GCC Board of Trustees Impressed by New Genesee Strategic Intelligence (GSI) System

BATAVIA, NY (01/23/2015)(readMedia)-- "Actionable intelligence" is just one of the key elements of GCC's newly introduced data mining system. In a lively presentation by Tanya Lane Martin, assistant dean for Enrollment Services/director of Admissions, and Thomas Kinsey, Education Services technical specialist, Genesee Community College's Board of Trustees were introduced to an important new recruitment strategy at the monthly meeting on January 12, 2015. Genesee Strategic Intelligence (GSI) allows better access to the raw data that is gathered in the College's massive student record database called Banner.

Through a collaborative effort between members of the College's Enrollment Management team, and Ellucian, GCC's computer services contractor, GSI has been a long term project that is now fully functional and enabling drastically faster and improved data collection including critical reports detailing real time information about the "admissions funnel." This funnel starts with potential 'recruits' which shift to 'applicants' and ultimately, to the desired enrolled and registered-for-class(es) student population. Banner and GSI quickly tracks and even allows the creation of automatically released daily reports as recruits become students and enter a wide array of other categories of informational interest. These other categories include but are not limited to re-admitted or transfer status, financial aid indicators, and demographic information such as age, geography, program of study, and unique populations including veterans or international students.

"We now have better access to the raw data, and are extracting it in a more meaningful way," President James M. Sunser told the Trustees. "GSI allows us to dive deeper into what students specifically need, and we can then tailor our programs and our information to different student populations."

The four dashboards currently set up to provide 'data at a glance' are Recruit, Genesee Promise Plus, Admissions, and a prototype about Testing, but College leaders are excited about expanding GSI's capabilities extensively. "It is our obligation to help students not only through the Admissions funnel, but all the way to, and past, graduation," Lane-Martin said. "GSI helps us do that."

President Sunser added that GSI will become all the more critical in helping students as the new Student Success Center increases the focus on career and academic coaching. "We can really drill into a particular student's situation and advise them of all their options in a personal way."

In other matters, the Board of Trustees:

• Heard a full summary and report about GCC's Confidentiality Policy from Gina Weaver, associate vice president of Human Resources. In an effort to protect all employees, as well as the Board of Trustees from identity theft in the workplace, the College follows New York State labor law (Section 203-d) which restricts access to social security numbers and other personal identifying information such as Internet identification name and passwords, surnames before marriage and drivers license numbers. All GCC personnel are required to read, understand, and sign a Statement of Confidentiality, and the College also holds regular training sessions about the importance of protecting personal information.

• Approved the updating of the following policies after the Policy Committee's review and recommendation: Sexual Harassment Policy (#1021); Maintenance of Order referencing Workplace Violence Prevention Program (Policy #1035 and Procedure #127); Assignment and Use of College Facilities (Procedure 605A); and the Student Code of Conduct (Procedure 401). In addition, the Trustees approved the new Sexual Violence Victim / Survivor Bills of Rights established by the State University of New York and GCC to provide options, support and assistance to victims/survivors of sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and/or stalking.

• Approved updating the following job title classifications to the Professional Service category in alliance with the State University of New York: Provost/Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Executive Vice President for Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, Associate Vice President for Institutional Research and Assessment, Dean of Distributive Learning, Assistant Dean of Records and Advisement, Director of Campus Safety, Assistant Director of Human Resources, Executive Director of Workforce Development, and Director of Academic Programs.

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