Through its National Initiative for Leadership and Institutional Effectiveness (NILIE), the Belk Center works with institutions, primarily community colleges, to administer campus climate assessments for the purpose of enhancing institutional effectiveness and student success. NILIE utilizes the PACE: Community College Climate Survey instrument to gather employee perspectives on campus climate and provides institutional leaders with critical information for strategic decision making. In addition, the Home State Initiative (HSIn) is an innovative, collaborative program that bridges NILIE’s mission to support community colleges with NC State’s land grant mission to serve the state of North Carolina. Through HSIn, NILIE provides free data collection, analysis and reporting services to a select set of community colleges in rural areas of North Carolina facing declining enrollment, unsatisfactory student outcomes, and/or challenges with employee recruitment and retention, among other issues.

Reinforced Instruction for Student Excellence (RISE)
We are currently working on an evaluation of the RISE, the co-requisite developmental remediation model in North Carolina. During the Spring 2019 semester, the first group of community colleges piloted the new model. Our evaluation work will focus both on the implementation and student outcomes. Current Reports:

• 2018 Mid-year Report
• Spring 2019 Student Report
• Spring 2019 Faculty Report
• RISE Spring 2019 Evaluation Overview

Finish Line Grants
We are currently working the North Carolina Governor’s Office to gather feedback on the initial implementation of the Finish Line Grants program. The program is designed to provide emergency aid to community college students facing financial challenges.

Transfer of students from community colleges to four-year institutions, including the UNC System, is a priority for North Carolina. Our research is focused on how policies and practices within the state help to facilitate successful transfer and degree attainment. We have previously worked with the Transfer Advisory Committee to provide an overview of transfer graduation rates by student demographics and credits earned.

In collaboration with Achieving the Dream (ATD), the Belk Center supports institutional teaching and learning initiatives that further develop faculty-led inclusive instructional practices, supporting community college students as engaged learners. With attention on transforming partner institutions the Center’s work with Teaching and Learning initiatives contributes to creating an atmosphere of inquiry, reflective practices, and continuous improvement across the state of North Carolina.

We welcome researchers to request our existing data to collaborate with us or use for a dissertation. In order to request data please review and follow the process outlined in the Belk Center Data Use Request.