were created with diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies in mind. Overall, the Marketing and Communications team spent over $270,000 on marketing efforts. The college was able to execute marketing strategies by completing several tactics and campaigns. The Admissions team visited schools and conducted presentations to promote our academic programs, scholarships, and non-academic services (mentioned in the success section) as a recruitment strategy. Interested students completed our follow-up form. The Admissions team also utilized the college’s Signal Vine platform as an outreach method such as text messaging students for engagement and follow-up. Students received Gateway giveaways for engagement such as Gateway branded t-shirts.

One tactic to execute these marketing strategies was our River City Promise (RCP) Program. Federal Pell Grant eligible students graduating from Boone County, Dixie Heights, Holmes, Lloyd, and Newport High Schools (schools shown to have higher URS populations) in Kentucky after May 2020 will receive a scholarship to cover Gateway tuition. It is renewable for up to 12 semesters or six years. The idea is to increase the college-going rate among urban parts of Northern Kentucky, allowing the student to attend tuition-free, and then continue their education at Northern Kentucky University. Forty-five students are in the River City Promise program.

In addition to the RCP Program, Gateway offered a scholarship specific to URS populations through the JT Smith Scholarship. This scholarship is offered to African American Gateway students with unmet financial need who are KY residents. During the 2021-2022 academic year, Gateway established the Chris Atkins Memorial Scholarship, which was offered to Hispanic/Latino Gateway students with unmet financial needs. Gateway invited area high schools to attend our annual Super Someday diversity recruitment event. Super Someday is the largest recruitment event at Gateway, developed to give high school students from the NKY/Greater Cincinnati region the opportunity to visit our campus and learn about the many programs and services we have to offer. The event included a chance for students to attend high-energy sessions, participate in hands-on demonstrations, and hear from engaging speakers. This year, the event had a targeted focus for URS populations, but all students were welcome to attend.

Lastly, Gateway targeted local high schools by paying for advertising on the Wiz and WOSL radio stations to focus on URS populations by encouraging them to apply to Gateway and advance their education.

How would you describe the effectiveness of this strategy? 

The effectiveness of our overall advertising and updated recruitment materials is illustrated through the increased number of credential-seeking, underrepresented students (from targeted NKY high schools) who enrolled at Gateway within the year following their high school graduation. There were a total of 81 students from targeted high schools enrolled in 2021/22 academic year and of those 81 students, 33 were URS. The number of leads generated through marketing efforts in 2021/22 academic year was 5,409. Leads generated for URS students increased by 23% overall from Spring 2021-Spring 2022, a direct reflection of our targeted efforts and advertising to these populations. Of the 4,465 students in 12th grade attending Northern Kentucky Public High Schools in 2020/2021, 7.08% (316) attended Gateway as Credential-Seeking students in 2021/2022.

In terms of the River City Promise program – which includes 3 of our 5 targeted high schools – the number of URS students enrolled in 2021/2022 was 29, the same as in 2020/202. The decrease in URS students reflects the overall decrease of students attending Gateway following high school from the targeted schools. To date, 3 students have graduated from the River City Promise Program. Fifty-two students in total out of the 2022 high school graduates have enrolled in classes as part of the program. There are 46 returning students enrolled in classes, making the total number of students enrolled in the River City Promise Program 98 for the 2022-2023 school year. This is an increase of 12 students from the previous year. Of those 98 students, 41 identify as URS.

In terms of scholarships, for the 2021-2022 academic year, 4 URS students were awarded the JT Smith scholarship totaling $11,000 in tuition/fees covered. For Super Someday, 46 high school students attended, and 5 counselors attended. A satisfaction survey was administered to the attendees to gauge the effectiveness of event. The survey results indicated 6 URS students plan to select Gateway to attend after high school. The welcome introduction and activity were ranked the best activities following Health Science and Welding as the most interesting academic demonstrations. Survey results showed the schedule rotation was effective and clearly communicated. Last, students highly rated making connections with other students during the resource fair as important as well as talking with Gateway staff.

In terms of radio advertising, over $13,000 was spent on broadcast and paid advertising between WOSL and WIZ radio stations. Each month each of the stations ran 500 spots. The campaign ran from October 2021 through February 2022, with an estimated 5,000 radio spots in total.

What lessons were learned regarding this strategy and what are your next steps? 

Lessons Learned: 

In addition to the development of better marketing materials, we’ve also learned there is a fair amount of competition in the educational landscape of urban communities in Northern Kentucky. Students graduating from the 5 targeted NKY High Schools are in close proximity to a variety of post-secondary colleges in both Ohio and Kentucky. As a result of this, our marketing efforts are easily diluted among the many other marketing efforts of higher educational institutes in the region.

Gateway needs to create better connections with high school counselors in the five targeted Northern Kentucky High Schools. We learned many high school counselors in the River Cities did not know about many of the programs and resources we have– including the River Cities Promise program. Despite our attempts to provide information about our programs and resources, we need to find new ways to connect with counselors due to the lack of responses and follow-up from our current outreach methods.

Scholarships are an effective recruitment tool for any student group, including URS population. Gateway needs to secure more scholarship opportunities for URS students that our recruitment and admissions team can utilize in their work.

Whenever possible, Gateway benefits from additional investment in paid advertising. Specifically, radio spots on WOSL and WIZ have been a good, continued strategy to raise brand awareness about Gateway, its programs, and overall affordability for potential URS students.

Next Steps 

Gateway continues to budget for effective marketing campaigns but has specifically set aside a budget for “raising the profile” tactics that go beyond current marketing efforts. In addition, Gateway has partnered with EAB on a “Moon Shot for Equity” project to increase our enrollment efforts and shorten the graduation gap between URS students and others. The Moon Shot for Equity is a collaborative project led by the Education Advisory Board (EAB), an education firm that aims to close equity gaps within regional clusters of two and four-year colleges and universities by 2030. Gateway’s faculty and staff plan to work on identifying new ways to increase our URS student enrollment with help from EAB.

To address the disconnect between Gateway and counselors in our River Cities schools - KCTCS is conducting a research study with both counselors and teachers. The goal of the study is to get a better sense of their impression of KCTCS schools and how we can effectively educate their students about us, our services, programs, degrees, and scholarships. This will provide much-needed insight into how we can improve these relationships.

Gateway's Advancement department will work to secure more scholarships focused on supporting URS students, and how to better market our existing scholarship opportunities to new and current URS students.

To improve marketing efforts, we discussed implementing a question on Gateway’s admissions application and assess how incoming students hear about Gateway. We discovered that adding a new question to the application is a timely process. In the meantime, we plan to create a survey to help us identify how incoming students hear about Gateway.

Develop and implement strategic marketing and recruitment activities for 5 targeted Cincinnati schools. The expected outcome from this strategy was to assist with raising the total underrepresented student (URS) enrollment by 14.2% in fall 2021 and 14.0% in spring of 2022.

How did you implement this strategy with fidelity?

Gateway intentionally targeted high schools in Cincinnati, Ohio with programs that align with Gateway’s certificates and degrees. In other words, these high schools already offer technical and career education courses, so their graduates can seamlessly continue their education at institutions like Gateway. The five targeted high schools included: Aiken, Hughes, Shroder, Western Hills, and Woodward which are all part of the Cincinnati Public School (CPS) District. Over 95 percent of the CPS student population is URS. Our Marketing and Communications team created marketing materials that included underrepresented student population (URS) images on a vast majority of promotional materials. The Marketing and Communications team spent over $270,000 on marketing efforts to Cincinnati students and included a “free semester scholarship” campaign and is just one example of our many tactics. All these initiatives included encouraging messages to enroll at Gateway as a call to action.

Gateway utilized paid advertising to target underrepresented high school students in Cincinnati by placing radio ads on the Urban Wiz and WOSL radio stations and cable ads to our target Cincinnati demographic. We also updated our college marketing materials to show increased representation of minority student populations. These edits occurred on our website, printed materials, social media, and video content. Additionally, in these materials and advertisements, we added messaging to highlight the regional nature of our services and offerings as a college, demonstrating how we are a valuable option to not only Northern Kentucky residents, but also Cincinnati residents as well. This included information about our partnerships with organizations in Ohio and our transfer partnership with the University of Cincinnati.

Gateway invited area high schools to attend our annual Super Someday diversity recruitment event. Super Someday is the largest recruitment event at Gateway, developed to give high school students from the NKY/Greater Cincinnati region the opportunity to visit our campus and learn about the many programs and services we have to offer. The event included a chance for students to attend high-energy sessions, participate in hands-on demonstrations, and hear from engaging speakers. This year, the event had a targeted focus for URS populations, but all students were welcome to attend.

Besides these efforts, Gateway is also a member of the Cincinnati Public Schools College Consortium. The Consortium allows the opportunity for tri-state college recruiters, college access professionals, and school counselors to discuss topics to identify and close gaps for high school students around college access and fosters team member and partnership building among these groups.

How would you describe the effectiveness of this strategy

Leads generated for URS students increased by 23% from Spring 2021-Spring 2022, a direct reflection of our target efforts and advertising. While this is a promising improvement that shows an increased interest in attending Gateway, we do not have any students from these targeted schools enrolled currently. Just over 2% of Gateway’s total enrollment are students from Cincinnati, but again, none of these are from the five targeted Cincinnati Public schools.

In terms of radio advertising, over $13,000 was spent on broadcast and paid advertising between WOSL and WIZ radio stations. Each month each of the stations ran 500 spots. The campaign ran from October 2021 through February 2022, with an estimated 5,000 radio spots in total.

For Super Someday, zero Cincinnati schools attended the event despite our marketing and outreach efforts. Our attempted marketing efforts included phone call campaigns to Cincinnati school counselors, emails including graphics, and the event flyer.

Our work with the College Consortium has led to better awareness of Gateway’s programs and offerings among our education partners, but has not necessarily trickled down to the high school counselors of our targeted schools.

What lessons were learned regarding this strategy and what are your next steps? 

Lessons Learned:

Marketing of Gateway programs in Cincinnati and regionally is quite difficult. The Tri-state metro area of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana is saturated with higher education institutions. This means Gateway faces a large amount of competition regionally for students. Since students have more educational choices our marketing and messaging efforts are more easily diluted among this vast array of options. The program offerings in Cincinnati exceed the offerings currently available at Gateway. Programs that attract many students in that area include culinary arts, aviation, multimedia/graphic design, and expansive engineering programs.

Gateway’s efforts in paid advertising have created better brand awareness among CPS high school students, their parents, teachers, and administrators of our five schools.

Gateway has joined the Cincinnati College Consortium in an effort to create better connections with high school counselors in our five-targeted Cincinnati schools to inform them about our many programs and resources available. Additionally, through our involvement in the Consortium we also know that University of Cincinnati (the region’s largest post-secondary institution) has a Cincinnati Pride scholarship which allows seniors graduating from Cincinnati Public High Schools – including Gateway’s targeted five schools – to attend UC tuition free. While it is a “last dollar in” scholarship for Pell eligible students, the tuition is fully covered. Gateway has a difficult time competing with that value proposition.

Next Steps:

Gateway continues to budget for effective marketing but has specifically set aside a budget for “raising the profile” tactics that go beyond the current marketing efforts. In addition, Gateway has partnered with EAB on a Moon Shot to Equity project to increase our enrollment efforts and shorten the graduation gap between URS students and others. This initiative's announcement led to 59 positive media placements, and as that project continues, we anticipate an impact on our ability to attract URS students from our targeted high schools. Moving forward, we plan to use our differentiating factors to market directly to perspective students (lower cost, accessibility, smaller class sizes, wrap-around services offered, scholarship opportunities, proximity to Cincinnati, etc.) with the goal of standing out among our many competitors.

Through our membership with the Consortium, we plan to continue to address the overall lack of awareness about Gateway among our targeted high school counselors. We intend on inviting those counselors to our annual counselor’s breakfast planned for September and in that session determine how we can better serve CPS to educate their students about the offerings and programs we have. Gateway's Advancement department will work to secure more scholarships focused on supporting URS students from Cincinnati high schools, and to better market our existing scholarship opportunities to new and current URS students.

To improve marketing efforts, we discussed implementing a question on Gateway’s admissions application and assess how incoming students hear about Gateway. We discovered that adding a new question to the application is a timely process. In the meantime, we plan to create a survey to help us identify how incoming students hear about Gateway.

Develop and/or expand non-academic support services to serve low-income populations. The expected outcome for this strategy was to minimize academic and non-academic barriers that result in higher levels of persistence and success for underrepresented and low-income students. Gateway minimized academic and non-academic barriers for these students through our Student Affairs Programs.

How did you implement this strategy with fidelity?

Gateway’s Success Coaching Program was designed to help students be successful in college by providing wholistic, individual support and helping them find and use resources they may need to reach their goals. The Coaching Team is made up of peer and professional coaches. The DEI coordinator created strategic outreach methods and success strategies in an effort to help with URS student retention. A case management assessment form was created to assess student’s barriers and desired goals. The case management form assisted DEI staff in providing tailored referrals, support, and resources. URS students received semester introductions and weekly email reminders about important upcoming dates for events, resources, and due dates. The DEI center implemented weekly student study table sessions to better assist students with academic success and retention.

The Counseling Department provides short and long-term counseling services to students at no cost to them. These services are flexible as far as length of appointment and location (all campuses, as well as virtual). Counseling teamed up with DEI to provide CARE Management classroom presentations, which is an initiative to reach underserved student populations and discuss diversity, belonging, student resources, and mental health.

The Student Resources and Peer Mentor program targeted our low-income students. We had a “Healthy Bites on a Budget” food series. This series taught students how to eat healthy while eating on a budget. DEI staff worked with student resources staff to create tailored marketing materials to promote this event as well as our other services such as the Food for Thought Pantry, housing assistance, student emergency fund, and child care options. The DEI student ambassador assisted with promoting events and services during classroom presentations, at promotional tables, and the student activity period offered every Wednesday at our Edgewood campus. Student Resources continued to offer community partnerships onsite where students could apply for a variety of resources on campus around their non-academic barriers.

The Ready to Work Program (RTW) is contracted by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. The program is designed to promote the success of low-income Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program (KTAP) eligible recipients who attend local Adult Education programming or attend college at Gateway. This includes former students who owe a school-related debt but would like to return to college and Gateway graduates who are seeking employment. Student caseloads are assigned to each of the three RTW Coordinators who provide holistic case management services based on student needs. Coordinators are located at each campus to provide access for students. Students in RTW receive a combination of academic and non-academic services such as advising, career counseling, referrals to resources, advocacy, mentoring, financial literacy, and job skills training through work study opportunities. RTW Coordinators maintain consistent communication with students through in-person and virtual appointments, phone calls, and email.

How would you describe the effectiveness of this strategy?

The Success Coaching Program allowed students to continue to choose their preference for online meetings or in-person appointments. In the 2021-2022 academic year, the Success Coaching team held approximately 80 student meetings, ranging from probation 1, probation 2, and returning from academic suspension status. The DEI office had a caseload of 41 URS students on probation. Out of the 41 URS students on the DEI caseload, there was an overall retention rate of 93.33%.

The Counseling program was highly effective. In Fall 2021, the counseling department worked with 57 individual students. Of the 57, there were 14 URS students (24.6%). In Spring 2022, the department worked with 70 (non-duplicated) students, 12 of which were URS (17.1%). And in Summer 2022, there were 21 students (non-duplicated) who were seen by the counseling department with 5 being URS students (23.8%). The overall retention rates for Fall, Spring, and Summer were 53.8%, 60.3%, and 100%, respectively. GPAs for the students served were 2.34, 2.33, and 2.87 for the Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters, respectively. The CARE Management program reached a total of 79 students and 18 of those students were URS students.

The Student Resources and Peer Mentoring programs served 212 students in the Fall 2021. The average GPA was 2.42. Of the 212 students, 62.1% were retained to Fall 2022 and 26.4% were URS. In Spring 2022, 108 students were served. The average GPA was 2.37. Of the 108 students, 30.8% were URS. Also, we offered Walk-in Sessions with community resources for our students at the Edgewood Pantry including sessions on Budgeting, Credit, Housing, Scholar Houses (single parent housing) and Health Insurance. The Food for Thought Pantry served 95 students in the Fall 2021. The average GPA was 2.61. Of the 95 students, 77.1% were retained to Fall 2022 and 30.1% were URS. In Spring 2022, 105 students were served. The average GPA was 2.77. Of the 105 students, 28.6% were URS. Additionally, our Food for Thought Pantry also assisted 50 students with Thanksgiving Day kits for their families.

The Ready to Work Program continued to meet all contract outcomes required by our grant. Service outcomes included case management and advocacy through activities such as career counseling, life/soft skill development, job skill development and financial education. Contract goals and objectives included 70% of students with 2.0 GPA or higher, Fall to Spring retention of first time RTW college students was greater than or equal to low-income Pell students, and the annual number of RTW and Former RTW college graduates per full-time equivalent was greater than or equal to low-income Pell graduates. Individualized case management strategies continued to provide the support necessary for students to be successful. 87.5% of college-going URS remained in good academic standing with an average 2.61 GPA for 2021-2022. While URS had a 50% retention rate from Fall 2021 to Fall 2022, 50% also earned a credential.

What Lessons Were Learned Regarding This Strategy and What Are Your Next Steps?

The Student Success Coaching Program realized we need to utilize more outreach methods such as text messaging students through the college’s Signal Vine platform when e-mail responses are not returned. We will continue checking in on students that participate in success coaching.

The Student Resources and Peer Mentor program needs more tailored marketing. Reaching out to students who accessed the pantry to market events that pertain to budgeting and food security would be beneficial for future programing. Partnerships with various campus departments who use the DEI Center for events would expand our student outreach efforts. Not only will this introduce students to the DEI Center, but it will also provide a partnership between Student Resources and DEI that can be built to service our low-income populations. This provides mutual benefits for both programs.

Counseling Services will continue to expand to different programs for CARE Management and other classroom presentations and workshops. The counseling department will continue partnering with student resources, DEI, and other departments to increase student outreach to URS students and work towards eliminating non-academic barriers they may be experiencing.

Ready to Work will continue to apply case management strategies promoting student success and support. Giving students options to meet virtually has greatly increased student engagement in the program. While we still meet in-person, virtual options help students schedule meetings around their school and work study schedules especially those with transportation barriers. RTW has also created contacts with non-profit organizations so students can have direct access to clothing vouchers, car repair, and various living needs. This ease of access helps serve our students in a timelier manner and provides a quick turnaround to fulfilling needs. Best practices will evolve as we consult our sister colleges across the state and college departments/programs to ensure we are providing relevant services that increase retention rates among URS and student participants overall.

Evaluate and expand curriculum that emphasizes inclusion and appreciation of diversity and multiculturalism. The expected outcome for this strategy was to identify ways to incorporate and/or verify an emphasis on diversity and inclusion and make necessary revisions to classroom activities.

How did you implement this strategy with fidelity?

DEI Center:
The Associate Vice President of Inclusion and Intervention Services created and implemented a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Curriculum Menu. The curriculum menu was created to help faculty implement DEI educational activities and raise overall awareness of DEI for students in their courses. We encouraged faculty to pick at least one of the four menu options provided and attend DEI training. Below are examples of our academic courses and DEI activities.

Human Services:
Many strategies around DEI were implemented by Gateway’s Human Service program. The first was making the HMS 220:Cultural Diversity in Human Services course a required course for all new Human Services majors in Fall 2021. In addition, courses such as: HMS 101, HMS 102, HMS 103, and HMS 220 were offered for the first time completely online with only four required virtual, synchronous classes throughout the 2021-2022 academic year. The online course offering allowed our Human Services students who worked full-time and/or had family responsibilities to complete coursework at their own time and pace. This new program option created more accessibility to the HMS program for URS (and all) Gateway students.

Several Human Services courses are also offered in person/hybrid classes. The in person/hybrid classes included HMS 103, HMS 104, SWK 124, and SWK 106U. In these classes, the DEI Coordinator facilitated different virtual and in-person presentations on topics included but not limited to: Implicit/Explicit Bias, Microaggressions, Cultural Competency, Being Anti-Racist, and Understanding Gender and Sexuality.

Criminal Justice:
Many strategies around DEI were implemented by Gateway’s Criminal Justice program. For example, in CRJ 217 a short story from the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion curriculum menu titled, “The Cutting of My Long Hair” by Native American writer, Zitkala-Ša was included in the curriculum. In class activities around this story required students to read the story individually and answer the provided questions After individual work was completed, students worked in groups to compare and contrast their answers to the guided questions that were provided. Students were required to submit their answers to each question for review and written feedback by the instructor. Afterwards the class discussed the treatment of marginalized groups in America like the Native American children in the story.

How would you describe the effectiveness of this strategy?

Human Services:
The HMS 220 online course with four required virtual class meetings ran in Spring 2022 with twelve (12) students. Nine (9) of the students earned a B or higher in the class, which demonstrated competency of the course’s various DEI topics.

The DEI Coordinator and the HMS Program Coordinator tailored each DEI presentation to the topic of each class, which allowed students to discuss and learn about DEI in a way that was relevant to both their course material and future careers. Below are examples of the presentation topics for each class.

1. HMS 101 - General Cultural Competency
2. HMS 102 - Implicit Bias/Cultural Awareness
3. HMS 103 - Critical Race Theory and Counternarratives
4. SWK 124 - Ethnocentrism
5. HMS 104 - DEI in groups, Creating a “Safe Space” as a Leader
6. SWK 106U - Anti-racism

Criminal Justice:
The overall activity was highly effective. The short story and guided questions were designed to facilitate DEI conversations, which led to a much deeper level of understanding about DEI for students. There was 100% student engagement and participation among. Finally, based on students’ thoughtful answers and deep engagement with this activity there was a 100% success rate when it came to students applying their classroom knowledge to field work and a better understanding of cultural differences.

What lessons were learned regarding this strategy and what are your next steps?

Human Services:
The pass rate for the first HMS 220 course demonstrated that most of the students enrolled were competent in the DEI material taught and assessed in the course.

Online classes with virtual components seem favorable to students. When given the option of enrolling in an online class versus in-person/hybrid classes, more students chose online sections.

Students appeared engaged in DEI content. Students commented that they enjoyed the short (15-20 minute) presentations relating to their specific course content. The HMS program coordinator reported that students were more engaged (asked questions, engaged the speaker/classmates) in the in-person presentations compared to the virtual class presentations. However, there may be more distractions present in virtual classes that impede participation in cases for our students who are parents for example.

Criminal Justice:
The mentioned strategy allowed students to look at the story that was read along with the questions and relate those questions to a real-life scenario. For example, the class discussed the experience of someone who might come from a different culture and who might find themselves involved in the criminal justice system and what it would be like trying to navigate the system without getting their rights violated. We learned that having active discussions in class by following guided instructions provided by the DEI curriculum menu was effective in helping students think outside of their own perspectives, learn about diverse cultures, and apply learned information to the criminal justice field.

Next Steps:

Human Services:

• In class DEI presentations tailored to course content will continue into the 2022-2023 academic year.
• In Spring 2022, the Coordinator of DEI had an HMS 251 (Clinical Practice in Human Services) clinical (intern) student as a DEI Student Ambassador. This is an excellent opportunity for HMS students interested in DEI work for their future HMS/SWK careers. Interested HMS 251 clinical students will be encouraged to seek this as a clinical site.
• Human Services program coordinator will provide extra credit for DEI events held at the college and in the community and will recommend that HMS adjunct instructors do the same.

Criminal Justice:
The program will implement a new DEI final exam question across Criminal Justice courses relating to why it is important to recognize and understand diverse cultures as it pertains to criminal justice.

Develop infrastructure to provide sustainability of efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion and ensure these efforts are strategically embedded into programs and services across the institution. The expected outcome for this strategy was to identify key personnel in student-facing areas and create programming and/or initiatives that support the academic success of underrepresented students at Gateway.

How did you implement this strategy with fidelity?

The DEI center worked with the Knowledge Management Department to create a student-centered campus climate survey for DEI. The survey was distributed to increase our understanding of student perspectives, their educational experiences, and their desire for DEI related engagement events at Gateway. Our goal for the survey was to help us make future decisions about how best to support a diverse, inclusive, and vibrant campus community. The survey was distributed via email to all students and remained open for three weeks.

The DEI center’s main goal is to engage our student population. The DEI center enhanced our DEI education and awareness by developing and implementing student focused monthly and classroom education and awareness programing that incorporated the DEI center's three principles of Educate, Embrace, and Encourage. We worked with Peer Mentors and our DEI Student Ambassador (who is part of the URS student population) to promote services, events, and programs to students. The DEI Student Ambassador and Peer Mentors received DEI training and guidance on how to promote and market the center’s services. The DEI Coordinator created a DEI center PowerPoint presentation to use around campus as well as other DEI marketing materials such as flyers, handouts, and T-shirts for Peer Mentors and our Student Ambassador. Materials were given out when working in classrooms, at events, and for various campus programs. The DEI coordinator worked on building relationships with faculty to expand our classroom outreach. Based on past programming efforts, the DEI center reaches more students by infusing our marketing efforts and promoting our services in classrooms. In addition, we expanded our collaboration efforts with other departments like Ready to Work, Student Resources, and Student Engagement to reach more students. For example, we were able to reach students in the Ready to Work program by collaborating with Student Engagement by hosting a panel to discuss how women work a metaphorical "second shift" after working a full-time job to take care of their family. We explored the effects of the second shift through "mommy guilt," mental health challenges, self-care practices, and how to achieve a work-life balance.

In collaboration with the Counseling Department, we implemented an additional DEI component to the Embedded CARE Management Program to increase student awareness on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The Embedded CARE Management Program was classroom based. The CARE Management program did presentations about study skills, student resources, anxiety, depression, DEI, and cultural competence. The CARE management program was tailored to provide students with informative materials with an embedded care manager who reaches out once a month to students with support and resources.

As part of the Moonshot for Equity initiative through the Education Advisory Board (EAB), an appointed team reviewed best practices related to retention grants. The grants remove barriers to enrollment/re-enrollment by paying off student account balances which can prevent them from registering for classes.

How would you describe the effectiveness of this strategy?

The survey results were not effective and did not help us evaluate students’ needs adequately. Only 12 students completed the survey and none of the students were from a URS population. Due to the limited responses and the lack of diverse respondents, we were not able to utilize the results as we hoped. Therefore, we implemented surveys for each student-facing initiative and programs and gave students an opportunity to complete a survey at the end of each classroom presentation, event(s), and training(s). Due to our new effort of surveying students, we were able to obtain significant survey feedback for all our events, programs, services, presentations, and trainings.

For the monthly education and awareness programing, there were 57 total programs (classroom presentations, events, social media posts, and workshops). The DEI center reached 169 faculty/staff, 403 students, and 2,747 social media total likes, shares, and mentions. There was a 4.9 satisfaction rating on programming and 94% positive rating on better understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The DEI center collaborated with programs such as Ready to Work, student engagement, advising, retention, TRIO, and student resources. Outreach efforts (by email and phone) from the DEI office reached out to 647 URS enrolled students to promote all programing offered. The DEI office was able to track email open rates (with an average 45% open rate) and phone call campaign engagement efforts. URS student experiences were shaped by the DEI center providing opportunities to network and engage with other students who are different and similar to themselves to help increase a since of belonging. Based on programing surveys, 94% of students reported that attending DEI related events, trainings, workshops, and presentations better prepared them for academic classes that embed diversity, equity, and inclusion into their course work, and they feel more confident in their understanding about diversity overall. Out of the 94% of students, 21% were underrepresented students.

For the Embedded CARE Management Program, based on presentation surveys, 95% of students indicated the information from the DEI Presentations was helpful. There were 5 CARES presentations in total with 95% of students rating it as helpful. The CARE Management program reached a total of 79 students and 18 of those students were URS students. Additionally, in Fall 2022, we expanded to 3 new academic programs including Automotive, Massage Therapy, and English.

While the retention grants program is still in the planning phase, we are taking the opportunity to look further into data to determine additional patterns with at-risk student groups. The team is also brainstorming additional strategies to assist with retention efforts on a larger scale since a high rate of student unpaid balance debt is attributed to withdrawing from or failing classes.

What lessons were learned regarding this strategy?

We learned that only sending surveys via email was not an effective method for us to capture actual results. For our monthly events, we learned that more students were reached when we collaborated with other programs such as Ready to Work and Student Engagement.

We found that students needed to make more money to fulfill their household income responsibilities during our URS Student Ambassador recruitment efforts. For recruiting and keeping URS Student Ambassadors as student workers it is difficult because of our low student worker wages and the current state of the workforce. Due to the current economy, students can find jobs outside of Gateway that pay more money. To help us sustain student workers we had to work with our Human Resources department to identify a better way to recruit student workers (Student Ambassadors). We decided to hire less student workers to increase our student worker hourly wage.

For the CARE Management Program, we learned that working with faculty and presenting in classrooms allowed us to reach more students for education and awareness programing.

Based on Spring 2022 unpaid balance data, the Retention Grants team discovered 3 student groups who were experiencing disproportionate rates of unpaid balances as compared to their enrollment percentage: first-generation and URS. Student parent unpaid balances were slightly lower as compared to their enrollment percentages; however, this student group remained a target population for retention grants since they are an at-risk category, and the gap was so small. Fall 2022 unpaid balance data was collected to determine additional patterns and predictive indicators.

Next Steps:

Moving forward, we will continue to give students an opportunity to complete our surveys at the end of events. Also, we still plan to distribute a student campus climate survey via email. However, future campus climate surveys will be located in Blackboard and faculty will be encouraged to allow students 5-7 minutes in class to complete the survey.

We will continue to collaborate with staff to promote our events and programs to target a larger audience.

We will continue to work with faculty to incorporate the Embedded CARE Management program and reach more students.

Criteria to determine eligibility for retention grants will be proposed to Gateway’s leadership team for review and approval. The Retention Grants team will also continue to meet monthly working on various retention strategies that are proactive and preventative to reduce/avoid unpaid balance debt.

Develop and/or identify professional and personal development. opportunities for faculty and staff focused on uncovering implicit biases and improving cultural competence. The expected outcome for this strategy included offering baseline and continued training for faculty and staff with Professional Development offered at least 3 times during the academic year.

How did you implement this strategy with fidelity?

We offered several DEI training sessions across our campus locations at a variety of dates and times to allow our employees to meet their annual Performance Planning Evaluation (PPE) requirement. Due to our hybrid work model, we offered a mixture of in-person and virtual sessions. College leadership included this important PD as a mandatory item to show how vital these topics are to our college’s future success. All full-time employees were required to complete at least 3 DEI PD training sessions. To successfully implement mandatory DEI PD into our employee evaluation process, mandatory training for supervisors was offered. The supervisor mandatory training was called “Bringing It All Together”, a collaboration between the Associate Vice President of Human Resources, Associate Vice President of Student Affairs, Associate Vice President of Inclusion and Intervention Services, and the Dean of Institutional Effectiveness to offer this training. The purpose of the training was to provide a full picture of why including mandatory DEI PD into Gateway’s evaluation process is important, how to get faculty and staff on board, how to communicate expectations, and how mandatory DEI PD training fits into the college's strategic plan. Some examples of the DEI PD training offered are provided below.

How to Facilitate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Discussions in the Classroom: Leading discussions and conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion can be confusing and intimidating. Participants attended this training to learn how to best lead DEI discussions and activities in their classes. Participants who complete this training received a prepared discussion and activity to facilitate in their classes.

Open Your Mind: Underground Railroad (Reconstructing Your Behavior: Implicit Bias Workshop): Admitting and identifying personal biases can be difficult. Nearly two decades of scientific research has persuasively demonstrated that each person harbors implicit bias even if they seem to hold no explicit prejudice. Participants learned that society is saturated with attitudes and stereotypes about social groups and people encompassing a range of intersectional identities and over time these feelings and beliefs can become more ingrained leading to explicit prejudice.

In addition to our DEI PD training offerings, the Associate Vice President of Inclusion and Intervention Services implemented a minority employee support and social networking group called DEI Side by Side. DEI Side by Side is a once a semester meeting offered to employees from underrepresented populations. The purpose of this meeting is to enhance our sense of community and belonging at Gateway by building a relationship with each other, share helpful information, receive professional development, and learn about leadership opportunities available at Gateway. To capture all underrepresented employee populations, several marketing emails about the group meetings and calendar invites were sent out.

How would you describe the effectiveness of this strategy?

The trainings were well attended with a 100% completion rate and 100% positive feedback was provided on surveys except for one training offered. The pronouns training offered at our August college wide had mixed reviews of negative and positive feedback based on survey data. The negative feedback indicated more entry level LGBTQ+ training needed to be provided to help employees have a better understanding about the LGBTQ+ community in general. The overall positive survey feedback indicated that DEI PD training was effective in helping employees understand URS populations which increased positive impacts in classrooms and the overall student experience by fostering an environment of belonging for everyone.

To ensure all full-time employees were successful at completing at least 2 required DEI PD trainings, the evaluation process included 3 check-in points supervisors conducted (initial goal setting, mid-term check-in, and final evaluation) to review direct reports progress toward goals and to provide feedback as needed.

For DEI Side by Side our fall meeting session focused on getting to know each other by doing team building activities and activity discussions. Participants were asked to provide leadership with feedback based on their experiences, wants, and needs at Gateway. Some of the questions that were asked include the following: What has been your experience here so far? How can we improve the experience of minority employees at Gateway or what are we doing well? What would you like to get out of these meetings? Are there any training courses that we can offer you? Overall, there were 8 employees who attended the meeting. Out of the 8 participants, we received 100% positive feedback related to the questions asked. Participants requested to have leadership training for minority leaders in higher education and how to expand meaningful relationships among minority peers and students. Overall, participants reported they feel welcomed at Gateway and leadership provides them with good experiences and opportunities. For the spring semester session, leadership took participants request into consideration and provided leadership training for minority leaders in higher education called Bothered, but Not Broken. The training was facilitated by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. There was 100% positive feedback from the training debrief session with participants. Participants reported they would like to continue receiving this kind of training.

Lessons Learned:

We learned that making DEI PD training mandatory increased discussions based on DEI topics among faculty and staff. Also, offering training and resources on how to facilitate DEI discussions in the classroom benefited our students because faculty felt more confident conducting these kinds of conversations (based on survey results). The feedback received regarding these PD sessions helped the team focus future training on specific areas to help participants further understand any uncovered implicit bias. General exploration and education of DEI topics in these trainings are improving the overall cultural competence levels of our employees. If any concerning issues are shared they receive immediate attention and appropriate follow-up.

From the DEI Side by Side meetings, we learned that minority employees have a desire to enhance support among each other within the college. Offering minority employee support and networking opportunities allowed leadership to gain full insight on employee's needs. We learned employees appreciated having the opportunity to speak with Gateway’s President, the Vice President of Student Affairs and the Associate Vice President of Inclusion and Intervention Services about their experiences at Gateway. We learned that offering the DEI Side by Side meetings assisted us with filling in a gap of communication and gaining different prospective.

Next Steps:

We will continue to have mandatory DEI PD training for full-time faculty and staff. We plan to include more entry level LGBTQ+ training. In addition, we plan to implement mandatory DEI PD training for part-time staff and adjunct faculty.

We plan to collaborate with external partners for DEI PD training in hopes to expand our education and awareness efforts.

We will continue to offer the DEI Side by Side meetings and continue our efforts to expand networking, support minority employees, and encourage feedback from minority employees so that continued improvements can be made.

Definition: Fall enrollment of underrepresented students (American Indian or Alaska Native, Black, or African American, Hispanic, or Latino, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and Two or More Races) as a percentage of total Fall undergraduate enrollment.   

Definition: Under Served Population faculty (American Indian or Alaska Native, Black, or African American, Hispanic, or Latino, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and Two or More Races) FTE as a percentage of all faculty FTE. FTE = full-time faculty + 1/3 part-time faculty.