Graduation Oriented Advising
WHAT:
• An approach to advising that focuses on
identifying, planning for, and achieving a
graduation target
• Student Ownership
• Connects to
– Degree Maps / Milestones
– Prospect for Success
Graduation Oriented Advising
WHY:
• For students: Estimated cost of attendance @
UNC Charlotte is $10,000 (plus lost earnings)
• For us:
– Meeting graduation targets (4-yr, 6yr, and 4-yr
Transfer)
– More efficient use of course availability
Graduation Oriented Advising
PROCESS
• Select target population
• Identify students you want to reach (place
advising holds if desired)
• Prepare GOA communication and worksheets
• Inform students of GOA process and their
responsibilities
• GOA advising
GOA -- OPTIONS
Target
Population
• 4th Semester (Entered as Freshmen, Fall 2012)
• 6th Semester (Entered as Freshmen, Fall 2011)
(IR and UCOL can help generate and
process the data)
Advising
Holds?
• Balancing potential impact vs workload and
potential logjams
• GOA ‘Waiver’ is an option
Materials
• Adapt current advising materials
• Develop new advising materials
GOA Process
• What’s expected of students
• Changes to advising (eg. small group advising)
Graduation Oriented Advising
Examples
• History
• Chemistry
Criminal Justice and Criminology
Department
571 Majors
402 Pre-CJ Majors
120 Minors
1093 fantastic students!
Our Advising Team
• Susan Hodge, Lecturer and Advising
Coordinator
• Kathleen Nicolaides, Senior Lecturer,
Academic and Pre-Law Advisor
• Joe Marinello, Lecturer and Advisor
(We all leap buildings in a single bound.)
Graduation-Oriented Advising
• OH NO!!! MORE WORK!!!!
Are there additional advantages to the
Graduation Oriented Advising?
• The earlier students connect and become
engaged in their department, the better it is
for both the students and the department.
• Students become familiar with the advisors,
what the department has to offer, and…. Wait
for it… THE CURRICULUM!!!
Now, on to the issues
• TOO MANY STUDENTS!!
• We place holds on our majors and pre-majors at
85-100 hours and any students in academic
trouble.
• They must come in for advising before registering
for the upcoming semester.
• At least 150 students come in during this period
to see the 3 of us. (Granted we are super…. But
not super human)
• So we are adding how many students???
So how do we handle MORE students
that we require to come in???
• Group Meetings?
Next issue:
• Flexible curriculum.
• Therefore it is hard to help a student plan out
what courses to take in a particular order.
Our Requirements
• Intro to Criminal Justice is the pre-requisite for
all 3000 level courses.
• Intro to Criminal Justice and Statistics (grades
of C or better) and a Writing component must
all be completed before the major can be
declared.
• Students must have 60 hours to register for
any 3000 level courses.
However…
• Problem: Once they reach 60 hours, they can
take any elective in any order.
• Also different electives are offered different
semesters, so you cannot predict which
classes will be taught when.
How to solve this issue:
• Advise students regarding the importance of
taking Intro to CJ and Statistics as soon as
possible so they can declare the major and
continue on.
• Also recommend that they begin their foreign
language sequence EARLY (CJ requires 3
semesters of latin alphabet based language or 2
semesters of non-latin alphabet based language)
• And- encourage students to begin taking classes
in a minor.
Conclusion
• Our advising team sees the benefits of the
Graduation Oriented Advising.
• However, we would need to adapt the
procedures to make it work for our
department.
• What issues do you see with this process for
your department and how can you overcome
them?