ILEA Equity Plan | Elgin Community College (ECC)

4. Institutional Strategies
Elgin Community College will execute seven strategies specifically to improve persistence and
to close the gap on completion rates. The process for selecting these strategies included a
thorough review of institutional data, ILEA team member discussions, and input from college
faculty, staff, and students. The ILEA team considered interventions already vetted and
developed in the form of pilot projects that could be expanded to focus on the target areas
(African Americans, Latinx, low-income students) and be fully institutionalized within five years.
In addition to these improvement projects, as an institution, our culture is shifting from making
institutional policies, procedures, and processes based on what makes sense to departmental
functions to one that is openly reviewing and revising said practices through an equity lens to
remove systemic barriers impeding student success. As we make this cultural shift we will
continue to address barriers which further influence our chosen strategies.
As the team worked through these strategies, it became apparent that there were not as many
separate and different strategies for each specific group, rather the strategies were overarching
and typically applicable for more than one of the targeted groups. There is overlap even if
there is a unique spin for each separate group. The ILEA team ultimately determined that the
most comprehensive approach to address each student is on an individual level which will drive
us to adopt a holistic case management model (Strategy 6). While all these strategies have
been selected specifically to keep our focus on equity, each serves the ECC 2018-2022 Strategic
Plan that drives our daily work and our mission To Improve People’s Lives Through Learning.
Aligning the Equity Plan strategies with our overall Strategic Plan provides added support and
commitment to ensuring the implementation of the strategies and meeting the goal to close
the gap.
STRATEGY OVERVIEW
There are a total of six direct student-facing ILEA strategies and one indirect student-facing
strategy. The same strategy may be used for more than one targeted student population.
Listed by targeted student population, the following are the strategies for each:
Direct Student Facing Strategies
• African American Students
o ILEA Equity Plan Strategy 1: MAP - Mandatory Advising Program
o ILEA Equity Plan Strategy 2: OER - Open Educational Resources
o ILEA Equity Plan Strategy 3: Mentoring (TRIUMPH and Peer to Peer)
o ILEA Equity Plan Strategy 6: Holistic Case Management Model
• Latinx Students
o ILEA Equity Plan Strategy 1: MAP - Mandatory Advising Program
o ILEA Equity Plan Strategy 2: OER - Open Educational Resources
o ILEA Equity Plan Strategy 3: Mentoring (TRIUMPH)
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ILEA Equity Plan
Institutional Strategies