STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

The College was proud to launch an innovative, forward-looking five-year strategic plan in 2018.

One of the four pillars of the strategic plan is to engage. Rowan-Cabarrus Community College is committed to preparing students to be responsible and productive citizens.

This includes providing holistic advising, resources and support services to optimize the student experience. It also calls on the College to establish Rowan-Cabarrus as the first choice for higher education.

Another objective is to increase student participation in co-curricular and extracurricular activities to produce well-rounded leaders. And finally, the College is committed to partnering with students for life.

“We want students and the community to see Rowan-Cabarrus as a college where people care for you throughout your life and your career goals and interests,” said Natasha Lipscomb, vice president of student success. “We are committed to building sustainable futures through the power of learning. We want to help our students weather the storms and thrive in their careers.”

Over the last couple of years, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College has made significant changes to organizational structure, processes, and programs to better engage with students.

“The student success model is all about connecting and engaging with students in a proactive way. It’s about giving students a team of people responsible for helping them to succeed,” said Lipscomb. “We have successfully created a model that meets students where they are, empowers them to see what their future can be, and helps them achieve their goals for a better tomorrow!”

Thanks to the changes and innovations the College has made over the last couple of years, Rowan-Cabarrus was pleased to buck the state and national trend of declining enrollment. For instance, enrollment for fall 2018 was up more than eight percent from the year before.

To address the issues around the cost of textbooks, the College has made a number of changes. The largest of those was to move to an online bookstore format through a partnership with Akademos.

“Our number one concern was to reduce costs for our students. The price of textbooks has continued to go up across the country, and we wanted to do what we could to combat that,” said President Spalding.

The College community also continues to embrace Beacon, a red-tailed hawk and the College’s mascot. Now students can visit his home – the new spirit stores opened at North Campus and South Campus were fittingly named Beacon’s Nest.

Beacon’s Nest serves as a spot for snacks, coffee – a staple for college students and employees, and a place to study between classes. The vision was to create a homey place for people to enjoy and to really step up the merchandising opportunities for the College.

“We have long wanted to take the College’s branded gear to a different place and this gave us the perfect opportunity. I love seeing students wearing the t-shirts and hoodies on campus. You can tell they love it,” said Allison Robinson, director of graphics at Rowan-Cabarrus, who co-led the creation of Beacon’s Nest.

The new branded materials are helping to build a sense of pride and a more collegiate atmosphere.

“We really listened to our students,” said Autumn Kinnaird, payroll analyst at the College, who co-led the creation of Beacon’s Nest. “The students asked for a coffee house feel, and we achieved that by purchasing many items second hand. In addition, we have tried to be as sustainable as possible, such as the coffee packets being recycled, wooden stir sticks instead of plastic, and paper cups instead of Styrofoam.”