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Compass Learning Community at the University
of Central Oklahoma
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Jay Corwin, associate vice president of enrollment management
at the University of Central Oklahoma
The alarm reminder on my calendar went off like any other meeting. I made my way to the conference room where our director of housing, Josh Overocker, brought together administrators from around campus. The topic was learning communities. While the topic seemed pretty basic, the brainstorm that came next was fascinating. It was not a question of whether our school should add learning communities, but how. It was not about whether they would work, but how we would ensure they are something remarkable. Like every university, the University of Central Oklahoma remains focused on enhancing our retention rates and building opportunities for additional global experiences. The learning community concept seemed designed to help us do just that. Within an hour, the road map was drawn and learning communities at Central were one step closer to becoming a reality. Two communities began: one focus was on globalization and the other on retention.
The idea behind our Global Learning Community is simple: match international students with domestic students, let them study and hang out together, and then send them abroad for a study tour during spring break. It is a fun idea with extraordinary promise, and we are eagerly watching the progress in this community. The second community, called the Compass Learning Community, is something truly special. It is on this second community that this commentary will primarily focus.
In order to truly create an experiment that could challenge the world of retention, Central invited the students who might have the most needs to join this community. We utilized the common success indicators: high school GPA, SAT® and ACT scores, first-generation and socioeconomic status, urban vs. rural background, etc., and brought together those who were the most “qualified.” Many of our students were challenged by multiple categories. Seeing these students succeed would be a terrific achievement. Students with similar backgrounds have been graduating in the single digit percentages over the past few years at Central. We set a goal of 20 percent. We have already found that goal to be too low. Three years into the program, we have a new goal: 50 percent graduation rate for each Compass cohort.
The numbers are great, and there are more details highlighted throughout the College Board’s Advocacy
sites, but this is a commentary piece, rather than a report, because of what makes this community special.
The community is designed to provide the individual attention these students need to succeed. There are multiple staff members in place to learn about each student, including one learning community coordinator whose office is on a residential floor. “Every student has a story” — simple words that I heard often through graduate school and beyond, yet they are not simplistic in value. With Compass, we have numerous opportunities to meet with the students one-on-one and discover their individual stories. Why are they sending their paychecks home from their campus jobs? Why is she crying almost every night? Does he know what a college degree means if no one in his family could ever tell him? “Every student has a story.” It is truly the root of successful retention initiatives.
Our university president, W. Roger Webb, has made it clear that we at the University of Central Oklahoma are to find those student stories. In fact, he often asks us what “Amanda” might think (“Amanda” is any student who might be impacted). It is the first step of many in achieving our retention and graduation goals and fulfilling our academic mission. We believe that all students should leave our university transformed. In order to do that, we must find their stories, so we can keep them here until commencement day.
The Compass Learning Community began as a pilot program. We wanted three years to see what we could really do. Today, learning communities have become a permanent fixture on our campus. Reflecting back on that initial meeting once again, I am reminded of how Overocker brought together a group on campus that was not afraid to take a chance. In times of budget cuts, those risks can be even more complicated. However, this risk paid off, and I am fortunate to have a role in such a successful retention program. In three years, we have almost doubled the size of this community, and we expect that expansion to continue.
Each time the reminder alarm goes off on my calendar, I hope the coming meeting will be as productive as that learning community dialogue. We often find ourselves in meeting ruts where one committee gets together to choose who is on the next committee. But when a student walks into your office and says, “That learning community is why I am graduating next year,” it becomes clear why we do what we do. It is such a tremendous privilege to be an educator, which is why those alarms should be constant reminders of the opportunities before us. Approximately 15 extra students will graduate over the next three semesters because of that one single alarm.
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