Diversity and Inclusion Master Plan

CSTEP as a pipeline feeder The CSTEP program has played an important and major role in feeding URM and economically disadvantaged students to the professional OD program. In the past three years, the College has taken important steps to improve the CSTEP program, expanding its offerings and improving programmatic quality with positive and encouraging results. As seen in Figure 7, 15 students who completed the CSTEP program in 2016 applied to SUNY Optometry’s professional OD program, which represents a 25% increase from the year before, and 8 students enrolled, a 100% increase from the year before and the highest number of enrollees in the past 5 years.

Students who Completed CSTEP Program: Applicants, Acceptances and Enrollment to OD Program

10 12 14 16

Applicants

Acceptances

0 2 4 6 8

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12

Enrolled

Number

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3

2012

2013

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Entering Year

Figure 7. Students who Completed CSTEP Program: Applicants, Acceptances and Enrollment

The Director of the CSTEP program works hand in hand with the Admissions and Recruitment team to attract and better prepare students to the competitive admissions process into optometry school.

Admissions and Recruitment Team The Admissions team at the College is comprised of the VP for Student Affairs, the Associate Director of Admissions, and the Admissions Assistant. This small but highly motivated team is responsible for implementing a comprehensive marketing and recruitment plan to meet the College’s Strategic Goal IX : “enroll a highly qualified and diverse student body.” To that end, the admissions team uses market intelligence (i.e, top feeder schools by state by applications and yield), to direct its recruitment efforts. The topic of diversity in the student body drives recruitment-related decisions, with the team purposefully targeting schools with high URM populations, such as City College, SUNY Albany, Old Westbury, and schools that host CSTEP programs.

The office of Admissions is also responsible for creating and deploying recruitment and marketing initiatives that foster diversity. Examples of such initiatives are presented below:

IDEA Initiative

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