Cerro Coso’s use of Inquiry Groups to engage staff, faculty, students, and administrators in developing success initiatives broad enough for both instructional and non-instructional units to embrace was featured in the RP Group’s publication July 2017 Perspectives.

The topic also made for an excellent presentation by five Cerro Coso employees at the Strengthening Student Success Conference in October. Julie Cornett, Cliff Davis, Tyson Huffman, Heather Ostash, and Corey Marvin shared how the Inquiry groups delved into the RP Group’s Student Support (Re)defined study’s “Six Success Factors” to develop institutional initiatives aimed at making the student experience more connected, focused, and directed. No easy feat for a unique rural college with a large online program, five satellite campuses, and an emerging inmate education program. Their presentation, entitled From the Ground Up: A Grassroots Effort to Institutionalize Culture Change and Develop Success Initiatives Via Broad-Based Inquiry Groups, was an interactive session that provided a synopsis of how the college’s grassroots effort led to the adoption of success initiatives that resulted in broad-based cultural change.