Nearly half of Central Oregon Community College’s new students this fall benefited from Oregon Promise, a new state grant meant to cover tuition at the state’s community colleges.

About 500 of the 1,075 new students enrolled at COCC for fall have received Oregon Promise aid, according to numbers from the community college. But COCC still can’t tell whether it gained some more local students as a result of Oregon Promise who otherwise wouldn’t have chosen the community college after their high school graduation.

To qualify for the grant, students must have graduated from an Oregon high school in the spring or summer with at least a 2.5 cumulative GPA, or have completed their GED this year. They also must have been an Oregon resident for at least a year before enrolling in an Oregon community college within six months of graduating or completing their GED. Once accepted to a community college, they must enroll in at least six credits, or half time, and accept all other financial aid offered to them. Applications were due March 1.

Of approximately 500 students who received Oregon Promise money at COCC, slightly less than 70 percent came from in-district, which includes Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties, as well as portions of Wasco, Klamath and Lake counties according to Kevin Multop, director of financial aid at COCC.

Alicia Moore, COCC’s dean of student and enrollment services, said COCC is still working to find out how many of the Oregon Promise students are recent grads.

“Anecdotally, we know the majority are direct from high school,” she said. The community college hasn’t yet finished gathering the data to show whether students came to COCC because of Oregon Promise.

“That’s the mystery, is how many of these students would have already come,” Multop said.

Multop also found that of those 500 students, the great majority, 81 percent, enrolled full time for the fall semester. By comparison, last year only about 35 percent of all students were enrolled full time in the fall term. That’s in part because COCC, like many community colleges, has a large subset of nontraditional students — ones who didn’t just graduate from high school the previous spring.

Last session, the Oregon Legislature approved $10 million for the first year of Oregon Promise. The state took an average of the tuitions of all community colleges across Oregon to come up with the maximum amount, $1,083, that is offered to Oregon Promise students. If students choose a community college with a tuition above that average, they have to pay the difference. If the school’s tuition is less than the state average, as Central Oregon Community College’s is, they get that tuition amount.

For full-time Oregon Promise students at COCC, that’s $1,066 for the fall quarter. Oregon Promise money doesn’t cover fees or books — at COCC student fees are $93 per quarter. Oregon Promise money is also “the last dollar in,” according to Multop. In other words, if a student receives other state or federal grants, that money goes toward his or her tuition first before he or she gets anything from Oregon Promise.

At COCC, 43.7 percent of Oregon Promise students received a federal Pell Grant, meaning that money was put toward their tuition before Oregon Promise money was.

The Legislature has not yet decided whether Oregon Promise will be rolled out again in the 2017-18 school year, but COCC staffers say so far, there’s no sign that the Legislature won’t renew it. Until then, students and staffers there are preparing as if Oregon Promise will be available again.

Per the Legislature, Oregon community colleges had to create some requirements for students who receive the Oregon Promise grant — a “sort of success component,” as Moore put it.

COCC has three such requirements, if students who received Oregon Promise in the 2016-17 school year want to receive the state money again for 2017-18.

Those students must:

• Participate in academic advising (a requirement of all new students)

• Attend Bobcat orientation, the school’s new student orientation

• Enroll in and complete a college success class — with a focus on study habits, for example — that counts for three credits.

Moore explained those three requirements are “proven practices” that promote student success. In studies, those practices have been shown to help students academically with their GPAs.

Of the approximately 500 Oregon Promise students at COCC, 398 participated in Bobcat orientation. Moore said the community college reached out extensively to the Promise students to remind them of the requirements they must meet to get the state grant again next year. She thinks some students didn’t go to the new student orientation because they know they won’t be applying for the grants again next year.

“We know some students are saying, ‘Gosh, I really only want to be here one year,’” she said.

Oregon Promise students at COCC are also supposed to participate in student success coaching. For example, in the second week of school, Moore said, the coaches checked in with students to make sure they had their books and knew their teachers’ office hours.

The Legislature allocated just under $83,000 to COCC to help provide the coaching; Moore said the community college bumped up a couple of staffers from part time to full time to help the 500 Oregon Promise students.

— Reporter: 541-383-0325, kfisicaro@bendbulletin.com