SSCC has top Ohio 'success rate' as ranked by CNNMoney

As students were lining up for the 2012 commencement, the Southern State Community College Board of Trustees announced that a database created by CNNMoney has ranked SSCC as a community college with the highest "success rate" in the state of Ohio.

SSCC President Dr. Kevin Boys announced the ranking at the board's monthly meeting held Friday at the central campus in Hillsboro. CNNMoney released the report Thursday, which included the success rating charted by the American Institutes of Research and Matrix Knowledge Group.

According to CNNMoney, "Not all community colleges are created equal. Figuring out which school will give you the best chance of transferring to a four-year college or university can be difficult, especially since there is so little standardized information out there. Based on the percentage of students that graduated within three years or transferred to four-year colleges, they compiled a 'success' rating for each community college in the U.S."

SSCC's "success rating" was at 45 percent, which was a tie with Lorain County Community College in Elyria.

The highest ranking on the list was 93 percent, which was achieved by East San Gabriel Valley Regional Occupational Program in West Covina, Calif., followed by the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, N.M. at 89 percent.

"We couldn't be more proud," Boys said of the ranking report. "Saying that, we know there is room for growth. But it is important to celebrate success when we have it."

Boys said that it was fitting to discuss the ranking report just hours before the board was scheduled to hand out the degrees at graduation.

"As we are here for commencement, obviously, this is a great day of celebration," Boys said. "We call it a completion, but we know the students will continue to learn throughout their lives. We have spent a lot of time talking about completion and getting over obstacles. We celebrate with them today."

During their May meeting, held at SSCC's south campus in Fincastle, the board held extensive discussion on the the goals and processes of getting more students to attain a degree, the benchmarks that are in place to facilitate that, along with what else needs to be done to assist students.

Board member Doug Boedeker said, "This is really good. But we can improve on this. But I think we're reading down the right course."

In his report to the board, Boys also noted the recent first-place ranking of SSCC's PN program.

"The April 2011 – March 2012 NCLEX Program Reports from the National Council of States Board of Nursing were recently released. Southern State’s PN program maintained a No. 1 ranking out of 1,366 PN programs. The ADN Program ranked 695 of 1,871 (top 37 percent) for this year. This is much improved over the past year when a 1,634 ranking of 1,798 programs was noted," Boys said in his report.

During the financial report by SSCC Vice President of Business and Finance Jim Buck, the board questioned the reported financial losses in the college's Truck Driving Academy, and the Patri-Tots Daycare Centers.

According to his report to the board, Buck said, "Despite significant efforts it appears that within the Auxiliary Fund, Corporate and Community Services is likely to finish the year with an annual deficit in excess of $200,000. The increase in TDA fees that will be effective next year, should service to offset approximately one half of that loss, but the significant reduction in enrollments has had a dramatic effect. Daycare losses are continuing."

Board member Michelle Cimis noted that if the college charged the TDA and daycare centers for overhead facilities and administration costs, that the deficit would be significantly larger, and Buck agreed.

"(In the TDA) the real challenge is fuel and the real challenge is volume," Buck said.

Financial losses in the TDA have been a topic of discussion for the board for well over a year. The department made numerous cuts in an attempt to decrease costs and sought areas for additional enrollment, including an agreement for services with Hocking College.

"When they were enrolling 450-460 students, everything was fine," Buck said. "Now that enrollment is 250-260, it's difficult to run effectively with those enrollment numbers."

Boys said that according to workplace studies and truck driving industry projections, "there is a huge gap in the number of employees and the number of jobs that are going unfilled. We ought to be making money."

Buck said that volume was also an issue with the daycares, located at the Hillsboro and Wilmington campuses. At the end of May in 2011, Buck said, the facilities had a loss of approximately $3,000. At the end of May 2012, "It's around $38,000. Month to month, it's not a huge increase, but it adds up."

Buck also noted that 74 percent of the people who utilize the daycare services "receive some type of discount, either through the school, or through Job and Family Services.

"That has an effect on the bottom line, as you can see," he said.

Cimis suggested the finance committee meet over the summer to discuss how the board and the college should proceed. Boys agreed that was a good idea, and that a meeting would be scheduled.

The board also heard a report from the board's personnel committee, and from Boys, regarding changes to SSCC's Policies and Information Manual.

Boys said the changes were to keep the college in compliance with changes state and federal regulations, but that it also reflected the culminations of a months-long project of creating accurate job descriptions and salary ranges for members of the college administration who are not a part of collective bargaining. Boys said the department of human resources had contracted to have a salary study done to make sure they were competitive with comparable institutions in the region.

They also examined the benefits package, which Boys said was "richer than most." According to Buck, SSCC's benefits were "6.3 percent higher than the average of other community colleges."

The board unanimously passed the changes by a voice vote. Boedeker then asked that the college follow through with a similar study for SSCC's part-time employees.

The next board meeting is scheduled for Aug. 8.

Also in the president's report, Boys wrote that evaluations were underway for the announced expansion into Adams County.

"We have identified a list of individual stakeholders in Adams County that we will approach to help us pursue and evaluate potential partners that might help us accelerate the construction of our Adams County campus," Boys wrote in his report. "It is our intention to meet individually with these stakeholders and then to conduct an additional focus group with broader participation. We are awaiting a Hanover Research study on colleges that have been successful obtaining federal grants (EDA, ARC, etc.) to construct facilities as these may be additional opportunities for us to accelerate our plans for Adams County without the contingency of enrollment growth in Mt. Orab."