Graduating Students From City University of New York’s Community Colleges

• In Event: Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Increasing Community College Completion Rates Through Policy Change, Structured Resources, and Alternate Spending

Abstract

1) Objectives and Purpose:
This paper sets the stage for intervention at CUNY to increase community college graduation rates by outlining the trends in community college graduation at the university, and explores the impact of our large population of non-traditional students (e.g. transfers). It also lays out the policy interventions on the run up to the implementation of the ASAP initiative and presents an overview of existing research and policy debates on graduation rates that will frame the symposium.

2) Perspectives and Theoretical Framework:
CUNY has a historic mission to serve the residents of New York City. Over the past decade, the university has made remarkable progress in raising graduation rates at its senior colleges. The 6-year graduation rate for full-time first-time freshmen beginning in a bachelor’s program rose from 35.0 percent for the cohort entering fall 1995 to 50 percent for the 2005 cohort. However, 6-year graduation rates from CUNY’s associate programs have shown more modest improvement, rising from 27 percent to 29 percent. The 3-year graduation rate has also remained relatively stable, at about 12 percent. As a result, the university has begun to focus on large-scale interventions to aid community college students.

3) Methods:
This paper is a descriptive one that outlines historical graduation trends in the university, how they relate to the national trends and the interventions that CUNY administrators have undertaken to try and improve historically poor graduation rates.

4) Data Sources:
We use a rich student data warehouse developed and managed by CUNY, consisting of student-level data from numerous sources around the university. It includes information on student demographics, high school background, as well as semester-by-semester enrollment status, course performance, choice of major, financial aid, and graduation. It contains more than 549,000 observations on students who entered CUNY between fall 1999 and fall 2012, structured to allow us to track students.

5) Results:
Many CUNY students enter at risk of not completing their degrees. A prime factor is that almost 80% of community college CUNY students need remediation. In addition, at CUNY, traditionally under-represented (black and Hispanic) students are in the majority, at 66 percent. CUNY students are low-income, with 65 percent receiving Pell grants and 46 percent reporting a household income of less than $20,000. Almost half are the first in their family to attend higher education, and 4 in 10 were born outside the U.S. The great majority are graduates of the New York City public school system. We also find that in many classes, transfer students make up the majority.

6) Significance:
CUNY accounts for almost four-fifths of the two-year college enrollment in New York City; policies that improve the graduation rates of students will likely have an outsized impact on the city and its economy. By highlighting the trends and policy interventions implemented by CUNY have been implementing in recent years, we can offer lessons learned and insights to other administrators and researchers.

Authors

• Colin Chellman, City University of New York

• Simon McDonnell, City University of New York