Client Snapshot: John Cosgrove, St. Louis Community College
John Cosgrove
Director of Institutional Research and Planning
St. Louis Community College
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis Community College has used a customized, information-driven report produced by EMSI as a pivotal piece for its strategic planning process and new enrollment management initiative. The “Regional Scan and Program Demand” report condensed essential economic intelligence and projections for the St. Louis area, helping STLCC better understand what direction it needed to take. John Cosgrove, director of institutional research, planning and assessment at STLCC, and his colleagues used the information along with their Higher Learning Commission (HLC) self-study process to identify three primary directions for its strategic plan—increasing enrollment, improving students’ academic success, and improving the college’s responsiveness to evolving workforce needs. The college received a full 10-year accreditation finding from HLC and the visiting team made special note of the excellent environmental scanning information provided through EMSI. “The EMSI report and analysis provided wonderful external information which allowed us to identify gaps in how we are responding to regional educational and workforce needs,” Cosgrove says. STLCC is currently using EMSI’s report and its own findings to develop more short-term certificate programs and curriculum strategies, as well as respond to areas currently underserved.
