CSN graduates record number of students

COURTESY CSN

12 years ago

Students from the College of Southern Nevada graduate at the 2013 commencement ceremony. Nevada’s community colleges are throwing out their existing framework for awarding employee raises based on education and experience and replacing it with a merit pay system next year.

A CSN honors graduate smiles before the 2013 CSN commencement ceremony begins. Approximately 40 percent of the class graduated with honors or high honors.

The College of Southern Nevada graduated its largest class ever at its 41st annual commencement ceremony May 20 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

A record number of 2,735 students were eligible to receive 3,055 degrees and certificates, according to the institution’s preliminary data. The official numbers will not be available until final grades for the spring 2013 semester have been received.

Among the graduating class, 39 percent graduated with honors or high honors.

The numbers are particularly important in light of the higher education funding formula lawmakers approved in Carson City this spring. The formula ties funding to course and degree completion.

“These numbers give us hope that the improvements we have started to make to help students earn a college diploma are working,” CSN President Michael Richards said. “We are very proud of our graduates and look forward to celebrating their achievements .”

Over the past year and a half, the college, which is one of the largest community colleges in the nation, has shifted its focus to student success in response to a national movement, led by the White House, to increase the number of college graduates by 8 million by 2020.

The college recently announced a number of student policies that will take effect next academic year to help cue students to better navigate the semester ahead, including the elimination of late registration in the spring 2014 semester. Research has shown students who enroll in a class after it has begun are far less likely to pass the course than those students who do so before the semester begins.

In addition, the college has reorganized student affairs, added free and unlimited tutoring, started a call center for student questions and opened math tutoring centers.

In April 2011, CSN was accepted to join Achieving the Dream, a prestigious national college reform network geared toward removing barriers to student success, particularly for underrepresented groups. The college has spent the first year collecting data and is planning interventions to implement next year.

Nearly 1,000 graduates received their diplomas at the Thomas & Mack, located at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where many of them will transfer next fall, including Travis Brown, outgoing student body president .

“We are proud to become part of CSN’s 42-year legacy and have left a lasting impact,” Brown said . “We have shown our family, our friends, and most importantly ourselves that we can achieve anything, and we are ready to prove ourselves out in the world.”