Advising Working Group Preliminary Observations/Recommendations
– 5/14/13
The Advising Working group is primarily studying three reports from the Educational
Advisory Board ( Hardwiring Student Success, Next Generation Advising, and Meeting
Student Demand for High Touch Advising ) as source material for the basis of our recommendations. We feel that these reports cover the available data and options comprehensively and present us with well vetted strategies that can be adapted to our needs. In addition, we have held student forums, brainstormed our perceptions of the types of things students want and ask for in advising, and sent a survey to all faculty and staff involved in advising in its many forms. The raw responses and other data from those efforts are attached to this document.
Within the current time frame, we have focused on Early Alert Implementation (a recommendation will be forthcoming at the conclusion of our work with MAP Works from the implementation team) and examined Hardwiring Student Success . The principles we have followed in our observations and preliminary recommendations are:
1. Advising must be proactive.
2. Effective student use of services is as, if not more, important than availability of services. Many services are available but are often underutilized by the students who need them most.
3. Promoting student use of services is a primary goal of advising. Students must know where services are and avail themselves of those they need. Students may know what they need and not use it, or they may also not know what they need.
4. Prudent and comprehensive use of advising is an important tool for closing the achievement gap.
5. Identifying and reporting risk factors must come from multiple sources and not rely on solely on faculty who may often be the hardest group to get to participate consistently.
6. Follow-up, accountability and assessment must be built into whatever system we recommend.
7. Advising must be comprehensive in scope and provided beyond the first-tosecond year time frame. It should be designed to ensure that coordinated support comes to students in a manner that takes into account their developmental stages.
8. Students must be provided with clear paths to graduation, and be provided with assistance to stay on that path. HSU must identify and eliminate roadblocks, whatever form they take, whenever possible.
9. While being cognizant of the multiple entry points and experiences represented by HSU students, we should clearly state the expectation that students can graduate in four years.
The Advising Working Group recommends the following regarding structure :

1. The AVP oversight of a combined Retention and Student Success unit is a good idea and should form the basis for the permanent structure.
2. Establish an Advising Management Office to oversee Early Alert/MAP-Works and facilitate advising across all units in three areas: Curricular Advising (program navigation, course choices, and careers), Co-Curricular Advising (holistic help for students on a broad range of issues), and Peer Mentoring (this could be RAMP).
The range of responsibilities and “who does what” is subject to further study and consultation. The object of this review and organization is to ensure that students have the advising they need, coordinated across all advising sources.
3. Establish an advisory council as a sub-group of the Enrollment Management
Working group to advise the AVP of Student Success and Retention (SSR) regarding coordination and integration of advising activities including Early
Alert/Map Works.
4. Establish a small review group chaired by the AVP of SSR that would meet regularly to discuss individual student cases and provide appropriate and immediate support and intervention. There are many models to use in deciding the membership in this group and could include UPD, SDRC, Residence Life, VP for Student Affairs (designee, such as the Dean of Students) or others at the discretion of the AVP SSR.
Other observations and areas for further study (not in priority order):
1. Develop self-advising tools that take advantage of My Humboldt and create a customized student Advising Web Page tailored to individual student’s needs.
Content could include, but not limited to, self-advising tools, a student handbook, easy access to the interactive DARS, URLs to various offices on campus that students need to access organized by category, and “pushing” important deadlines to student’s To Do lists. This could be linked to Early Alert/MAP
Works.
2. Create a single online source (in Faculty and Student Center) that organizes student support services by category across the campus. This should provide up-to-date resource and contact information for student, staff and faculty use.
3. Using MAP Works, develop an enhanced communication process between advisors and students in order to make advising contacts central to a comprehensive “Prospect to Graduate” communication plan.
4. Clearly define roles, expectations and workloads of advisors
– Academic,
Mentoring and Professional, including time expectations, methodology and checklists/standard procedures to follow and provide for evaluation.
5. Work with the Faculty Affairs Committee of the University Senate where items 3 and 4 intersect with faculty advising. Provide incentives and recognition for faculty in RTP process.
6. Provide on-line and in-person training and certification for advisors including training to better facilitate interpersonal communication between advisors and students with different backgrounds and life experiences.
7. Create robust and comprehensive advising materials that include integrated developmental, co-curricular, career and academic components. These

materials will form the basis for common messages and consistent advice (see item 2 above).
8. Identify and eliminate roadblocks to graduation of all types, provide the right amount and type of assistance to students exactly when it is needed, including establishing protocols that analyze th e factors involved in students being “on or off” track toward graduation .
9. Develop criteria that use data to demonstrate effectiveness in all types and modes of advising in increasing retention and graduation.
10. Make advising a university wide focus as a priority at Convocation and in colleges and departments.
11. Study the benefits and costs for various models of advising that provide for seamless transitions for students and make the best use of the human resources available. This could include professional advising at strategic points in student’s career at HSU.
12. As modeled in the new Interactive DARS, create technological processes that help students progress through their programs of study. These could include but are not limited to: (I thought I would try bullet points here)
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Block scheduling – particularly for freshmen.
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Use of technology to present students with a list of acceptable courses based upon their chosen degree program that would direct them to take courses that lead to graduation.
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Elimination of major contracts in lieu of the information in the course catalog.
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A timely and simple method of entering and incorporating course substitutions into individual student ’s DARS reports.
13. Review current FTE involved in advising activities and what they do to design a structure for coordination and integration of advising across units and areas of expertise/responsibility.
14. Use the HOP and HOOP process to have students complete self-assessment modules to help them focus on their interests. This can be accomplished by identifying a web based assessment tool that students will use as a precursor to the advising process through HOP. These types of instruments can be used to help students identify majors (or major alternatives) and areas of interest that align with their personal and professional career goals. This will decrease misdeclaration of students in majors and provide information to students and advisors to assist students in finding the course of study that best fit their skills and interests and provide information in the event students are unsuccessful or choose to change majors.
15. Refine the First Year Seminar proposal to better integrate with advising, RAMP,
HOP and developmental issues of freshmen while encouraging and orienting students toward college level academic work and intellectual inquiry.
16. Work to identify complex curricula as a barrier for progress to degree and make changes in order to promote more cohesive curricular paths to graduation and ultimately, student success.