December 2001

This 112-page document includes detailed information on Sonoma County Junior College District’s community (environmental scan), enrollment, student performance, and financial, capital outlay & personnel. The Fact Book was created in-house to provide information for district planning. Copies of the Fact Book can be ordered from the Office of Institutional Research at cost, or on a cd for no cost. It will also be posted on the district’s website in early January.

The 1994 "Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act" requires colleges and universities to submit annual data and information to the U.S. Secretary of Education pertinent to the equitability of men’s and women’s athletic programs, and to make the information available to the public upon request. This 17-page report includes information regarding athletics participation, operating expenses per team, revenues per team, athletically related financial aid, salary and gender information about coaches, etc. The bulk of the data was provided by the Athletic Department.

The Intersegmental Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) requires data submissions from all accredited U.S. colleges and universities on a regular schedule. Most of the data submitted by SRJC occurs through MIS at the Chancellor’s Office. The Spring 2001 submission included Fall Enrollment, Financial Statistics, Graduate Rate Survey, and Student Financial Aid.

The Fall 2001 submission included Institutional Characteristics (programs of study, cost, etc.) and Completions (degrees and certificates conferred 00-01).

The Director of Student Health Services conducted a detailed, lengthy survey of students regarding their physical and psychological health, and their behavior. The Office of Institutional Research provided service in the areas of survey development, survey formatting, survey scanning, survey results, and initial survey analysis. The final report can be requested from the Director of Student Health Services.

This summary report was based on a standard, on-going Computing Services report, which provides retention rates by course and department. The final Retention Report for Fall 1999 and Spring 2000 is presented by cluster, department and discipline. "Course retention" is defined as a student retained in the course to end of term with an A, B, C, D, CR, or I grade. This information is also included in the Fact Book.

In response to a request by the Student Equity/Success committee, the Office of Institutional Research compiled summaries of successful course completions from Fall 1997 to Fall 2000. A successful completion is defined as a student receiving a final letter grade of A, B, C, CR (an unsuccessful completion is D, F, I, NC, W). This information is also included in the Fact Book.

This 10-page internal report shows the District’s progress toward achieving each of the five "Partnership for Excellence" goals established by the Chancellor’s Office in 1998. Detailed charts examine the actual outcomes data through 1999-00 compared with internally set SRJC goals and the Chancellor’s Office "optional" goals.

This large-scale study surveyed approximately 10% of the credit student population in Spring 2001 to obtain information about student use of and satisfaction with student services, and other issues pertaining to retention, technology, campus climate, etc. The in-house survey was developed jointly by the Office of Institutional Research and key student services administrators. The Report consists of 24 pages of text and tables, which present and explain the findings.

As one piece of required matriculation research, surveys were developed and administered to students and instructors in English and College Skills courses, to assess the effectiveness of the placement process into the English curriculum. The final report is a 10-page write up of the findings. In addition, the "English Placement Process: Writing Sample Cut Score Validation and Disproportionate Impact Studies" were completed in January 2001. These three studies provided sufficient evidence to validate our locally-developed Writing Sample and to gain Chancellor’s Office approval to continue our English placement process.

For the Standard Three Committee of the Accreditation Self-study, OIR linked component operational goals with institutional goals, compiled data supporting the college’s mission statement, and developed institutional planning process flowcharts.

The Coddingtown Mall survey was administered in Fall 2000; 1,031 surveys were scanned and analyzed during Winter 2001. Findings include: the largest group (42%) of students heard about SRJC classes at the Coddingtown location through the schedule of classes; the most cited reason for taking classes at CTM is location/convenience (31%); and students prefer to take classes at CTM Monday-Friday (52%).

The Office of Institutional Research developed a scannable survey, and analyzed results for the Calendar Committee to inform their decision about moving spring break. Based on the results, the committee agreed the Spring Break should remain linked to the K-12 system.

Working in conjunction with Noncredit ESL faculty, the Office of Institutional Research developed and formatted a survey to elicit information for program planning and grant writing purposes that is not available elsewhere. In total, 478 surveys were returned. Major findings include: 69% of noncredit ESL students found out about classes from either friends or their family; the majority take English to improve their job prospects and to be able to help their children with homework; over half of the respondents indicated a combined family annual income of less than $15,000.

For a number of years, the Office of Institutional Research has worked with the campus Transfer Center to survey students who have transferred to four-year colleges. The Spring 2001 survey was sent to former SRJC students attending UC Santa Barbara, San Francisco State, CSU Long Beach, and Dominican University of San Rafael. Survey questions center around student satisfaction with SRJC and the Transfer Center.

In response to a request from the Academic Senate, the Office of Institutional Research compiled data comparing the ethnic breakdown of our student population, faculty/staff, and service area.

In response to a request from the Accreditation Self-Study committee, the Office of Institutional Research computed the ratio of SRJC administrators to faculty and students, and included a comparison with other similar (large single-college) districts.

In response to a request from the Accreditation Self-Study committee, the Office of Institutional Research gathered information available from the Chancellor’s Office, which indicate our current ratio of full-time faculty to part-time faculty.

The Office of Institutional Research has fulfilled many ad-hoc requests from members of the English Department to help inform their process of realigning the English Curriculum and re-establishing cut-off scores for the placement process.

In response to the committee’s need for accurate information, the Office of Institutional Research provided longitudinal data and analysis on the SRJC enrollment rates of Sonoma County high school graduates.

In addition to the information listed above, the Office of Institutional Research provided Partnership for Excellence Goals data, Student Right to Know data and examples of other CC self-studies.

• Developmental Education Outcomes Report
• Philosophy Tutoring Program Survey and Report
• Staff Development Survey and Report
• K-12 educational pipeline data
• Development of OIR website
• Pilot-testing COMPASS (computerized math placement assessment)
• OIR Project Management implementation
• Fact Book on the web