2025-2028 Student Equity Plan: Executive Summary
As part of the 2025-2028 Student Equity Plan (SEP), this executive summary describes:
- Student groups for whom goals have been set, goals set for these student groups, and initiatives that the community college or district will undertake to achieve these goals
- Resources budgeted for 2025-2028
- College Official to contact for further information
- 2022-25 Student Equity Plan Annual Expenditures
- Assessment of the progress made in achieving identified goals (goals/outcomes from 2022-25 Student Equity Plan)
1. Student Equity Plan Goals, Student Groups, and Initiatives (Pending Approval)
Overall the goals for each student population identified as experiencing disproportionate impact in each metric are to 1) close equity gaps and/or 2) to eliminate the equity gaps for these students.
“Among all applicants who indicated an intent to enroll in the selected college in the selected year as a non-special admit student for the first time, the proportion of cohort students who enrolled in the same community college in the selected year.”
Student Groups Experiencing Disproportionate Impact
- African American
- White
- Female
- Students Experiencing Homelessness
Initiatives
The college intends to use a multifaceted approach to improving successful enrollment and matriculation, focusing heavily on strategic research and targeted outreach. Key initiatives include investigating why applicants ultimately choose not to enroll and where they matriculate instead, particularly concerning those using the college as a fallback option while awaiting decisions from four-year institutions. Furthermore, the plan emphasizes equity and disparity identification, suggesting a disaggregation of the White student population and immediate, proactive outreach to disproportionately impacted (DI) student groups shortly after application submission. The strategies also entails operational improvements, such as leveraging technology like Salesforce CRM, developing better monitoring tools for enrollment patterns, supporting formerly dual-enrolled students, and enhancing the college’s understanding of students’ home locations through a place-based equity lens, all while balancing the need to improve fraud detection without creating unnecessary barriers for vulnerable applicants.
The plan also outlines several strategic initiatives designed to enhance successful enrollment at the college for all students. Key themes center on improving communication about essential information, such as clearly explaining math placement and course options to new students, and stressing the importance of meeting with counselors. Furthermore, the plan emphasizes bolstering support systems, including increasing enrollment in full-time schedules through the Opt-Out program and significantly improving financial aid services by reducing access barriers and offering workshops. Finally, the source advocates for systematic improvements to the entire student journey, such as auditing the enrollment process to identify barriers, revamping orientation, and revising the college's website for better navigation.
“Among students in the cohort, the proportion who completed both transfer-level Math and English in their first academic year of credit enrollment within the district… The Expanded View of this metric allows all first-time cohort students a full year from first term and credit ESL students three years from first term to complete transfer level math and English”
Student Groups Experiencing Disproportionate Impact
- African American
- Hispanic/Latinx
- LGBTQ+
- Low-Income
- Students with Disabilities
Initiatives
Key areas of focus include removing obstacles to enrollment in transfer-level and corequisite courses, along with clarifying complex course pathways for students seeking to complete math and/or English in their first-year. The Plan also emphasizes enhancing teaching methods through the expansion of programs like “Intensive English” and “Math Bootcamp”, as well as providing just-in-time academic assistance that aligns with challenging course concepts. Furthermore, the strategies stress the importance of improving early student feedback on academic standing and increasing the utilization of existing academic support services to prevent student withdrawal. Finally, the plan calls for enhanced professional development for faculty on instructional best practices, including active learning, and collaboration between instructional and counseling staff to ensure consistent information sharing.
“MIS Definition for Persistence: Among students in the cohort, the proportion who persisted from their first primary term of enrollment to the subsequent primary term at any college.”
Student Groups Experiencing Disproportionate Impact
- African American
- Hispanic/Latinx
- White
- LGBTQ+
- Veteran
Initiatives
These strategies for improving student persistence for DI student groups focus on enhancing student support services through proactive measures, such as addressing reasons for course drops and ensuring students meet with counselors early in their academic journey to develop an education plan. Furthermore, the plan emphasizes institutional collaboration and communication by sharing findings with various campus programs and coordinating outreach efforts between counseling and student success coaches. The plan also highlights the importance of equity-minded professional development for faculty regarding effective classroom engagement and pedagogical approaches. Finally, the strategies propose cultivating a sense of belonging by building culturally-rooted campus spaces and encouraging collaborative activities like student study groups.
The plan also outlines strategic initiatives designed to enhance persistence at the college for all students. Key themes involve enhancing communication among faculty, students, and support services, specifically by raising faculty awareness about crucial academic distinctions like non-passing grades versus withdrawals and increasing familiarity with support resources like the Hawk Connections form. Furthermore, the strategies aim to improve the student experience by simplifying enrollment decisions, clearly communicating learning modality options, and redesigning support structures for students facing Academic Notice or Pause. Ultimately, the plan emphasizes creating more connected learning environments and making support programs highly accessible, often through integrated digital platforms like Canvas.
“MIS Definition for Completion: Among students in the cohort, the unduplicated count of students who earned one or more of the following: Chancellor’s Office approved certificate, associate degree, and/or CCC baccalaureate degree, and had an enrollment in the selected year in the district that they earned the award within three years.”
Student Groups Experiencing Disproportionate Impact
- Native American
- African American - Male
- Hispanic/Latinx - Male
- Pacific Islander - Male
- White - Male
- Male
- LGBTQ+
- First Generation - Male
- Low-income - Male
- Foster Youth
- Students with Disabilities
- Veteran
Initiatives
Key strategies for increasing completion of degree/certificate outcomes for DI groups involve increasing faculty adoption of evidence-based, equity-minded teaching practices, especially in courses that often act as barriers, and encouraging faculty to critically review their student success data to foster continuous improvement and reflection. The plan also focuses on improving course success rates by addressing disciplines with low outcomes, promoting the use of culturally relevant open educational resources, and expanding programs like dual enrollment with a focus on serving African American and Latinx students. Finally, these strategies also emphasize increasing the visibility of existing support services, particularly for students experiencing disadvantage and for male students, and using disaggregated student population data to inform resource allocation and staffing decisions.
The plan also outlines comprehensive strategies aimed at improving the student experience and ensuring timely academic success for all students, focusing heavily on clear pathways to completion, transfer, and awarding of degrees. Key initiatives include developing student-centered schedules and default enrollment models (like Opt Out schedules) to encourage full-time study, alongside increasing resources for high-demand gateway courses and providing more work-based learning opportunities. Furthermore, the plan emphasizes leveraging technology for integrated student case management and degree audits, while also focusing on making the petition to graduate process easier and more transparent through workshops, clearer feedback, and improved internal procedures. Finally, the strategies call for system-wide consistency, such as standardizing general education across colleges and ensuring smooth articulation with transfer institutions, to minimize student barriers and reduce excessive units.
“Among students in the cohort who earned 12 or more units at any time and at any college and who exited the community college system in the selected year, the number of cohort students who enrolled in any four-year postsecondary institution in the subsequent year or four years after for three-year cohort.”
Student Groups Experiencing Disproportionate Impact
- Hispanic/Latinx
- Male
- LGBTQ+
- First Generation
- Low-income
Initiatives
The plan outlines a comprehensive strategy to improve student transfer pathways and support, particularly for populations experiencing disparate impact (DI) in transfer outcomes. Key initiatives include creating a campus-wide map of student support services and strengthening the Transfer Center's collaboration with both instructional and student service programs. The plan emphasizes demystifying the transfer process through workshops, peer-led sessions, and the Bridging Transfer Series, which provides crucial information on academic expectations, financial aid, and diverse campus cultures. Furthermore, the strategy aims to normalize various transfer routes—including UCs, CSUs, HBCUs, and private colleges—by expanding storytelling campaigns featuring successful alumni and coordinating site visits to diverse transfer institutions to help students envision their own possibilities and foster a sense of belonging.
The plan also provides a multi-faceted strategy focused on significantly enhancing student transfer pathways and cultivating a campus-wide "transfer culture" for all students. Key objectives include the meticulous implementation of AB928 and AB1111 to provide clearer transfer routes, while also proactively addressing any negative unintended consequences these legislative changes might introduce to curriculum and counseling. The strategy emphasizes scaling up successful programs like the Summer Transfer Academy and ensuring robust resources for historically effective transfer services, including expanding the Transfer Center’s ability to collaborate across campus. Furthermore, the plan calls for leveraging technology to efficiently identify students who are transfer-ready, offering personalized outreach and specialized guidance to students, and integrating transfer application components into instruction, such as utilizing the Transfer Essay exercise in writing courses. Finally, the success of these initiatives relies on providing sufficient and ongoing training for staff and faculty to ensure consistent messaging and better support all students, especially those disproportionately impacted.
2. Resources Budgeted 2025-2028
| Object Code | 2025-2028 |
|---|---|
| 1000: Academic Salaries | $4,638,048 |
| 2000: Classified and Other Nonacademic Salaries | $3,801,300 |
| 3000: Employee Benefits | $3,703,791 |
| 4000: Supplies and Materials | $34,563 |
| 5000: Other Operating Expenses and Services | $424,584 |
| 6000: Capital Outlay | $0 |
| 7000: Other Outgo (if applicable) | $0 |
3. College Contact
Tadael Emiru
Vice President of Student Services, Institutional Equity, Research and Planning
(916) 691-7913
emirut@crc.losrios.edu
4. 2022-25 Student Equity Plan Annual Expenditures
| Object Code | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1000: Academic Salaries | $1,334,066 | $1,546,016 | $1,546,016 |
| 2000: Classified and Other Nonacademic Salaries | $1,325,380 | $1,150,844 | $1,267,100 |
| 3000: Employee Benefits | $1,251,339 | $1,234,597 | $1,234,597 |
| 4000: Supplies and Materials | $15,117 | $11,521 | $11,521 |
| 5000: Other Operating Expenses and Services | $268,124 | $141,528 | $141,528 |
| 6000: Capital Outlay | $7,751 | $0 | $0 |
| 7000: Other Outgo (if applicable) | $0 | $0 | $0 |
5. Assessment of the Progress Made in Achieving Identified Goals
(Goals/outcomes from 2022-25 Student Equity Plan)
Cosumnes River College has seen some potential improvement in equity gaps in the areas of successful enrollment and transfer. On the basis of the data provided for the last SEA annual report, we observed that the equity gaps in these areas for Female and Black/African American students have improved since the first year of the plan. Moreover, there has also been a reduction in the equity gap for African American students in transfer rate. A reduction in equity gap therefore indicates that we have done a better job of helping Black/African American students to transfer after they have progressed 12 units on their pathway. On the other hand, equity gaps have persisted in areas of first-term persistence, transfer level math and English completion, and award completion. The root causes of equity gaps experienced by our student population will therefore take much more time, persistence, and effort to address. Several institutional actions/changes/processes should be acknowledged for their impact on reducing equity gaps:
- Collaboration between research and professional development, to engage faculty to reflect on their individual disaggregated course success data. At this time, over 50% of full-time faculty have accessed data dashboards that help them explore their course success data.
- The Student Services Collective group, which aims to reduce redundancy in inreach/outreach efforts and instead work collaboratively towards maximizing students’ access to both student and academic support resources and services offered across the wide array of departments represented in the collective. One initiative of this collective was to focus part of its outreach efforts on African American/Black students who had applied to the college; we believe this outreach initiative, established with the last student equity plan, helped to close equity gaps in enrollment for our African American/Black students.
- The college’s Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) efforts have made major strides, such that at least three-quarters of the college’s class schedule are identified as ZTC courses.