2026 Fall

Welcome to the Fall 2026 executive edition of Innovatus, the magazine of the League for Innovation in the Community College. In this issue, we explore Developing Essential Resources—a topic that has become increasingly important as community and technical colleges navigate changing economic conditions, evolving student needs, emerging technologies, workforce transformation, and continued pressure to accomplish more with limited resources.

For community college leaders, resource development can no longer be viewed primarily through the lens of budgets or fundraising. While financial strength remains critical, today’s most effective institutions are taking a much broader view of what constitutes a resource. Facilities, technology, partnerships, people, data, institutional knowledge, community relationships, and student support systems all represent assets that can be developed, connected, and deployed in new ways to advance the institutional mission.

The question, therefore, is not simply, What resources do we have? Increasingly, the leadership question is, How can we use what we have differently—and what new capacity must we develop—to better serve students and communities?

The articles in this issue offer compelling examples of colleges answering that question.

In “Beyond the Budget: Rethinking Resources in the Community College” and “Reimagining Community College Investment: Building Financial Resilience Beyond Tighter Budgets,” Randy Weber and Justin Lonon, respectively, challenge traditional assumptions about institutional resources and encourage leaders to think more strategically about financial capacity, investment, and long-term sustainability.

Kristie Fisher presents another dimension of resource development in “Repurposing Existing Infrastructure to Create a Regional Workforce Hub”: recognizing that an existing institutional asset can generate new value when aligned with regional workforce and economic priorities. It is a reminder that innovation does not always require building something new; sometimes it requires seeing existing resources through a different lens.

Technology represents another essential institutional resource, but technology alone does not transform the student experience. In “Designing the Student Journey: Technology, Trust, and the Human Connection,” Dan Phelan reminds us that successful digital transformation must ultimately strengthen, rather than replace, the relationships and human connections that help students navigate college and achieve their goals.

Other articles illustrate that developing essential resources also means investing intentionally in the conditions students need to succeed. Pamela Haney, in “Moraine Valley Addresses Food Insecurity With Project Care Food Pantry,” demonstrates how institutions can respond to barriers that extend well beyond the classroom. Similarly, in “From Orientation to Connection: Reimagining Onboarding as an Institutional Strategy” Jamee Harrington challenges us to view onboarding not simply as an event, but as an institutional resource for creating belonging, connection, and momentum from the beginning of a student’s experience.

Taken together, these stories suggest an important leadership principle: Resource development is ultimately about institutional capacity. It is the capacity to identify assets, build partnerships, make strategic investments, remove barriers, adapt infrastructure, deploy technology thoughtfully, and align people and resources around student and community success.

This broader definition is particularly important today. Community colleges have long distinguished themselves by their ability to adapt—to respond quickly to changing workforce demands, emerging technologies, demographic shifts, and the evolving needs of the communities they serve. That adaptability itself may be one of our most crucial resources.

The challenge before us is to ensure that our institutions are not simply managing scarcity but actively creating capacity.

As you read this issue of Innovatus, I encourage you to consider your own institution through that lens. What resources are currently underdeveloped or underutilized? What existing assets could be repurposed? What partnerships could extend your institution’s capacity? Where could technology improve both efficiency and human connection? And, most importantly, how can the resources you develop translate into greater opportunity, mobility, and success for the students and communities you serve?

At the League for Innovation in the Community College, we believe innovation is not defined simply by creating something new. It is also reflected in our ability to see new possibilities in what we already have, connect resources in new ways, and develop the institutional capacity necessary to meet the challenges ahead.

We hope the ideas and examples in this issue inspire conversations—and action—across your institution. Please email Cynthia Wilson with topics you would like us to explore or innovations you wish to showcase in future issues of Innovatus.

Like many new presidents, I began this role believing one of my greatest responsibilities would be finding the resources necessary to move the institution forward. Leading a rural-serving community college like Rogue Community College (RCC), however, quickly reinforced a familiar reality: Funding is limited, facilities require continual investment, technology evolves rapidly, and attracting exceptional employees is an ongoing challenge. It is easy to believe that success depends on acquiring more.

Over time, however, my perspective changed. I came to realize that leadership is not simply about securing additional resources. It is about aligning the resources already entrusted to us around a common purpose. That lesson became especially clear during my first years at RCC. Before my arrival, the college had experienced significant enrollment declines, resulting in program reductions and difficult decisions. Working closely with our board of education and leadership team, we agreed that we could not cut our way to success. Instead, we focused on expanding opportunity by increasing access, strengthening student success, and deepening partnerships throughout our region. Four years later, RCC has become Oregon’s fastest-growing community college. While many factors contributed to that success, our greatest shift was philosophical. We stopped asking, “What can we afford?” and began asking, “What best advances our mission?”

Today, I believe every institutional resource shares a common purpose. Financial resources, employees, facilities, technology, and community partnerships are not separate priorities competing for attention. Together, they create the conditions allowing students to succeed.

Purpose Before Budget

Budgets are often viewed as financial documents, but I have come to see them as statements of institutional values. Strategic plans describe aspirations; budgets reveal priorities. Every allocation reflects a choice about what matters most.

During my second year at RCC, we transitioned from incremental to zero-based budgeting. The move allowed us to clearly articulate our priorities and align our resources with our values. Every financial decision should answer a simple question: Will this investment improve our ability to serve students and strengthen our communities?

The shift from managing budgets to building capacity has reshaped my approach to resource allocation. The objective is not simply to balance revenues and expenditures. It is to ensure that every investment advances our mission.

People Create Capacity

Financial resources create opportunity, but people determine whether opportunity becomes reality. Throughout my career, I have observed that the strongest colleges are not necessarily those with the newest buildings or the largest budgets. They are institutions where employees understand the mission, trust one another, and believe their work matters. Leadership exists throughout the organization because people are encouraged to collaborate, learn, and solve problems together.

At RCC, our annual microgrant program provides an example of how we lean on our team to help solve problems. At the beginning of the year, when college goals are shared, employees have an opportunity to apply for microgrants of up to $10,000 for their department, or multiple departments, to support goal attainment. Over the past four years, some of RCC’s best innovations have come from frontline employee microgrant ideas.

The same principle extends beyond campus. Some of the most valuable resources available to community colleges never appear on a balance sheet. They exist in relationships with school districts, universities, employers, workforce agencies, nonprofit organizations, and local governments. This is especially true in rural and remote communities, where partnerships are not simply beneficial—they are essential.

Many of our most meaningful accomplishments have resulted from inviting others to become partners in creating solutions. Whether expanding workforce pathways, improving student support, or responding to regional economic needs, collaboration consistently extends our capacity beyond what we could accomplish alone. Taken together, our employees and community partners represent the institution’s greatest multiplier. Investing in people, both inside and outside the college, creates opportunities no budget can purchase by itself.

Innovation With Purpose

Innovation is often associated with abundance. My experience suggests otherwise. Some of the most meaningful innovation occurs because resources are limited. Constraints force institutions to reconsider assumptions, clarify priorities, and discover more effective ways to serve students.

Technology illustrates this well. Artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and digital learning tools offer remarkable possibilities, but technology should never be pursued simply because it is available. Its value lies in helping institutions improve learning, strengthen student services, streamline operations, and free employees to focus on the work that only people can do: mentoring, coaching, and building relationships.

The same principle applies to facilities. Buildings are far more than physical infrastructure. They communicate whether students are welcomed, supported, and inspired to learn. Every investment in technology or facilities should ultimately strengthen the student experience rather than simply modernize the campus.

Innovation is not about acquiring more tools. It is about using every resource more intentionally.

Beyond the Budget

Students rarely experience financial resources, technology, facilities, advising, or community partnerships as separate categories. They experience one college. Every interaction either strengthens or weakens their confidence that they belong and can succeed.

That realization has become one of the most important lessons of my leadership journey. Every institutional decision is ultimately a student success decision. Financial resources expand opportunity. Employees create meaningful experiences. Facilities foster belonging. Technology improves access. Partnerships connect education with community. Together, they advance a shared mission.

Higher education will continue to face financial pressures, demographic change, technological disruption, and evolving workforce needs. Yet, I remain optimistic because community colleges possess extraordinary strengths that cannot be measured solely on a balance sheet. We are deeply connected to our communities. We bring together dedicated employees, trusted partners, and a shared belief that education transforms lives.

Leadership, therefore, is not simply about developing more resources. It is about seeing resources differently. When we align every investment around student success, budgets become expressions of purpose, partnerships become strategic assets, and innovation becomes an act of stewardship.

That, to me, is what it truly means to move beyond the budget.

Higher education must adapt. I have said that for years because adaptation is part of our responsibility. Learning has changed. Work has changed. Expectations have changed. The ways colleges plan and invest in their missions must evolve, too.

For decades, public community colleges have relied on a familiar mix of local tax revenue, state appropriations, federal aid and grants, and tuition. Those sources remain foundational to our work. As funding models become more complex, colleges must forecast carefully, demonstrate results and ensure that every resource advances the mission.

Texas offers a useful example. House Bill 8 moved community college funding forward by tying more state investment to measurable student outcomes, a shift Dallas College supports. In 2026, the verified outcomes statewide generated payments beyond available appropriations, requiring proportional adjustments. Near-final fiscal year 2027 funding runs were also prorated to remain within appropriated amounts.

The lesson is not that outcomes-based funding is flawed. It is that strong performance and evolving funding models require institutions to plan with both ambition and discipline.

At the same time, expectations around the value of higher education are becoming clearer. In 2026, Gallup found that only 38 percent of Americans had high confidence in higher education, down from 42 percent in 2025.ⁱ Yet, New America found that three in four still believe higher education offers a good return on investment.ⁱⁱ Despite these data discrepancies, learners have not stopped believing in education. They expect us to demonstrate more clearly what their investment produces. At Dallas College, we are responding by treating financial resilience as a mission capability.

That starts inside the institution. New revenue is no substitute for disciplined stewardship. We are rethinking strategic financial guidelines; drawing clearer distinctions between core and core-adjacent work; strengthening budget planning education; and asking tougher questions about what to scale, pause, or stop. Every dollar should have a job. But discipline alone will not fund the future we are building. We also need a broader portfolio of revenue.

Using Philanthropy as Innovation Capital

Dallas College Foundation, a Dallas College affiliated 501c(3), has long supported scholarships, emergency aid, and direct student needs. In recent years, we have expanded and leaned into its role as a catalyst for innovation.

The Case Management Studio is one example. Launched in partnership with the Addy, McKesson, and Harold Simmons Foundations, the Case Management Studio is a first-of-its-kind learning hub using philanthropic investment to upskill our success coaches, care navigators, and student support professionals, elevating the quality, innovation, and impact of our core student services. The Studio now serves case management professionals beyond the college, with training, credentials, and shared learning designed around a regional need. A capability built to strengthen our own work can now create broader public value.

Our Foundation is also exploring new funds that go beyond traditional philanthropy to seed innovative solutions in areas such as AI, financial literacy, and outcomes-based payments. Among the ideas being considered is a new approach to funding workforce training that would offer students 0 percent interest loans if they obtain employment after graduation. If a student does not obtain employment, no repayment would be required.

Each of these projects represent a different role for philanthropy, not only filling gaps but helping build capabilities that can scale.

Building an Engine for Mission-Aligned Revenue

By 2035, our ambition is to build a self-sustaining portfolio across capital, real estate, technology, and other mission-aligned opportunities to generate revenue we can reinvest in our mission. To do that work, Dallas College formed Dallas College Enterprise Ventures, a nonprofit corporation designed to give the institution more flexibility to pursue grants, investments, and strategic partnerships. The venture arm serves as a vehicle for incubating new ideas, testing emerging business models, and creating new revenue streams that can be reinvested in student success and workforce innovation.

One early test is our work with Axio, an education technology company developing AI-supported course modernization that Dallas College Enterprise Ventures has invested in through an innovative partnership agreement. This partnership benefits the college in two ways. First, the technology pilot itself will help faculty review curriculum, align courses with changing industry needs, and strengthen instructional strategies. We are leveraging AI to accelerate the work, but faculty remain the decision-makers. AI does not know our students—our faculty do.

Second, Dallas College stands to benefit financially from the company’s success. Instead of acting only as a customer of technology companies, Dallas College Enterprise Ventures is pursuing an accelerator model that could include equity, referral revenue, and future licensing opportunities if the product scales, with all the benefit going to support Dallas College’s mission.

That is the mindset shift: from buying innovation to helping build it. Arizona State University, for example, became OpenAI’s first higher education collaborator. When a college helps shape, test, and improve a product, can it also share responsibly in the value created?

Not every experiment will work, and not every college needs a venture arm. But every college needs a disciplined way to ask what assets it has, what problems it can solve, and where philanthropy can drive mission-aligned earned revenue.

Future-Forward Stewardship

No single initiative will solve the financial pressures facing higher education. But together, these efforts represent a new operating discipline. We must protect the public mission while diversifying the ways we fund it, inviting private and philanthropic partners into work that produces public good.

The call to action is not to chase every new revenue idea. It is to build the governance, courage, and clarity to pursue the right ones. The future of our institutions will be built by matching ambition with discipline and proving, again, that community colleges are not only essential to opportunity, but capable of funding a new era of it.

ⁱ Jones, J. M. (2026, July 13). Confidence in U.S. Higher Education Slips Back Slightly. Gallup.
ⁱⁱ Nguyen, S., Fishman, R., & Cheche, O. (2024). Varying Degrees 2024: New America’s Eighth Annual Survey on Higher Education. New America.

Community colleges have long been asked to do more with less. As demographic shifts, evolving workforce needs, and fiscal pressures reshape higher education, institutions must find innovative ways to maximize existing resources while expanding their impact. At Kirkwood Community College, a recent facilities decision demonstrates how strategic investment in existing infrastructure can strengthen community partnerships, improve service delivery, and position the college for long-term success.

In 2025, Kirkwood acquired the former Ruffalo Noel Levitz corporate headquarters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Rather than constructing a new facility, the college chose to repurpose an existing building into a centralized hub for workforce development, adult education, and continuing education. The project reflects a broader philosophy that physical infrastructure should not simply house programs—it should actively remove barriers; strengthen partnerships; and create opportunities for learners, employers, and the broader community.

The newly acquired facility brings together several of Kirkwood’s highest-impact community-facing programs, including Continuing Education, Adult Basic Education, and workforce development initiatives. More significantly, it also becomes the new home of the IowaWORKS Cedar Rapids office, serving as the region’s American Job Center. For the first time in the local area, all four core Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act programs will operate under one roof alongside Kirkwood’s educational services.

This co-location transforms what were previously separate systems into an integrated experience for students, job seekers, and employers. Rather than navigating multiple agencies and locations, individuals can now access career counseling, adult education, workforce training, employment services, and employer connections in a single destination. Whether someone is earning a high school equivalency diploma, improving English language skills, pursuing an industry credential, or seeking employment after a career transition, the pathway becomes significantly more accessible.

The decision to renovate an existing facility instead of building a new one was driven by both practicality and strategy. The building offered sufficient space, a location adjacent to Kirkwood’s main campus, and the flexibility to accommodate a diverse range of programs. Adaptive reuse also allowed the college to make a meaningful investment in the community while avoiding the higher costs and longer timelines associated with new construction.

Equally important, the project reflects a philosophy of aligning facilities planning with institutional mission. Rather than viewing buildings as isolated assets, Kirkwood evaluates how physical spaces can foster collaboration, improve operational efficiency, and better serve community needs.

This approach is especially important in workforce development, where success often depends on partnerships among educational institutions, workforce agencies, employers, and economic development organizations. Housing these services together encourages daily collaboration among staff, simplifies referrals between programs, and creates a more seamless experience for the people seeking assistance.

The scale of those services underscores the importance of thoughtful facility planning. Each year, Kirkwood’s Continuing Education division serves nearly 30,000 learners through professional development, workforce certifications, customized employer training, registered apprenticeships, and personal enrichment programming. During the same period, the Cedar Rapids American Job Center serves more than 33,000 customers seeking employment services and career support. Bringing these complementary services into one location creates opportunities that extend beyond shared office space. Staff can coordinate more effectively, employers have a single point of contact for workforce solutions, and learners benefit from clearer educational and employment pathways.

The project also positions Kirkwood to respond more effectively to changing workforce demands. As industries evolve and employers seek new skills, flexible facilities become increasingly valuable. The new workforce hub provides space that can adapt to changing training needs while supporting stronger collaboration between credit and noncredit programming, industry partners, and public workforce agencies.

Perhaps most importantly, the investment illustrates how facilities decisions can advance institutional priorities without focusing solely on physical expansion. In an era when many colleges are reassessing campus footprints and resource allocation, adaptive reuse offers a model for maximizing existing assets while increasing community impact. The success of a building should ultimately be measured not by its square footage, but by the opportunities it creates.

By transforming an existing corporate office into a collaborative workforce center, Kirkwood has created more than a new location for programs. It has developed an integrated ecosystem where education, employment, and economic development intersect. The result is a facility that not only supports today’s learners and employers but also provides the flexibility and partnerships needed to meet the workforce challenges of tomorrow.

As community colleges continue to serve as engines of regional economic development, strategic investments in physical infrastructure will remain essential. Kirkwood’s workforce hub demonstrates that, sometimes, the most effective way to build for the future is to reimagine the assets already in place.

Community colleges often measure student success through outcomes: enrollment, persistence, completion, transfer, employment, and mobility. Those measures are important, to be sure. But students do not experience college as a dashboard. They experience it as a personal human journey.

That journey begins before enrollment. It may start with a website search, a question about financial aid, or a phone call made with hope and uncertainty. From that first moment, every interaction teaches the student something about the college’s priorities and culture. Are we accessible? Are we listening? Are we organized around their success? Are we asking them to navigate our complexity?

This is the right frame for technology and digital resources. Technology is not simply an institutional asset; it is part of the student journey. Used well, it can remove barriers, improve communication, strengthen instruction, protect data, increase efficiency, and help employees serve students. Instructional technology can enrich teaching, assessment, and mastery. But technology is not the destination. It is not the guide. It is one resource we use to design a better journey.

That distinction is important because of who community colleges serve. Many students are first-generation; returning after years away; newer to our country; or balancing work, parenting, caregiving, poverty, transportation, uncertainty, anxiety, and a fragile sense of belonging. The Center for Community College Student Engagementⁱ reported that 56 percent of respondents said emotional or mental health challenges affected academic performance, with 66 percent reporting feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge. The Hope Center’sⁱⁱ 2024 Student Basic Needs Survey found that 59 percent of respondents experienced food or housing insecurity. This statistic rose to 73 percent when other basic needs, such as mental health, childcare, transportation, and internet or technology access, were also considered.

Those realities should discipline our choices. A student who is housing insecure, anxious, or unsure how to ask for help may need more than a portal, chatbot, agent, automated message, or self-service pathway. To support these students, we must provide a human who notices, listens, guides, encourages, and sometimes softly challenges. That does not make technology less important, but it does make our choices more important.

At Jackson College, we are intentional concerning our technology and human choices. For example, unlike many organizations, we chose not to force callers immediately into a frustrating digital menu system through which they must listen to prompts and guess which option fits their needs, where, by the time they reach a person, if they reach one at all, they may already feel less valued. For a prospective student, parent, adult learner, or someone returning after stopping out, that first call may be the moment they decide whether the college journey feels possible. So, at Jackson College, a human answers the call. This simple choice reflects a larger principle: The first touchpoint is not merely an operational transaction—it is the beginning of a relationship.

Technology creates tremendous return at some points in the journey: automating reminders, simplifying forms, improving scheduling, supporting online learning, protecting data, and helping faculty identify students who need support. But at other moments, the greatest impact comes from a deeply human connection: the first call, advising, academic difficulty, financial aid confusion, quiet discouragement, feeling lost or alone, and the decision to stay or leave.

We must also consider that students are not one-time transactions. Ideally, they will complete a credential, return for more education, recommend us to family, and see the college as a trusted partner throughout their lives. That means the journey we design must be about more than efficiency. It must be about trust. Do we use technology to support students, or to keep them at a distance? Do we make the path more clear, or shift the responsibility onto them like a grocery store self-checkout lane?

These questions become more urgent as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes woven into higher education. AI may help faculty design learning activities, help students practice, help employees analyze information, and help institutions see patterns earlier. We should explore these possibilities thoughtfully, but we should also be honest about the risks.

At the extreme, if AI develops instructional materials, delivers instruction, and evaluates work, and students respond with AI-generated submissions, what then remains of the educational relationship? Such a system may appear efficient and affordable. But, at some point, education risks becoming credential processing—a financial transaction for a transcript. If that is what we are building, students have every right to ask if this will reduce their tuition. That is not cynicism. It is accountability.

Education is not merely content delivery. It is formation. It develops judgment, confidence, discipline, curiosity, skill, responsibility, and purpose. Those outcomes require teachers, mentors, advisors, coaches, and peers. They require moments when someone says, “You can do this,” and other moments when someone says, “You are capable of more than this.”

Designing the student journey means deciding where technology should lead, where it should support, and where it should step aside. It means using digital resources to make the college easier to navigate while preserving the human relationships that make the institution worth navigating. Technology should help us see students more clearly, reach them more quickly, teach them more effectively, and support them more personally. If it does that, it is an essential resource. If it does not, we should have the courage to choose differently.

Ultimately, the human must remain at the center of the student journey. That is not resistance to innovation. It is the reason innovation matters.

¹ Center for Community College Student Engagement. (2023). Supporting Minds, Supporting Learners: Addressing Student Mental Health to Advance Academic Success.
² The Hope Center for Student Basic Needs. (2024). Student Basic Needs Survey Report.

In 2025, Moraine Valley Community College released a five-year strategic plan outlining five priorities to guide the college’s efforts: student success, program development, community engagement, resource advancement, and technology. As the finishing touches were made on the plan, the college’s expanded Project Care Food Pantry opened. This project exemplifies Moraine Valley’s strategy for developing essential resources to support students and fulfill its priorities. It is rare for a single campus initiative to support all of the college’s strategic priorities so clearly, but in meeting students’ basic needs, the Project Care Food Pantry does just that.

The Need

Moraine Valley serves 26 communities through over 140 degree and certificate programs. With an enrollment of more than 11,000, the college’s student body represents a wide variety of backgrounds and ages. While the college opened a food pantry through its Project Care initiative in 2015, the growing importance of addressing students’ mental health and overall well-being, combined with a timely grant from Northwestern Medicine in 2021, led to the pantry’s expansion to the Counseling and Career Development Center in 2024.

Data show that food insecurity is a growing concern for students. Since the food pantry’s expansion, Moraine Valley has experienced a 4 percent increase in unique students supported and a 27 percent increase in the number of visits, with 89 percent of survey respondents saying they could create a healthy meal from items received.

Student Success

The Illinois Community College Board cites that, “according to recent studies, as many as 39% of community college students nationally face food insecurity.”ⁱ At the same time, the Center for Higher Education Policy and Practice shares that “students facing food insecurity, in particular, experience higher academic stress, lower credit accumulation, and increased likelihood of stopping out.”ⁱⁱ  While the community college may aid in closing the affordability gap in terms of tuition, it falls short if it stops there. Indeed, addressing food insecurity on the community college campus may directly correlate with increased student success.

Moraine Valley takes a holistic approach to supporting students’ success. Students must visit with a college counselor to use the pantry. This practice allows the counselor to identify other needs the student may have—including academic help—and provide resources to assist the student, which, in turn, aids in the student’s overall success.

Program Development

Moraine Valley’s priority to foster program development has a special focus on expanding programs and services for nontraditional students. The Lumina Foundation shares that food insecurity rates for underrepresented students range from 33 percent to 51 percent.ⁱⁱⁱ The Project Care Food Pantry provides services to meet the needs that as many as half of nontraditional student populations have. Innovation is more than cutting-edge technology and boundary-pushing programming; sometimes, it is finding new ways to meet students’ needs by expanding services that already exist.

Community Engagement

The Project Care Food Pantry was established through Community Benefit Grants from Northwestern Medicine totaling $70,000. Every three years, hospitals in the Northwestern Medicine health care system conduct a community needs assessment. One of the needs identified in Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital’s 2022 report was food access to combat food insecurity. Moraine Valley’s food pantry expansion aligned with the hospital’s goals.

Partnering with Northwestern Medicine opened the door to meeting the needs of the students and community members facing food insecurity. Students are welcome to take what they need from a full-service food pantry stocked with refrigerated and frozen options. By providing a wide range of options, the pantry serves individual students as well as those who may have other mouths to feed.

Resource Advancement

Receiving Northwestern Medicine’s Community Benefit Grants provided the opportunity for Moraine Valley to deepen its existing partnership with the health care provider. Northwestern Medicine has long been a clinical partner for health care students and has provided opportunities to local high school students through the college’s Health Careers Boot Camp. In fact, Northwestern Medicine saw its existing partnership with Moraine Valley and encouraged the college to apply for a Community Benefit Grant to fund its food pantry expansion. This is a testament to the power of partnerships to advance shared goals to serve the community.

Meeting Students’ Needs

Aside from the Project Care Food Pantry’s placement in proximity to college counselors, perhaps the most impactful part of the expansion is the addition of freezers, refrigerators, and storage to meet the varied needs of our students that often extend outside campus spaces. Additionally, the expansion of facilities and storage types provides a range of fresh and healthy food options that meet the nutritional needs of students beyond the scope of traditional nonperishable pantries.

Moraine Valley is committed to providing students with the resources they need to be successful. The college understands that students cannot accomplish their educational goals if they face challenges in meeting their basic needs. For an institution with competing priorities, the expansion of the Project Care Food Pantry is a reminder that when we focus on meeting the needs of students, every other priority falls into place.

ⁱ Illinois Community College Board. (2025, October 8). Illinois Community Colleges Launch Second Annual Feed The Need Campus Food Drive, para. 7.
ⁱⁱ Center for Higher Education Policy and Practice. (2026, February). Basic Needs Gaps Increase the Risk of College Stop Outs, p. 1.
ⁱⁱⁱ Afyouni, A. (2023, November 20). Food Insecurity and Higher Education: A Review of Literature and Resources. Lumina Foundation, p. 1.

A community college’s employees are its greatest resource. We invest significant effort into recruiting talented faculty and staff because we know our mission depends on the people who carry it forward each day. Yet once a new employee accepts an offer, many institutions continue to rely on a familiar model: a day of orientation followed by the expectation that employees will simply find their way through a complex organization.

At Rogue Community College (RCC), onboarding had been an area of continuous improvement for many years. We regularly refined our new employee orientation—updating content, improving resources, and looking for better ways to support new employees. But broader institutional conversations about employee engagement and organizational culture challenged us to think beyond improving orientation.

When we reviewed our employee engagement survey results and open-ended feedback, a common thread emerged. The survey identified strengths to build upon and opportunities to address, but it also revealed something deeper: an opportunity to strengthen employees’ sense of connection to one another, to the institution, and to our mission. That insight became a strategic priority: employee connectedness.

As a multi-campus community college serving approximately 10,000 students each year, connection doesn’t happen by accident. Our three campuses span two counties, and many employees have limited opportunities to interact with colleagues outside of their own department or location. Creating connection would require intentional effort, not just proximity.

We realized that achieving our strategic priority of employee connectedness required onboarding to accomplish far more than transferring information. It needed to help employees understand our culture, develop meaningful relationships, and see how their individual roles contribute to the college’s mission. That philosophy became the foundation for Welcome to Rogue, a yearlong onboarding journey designed to build connection and belonging over time.

Rather than concentrating onboarding into a single event, Welcome to Rogue consists of 12 monthly sessions. Participants explore RCC’s mission and strategic priorities; hear from executive team members and other college leaders; tour campuses; discover resources; learn about student support services; and get to know colleagues from across the institution through interactive experiences that encourage conversation, curiosity, and connection.

The format allows information to be introduced when it is most relevant while giving relationships time to develop naturally. Human Resources (HR) coordinates the program, but its success depends on participation from leaders and subject matter experts across the college, reinforcing the practice that creating an exceptional employee experience is a shared responsibility. We’ve also welcomed long-term employees into sessions, enriching discussions while reinforcing institutional knowledge across the college.

One of the most valuable benefits has been helping employees build relationships beyond their immediate work unit. Community colleges are highly collaborative organizations, yet many employees spend most of their time interacting with only a small circle of colleagues. Welcome to Rogue creates intentional opportunities for employees from different campuses, departments, and employee groups to connect early, making it easier to ask questions, solve problems collaboratively, and build trust across the institution.

Just as importantly, new employees don’t join a department in isolation—they join a college. They experience one institution with interconnected systems, processes, and people. Welcome to Rogue helps employees understand how those pieces fit together while building relationships with the people behind the processes. That broader perspective enables employees to navigate the institution with greater confidence; collaborate across traditional boundaries; and ultimately, create a more seamless experience for students.

We’ve discovered that simplicity can be surprisingly powerful. Welcome to Rogue wasn’t built through significant new investments or complex infrastructure. Instead, it creates intentional opportunities for employees to connect, learn, and better understand the institution. Its success is rooted in clarity of purpose, intentional design, and shared commitment.

Although the program continues to evolve, early results have been encouraging. Since launching Welcome to Rogue in 2023, retention has been 88 percent among employees who attended at least half of the sessions, compared with 75 percent among those who did not participate. Participants consistently identify opportunities to build relationships across departments and with college leaders as one of the program’s most valuable aspects. Ninety-two percent reported interacting with an executive leader through the program, and 39 percent said they developed a valuable connection with one.

Higher education continues to face significant workforce challenges, and no single initiative will solve recruitment or retention. Research from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resourcesⁱ suggests that employees’ sense of belonging, feeling valued, and confidence in leadership are among the strongest drivers of retention.

Our experience has taught us that onboarding is most effective when it reflects the people who make up the institution. HR can coordinate the experience, but it is faculty, staff, and leaders from across the college who bring its culture, mission, and values to life.

Welcome to Rogue reflects our belief that investing in people is one of the most important ways we strengthen institutional capacity. By helping employees build relationships, understand our culture, and connect their work to student success, onboarding becomes more than an HR process. It becomes a strategic investment in both individual and institutional success.

ⁱ Schneider, J., & Bichsel, J. (2025). The CUPA-HR 2025 Higher Education Employee Retention Survey. College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.