Strategic Plans – Goals and Strategies

Regional Population

Recent population growth in the region has helped support small year over year enrollment gains (see next section). Population has increased in both Niagara and Erie counties since 2020. Orleans County has decreased slightly.

The regional population has increased by 2.9% during the two-year period.

High Schools

High school enrollments are tracked to help the College plan for future enrollment shifts. The current year enrollment is reviewed along with 7th and 2nd grade enrollments. 7th Grade enrollments represent the 5-Year Projection and 2nd Grade enrollments represent the 10-Year Projection. Niagara, Orleans, and Erie county enrollments are regularly tracked.

High school graduations are tracked by the State of New York through a cohort analysis. The most recent available cohort is the Fall 2019 cohort, and this cohort is analyzed by reviewing the county graduation rates for the three counties below:

• Niagara: 87% county 4-year graduation rate (2019 Cohort)
• Orleans: 88% county 4-year graduation rate (2019 Cohort)
• Erie: 89% county 4-year graduation rate (2019 Cohort)

Graduation rates are an important measure of how many enrollees will exit high school and be eligible for undergraduate college enrollment.

Data Sources:

Bureau of the Census – Quickfacts

New York State Department of Education Data Site

The College’s relationship to Western New York is defined in part by the number of applications for admission that it receives from prospective students. This goal was designed to measure and impact the efficiency and effectiveness of that admissions process by improving the yield of applicants who go on to become SUNY Niagara students.

The College’s yield rate has remained relatively steady during both fall and spring admissions cycles. The Spring 2024 yield rate did show a drop, and this is currently under review.

Initiatives

• Develop and implement a 3-year recruitment plan to address enrollment gaps
• Work more closely with local school districts to promote the college – CTE Programs and Clubs that lead to programs at the college – e.g. FBLA, Skills, Future Teacher, ProStart, etc…
• Recruit high achieving students through the honors program and scholarships
• Develop a comprehensive communication plan that moves students through inquiry, acceptance and registered
• Develop events that assist moving students through the funnel
• Improve conversion rates for accepted students in selective admissions-policy programs (accepted to enrolled)
• Improve conversion rates of accepted non-selective admission-policy programs (accepted to enrolled)
  Improve conversion rates for accepted students from historically underrepresented populations (accepted to enrolled)

Data Sources:

SUNY Niagara Internal Application Data

The report shows SUNY Niagara’s overall persistence and retention rates.

Persistence is the measure of whether a student is continuously enrolled from one full term to the next full term. We can thus measure persistence from fall to spring or from spring to fall. The classic measure is from fall to spring, as more students enter college in the fall than in the spring semester.

Retention is the measure of whether a student is enrolled from one full term to a third consecutive subsequent term. A student who enrolled in college in Fall 2023 and also in Fall 2024 will therefore be counted as persisting.

Both measures are focused on incoming entry cohorts for students who are new to SUNY Niagara. We therefore report the data for both students who are first-time in college and those who are first-time to SUNY Niagara but who have had previous college enrollment elsewhere (transfer students).

Initiatives

• Work with Academic Notice (probation) students to improve their academic status
• Develop programming for transition to college
• Review barriers to advising for faculty
• Review barriers to persistence and retention
• Provide professional development for faculty and faculty advisors
• Review focus on target populations in communicating and supporting student engagement

Data Sources:

SUNY Niagara Internal Data

The College seeks to stabilize its graduation rate by identifying select cohorts for improvement. The three-year graduation rate trended sharply upwards during the 2-3 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and then dropped by several points in the cohorts that have been admitted since the pandemic began. Nonetheless, the rate is stable across a 6-7 year lookback and both the 2 and 3-year rates have shown resiliency in the past two years after a couple of years of larger drops.

Initiatives

• Determine cohorts with low graduation rates and investigate why students leave prior to graduating
• Set graduation goals for specific programs to increase graduation rates by programs of study
• Promote Reverse Transfer for stop outs who transfer on to other institutions and are eligible to transfer credits back to complete graduation

Data Sources:

SUNY Niagara Internal Data

SUNY Niagara is a diverse institution with students coming to the College from all walks of life and geographic areas. The goal of the College is to maintain a level of diversity that at least matches the Western New York region around the College. This includes the counties of Niagara, Orleans, and Erie.

Visualizations below show the overall county and College minority and underrepresented minority rates for 2020 and 2022. Breakouts are available for race and Hispanic/non-Hispanic ethnicity. We anticipate that additional ethnicity data will be included in these federal reports in coming years to allow us to further disambiguate the data.

Initiatives

• Develop plan to fill EOP program with qualified students (75 to 100 students). Improve the retention rate each year by 5%; Improve the graduation rate each year by 2.5%.
• Develop new sports programs to attract students from diverse backgrounds
• Develop and implement a 3-year recruitment plan to address enrollment gaps
• Develop a plan to increase the diversity of the scholarship recipients for the college

Findings

• The College is showing a Latino/Hispanic enrollment rate of approximately 5.24% in Fall 2022. This was close to the regional rate of Latinos and Hispanics, which has risen slightly during the past two years both regionally and at the College.
• The College shows a total rate of 77.59% White students in 2022, just slightly above the overall regional rate of 77.43 for “White Only” residents. Note that there could be some overlap between White and Latino/Hispanic residents or students in these datasets.

Data Sources:

SUNY Niagara Internal Data (for College race/URM rates)

DataUsa.io

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Erie County, New York

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Niagara County, New York

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Orleans County, New York

Initiatives and Outcomes

The College’s approach to marketing and public relations has shifted as its mix of curricula has shifted toward a growing adult (25+) population. As the College develops more workforce, evening, and online curricula to appeal to mid-career professionals and community members looking for short-term career and technical education programs, it has evolved its marketing and public relations accordingly.

Current and recent initiatives include:

Reach New Markets through Technology: The College is engaged in a wide range of modernization initiatives to improve College workflows. These are in progress during 2024-2025 and include the redesigned website, new analytical tools to measure impact, and new web editing software and training for staff.

Deploy a New College Brand: Developed throughout 2023 and deployed in early 2024, the College’s rebranding campaign culminated in a name change from Niagara County Community College to SUNY Niagara. The College also developed new styles for the rebranding and is in the process of conducting a major redesign of its website.

Initiatives and Outcomes 

While the College does not have a quantitative measure of success relative to this goal, it does track outcomes relative to its major initiatives in this area of planning. Below are current initiatives and outcomes.

Increase efficiency in Human Resources: The College implemented a range of software tools during the past several years to assist the Office of Human Resources with recordkeeping, state and federal compliance, and staff evaluations. Most functions are now fully digital and allow for employee self-service.

Develop a data informed culture: The College has begun assessment of its current data culture and will have results of this assessment by early Spring 2025. This will consist of a data culture survey as well as a review of data needs for all stakeholders.

Administer JEDI Data Action Plan: The JEDI Data Action Plan was developed in light of data gaps existing in the area of race, ethnicity, sex, and gender identity. These gaps were identified in 2022-2023 and a data plan was developed by the JEDI Committee. Plan elements were developed in 2023-2024 and several reports are now in deployment. As the College appoints a new Chief Diversity Officer in 2024-2025 the plan will be reviewed and adjusted in alignment with presidential and strategic priorities.

Diversify staffing at all levels of the institution: While the College has not yet reached parity with the diversity of its service region, it is becoming a more diverse faculty, with a change in non-White faculty from 7.8% in 2017 to 10.7% in 2022.