Early Alerts: How Two California Colleges Are Using Relief Funds to Keep Students Enrolled
By Robbie Linden
The California Community Colleges (CCC) used pandemic relief funds to rapidly and substantially expand student services and wraparound support. These 116 campuses received $4.7 billion in relief funds from the federal government and another $650 million from the state in the form of a block grant. This one-time increase in college revenue is unprecedented, amounting to three-quarters of the system’s $7.4 billion annual pre-pandemic apportionment revenue, which funds core campus operations.
Colleges had considerable discretion in how to use the relief funds. Though half of federal funds were restricted for direct student aid, colleges were allowed to spend the remaining dollars flexibly to address the challenges the pandemic posed to school operations and student wellbeing. Colleges began expanding a wide array of student supports, some of which were not financially feasible without relief funds, including for basic needs, financial assistance, student services, and technology.
Two California institutions, Copper Mountain College and Cabrillo College, have chosen to use the new resources to promote student success through early alert systems coupled with proactive and timely intervention and support. Early alerts allow campus staff to electronically notify counselors when a student is experiencing academic challenges or personal difficulties such as financial hardship or a health crisis. A counselor then reaches out to the student by phone to check on them and determine what resources could help them maintain academic progress.
Though these systems are not new to California community colleges, pandemic funds have helped build new opportunities for and excitement around early alerts. Whereas past systems were often underutilized because of limited counseling staff and student support resources, colleges now have the capacity to support larger numbers of students with a broader set of resources.
Copper Mountain College Pairs Alerts With Expanded Services
Copper Mountain College (CMC) piloted an early alert system in 2022. Located in the rural setting of Joshua Tree, CMC has an annual enrollment of 2,300 students, which makes it the smallest campus in the CCC system. While its small size means it has limited resources, it also allows it to rapidly adopt new initiatives.
“We start with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs,” said CMC Superintendent/President Daren Otten, in an interview. “What do students need? It could be tutoring, but it could also be a WiFi hotspot or a bus pass.”
CMC faculty and staff are encouraged to use the early alert system when they see signs that students are struggling. Faculty typically make referrals when they see attendance or grades falter. Campus staff may also refer students who miss key appointments with student services. Referrals are sent electronically to student counselors, who then call the student to ask, “Are you okay?”
Otten said counseling staff “operationalize early alert referrals. They meet a student’s needs when they need them, without any bureaucracy to deal with. If a student needs a tire fixed, they need it now. If they need mental health services or tutoring, they need it now.”
He explained that addressing students’ financial stressors is key to keeping them enrolled. “Financial need and distress is the main reason we see students leave. We have been intentional to make our college a place where students can relieve those challenges.”
CMC has used pandemic relief funds to widely expand the services and wraparound support available to students. It launched an emergency grant program, which allows students to easily apply for cash aid to cover short-term costs such as a month’s rent or a car battery. It increased spending in its career center, which, in addition to post-graduation support, aids currently enrolled students by helping them find jobs that allow them to maintain their enrollment. It also expanded its basic needs center, which offers free food, transportation support, laptops and WiFi hotspots, textbooks, and health services on-site and through telehealth. Finally, it allows all students to get free meals in the campus cafeteria. It also hired a full-time licensed therapist to manage mental health outreach and support.
Cabrillo College Backs Early Alerts With Student Care Team
Cabrillo College implemented its early alert system, “Just Report It,” in 2018. Located in Aptos, a coastal town 10 miles east of Santa Cruz, the college enrolls 15,000 students per year and refers roughly 2,000 students per semester for additional support for academic and personal challenges. Half of these referrals are initiated by faculty, and the rest are initiated by staff in student services departments. A 15-member student support care team reviews cases weekly to determine whether a student needs tutoring, personal wellness, peer support, or accessibility support to succeed.
Cabrillo College Superintendent/President Matt Wetstein said that cases typically involve a combination of students’ financial stresses and academic challenges that prevent them from engaging in campus activities. “Oftentimes, academic and life issues are melded together,” he said. “The intersection of these issues results in a conversation between a student and counselor.”
When a student is facing a mental health crisis or threat to their safety, the care team taps licensed professionals from the team to conduct health and safety assessments confidentially. For instance, mental health counselors employed by the college can determine whether a student is at risk for self-harm.
Like CMC, Cabrillo has substantial pandemic recovery resources to help students who need additional support. But Wetstein explained that early alert success also depends on the ability of counselors to guide student decision-making amid moments of uncertainty and crisis.
“We think about students holistically,” he said. “Whether they are having a life issue related to their car or their boyfriend, basic needs, housing, and mental health resources only address part of their needs. Ultimately, students have to talk to a counselor about whether they should stay enrolled or drop classes and return in the following term. Whether or not they should be dropping classes depends on where they are on their education plans.”
Funding Declines Loom for California Community Colleges
For early alert systems to be effective in the long term, colleges need stable funding sources to support staff that manage student referrals and to provide campus resources that help students stay on track. Because of the unusual level of discretionary funding provided by pandemic relief funds, colleges have spent flexibly on staff, technology, student services, and basic needs.
In the next few years, however, the CCC system will face a new financial landscape that will test the staying power of these early alert systems. As California colleges spend down the last of their state and federal relief funds, they also face a potential decline in state funding in the 2024-25 budget, the first in a decade.
As a result, colleges’ discretionary funds will decrease substantially, leaving them to find other funding to plug the gap. At CMC and Cabrillo, local foundations contribute discretionary funding that supports emergency aid programs. Cabrillo’s foundation, for instance, provides $125,000 per year to support student emergency grants of up to $750. Colleges can also use state categorical funds strategically to hire student services professionals such as social workers. Matt Wetstein describes sourcing funds for new members of Cabrillo’s care team as “Franken-funding” because one staff position may be funded through several categorical funds designated for basic needs, disadvantaged students, and mental health. Still, colleges may face difficulties sustaining the extensive set of services that were made possible with the availability of relief funds.
Despite these challenges, both Otten and Wetstein are encouraged by the use of early alert systems on their campuses and say they are committed to continuing them.
“We have made the investment in early alert and have already seen the system work to support students through various challenges,” Otten said. “For us at CMC, we are committed to always advancing our mission of 100% student success. We are determined to find the resources to support solutions that work, and our form of early alert works.”
Robbie Linden is a research fellow at Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research and an affiliate of the California Education Lab at the University of California, Davis.
The research reported here is part of a broader effort to document California Community Colleges’ recovery activities to inform community college leaders and state policymakers on best practices post-pandemic. This multi-year Wheelhouse and California Education Lab project, titled Evidence to Inform Improvement: Supporting California Community Colleges in Pandemic Recovery, is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences (Grant R305X220016) in a grant to the University of California, Davis, and is part of the ARCC Network. Other partners include the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO), the Community College Research Center (CCRC), and the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.
