Dr. Emily Points Highlights concerns regarding Stop-Out Project

Tonie Walton

April 29, 2022

Thursday, April 21, 2022, Illinois Central College’s (ICC) Board of Trustees convened on the Peoria Campus for its monthly discussion of all things business. During this meeting, Dr. Emily Points, current Dean of Enrollment Services, went into detail regarding the Stop-Out Project. 

The Stop-Out Project was intended to address the drop in enrollment following the COVID-19 pandemic. The program was initiated after a noticeable reduction in re-enrollment between the semesters of fall 2020 and spring 2021. During the beginning phases of this program, ICC enrollment officials sought feedback from students regarding their choice not to re-enroll. 

Dr. Points and her team utilized Inside Track, an educational company, to reach out to 3,186 ICC students by phone, e-mail, or text between December 1 and February 11. They focused on obtaining feedback from students taking both 12-week and 8-week classes. 1,246 of 3,186 students surveyed provided input. There were 29.6% of students who planned to re-enroll, and 48% of those attended courses in the spring semester of 2022. 440 students provided a reason for not re-enrolling.

 According to the 440 students, there were four main reasons for the lack of re-enrollment. Many students stated they were unable to re-enroll due to outside commitments. Work obligations, complications in balancing family responsibilities and the timeline of the semester, and the lack of financial support to continue courses at the time. Many students reported they no longer qualified for financial aid, the remaining responses were students deciding to transfer to other schools.

The overall outcome of the Stop-Out project is that 117 students have re-enrolled with 1,216.5 credit hours with the average credit hours being 6.9. Those 177 students received success coaching through Inside Track, which started on February 14 and will end on May 14. 

The average ICC student took 7.8 credit hours this spring. 48% of the students currently enrolled fall in the age group 20 and 25 with 33% of that being students between the ages of 20 to 22. 7% of the students currently enrolled fall between the ages 32 and 35. The overall average age at ICC is 25. 74% of students are caucasian, 11% African American and 15% are of other races and ethnicities. The gender of ICC students overall is split between 59.7% being female and 40.2% being male.

To learn more about this program and other topics highlighted at the Board of Trustees meeting for April, check out the video available at https://icc.edu/about-icc/board-trustees/