MATC Matters

Looking at AQIP
Category 6: Supporting Institutional Operations

AQIP has identified nine categories of related key processes that provide a framework for the assessment and improvement of higher education institutions. The sixth category, AQIP Category 6-Supporting Institutional Operations, focuses on processes and systems related to student support and the accompanying administrative support, examining how these systems help to provide an environment in which learning can thrive through day-to-day operations, the use of data, and efforts to continuously improve.

Several key characteristics that distinguished the College for its work in Category 6, “Supporting Institutional Operations” were identified by the Systems Appraisal Team. These key characteristics included:

• The provision of five different types of learning opportunities-post-secondary degree-credit programs and courses, adult continuing education, adult basic education, English as a Second Language (ESL) and community service.
• The College’s demonstrated commitment to supporting under-prepared students through ABE, ESL, assessment and mandatory placement.
• The College’s attempts to improve access by providing instruction and services at many different locations including a multi-building Madison campus, four regional campuses and many rented or leased community centers.
• Serving as the lead partner in the PeopleSoft Southwest Consortium and development and implementation of improvements that will provide enhanced support to students, faculty and staff.
• The College’s efforts to continually identify areas for growth as well as institutional vulnerabilities.

Key measures for “Supporting Institutional Operations� occur in two areas: Student Support Processes and Administrative Processes. Within the Student Support Processes area, MATC measures:

• Tutoring usage
• Student satisfaction with Advising and Career Resources
• Disability Resources Services usage
• Conflict Management Services activities and resolution
• Financial Aid processing time
• Technology Services Help Desk first call resolution rate
• Course retention and success rates for ABE courses

Within the Administrative processes, MATC monitors the following measures:

• Budget management (bond rating, mill rate, fund balance)
• OSHA compliance and work-related safety incidents
• Participation in the Career Pathways project
• BICS (annual numbers of clients, employees trained, and gross contract values)
• BPAC (number of businesses served, total value of contracts awarded, number of jobs created or retained)

MATC’s “Supporting Institutional Operations” strengths were identified by the Systems Appraisal Team as:

• A wide array of direct and indirect opportunities for students to provide input and help evaluate student support needs.
• Use of multiple tools and data sources to gather input from faculty, staff and others regarding support needs.

The Systems Appraisal Team also provided feedback on opportunities for improvement including:

• Recommending placing responsibility for specific support services under specific work units to better ensure accountability.
• The College does a good job of collecting information, but is unclear about how to use the information for improvement. The team recommends more exploration and sharing of best practices and a more consistent review process.
• The College would benefit from targeting data analysis processes on the most critical areas in need of improvement.
• Comparisons with other institutions and organizations could provide helpful benchmarking information regarding MATC’s progress.
• Expanding the use of balanced scorecards to monitor progress in student support and administrative support processes.

While improvement of student support systems is a part of many of our Action Projects past and present, current projects closely related to Category 6 include:

• Application Cycle Time-improve satisfaction with the overall application process and improve communication with applicants to waitlisted programs
• Discreet Registration-create a standardized process for students applying to programs not using the usual registration process (i.e., CNA, ABE, BICS, etc.).
• Transitioning Developmental Students-create support mechanisms that ease the transition between developmental and degree-credit courses.

Improvement of student support systems is vital to achieving our stated goals and mission of putting students first and transforming lives. The AQIP process has helped us identify and target the most critical processes. Feedback from faculty, staff, students and other stakeholders-those who use these systems on a regular basis-will continue to be key in our improvement plans and efforts.