Plans for a Student Success Center on TCC’s West Campus advanced as the Hardesty Family Foundation announced a $1 million gift to TCC’s largest fundraising campaign, Clearing the Pathway: The Campaign for Completion.
The college also announced the new facility will be named after Roger Hardesty and his wife, Donna Hardesty.
The multi-year campaign wants to remove financial, navigational and physical barriers to a student’s success and graduation. The Student Success Centers, planned for all four campuses, centralizes all student services necessary to apply, enroll and pay for college.
“We envision a college where our students’ success is determined solely by their motivation to learn, not by their personal finances or social circumstances,” said TCC President & CEO Leigh B. Goodson, Ph.D. “Plus, our research shows 90 percent of TCC graduates live and work in the greater Tulsa area, so, increasing a student’s success improves our workforce.”
The Student Success Centers are essentially “one-stop shops” which help students navigate the college application process.
“Our investment is about improving our community by impacting the lives of current and future students,” said Michelle Hardesty, Hardesty Family Foundation Executive Director. “TCC plays a major role in training and educating our community. If we expect the Tulsa area to continue to grow, we need to ensure we have a properly educated workforce. TCC is well positioned to fill this need and we are excited to be part of TCC’s future.”
The campaign will try to raise $20 million in private funds to support student scholarships, academic advisors, Student Success Centers, science lab renovations and diversity and inclusion outreach. The TCC Foundation launched the campaign in November 2017 and announced the public phase in Sept. 2018.
“With 88 percent of our goal and $17.6 million pledged for the Campaign for Completion, our students are already seeing positive change. One of our priorities, academic advising, has dramatically improved now that all degree-seeking students are required to see an academic advisor,” said Goodson. “Plus, we awarded Completion Grants or scholarships to eight students who were in danger of dropping out just shy of graduation. They are now back on track to graduate this spring or next fall.”
The campaign wants $7 million over five years for 22 academic advisors and 10 Answer Center advisors to increase student access and lower the student-to-academic advisor ratio to 350-to-1. Other goals include:
- $5 million to create new endowed scholarship funds
- $5 million to create one-stop shops on each campus
- $2.5 million for chemistry and biology lab renovations at TCC Metro Campus to support STEM fields
- $500,000 for “diversity and inclusion outreach” including an “Equity Scorecard,” a program to support TCC’s equity effort for racial/ethnic minorities, low-income students, first-generation students and adult learners through initiatives such as the Summer Bridge Program, Diverse Faculty Fellowship/Grow Your Own Program, and Student Success Completion Grants.