Based on data from ten local community colleges, a newly released report from California Completes highlights key takeaways and strategies for recruiting and retaining adult learners. Of those studied, institutions that employed a strategic enrollment management framework tailored to adults - including targeted outreach, flexible class scheduling, comprehensive academic monitoring with early interventions, community partnerships, and data-informed action - saw notable increases in both student enrollment rates and learner academic performance.

The report from California Completes also discusses common barriers faced by the studied community colleges, such as resource constraints, system infrastructure, and inadequate staffing. It goes on to provide recommendations for community colleges looking to strengthen enrollment and retention strategies. This includes leveraging data to focus  and streamline initiatives, fostering partnerships with the community, supporting collaboration across campus, and pivoting to student-focused course scheduling.

Read the full brief here.

Normandale Community College will be offering four of its Vacuum Technology classes (VACT) from May 27 to July 27, 2025. To support professional development in vacuum and thin film technology instruction, faculty and educators can audit these courses at no cost. All classes are provided through an asynchronous, online format. 

The following VACT classes are being offered by Normandale Community College this summer:

VACT 1010 (Foundations of Vacuum Science), 2 credits - starts June 2 and ends July 25, 2025.  

VACT 1293 (Concepts of Rough Vacuum Systems), 1 credit - starts May 27 and ends July 3, 2025. 

VACT 1300 (Introduction to Vacuum System Automation), 1 credit - starts May 27 and ends July 3, 2025.  

VACT 2290 (High Vacuum Equipment), 1 credit - starts May 27 and ends July 3, 2025.

Please contact Nancy Louwagie ([email protected]) for assistance with course registration or if you have any questions pertaining to this summer's offerings.

Mentor-Connect's NSF ATE Budget and Forms webinar will occur on May 21, 2025 from 3:00-4:00PM ET. It will cover personnel direct costs, fringe benefits, biosketches, synergistic activities, charts of accounts (COAs), and more. Register here on Mentor Connect's website. 

Based at Florence-Darlington Technical College, Mentor-Connec provides one-on-one mentorship, professional development opportunities, technical assistance, and focused ATE grant proposal support to two-year academic institutions and their faculty. Beyond its live webinars, it also offers a robust resource library of past webinars, quick reference guides, checklists, and other tools, support prospective and current grantees of the NSF ATE program. 

The 2025 NICE Conference & Expo will occur June 1-4, 2025, in Denver, Colorado. Hosted by Florida International University and New America, this National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)-sponsored event will dive into the theme “Climbing Higher: Educating & Sustaining a Resilient Cybersecurity Workforce.” Each year, the conference brings together leaders in academia, industry, and government to explore how to best support skilled workforce development in the adaptive, dynamic field of cybersecurity.

Attendees at the 2025 NICE Conference & Expo will complete a half-day of focused workshops followed by two days of valuable presentations, insights, and networking opportunities with innovators in cybersecurity education and training. Registration is open through May 26, with employers, managers, educators, advisors, policymakers, and students encouraged to attend.

Learn more about the event on the NICE Conference & Expo website.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently awarded $20 million to expand CloudBank, a program that facilitates access to advanced cloud computing for research in the sciences and engineering. Championed by UC San Diego in partnership with UC Berkeley and the University of Washington, the expansion to CloudBank 2.0 will improve access to artificial intelligence modeling, computing power, and other cloud service for academic institutions of all sizes.

CloudBank 2.0 will also continue to facilitate partnerships with key players in the private sector, such as Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, supporting innovation while strengthening the technology workforce. 

Read more about the recent grant on NSF's website. 

Released in March 2025, a new report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center details current trends surrounding transfer enrollment. The interactive report describes a number of key highlights relevant for policy makers, faculty, and leaders in education.

Metrics from fall 2024 show that transfers into community colleges have grown beyond the pandemic’s fall 2020 levels, while transfer rates from two-year to four-year academic institutions still have not recovered to pre-pandemic numbers. As noted in the Clearinghouse's report, from fall 2023 to fall 2024, there was an over four-percent growth in learners who transferred to a new institution, and returning students now comprise the majority of transfer enrollments.

Learn more about the National Student Clearinghouse’s research and report, available here.

The April/May issue of the American Association of Community Colleges’ (AACC) Community College Journal is now available online and in print through subscription. A featured publication by AACC, this journal provides contemporary information, insights, strategies, and connections for those in academia, industry, government, and workforce development.

The latest issue highlights:

• Supporting the needs and goals of parenting learners
• Strategically planning in a dynamic, evolving landscape
• Using trauma-informed strategies in higher education
• Leveraging artificial intelligence to assist with the transfer process
• Meeting workforce demands amidst the emergence of Web 3.0

AACC's April/May publication of the Community College Journal can be accessed online here, and archived issues can be viewed in AACC’s library.

Dive into the future of education with the "Building the AI-Ready Campus" webinar on April 29th, 2025, at 2:00 PM Eastern Time. Hosted by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACN), this session will showcase how Forsyth Technical Community College has harnessed artificial intelligence (AI)-driven tools to improve campus enrollment rates, streamline processes, decrease employee workloads, and address students’ questions and online inquiries using “AI Agents.” Attendees will discover actionable strategies to elevate learner engagement, optimize staff efficiency, and create an overall more personalized, interactive college experience through leveraging the power of artificial intelligence.

Featuring leaders in the worlds of education, technology, and innovation, the webinar aims to redefine the campus experience and support staff in building an engaging, unified learning community that welcomes AI and its many applications.

Register now for the April 29^th event on AACN’s website.

To serve even more students across the nation, the Common App will be granting membership to a select group of community colleges in Illinois, according to a report from Inside Higher Ed. More than three million students, educators, and academic counselors use the online platform each year to inform, support, and streamline the application process for over 1,000 four-year universities. This is the first time the Common App is partnering with institutions that largely offer two-year or associate-level degrees.

The cohort for the 2024-2025 application cycle includes four Illinois members: Black Hawk College, Carl Sandburg College, Rend Lake College, and Sauk Valley Community College. Three Illinois institutions will likewise join in 2025-2026: Oakton College, Lincoln Land Community College, and Triton College. Data from the National Bureau of Economic Research has shown that education institutions saw an average 12% increase in overall admissions after joining the Common App, a trend that may offer community colleges a similar increase in enrollment rates. According to Insider Higher Ed, there are hopes by educators and administrators that the Common App will continue to expand its...

This year’s National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Mentor Up workshop will center around grant-writing and proposal submission. To attend the virtual event, participants must apply by April 1, 2025. Application requirements include (1) a concise, one-page pre-proposal document outlining a specific idea for an ATE-related project and (2) evidence of administrative commitment to supporting grant writing, proposal submission, and carrying out of the project itself.

During the Mentor Up Workshop, attendees will explore the role and scope of the NSF ATE program, dive into a focused idea based on their submitted application, and discover the intricacies of grant funding. Presentations, mentorship groups, and structured sessions on proposal planning and writing will provide various opportunities for participants to learn and network. The 2025 NSF ATE Mentor Up Workshop will be held virtually on June 4-6, 2025.

Visit the ATE Mentor Up site for information on eligibility, stipends and support, application guidelines, and more.