In 2022, Monroe Community College (MCC) catalyzed institutional transformation by uniting the divisions of Academic Services and Student Services to address a fundamental challenge: responsibility for student success was fragmented across separate divisions. This structure limited coordination among the academic and student-support functions on which students rely and constrained MCC’s ability to integrate academic and nonacademic supports into a holistic student experience.
While MCC had improved student outcomes prior to 2022; sustaining that progress required a more integrated framework capable of addressing the academic and nonacademic barriers that often determine persistence and success. Students needed a more coherent pathway to credential completion, transfer, and employment. Sustained advising relationships, stronger gateway English and mathematics support, and assistance with basic needs were essential to helping students realize the full value of their educational investment.
MCC’s new strategic plan and unified Academic and Student Affairs (ASA) division under a Provost/Vice President created the conditions to move this work forward at scale. Participation in the inaugural Aspen Institute Unlocking Opportunity Network (2023–2025) further sharpened the College’s approach, advancing a holistic student-support model beginning with intentional onboarding and anchored by proactive advisement as the connective tissue linking students to the resources and experiences needed to build momentum toward academic and post-completion success.
The new ASA structure and strategic direction were shaped through broad institutional engagement and shared governance, creating collective ownership and informing implementation. As the work moved forward, MCC centered advisement as the primary mechanism connecting academic pathways, student supports, and progress toward completion.
Through participation in Unlocking Opportunity, MCC implemented reforms focused on holistic advising, gateway English and mathematics, and program mapping. The College redesigned advising from a largely transactional model to one built on intentional onboarding and sustained relationships. Students are now connected with a Success Coach who remains with them through completion, and advising capacity increased from 16 to 27 professionals. Concurrently, gateway course reforms expanded co-requisite models, revised placement, and integrated academic support with instruction; program mapping strengthened transfer and employment pathways; and expanded basic-needs and wellness supports addressed nonacademic barriers to persistence.
Through labor-management collaboration and strategic resource allocation, MCC aligned personnel, expertise, and institutional investments around a holistic student-support model.
MCC’s reforms were designed to increase the likelihood that students who invest their time, effort, and financial resources in higher education successfully complete a credential and progress toward their transfer and career goals. Four years after creating ASA, MCC’s transformation is reflected in improved student outcomes and its growing capacity to sustain progress over time. Three-year graduation increased 4.9 percent, reaching MCC’s highest completion rate in more than two decades. Graduation among Pell Grant recipients increased by the same margin, while the graduation rate for African American students nearly doubled.
Leading indicators reinforce this progress. Student engagement with MCC’s redesigned advising model increased by 32 percent over the prior model—and participants persist at higher rates, with particularly pronounced benefits among students facing greater barriers to persistence.
Academic momentum is strengthening as well. ENG 101 C-or-better rates increased by more than 3 percent while expanded access to co-requisite mathematics enables students to complete gateway requirements earlier, helping them avoid standalone remediation. Students engaging with embedded academic supports demonstrate an 11.6% increase in persistence and a 9.6 percent increase in successful gateway-course completion.
Basic-needs outcomes further demonstrate the relationship between student stability and academic success. Scholarship recipients persisted at rates 9.6 percent above the MCC average for general aid and 17.6 percent above the average for housing assistance.
While structural changes have proved essential, the most enduring outcome has been cultural. Through cross-divisional and shared governance collaboration, collective accountability for student outcomes, and commitment to continuous improvement, MCC created an environment in which student success is viewed as a collective institutional responsibility. Holistic advising now serves as the common thread linking academic planning, gateway-course success, transfer and career pathways, and basic-needs support. By aligning its people, resources, and decision-making around student success, MCC increased the likelihood that students complete their credentials, achieve their educational and career goals, and realize the full return on their investment in higher education.