South Georgia State College, a state college of the University System of Georgia, is a multi-campus, student-centered institution offering high-quality associate and select baccalaureate degree programs. The institution provides innovative teaching and learning experiences, a rich array of student activities and athletic programs, access to unique ecological sites, and residential options to create a diverse, globally-focused, and supportive learning environment.
At the beginning of academic year 2024-2025, SGSC offered three associate degree programs (A.A., A.S., and A.S. in Nursing) with nineteen academic transfer pathways – and seven bachelor’s degree programs (B.S. in Nursing, B.S. in Biological Sciences, B.S. in Management, B.S. in Long-Term Healthcare Management, B.S. in Public Service Leadership, B.S. in Elementary/Special Education, B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology). Two low-enrollment bachelor’s degree programs were deactivated in January 2025 (Public Service Leadership and Long-Term Healthcare Management), so that as of spring semester 2025, SGSC offers five bachelor’s degree programs. As part of the USG’s state college sector, SGSC is predominantly an associate’s degree-level institution. Students enrolled in associate’s degree-level courses comprised 81% of SGSC’s fall 2024 enrollment.
SGSC’s mission, completion priorities, and student body demographics continue to align. The institution consistently enrolls primarily “traditional” students (83.94% fall 2024, excluding dual-enrolled). However, a variety of student support services for all students is extremely important at SGSC, where for fall 2024, 52.68% of all students were Pell Grant recipients (66%, excluding dual-enrolled), over one-third of entering freshmen were enrolled in an LS math corequisite course, 23.1% were first-generation college students, and 16.06% were non-traditional (adult learners). Such student demographic data has led SGSC to employ Momentum Year/Mindset/ASPIRE strategies focusing on helping at-risk students to succeed and earn a degree, preferably at SGSC but also as potential transfer students to other USG institutions.
The “Enrollment and Demographic Trends” and “Underserved Enrollment Trends” tables (Appendix Tables A and B, respectively) provide a good look at the SGSC student body’s characteristics. In addition to the data in the tables, it is noteworthy that 85% of SGSC’s total fall 2024 enrollment were Georgia residents representing 57% of the state’s counties. The other 15% of the fall 2024 student body were from other states or foreign countries. The students represented in these enrollment demographics help “to create a diverse, globally-focused learning environment” (SGSC Mission Statement).
The 2024–25 academic year represents a critical point in SGSC’s post-pandemic recovery and strategic repositioning. Between fall 2020 and fall 2024, total headcount enrollment moved from 2,028 students to 1,899 students, a net decline of roughly six percent. On the surface, that might suggest contraction, but the deeper picture shows measured recovery. The sharpest disruption occurred between fall 2020 and fall 2021, when enrollment fell by about 12.5 percent (from 2,028 to 1,774 students) during the most acute pandemic and economic disruption period. That single-year drop reflects the peak pandemic shock for SGSC’s students, especially low-income, first-generation, working, and caregiving students, rather than an ongoing downward spiral. Since that point, SGSC has slowly regained enrollment in each subsequent cycle (fall 2022, fall 2023, fall 2024) in spite of the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene in fall 2024.
Changing Student Demographics
The composition of SGSC’s student body has evolved in ways that reflect both the region it serves and the broader pressures facing access-oriented state colleges. One of the clearest shifts is the growth in Hispanic enrollment. Hispanic students accounted for 9.0 percent of SGSC’s enrollment in 2020 and 12.5 percent in 2024, which is nearly a 40 percent proportional increase. When compared to 2019 levels (approximately 8 percent), the growth is even more striking. This trend points to SGSC’s expanding role as an access point for Hispanic and multilingual communities in southeast Georgia. It also reflects the deliberate work the college has done (and must continue to do) in community outreach, Spanish-language communication with families, and creating culturally responsive campus spaces where those students can see themselves thriving.
At the same time, the proportion of Black or African American students shifted from 22.6 percent in 2020 to 20.0 percent in 2024, down from closer to 29 percent in 2019. The decline in African American enrollment is not unique to SGSC; it reflects a statewide and national pattern in which many potential students, especially men, chose immediate employment over college during and after the pandemic. Importantly, this decline appears to have leveled off since 2022. That flattening matters; it suggests the opportunity for SGSC to re-engage Black students through targeted outreach to local high schools, adult re-entry supports, and clearer communication around transfer pathways and workforce outcomes.
The gender distribution continues to tilt toward females, which is typical for open-access, associate-degree-granting institutions. Female students represented 64.8 percent of enrollment in 2024, compared to 66.6 percent in 2020, while male enrollment rose slightly to 35.2 percent. This gradual movement toward balance is encouraging, but it also underscores the need to design messaging, early advising, and academic supports that specifically acknowledge and retain men, who continue to be underrepresented in many public-access institutions.
Evolving Student Needs and Enrollment Patterns
Another major structural change in SGSC’s student body is how students are enrolling. The college has seen a notable shift toward part-time status. Part-time students represented 42.6 percent of enrollment in 2020, and that share increased to 47.7 percent by 2024. Over the same span, the share of students attempting 15 or more credit hours dropped from 17.0 percent in fall 2020 to just 12.2 percent in fall 2024. These shifts represent changes in traditional full-time behavior as students adapt college enrollment to fit paid work, caregiving, and other obligations.
More of SGSC’s students are working, caring for others, and managing competing obligations. Many are first-generation. These students are no less committed to earning a credential; they are simply pursuing that credential under real-world constraints that for some make a traditional 15-credit, face-to-face, four-day-a-week schedule unrealistic. SGSC continues to be committed to the “fifteen to finish” model of credit hour enrollment, and creating fuller schedules is an ongoing Momentum strategy. Even so, enrollment data over the past five years shows that the percentage of students enrolling in fifteen or more credit hours each semester has declined from a high of 19.48% for fall 2023 to 12.16% for fall 2024. The primary cause of this decline in fall 2024 was Hurricane Helene, which devastated our region of Georgia and caused a significant number of students to withdraw from some courses in order to deal with the effects of the hurricane.
Supporting Vulnerable Populations
Serving economically vulnerable, first-generation, and adult learners is central to SGSC’s mission, and that population remains large. Over the 2020–2024 period, more than half of SGSC students qualified for Pell Grants in each fall term. Among non-dual-enrollment students, the Pell-eligible share consistently exceeded 57 percent. As mentioned above, for fall 2024, 52.68 percent of the total student body and 66.00 percent of non-dual-enrolled students received Pell Grants. These numbers confirm that SGSC continues to educate the students who would otherwise have limited postsecondary access.
First-generation students, those who are the first in their immediate family to attend college, peaked at 42.6 percent in 2021, then declined. For fall 2024, first-generation students represented 23.10 percent of the total student body and 30.04 percent of non-dual-enrolled students. This moderation does not signal retreat from serving first-generation students; rather, it reflects SGSC’s improved identification and refined reporting definitions.
Adult learners (typically age 25 and older) have consistently accounted for roughly 17 to 20 percent of SGSC’s total enrollment. In Fall 2024, adult learners represented 16.06 percent of the total student body and 20.29 percent of non-dual-enrolled students. Although this share has declined slightly from its 2021 peak, adult learners remain an important segment of SGSC’s mission population.
These students (Pell-eligible, first-generation, and adult learners) are also the ones most likely to stop out when life and college collide. That is exactly why SGSC’s advising redesign, early-alert outreach, tutoring embedded into historically high-DFW courses, and emergency micro-grant supports are the mechanisms through which SGSC keeps its access promise.
Shifts in Degree Production and Workforce Implications
SGSC’s degree production from FY 2021 through FY 2025 reflects both the lingering impact of the pandemic and a deliberate strategic shift to market bachelor’s programs. Bachelor’s degrees increased from 96 to 102 between FY 2021 and FY 2024, a 6 percent gain despite pandemic-era disruptions. SGSC is not only a two-year access point within the USG; the institution also functions as a regional destination for applied, workforce-driven bachelor’s programs. This evolution matters. For students, it expands access to four-year credentials closely aligned with high-demand workforce pathways in nursing, education, business, and health sciences. For regional employers, it strengthens the local talent pipeline. And for the institution, it diversifies and stabilizes the student base by sustaining upper-division enrollment even as associate-level demand continues.
Benchmark, Aspirational, and Competitor Institution and Student Achievement
In selecting a benchmark, aspirational, and competitor institution, SGSC has focused on performance in two specific areas related to student success. As required in SACSCOC standards (8.1, Student Achievement), both areas are identified in the SGSC website’s information on student achievement. Because SGSC, like her eight sister institutions in the USG’s state college sector, is primarily an associate’s degree-granting institution with a select number of bachelor’s degree programs (see Mission Statement), the retention and graduation rate student achievement focus is on associate’s degree-seeking students. Among the measures included in SGSC’s student achievement goals are the following most significant college completion goals (achievement targets are discussed below):
• One-year retention rates for full-time associate degree-seeking student cohorts, fall 2019 - fall 2023
• Three-year graduation rates for full-time associate degree-seeking student cohorts, fall 2017 - fall 2021
Since SGSC is a member institution of the USG and is classified by the System as one of nine state colleges, all of whom have quite similar missions and follow the same USG directives, policies, goals, initiatives, and strategic plan, it makes sense to choose a benchmark, aspirational, and competitor institution from among the USG state colleges. That sector’s data on the bulleted student achievement measures above continues to identify Georgia Highlands as a high-performing institution in the state college sector and the benchmark, aspirational, and competitor institution to which we have compared ourselves since the inception of institutional benchmarking. The USG is currently involved in updating/revision of the peer comparator institution identification process; consequently, SGSC will have identified a new peer comparator institution outside the USG for future CCG reports.
One-Year Associate’s FTFT Retention Rates
The data in Appendix Table C shows that the one-year institution-specific retention rate for SGSC’s FTFT associate degree-seeking students is at a 52.52% five-year average for fall 2020 through fall 2024 student cohorts (up 2.12% from last year’s report of the five-year average), while the institution-specific average for all nine USG state colleges for the same period was 55.5% (up only 0.4%). The Georgia Highlands average for the period was 62.14%, well above the SGSC and System averages. SGSC’s goal of a one-year FTFT associate’s degree-seeking student retention rate of 55% for the fall 2025 student cohort was met by the fall 2024 cohort (one year early) with a one-year retention rate of 55.3%, only 0.2% short of the state college sector fall 2024 cohort rate. SGSC is steadily closing the gap! Because the fall 2025 cohort target has already been met, SGSC has established a new fall 2025 cohort target of 57% retention.
While the SGSC-specific one-year retention rate for FTFT degree-seeking students has been consistently lower than the average for all nine USG state colleges, the one-year retention rate of former SGSC students within the USG over the five-year period averages 64.2%, which exceeds the average for all USG state colleges of 61.9% (but is below the Georgia Highlands five-year average of 67%). Given the A.A. and A.S. transfer mission of USG state colleges and the ease of transfer among USG institutions facilitated by a common core curriculum, SGSC is preparing students who not only enroll but persist and advance within the System. SGSC’s goal is to attain a one-year retention rate within the USG of 65% by the fall 2025 cohort.
Three-Year Associate’s FTFT Graduation Rates
The three-year graduation rate data in Appendix Table D compares the five-year SGSC rates to the average rates for the same period for all nine USG state colleges. “Institution-specific” refers to students graduating from SGSC, “System-wide for SGSC” refers to former SGSC students who graduate from any USG institution, and “System-wide for all state colleges” refers to students who began at a USG institution, transferred to another USG institution, and graduated from the USG institution to which they transferred.
The table shows that the three-year institution-specific graduation rate for SGSC’s FTFT associate degree-seeking students is at a five-year average of 22.44% (fall 2018 through fall 2022 cohorts), while the institution-specific average for all nine state colleges is 16.18% for the same period. USG by the Numbers reports show that the Georgia Highlands State College average rate for the five-year period 2018-2022 is 18.86% %, significantly higher than the average state college rate, but, for the third consecutive year in our college completion reporting, below the SGSC average. The rationale for an SGSC metric goal of a 25% three-year FTFT associate’s degree-seeking student graduation rate for the fall 2023 cohort is based on the fall 2020 cohort rate of 26.7%, which was the highest (by far) three-year graduation rate in the state college sector for the fall 2020 cohort, as well as the most recent SGSC cohort rate (fall 2022) of 26.3%. Georgia Highlands had the second-highest fall 2022 rate in our sector (19.1%). Since the fall 2023 cohort goal has already been met, SGSC is raising that cohort’s goal to a graduation rate of 27%. This is significant progress.
It is noteworthy that SGSC’s institution-specific graduation rate has typically exceeded the average graduation rate for all USG state colleges. In addition, the graduation rate for the most recent student cohort of former SGSC students transferring to other USG state colleges (22.78%, fall 2022) far exceeds the average rate for all USG state college associate’s degree-seeking students transferring within the System (16.42%, fall 2022) and for Georgia Highlands College as well (19%). This is a significant achievement for SGSC.
Student Success Inventory
Overall, our institutional environment experienced significant change over the past year, which created both challenges and opportunities for strategic reflection on student success initiatives. The devastating effects of Hurricane Helene combined with continued interim administrative leadership resulted in much uncertainty in our ability to keep moving forward, but we rose to the challenges and persevered as best we could. Much of our time and energy was diverted to certifying compliance with SACSCOC standards for reaffirmation of accreditation, with our report submitted at the end of February and the onsite SACSCOC committee visit in October. Nonetheless, we have carefully evaluated our achievements and areas needing improvement with respect to student success.
A primary focus was and continues to be refining the “Boost” Mindset workshops and related interventions that encourage student participation and address academic mindset motivation, note-taking, time management, and study skills. These workshops continue to evolve, and we continue to gather data to assess their impact on overall GPAs and retention rates.
In tandem with the Mindset work, we began restructuring our academic advising practices and scheduling processes, prompted by budget constraints and evolving student needs. Our Course Analysis Committee continued to examine course scheduling to ensure students could enroll in 15+ hours each semester and began the preliminary labor-intensive process of creating a 2-year academic schedule to enable productive academic program planning. Simultaneously, we piloted a new advising center on the Waycross campus to offer holistic support, involving faculty and student success staff in collaborative advising. Key individuals new to these efforts and their contact information have been added to the completion team leadership table (Appendix Table K).
Overall, we feel a sense of cautious optimism about our student success work this year, especially considering the institutional shifts brought upon us by circumstances beyond our control. On the other hand, we continue to contend with limited personnel to manage new projects, including faculty advising support and student engagement workshops. The three-week period of course interruption due to the hurricane in Fall semester, as well as additional lost days due to historic snowfall at the start of Spring semester contributed greatly to this concern, as we are still recovering from the physical, fiscal, and psychological damages to our campuses and communities. While we remain vigilant about resource limitations and the continuing need for broad faculty and administrative buy-in, we feel that our student success work is primary.
The Advising Center pilot has provided service to students who have had difficulty connecting with their advisor, and it has facilitated more contact with more students by Student Success staff. Faculty support of the Advising Center has been less than desired, limiting the times the Center is open. Having two different advising models on each campus creates difficulties in messaging students concerning advising.
To provide some student support after the loss of our career guidance position several years ago, we have maintained the use of Steppingblocks. Our usage this year increased slightly.
Regarding our Undergraduate Research program, we consider it a foundational and ongoing initiative that has moved to a maintenance phase, in part because it has become an established facet of our institutional identity. Originally launched as our last Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), Undergraduate Research has proven to be both a high-impact practice and a source of steady student engagement.
Things that went well this year did so primarily because we had the right mix of people working in unison and keeping the students’ best interests at the forefront. When faculty, Student Success staff, and administration collaborated closely, our initiatives saw increased participation and, we hope, measurable gains. We will know for certain when we have completed our data analysis. Conversely, things did not go as well in situations where we lacked sufficient personnel to fully implement or had limited resources to support our plans. When we lack critical support or cannot adequately staff an initiative, its impact is naturally weakened.
The Momentum strategies we are working on (specifically the Mindset workshops, fuller course schedules and essential skills (English/Math) completion emphasis, and collaborative advising practices) clearly align with our newly developed institutional strategic goals and priorities that will guide us through the next five years of our new strategic plan, particularly the following:
Goal 1: Enhance Academic Programs & Student Success
Objective 1.2: Improve the sequence, times, and modalities of course offerings for all students, especially non-traditional and underserved, to support student planning.
Overall, our institutional environment experienced significant change over the past year, which created both challenges and opportunities for strategic reflection on student success initiatives. The devastating effects of Hurricane Helene combined with continued interim administrative leadership resulted in much uncertainty in our ability to keep moving forward, but we rose to the challenges and persevered as best we could. Much of our time and energy was diverted to certifying compliance with SACSCOC standards for reaffirmation of accreditation, with our report submitted at the end of February and the onsite SACSCOC committee visit in October. Nonetheless, we have carefully evaluated our achievements and areas needing improvement with respect to student success.
A primary focus was and continues to be refining the “Boost” Mindset workshops and related interventions that encourage student participation and address academic mindset motivation, note-taking, time management, and study skills. These workshops continue to evolve, and we continue to gather data to assess their impact on overall GPAs and retention rates.
In tandem with the Mindset work, we began restructuring our academic advising practices and scheduling processes, prompted by budget constraints and evolving student needs. Our Course Analysis Committee continued to examine course scheduling to ensure students could enroll in 15+ hours each semester and began the preliminary labor-intensive process of creating a 2-year academic schedule to enable productive academic program planning. Simultaneously, we piloted a new advising center on the Waycross campus to offer holistic support, involving faculty and student success staff in collaborative advising. Key individuals new to these efforts and their contact information have been added to the completion team leadership table (Appendix Table K).
Overall, we feel a sense of cautious optimism about our student success work this year, especially considering the institutional shifts brought upon us by circumstances beyond our control. On the other hand, we continue to contend with limited personnel to manage new projects, including faculty advising support and student engagement workshops. The three-week period of course interruption due to the hurricane in Fall semester, as well as additional lost days due to historic snowfall at the start of Spring semester contributed greatly to this concern, as we are still recovering from the physical, fiscal, and psychological damages to our campuses and communities. While we remain vigilant about resource limitations and the continuing need for broad faculty and administrative buy-in, we feel that our student success work is primary.
The Advising Center pilot has provided service to students who have had difficulty connecting with their advisor, and it has facilitated more contact with more students by Student Success staff. Faculty support of the Advising Center has been less than desired, limiting the times the Center is open. Having two different advising models on each campus creates difficulties in messaging students concerning advising.
To provide some student support after the loss of our career guidance position several years ago, we have maintained the use of Steppingblocks. Our usage this year increased slightly.
Regarding our Undergraduate Research program, we consider it a foundational and ongoing initiative that has moved to a maintenance phase, in part because it has become an established facet of our institutional identity. Originally launched as our last Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), Undergraduate Research has proven to be both a high-impact practice and a source of steady student engagement.
Things that went well this year did so primarily because we had the right mix of people working in unison and keeping the students’ best interests at the forefront. When faculty, Student Success staff, and administration collaborated closely, our initiatives saw increased participation and, we hope, measurable gains. We will know for certain when we have completed our data analysis. Conversely, things did not go as well in situations where we lacked sufficient personnel to fully implement or had limited resources to support our plans. When we lack critical support or cannot adequately staff an initiative, its impact is naturally weakened.
The Momentum strategies we are working on (specifically the Mindset workshops, fuller course schedules and essential skills (English/Math) completion emphasis, and collaborative advising practices) clearly align with our newly developed institutional strategic goals and priorities that will guide us through the next five years of our new strategic plan, particularly the following:
Goal 1: Enhance Academic Programs & Student Success
Objective 1.2: Improve the sequence, times, and modalities of course offerings for all students, especially non-traditional and underserved, to support student planning.
Goal 2: Strengthen Student Success & Engagement
Objective 2.2: Establish collaborative “cross-campus” advising centers on both campuses.
For AY 2024-25, the two strategies for success taking highest priority were (1) “BOOST” mindset workshops/interventions and (2) improved course scheduling and advising. A third strategy, piloting a collaborative advising center, has been added this year. Information for the three strategies is included in the templates below.
