Program Winners - Freshman Year Advising

Certainly, common reading programs are not unique. Increasingly, institutions are incorporating a common reading assignment into the first-year experience. Likewise, since 2004, first-year students at Le Moyne have been asked to share a reading experience as they begin their fall semester to introduce them to the rigors of intellectual life. This program has been instituted through our Academic Advisement Center, in collaboration with the College’s Academic Advisement Committee and Office of Student Development.

Little research exists, however, on the positive outcomes of these programs – that is, their impact on early, powerful connections with the institution and on the nurturing of critical thinking skills through dialogue around a common theme. Because we have been skeptical of the impact felt through traditional common reading programs, Le Moyne’s has a decidedly different cast. Its common reading has become fully interactive in order to “meet millennial students where they are” – early, quickly and often – and provides a continuum of activities through the fall. The model begins by (literally) embedding the common reading assignment in the summer into a social network site created exclusively for the incoming class (and their first-year advisors). Built around this highly relatable structure and myriad other components (social, academic, on-line, co-curricular, and classroom), the program offers a connective thread of activities that offers repeated opportunities to make contact, and to question and analyze issues with peers, faculty and advisors. Through this model, Le Moyne’s program reveals not only students’ perceptions about the common reading but also critical insights into their shared anticipation, fears, and hopes about college itself. It is a connection, too, with advisors that begins well before the first semester.

Freshman Academic Advising Program

Sacred Heart University

In the fall of 2004, Sacred Heart University inaugurated a new Freshman Academic Advising Program. In response to administrative decisions that discontinued our Freshman Seminar Program and introduced a new freshman support office within Student Life, an innovative approach to Freshman Academic Advising emerged. By redirecting some human and financial resources and by making creative use of some experienced Freshman Advisors, we were able to retain the positive qualities of our former system while introducing a needed academic edge to our advising. It became an opportunity for positive change. Our new Program places selected full-time faculty in dual roles: professor in a first-semester freshman academic course and Freshman Academic Advisor to those same freshmen. These advising courses, capped at 20 students per section, facilitate regular interaction between advisor and student, stress the primacy of academics at the University, and place additional full-time faculty in our freshman-level courses. After four years, the Program continues to offer our freshmen a connection with a caring and supportive person, but now that person is directly involved in the core mission of the University—teaching, learning, growth.

The results have been encouraging, and we continue to refine our efforts each year. Faculty and students have given the new program consistently positive evaluations, and we anticipate even wider faculty participation in Freshman Academic Advising in future semesters. In a few short years, we have become a central component in our University-wide plan for student support and progress

Academic Planning & Support Services: A Model for Freshman Academic Success

Saint Edward's University

The Academic Planning and Support Services (APSS) center was created to centralize services and programs for students, which in turn would increase retention and enrollment. Academic counselors are assigned cohorts of freshman students (now 70 to 80 students) to help them explore their interests and goals and to provide holistic counseling in their first year of academic advisement.

Since 1998, programs and services have been added or improved that have led to increased success and retention rates of students. These include the following:

Academic success and retention rates of new students have improved. Second year retention rates have increased from 71.5% in 1998 to 84.4% in 2005. Feedback from the Noel-Levitz satisfaction inventory now shows some of the highest ratings of student satisfaction are with academic advising.

Freshman Advising Program (www2.utah.edu/uaac/phpweb/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=11)

University of Utah

Directed by: Martine Stewart and Patricia Reilly (image)

Nominated by: Sharon Aiken-Wisniewski

In 1999, the University of Utah implemented a unique campus-wide Freshman Advising Program. Rather than a mandatory advising program, we developed the incentive of priority registration to encourage students to seek advising. New freshmen that meet with an advisor during October receive priority registration for 1000 and 2000 level courses for spring semester. This incentive, along with a comprehensive outreach campaign to our 2500 new freshmen that includes letters, emails, phone calls, banners, flyers and classroom presentations, has led to 64% of new freshmen being advised before spring registration begins.

This advising program has helped our freshmen make a connection with an academic advisor early in their undergraduate career. We have also found that the students who meet with an advisor during their first semester have higher GPAs, rates of retention, and graduation rates compared to students who do not meet with an advisor.

Working Together for Student Success: Integrating Academic and Career Planning

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Directed and nominated by: Cathy Buyarski / (image)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) is an urban commuter campus serving over 28,000 students. IUPUI is very unique in that it offers degrees from two different universities on one campus. Further, students can earn degrees in over 180 areas of study at levels ranging from certificate programs to doctoral and professional degrees. University College serves as the academic home for all new IUPUI students and provides support until the student completes the requirements to transfer to a degree-granting school.

As part of its mission to promote student success, retention, and graduation, University College has always acknowledged and addressed the holistic nature of the student experience. The program addresses the symbiotic connections between a student's life, career, and educational choices. Through both direct programs/services for students and intensive training for advisors, we work to assist students in developing a comprehensive plan that meets their academic and career goals. Programs/services for students include major/career connections information sheets, a first-year seminar course for exploratory students, and a career development textbook. Intensive training efforts include cross-training for academic advisors and career counselors, a career resource binder for academic advisors, and a campus-wide conference on integrating career and academic planning.

First-Year Student Success Program (www.coastal.edu/advising)

Student Academic Support Services, Coastal Carolina University

Directed and nominated by: Linda Hollandsworth

Academic advising campus-wide has been aided through the First-Year Student Success Program, which began in 1996. By linking academic advising to enrollment in first-year success seminars and by having both faculty and peer mentors who are trained in advising, the program has achieved significant levels of success in the retention of our first-year students. Prior to the program, undeclared students had no formally trained advisors. Since the initiation of the student success program for undeclared students, retention has risen from 54.1% to 68.8%, an overall percentage increase of 27.1%. Retention for students in CCU's University Success Program, a provisional admissions program, has also risen from 59.5% to 75.2%, an overall percentage increase of 26.4%. Not only have there been drastic increases in student retention rates, but the program has also allowed us to meet our retention goals ahead of schedule. Our most important goal in the program was to pair students with caring, devoted, and trained academic advisors. Because of this effort, the university has seen a surge campus-wide of faculty who are interested in academic advising.

SUNY Oswego

Directed by: Michelle Bandla

Nominated by: Rhonda Mandel

The First Year Advisement Program at the State University of New York at Oswego is an innovative program that includes a faculty-peer advisement team, early advisor assignment and notification, intensive advisor and peer advisor training, and both formative and summative assessment. The program was designed as a campus wide initiative to improve retention and student satisfaction. The Task Force on Advisement, with constituencies from across the campus, developed a mission, a set of goals and a set of guiding principles upon which to build the program. An implementation team then was put into place to enact the plan. In the program, each first year student is assigned to a faculty-peer advisor team and notified by both members of that team during the summer prior to their attendance. Each advisor meets with each student at least five times during the year. Peer advisors also meet with students and plan activities and workshops for their students. The College Student Inventory is used to help advisors relate to their students from a developmental aspect.

Both faculty and peers receive training in campus resources, student development issues, student success factors, and principles of best practice. Peers take a one-credit course designed specifically to assist them in their responsibilities in the quarter prior to their advisement duties. Faculty and peers also meet together to refine the faculty-peer relationships and to define responsibilities and expectations.

Assessment of the program indicates that faculty, staff, peers, and students are highly satisfied with the program. In addition, first year retention has increased approximately 9% in the first two years of the program.

Howard Community College

Directed by: Barbara Greenfeld

Nominated by: Mary Johnson & Jeanette Kissel

The Freshman Focus Program at Howard Community College (HCC) was developed by the Office of Admissions and Advising in the early 1990's. The college was interested in increasing its market share of graduating high school seniors while at the same time effectively utilizing college resources and providing students with high quality services.

Freshman Focus is the "anchor" program for graduating high school seniors who are beginning their freshman year at Howard Community College. The program serves approximately two thirds of the freshman class. Freshman Focus is designed to allow high school seniors to get tested, advised and registered before any other incoming group of students. Freshman Focus also gives students clear steps to follow and a time line in which to do them. These steps help to organize the process. The Freshman Focus Program is a comprehensive program that incorporates career counseling, individualized advising services and financial aid in its multi-step process.

There were many considerations in implementing the Freshman Focus Program. These included name recognition, quality publications and a perceived benefit in participating in the program understood by students, parents and guidance counselors. This is a year-long process beginning with outreach and cumulating with enrollment.

Freshman Focus has had great impact on incoming students at Howard Community College . Students who participate in the program are well prepared for their first semester and for college. Because the program brings students on campus multiple times they become familiar with college resources, staff and, perhaps, most importantly with their fellow students.

FACT FORUM
University of Miami
Directed and nominated by: Victoria Noriega

At the University Miami, as in most higher education institutions, faculty are encouraged to and do provide the majority of advising. Advising problems delineated throughout the literature and by the Boyer Commission (1998) are prevalent at, but not limited to UM. In response, the Department of Psychology instituted the Freshman Advising Contact Term, and Freshman Overview of Research and Undergraduate Mentoring program (FACT FORUM) in Fall 1999. This innovative, intensive, two-semester orientation, advising, and mentoring program addresses many of the problems associated with advising. It is designed to give students the opportunity to put their education in context, become informed consumers of their college education, understand and navigate the university system, become part of the psychology community, and make adequate preparations for graduation and future careers. It is learner-focused and encourages students to take responsibility for their curriculum and career decisions. Small group sessions help us identify, help, and direct needy students or superior students, and encourage all students to succeed. The program maximizes faculty strengths, minimizes weaknesses, and provides students and faculty with meaningful time together. In the three years since the implementation of the program, the percentage of freshmen receiving GPAs below 2.0 has gone from 14% to 0%. Retention levels have climbed 8 percent, and the number of majors in the department has increased by approximately 30%. Although the program is directed to the Freshmen class, students appear to continue to experience benefits from the program throughout their undergraduate years, as they become involved in research, service, and honors programs.

Residential Learning Communities
University of Nebraska
Directed and nominated by: Donald Gregory

In 1995, the Division of General Studies (DGS) implemented a residential learning community for a small number (68) of its students. This experiment resulted in satisfaction from the students and a higher rate of retention for DGS students from freshman to sophomore year.

In 1998, DGS assumed the leadership role in expanding this program with additional communities, based on the DGS model. DGS recruited new communities and provided, with Housing, the logistical support as the program expanded (to 14 communities [550 students] planned for AY 2002-2003).

DGS support includes recruiting colleges and departments, determining co-enrolled courses, reserving course spaces, enrolling leaning community students and tracking them through summer enrollment, and also working with Housing on special events/Res-Ed programs.

In 1998 DGS provided all the above support, plus a Coordinator (a DGS adviser) for NU Start, a three-week, summer residential learning community for freshmen before the fall semester. This community demands more resources: a GA assistant-coordinator, eight undergraduate program assistants, instructors for five sections of a literature course, and one computer-delivered library course. NU Start is expensive and labor-intensive–and students love it.

DGS continues its very successful role as one of the largest UNL advising centers and has benefited from its considerable efforts with learning communities. The University has also received national recognition for its undergraduate programs (especially the learning communities) and the learning community students themselves have expressed their pleasure with the program, both with comments and an increased retention rate—6% higher than that of the general student population.

Haughey First Year Student Advising
Bridgewater State College
Directed and Nominated by: Peggy J. Smith

The Academic Achievement Center at Bridgewater State College has implemented an advising program designed to teach first year students skills and knowledge that support successful self-management and academic decision-making. Created through the collaborative effort of faculty and staff, this centralized approach to advising includes a structure of mandatory group and individual-advising components ensuring that all first year students are introduced a common core of knowledge and skills. Better informed students are seeking more academic assistance and achieving good academic standing in significantly greater numbers.

The Haughey First Year Advising services are provided by faculty advisors, professional staff of the Achievement Center, graduate assistants, and undergraduate peer advisors working in concert to help beginning students experience a successful and satisfying first year. The collaborative nature of the program supports professional growth for all personnel as they gain increased understanding of the challenges faced by new students, enhanced knowledge of institutional policies and procedures, and greater skill in guiding and supporting the growth of students.

Student Academic Support Programs
University of North Carolina at Willmington
Nominated by Yousry A. Sayed

Contact: Kathie Jorgensen

Through a multifaceted and integrated approach to advising and student support, UNC Wilmington's Student Academic Support Programs increased freshman-to-sophomore retention rate in one year by two percent while coping with a sixteen percent increase in the number of entering freshmen and a category three hurricane in September. This office provides efficient and cost-effective support, connection, and intervention for our 2700 freshmen and undeclared students. Services are offered through the Center for Academic Advising (CAA), the Learning Center, Math Lab, Writing/Reading Place, Minority Student Achievement Programs, Athletic Academic Support Program, UNI 101: The Freshman Seminar, and the Summer Bridge. Proactive advising, academic monitoring and active intervention are managed by 50 professional and faculty advisors; free tutoring, supplemental instruction, and skills training are offered in numbers of convenient and accessible venues; and transition programs including Freshman Seminar and Summer Bridge are available. Exciting and innovative cooperative programs between this office and Admissions, Residence Life, and Career Services increase effectiveness. Plans for the future include a pilot peer advising program as well as a comprehensive adult learner program. As a long-range goal we are moving to a model whereby all freshmen will be advised by professional advisors with trained and compensated faculty advisors serving as resource persons. Our advising model is easily adapted by any mid-sized comprehensive university faculty and professional advisors.

Advising for First-Year Students
Saint Francis College
Submitted by: Mary Ann Dillon

Contact: Renee Bernard

The Academic Advising Program for first-year students at Saint Francis College is a key component of a complete revision of the General Education Program inaugurated in 1994. Coordinated by the Associate Dean for General Education, advising is carried out by fifty-six volunteers of the General Faculty. The advising program adds to the collaborative spirit of the General Education Program.

Both first-year students and faculty advisors keep a year-long focus on General Education goals. By being paired with advisors who are not necessarily in their field of major interest, first-year students are exposed to a wide variety of College professionals. Advisors must necessarily become broadly familiar with the curriculum and with the College's co-curricular resources. The first-year student advisor models for students the ways in which an educated person goes about seeking information, conferring with others, following leads, making decisions, and so on. Advisors attend to the students' developmental, as well as academic needs. An unanticipated benefit from the first-year advising program has been increased contact throughout the community of colleagues who otherwise would not have much occasion to see or talk with one another.

Advising first-year students is considered a desirable professional experience. We know we are accomplishing our goal of making advising of first-year students a College-wide priority! Any institution that can tie advising into the heart of the curriculum and establish a network of internal collaborative relationships can benefit from our model.

"First Year" Program
East Tennessee State University
Submitted by: Carla E. Warner

At East Tennessee State University, the divisions of Academic and Student Affairs have adapted the learning community concept to create the "First Year" program with the nontraditional student in mind.

The "First Year" program addresses the situations of many adult undergraduates by providing a carefully organized beginning to college study with a blocked schedule of classes, heavy support services, and specialized developmental advisement. It conserves the limited time of adult students and strengthens their involvement by organizing them into two flexible cohorts (formal, organized groups that progress through the curriculum generally together). One day and one evening cohort have been developed offering students a compact, blocked schedule.

Academic Advisement Center
Saint Joseph College
Submitted by: Maureen M. Reardon

Contact: Cheryl Brown

The Academic Advisement Center was established at Saint Joseph College with the goal of providing more efficient and consistent service, which in turn would increase retention and enrollment. All freshmen and first semester sophomores are in the Center which provides the opportunity for them to explore interests and goals in relation to their potential, prior to the selection of and subsequent advisement in a major discipline.

The Center has developed a host of new programs and launched new initiatives built upon the original concept of individualized developmental academic advisement. On-going evaluation of each program, publication, and workshop leads to continual enhancement of services in order to strengthen and streamline the delivery of developmental advisement.

University College: A Model Program for Freshman Academic Success

University of Oklahoma
Nominated by: Myrna Carney

Since 1990, University College has been focused on returning to its original 1942 mission of providing quality advising and services for new students at the University of Oklahoma. Before 1990, University College's main focus was academic advising with little attention paid to providing other strategies that would enhance student academic performance and retention.

Since 1990, programs and services have been added or improved that have led to increased academic success and retention rates of students. These include the following:

Programs designed for at-risk students
Academic contracts for at-risk and probation students
Improved advance enrollment and orientation programs
Freshmen orientation classes and seminars
Entry-level assessment programs leading to better course placement
Student and parent publications
Staff involvement in national, state, and local professional organizations
Programs to assist students in academic skills development
Strategies to evaluate advising and programs
Feedback to high schools and colleges
Involvement of parents

Academic success and retention rates of new students have improved. In 1994, 14 percent of the new freshmen made below 2.0 their first semester compared to 31 percent of the 1988 new freshmen. Second year retention rates have increased from 75 percent in 1989 to 78 percent in 1993. University College receives some of the highest ratings of student satisfaction with academic advising on campus. Entry level assessment has led to better course placement and improved academic success of new students, particularly in mathematics.

An Individual Service Approach to Advising...The Freshman Year
Mercer University
Nominated by: Maureen Biggers and Kelly Kunich

In 1992, Mercer University established a unique approach to advising their freshman student body that enables them to provide individual developmental advising attention to each of the approximately 550 enrolled freshmen. Spearheaded by the Freshman Year Experience Office, the approach begins with a complex process that provides the following features for each new first year student: 1) private summer advising for first quarter course selection, using Admissions Office "Transition" Counselors, 2) fall assignment to a faculty advisor with whom they spend several hours prior to the onset of fall classes and 3) assignment to an upperclass orientation assistant (OA) who is directly linked to the faculty advisor. The combined efforts of the faculty advisor and the OA in a small group environment enable Mercer to provide a comfortable atmosphere or "home base" that speaks to students' needs on a spiritual, physical, mental and emotional level. This individual advising attention continues into the first quarter in the form of a Freshman Seminar Course (UNV 101, or FSP) that is taught jointly by the faculty advisor and the student OA. The Freshman Year Experience Office serves as the established advising office to provide coordination of services, resources and training. The new advising model has been extremely successful. Since its implementation, fall to fall student retention has increased by 15%, freshman grades have greatly improved and student satisfaction with advising is consistently high.

Appearing below are highlights of principle strategies used in the Mercer Model:

Comprehensive orientation program with high degrees of student/faculty advisor involvement
Required fall quarter freshmen seminar course taught by the faculty advisor and OA
Intrusive advisor interventions with underachieving freshmen
Highly individualized advising
Faculty and Student Advising Boards
On-line registration in advisor offices for all freshmen
Advising evaluation, rewards and recognition programs are fully in place

FYE Advising and TRANS AM Advising Programs

Towson University
Nominated by: Dan L. Jones

Contact: Margaret Faulkner, Associate Provost

Towson University, the largest comprehensive university in the Baltimore area, has a long tradition of faculty based academic advising supplemented by a professional advising center. A nine-year-old mandate, which tied advising to registration, had outgrown the needs of 1996's 13,000 undergraduate population. With the active support of the Provost, an Academic Advising Steering Committee launched a brave new initiative.

How could we meet our goal of ensuring that informed, effective and easily accessible advising which addresses individual needs and interests is available to every undergraduate student? We should start at the beginning, we thought, start by ensuring that our freshmen begin with a successful transition to the University, that they have an identified first year advisor with whom they can interact, and that our freshmen move on to their second year with a sense of responsibility in planning and monitoring their programs of study and in making sound educational decisions.

The First Year Experience advisor was born. This Fall we will offer:

More than sixty sections of ORIENTATION 305, a two-semester no credit course taught by trained, rewarded, and evaluated faculty and professional First Year Experience advisors.
An individually built schedule to each incoming freshman
A TU CARES program in July
A degree audit program to assist them in tracking progress
A new program, TRANS-AM, to provide support to our 1500 first semester transfer students.

Common Reading Program

Le Moyne College

Freshman Academic Advising Program

Sacred Heart University

Academic Planning & Support Services: A Model for Freshman Academic Success

Saint Edward's University

Freshman Advising Program (www2.utah.edu/uaac/phpweb/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=11)

University of Utah

Directed by: Martine Stewart and Patricia Reilly (image)

Nominated by: Sharon Aiken-Wisniewski

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Directed and nominated by: Cathy Buyarski / (image)

First-Year Student Success Program (www.coastal.edu/advising)

Student Academic Support Services, Coastal Carolina University

Directed and nominated by: Linda Hollandsworth

SUNY Oswego

Directed by: Michelle Bandla

Nominated by: Rhonda Mandel

Howard Community College

Directed by: Barbara Greenfeld

Nominated by: Mary Johnson & Jeanette Kissel