Message from HECC Executive Director Ben Cannon
Today we relaunch the HECC Collaborations agency newsletter. This follows a brief hiatus during which we focused on the redesign of our agency website to improve access and ensure that our programs and processes are welcoming, engaging, and easy to use. Please explore the new site! Quick tip: I especially recommend the new interactive data dashboards launched by our research shop.
As always, the momentum for promoting equity and student success is strong here at the HECC, and you can learn about many of our recent initiatives here. We are deep in the process of the development of a new vision and strategic plan that will guide our work for years to come. We continue to center equity, and we continue to define higher education broadly to encompass the wide range of valuable education and training options beyond high school—from career certificates to apprenticeships to college degrees.
The 2024 short legislative session resulted in some exciting directives for higher education to pursue policy work that could significantly reduce student barriers. This includes legislation focused on the development of direct admissions and legislation focused on the potential redesign of developmental education. You can also read in this newsletter about some of ongoing work to implement current investments and strategies to foster equity and student success. Our latest report has shown that Oregon's historic Future Ready Oregon investment package is supporting thousands from underserved and priority communities in accessing workforce and training. We are making sure that some of the most common undergraduate courses can be easily transferred by expanding Common Course Numbering. And we are supporting students and schools with applications for state and federal financial aid, including added support with the federal roll-out of the new simplified FAFSA.
In addition to delivering on investments, we invite and encourage our partners to engage in public policy and funding processes. Between the HECC and its advisory and affiliated boards supported by HECC staff, we are currently responsible for hosting public meetings for more than ten public bodies, including several new public bodies that are being convened. Public meetings of the Commission in upcoming months will include important topics such as strategic planning, tuition processes, and discussions of the 2025-2027 agency recommendations for the state higher education and workforce budget, among other items.
As we look to the future, we are also reflecting on the trajectory of our past work and accomplishments as we celebrate 10 years as an agency. Almost everything we do at the HECC requires many minds to work together. Reflecting on the last decade, I am struck by the strength and passion of our higher education and workforce advocates and partners in Oregon, and I thank you all for your continued collaboration.
Strategic Plan in Progress
Over the course of numerous public meetings starting in winter 2023, the HECC has begun to develop a new strategic plan, drawing on partner input and on the Strategic Roadmap that was established in 2021. The HECC is required by Oregon statute to adopt a strategic plan to achieve state postsecondary and training goals. We apply the strategic plan to guide development and implementation of funding and policy proposals that impact Oregonians statewide.
We thank all who have participated in our recent public survey, public meetings, and/or focus groups on the development of a vision and plan that serves all of Oregon. We are currently analyzing the results of our recent survey and focus groups, with the support from the Coraggio Group. Continued discussion of the plan will occur at upcoming public meetings of the Commission, and we aim to finalize the new Strategic Plan by fall 2023.
Legislative Outcomes 2024
During each legislative session, the HECC presents to legislative committees and advises the Oregon Legislature and the Governor on topics of critical concern to Oregon postsecondary education and training. You can find resources on our recent presentations and testimony here. The 2024 legislative session resulted in several pieces of important legislation for higher education and workforce training. In addition to the featured outcomes here, we are developing a legislative summary document that we will release in an upcoming newsletter.
Direct Admissions
Legislature directs HECC and institutions to tell students ‘You’re in.’
Senate Bill 1552 requires HECC to establish a mandatory direct admissions system to all Oregon public higher education institutions. Under this system, academically qualified high school seniors will be directly informed of their admission to certain institutions depending on their academic profile, and the process of confirming enrollment will become simpler for the student than the usual college application process.
Direct admissions systems, if well-designed, can improve college-going rates, particularly for underrepresented students who may not have otherwise considered attending college or university.
The legislation also directs HECC and ODE to coordinate to make the necessary student data available to support a direct admissions system.
Developmental Education
HECC and colleges to examine improving developmental education delivery.
Senate Bill 1552 also contains provisions directing HECC to convene a workgroup to study and create recommendations on a potential transition to universal corequisite developmental education. Unlike traditional developmental education, where students take developmental math and writing courses before taking college level courses, corequisite systems place students in the college course and provide additional academic support to students at the same time.
This model has been implemented in other states across the country, and in select colleges in Oregon, and shows immense promise in improving the ability of students to move past introductory math and writing coursework and on to the rest of their academic career.
Recommendations created by the workgroup are due in December 2024, and may form the basis of future legislation or Commission action.
New Website Spotlights: Data Dashboards and a Starting Point for Postsecondary Access
We are proud to have recently launched a redesigned website at www.oregon.gov/highered that is more accessible, mobile responsive, and user-friendly. Please take time to explore the new site and learn about our work and initiatives underway. In each of our upcoming issues of this newsletter, we will feature some sections of the new site that may be especially useful for you.
Share the Access College and Training page with Students
Anyone who wishes to get started in exploring higher education and training options can find important links in one place on our Access College and Training page. Here, you can find key links to the financial aid and access programs led by the HECC, and housed at OregonStudentAid.gov. You can also find pages focused on the wide variety of education and training options after high school including: Oregon's 17 community colleges, Oregon's 7 public universities, private degree-granting colleges and universities, private career schools, workforce training resources, and more.
Explore our New Data Dashboards
With the launch of our website, we also launched a new set of HECC data dashboards where you can explore interactive enrollment, affordability, completion, and outcomes data on Oregon students and learners. Viewers can now customize their data search, with options to view data statewide, by institution, by academic year, by student residency status, and other data filters. In addition to the public institution data, for the first time, we are reporting data on learners served by Oregon's licensed private career schools, and we plan to launch a workforce program dashboard soon.
HECC Celebrates 10 Years of Accomplishments and Partnership
Many thanks to partners, commissioners past and present, institutional leaders, and public officials who gathered in Portland on March 18 to celebrate 10 years of the HECC, and to reflect on the Commission and agency’s values-led work and impacts for Oregonians over the last decade. The HECC took its current form in 2013 when the State of Oregon restructured many elements of higher education governance. The HECC was established to advise on the statewide higher education strategy and to coordinate funding and policy across all postsecondary sectors (learn more about our key responsibilities here). We are pleased to share just some of the HECC's notable achievements in our first decade in the documents below.
At the celebration, Executive Director Ben Cannon recognized the many partners and public officials who have helped establish the vision of the HECC and helped advance our work for equitable student success across Oregon's postsecondary landscape. Speakers extolled the strength of Oregon's collective efforts as a postsecondary education community, and the need for continued collaboration. Speakers included HECC's Chair from 2013-2016, Tim Nesbitt, who emphasized our expansive and inclusive view of student success; Senate President Rob Wagner, who highlighted the importance of expanding educational and economic opportunity and advancing equity; and current HECC Chair Sandy Rowe, who expressed optimism that we are up to the challenge of creating a strategy for the future.
HECC Approves Eight More Courses for Common Course Numbering to Streamline Transfer
The HECC, community colleges, and public universities work together to expand Common Course Numbering (CCN) across Oregon public institutions. The CCN work focuses on aligning the most transferred, lower-division coursework to help students receive credit when they transfer between public institutions in Oregon.
In Oregon, students should know that course numbers that end in a "Z" are part of CCN (for example, MTH 111Z, WR 227Z). When transferring to an Oregon public college or university, a CCN course will be accepted as if the course was taken at the institution a student transfers to.
On December 14, 2023 the HECC Commission approved eight new courses for implementation at Oregon community colleges and public universities, starting in catalog year 2024-25. These include BA 101Z Introduction to Business, BA 211Z Principles of Financial Accounting, BA 213Z Principles of Managerial Accounting; ENG 104Z Introduction to Fiction, ENG 105Z Introduction to Drama, ENG 106Z Introduction to Poetry; PSY 201Z Introduction to Psychology I, and PSY 202Z Introduction to Psychology II. This represents the second set of courses that have been aligned and approved as part of statewide common course numbering (CCN). Learn more on Common Course Numbering and find the full list of approved CCN courses here.
A statewide Transfer Council and its numerous subcommittees comprised of faculty and partners advise the HECC in this project. The Council is working towards the alignment of additional courses, and Council meetings are public. The Transfer Council relies on a list of the 80 Most Transferred Courses at Public Institutions in Oregon for course consideration.
Resources to Support 2024-25 FAFSA/ORSAA Applications
The simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the Oregon Student Aid Application (ORSAA) are open, and the HECC Office of Student Access and Completion has resources on the application process. To get the latest information on the new applications, prepare to complete the forms, and/or guide students through the process, please check the dedicated HECC Office of Student Access and Completion (OSAC) webpage on the changes. In addition to the FAFSA or ORSAA, some scholarship and grant programs require additional applications. Given the delayed application cycle this year, OSAC has extended the OSAC Scholarship Application deadline to April 1, 2024 (from the traditional March 1st).
Report Shows that Future Ready Oregon is Reaching Underserved Populations
We are pleased to share the second annual Future Ready Oregon report developed by the HECC Office of Research and Data. The report features initial participation and completion rates through June 2023 and considers how these initial outcomes relate to statewide labor force and education trends. Among other findings, the report shows that 9,441 participants have been served by Future Ready Oregon, and 92 percent of participants who reported information identified as a member of a Priority Population.* Furthermore, Participants completed 97 percent of the services in which they enrolled.
One of the most commonly reported benefits of Future Ready Oregon for grantees was the flexibility in use of the funding. Grantees repeatedly described the ability to provide wraparound supports as a significant reason they were able to serve as many participants as they did, especially participants from Priority Populations. The report shows that 31 percent of participants used wraparound supports.
The report recommends that future workforce development investments, especially those that aim to advance equity, prioritize engagement with the communities intended to benefit. In addition, programs should expand workforce development trainings for the healthcare, manufacturing, and technology sectors. And future workforce development investments should provide the time and staffing resources to plan how to build processes and tools that ease the administrative burden on grantees.
*Priority Populations include communities of color, women, low-income communities, rural and frontier communities, veterans, persons with disabilities, incarcerated or formerly incarcerated individuals, members of Oregon’s tribes, older adults, and individuals who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Join Us for the Oregon Talent Summit on May 14-15
The Oregon Talent Summit will be May 14-15, 2024 at the Salem Convention Center, and registration is now open. Join fellow business, workforce, community-based organization, education, and economic development leaders for an extraordinary opportunity to consider the implications of critical workforce and education trends, challenges, and opportunities. Explore how these can shape and transform initiatives that advance economic competitiveness and provide equitable opportunities for prosperity to Oregon's diverse workforce.
During the Summit, we will unveil the 2024 Talent Assessment. Commissioned by the Workforce and Talent Development Board (WTDB) and HECC. The Talent Assessment assesses the current market for skills using quantitative and qualitative approaches that highlight business and industry’s input on in-demand occupations, skills, talent, gaps, and trends. We are also pleased to announce our two keynote speakers:
- Jayathi Murthy, President, Oregon State University
- Romanita Hairston, Chief Executive Officer, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust
The Talent Summit will have four tracks designed to address key areas of workforce development, including:
- Data and Policy,
- Youth and STEM,
- Industry and Business Engagement, and
- Future Ready Oregon.
Registration and details are available here. Stay tuned new speaker announcements in the coming weeks, and we hope to see you there. If you wish to sign up for updates, you may email: oregontalentsummit@confluencec.com.
New Public Bodies are Hosting Public Meetings
HECC is convening public meetings of new public bodies focused on Youth Workforce, the Corrections Education Agreement, the Sexual Misconduct Survey, and Industry Workforce Needs
As directed by recent legislation, the HECC is responsible for convening several new public boards, committees and consortia focused on specific programs or activities. As always, we welcome public engagement. You can sign up for public meeting notices here, and you can find public meeting details at the links below when dates are confirmed.
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The Oregon Youth Works Advisory Board is a public advisory board that provides advice on and oversees the implementation and alignment of youth workforce programs administered by the HECC. Established by House Bill 3563 (2023), this is the advisory board for Oregon Youth Works, which includes five workforce development grant programs that support paid work experiences for thousands of youth statewide. The new board is expected to first meet in April.
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HECC and Department of Corrections - Senate Bill 269 Advisory Committee: Through Senate Bill 269 (2023), the Legislature established an advisory body related to the state agreements related to corrections education. This legislation required that HECC and the Department of Corrections enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), to be reviewed annually, related to corrections education. The advisory committee assists with development, review, and monitoring of the MOU, and meetings have begun.
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Sexual Misconduct Survey Council: The Oregon Legislature established a Sexual Misconduct Survey Council through House Bill 3456 (2023). The Council is charged with developing a survey, to be conducted every two years, to evaluate sexual misconduct across Oregon higher education institutions, including reported cases of sexual misconduct and each institution’s approach to preventing/reducing and handling/addressing incidents. The new council is expected to first meet in April.
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Future Ready Oregon Industry Consortia: The HECC, in partnership with the Workforce and Talent Development Board, now convenes three separate, statewide Future Ready Oregon Industry Consortia representing the healthcare, manufacturing, and technology industry sectors. Comprised of representatives from industry, education, labor, and community-based organizations, the consortia meet quarterly to provide a forum for identifying and addressing sector-specific workforce development challenges and opportunities.
We also have a new section of our website focused on Public Meetings and Engagement.
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