Sinclair Community College Uses SAS® for Strategic Decision Making

Business Intelligence Competency Center supports recruiting, retention and graduation efforts

NASHVILLE, TN   (Nov. 12, 2007)  –  Sinclair Community College in Dayton, OH, has historically enjoyed one of the highest penetration rates among Ohio community colleges. But in recent years, with Dayton’s population declining and with growing federal and local pressures related to accountability, Sinclair needed to enhance its enrollment management strategy. Sinclair leaders recognized they were not maximizing their data assets and developed a vision to improve that situation.  

First, school officials used SAS to identify different segments of their most promising enrollees. As a result, the school saw its first fall term increase in four years. "We want to ensure from a technological standpoint that we supply our admissions area with every bit of information they need to segment the different groups within our service district. That allows them to target their admissions to those specific groups in differing ways, said Dr. Ken Moore, Senior Vice President of Information Technology at Sinclair.

One of the top-12 two-year institutions in North America, Sinclair Community College has an enrollment of approximately 23,000 students. Nearly half of them are low-income workers with full-time jobs, and more than half need remedial help, so it is a challenge to improve retention and graduation rates. To support the school’s enrollment management strategy, Sinclair merged its institutional planning and analytics and reporting teams into a Business Intelligence Competency Center, a single source of decision-support information.  

Sinclair chose SAS for this enterprisewide initiative that analyzes data gathered by the college’s ERP system from more than 75 departments. More than 100 reports are now available, with hundreds of users tapping daily into the system. Faculty members, department chairs and administrators can view a report, drive intelligence and take action based on the information. Sinclair was able to mine 10 years’ worth of student data, including more than 200 specific student attributes, and divide students into population clusters. 

In recognition of the school’s innovative use of BI and predictive analytics, it was announced today that Sinclair is a winner of an InfoWorld 100 award. The awards honor the top 100 IT projects of the year as determined by InfoWorld magazine. Sinclair has a long list of future projects using SAS in mind. In particular, Dr. Moore feels that predictive analytics will take the college to the next level. “I don’t think there is any end to what you can achieve with SAS,’’ Moore said. 

With more than 2,000 college, university and business-school customers in 109 countries and education specialists on every continent, SAS serves the education industry by delivering software solutions, strategic services and academic programs that spark innovation and expand educational opportunities. 

The announcement was made today at the 2007 Conference on Information Technology. 

About Sinclair Community College

With an enrollment of approximately 23,000 students, the single-campus college in downtown Dayton, OH, is among the largest community college campuses in America. The remarkable faculty, staff and students exhibit quality as evidenced by frequent national and state awards. Sinclair is also a member of the board of the League for Innovation in the Community College.

About SAS

Back to Recent SAS Press Releases

Copyright © SAS Institute Inc. All Rights Reserved.