The Advising Center established as a pilot on the Waycross Campus requires faculty to schedule a minimum of one hour per work to provide academic advising to students on an ongoing basis. Student Support staff are assigned case loads of students for whom they provide referrals, conduct skills workshops, and address non-academic needs.
The Advising Center established as a pilot on the Waycross Campus requires faculty to schedule a minimum of one hour per work to provide academic advising to students on an ongoing basis. Student Support staff are assigned case loads of students for whom they provide referrals, conduct skills workshops, and address non-academic needs.
Administering and analyzing student and faculty satisfaction surveys; determining and tracking student usage and faculty participation rates; monitoring 1-year retention rates. The primary KPI is the % of students retained at the institution yearly (fall to fall). Baseline was fall 2022, with a 1-year retention rate of 52.9%; goal was set at 60%. The fall 2023 retention rate was 54%, and the fall 2024 retention rate was 52.5%. We originally hoped to reach 60% by fall 2025; we have now adjusted our timeline to fall 2029.
We have established the Advising Center on the Waycross Campus in what was the Writing Center. We have added computer and phone equipment and hired a student worker to help direct students when faculty are not available. We have learned that monitoring of faculty scheduling is necessary and better delineation of responsibilities between faculty and Student Success staff is needed. We need to publicize the Center’s purpose more effectively.
Our original plan was to pilot the Advising Center on the Waycross Campus before establishing one on the Douglas Campus, but faculty on the Douglas Campus are not supportive of the idea, so we will rethink our approach to collaborative advising in Douglas and conduct a comparative analysis of the two approaches as data becomes available.
As always, limited physical and fiscal resources limit our abilities. Faculty and staff buy-in is essential.
Funding for professional advising position(s) would be ideal.
