Advising Campaign for Spring 2015
Sara McConville
Academic Advisor
College of Health and Human Services
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
May 19, 2015
 Our
pre-majors apply to the upper division of
their major in or around their 3rd or 4th
semester.
 Our university has now started focusing more
on the 4th semester student by incorporating
degree mapping and the Student Success
Collaborative to assist moderately performing
students who are borderline in matriculating
into CHHS majors.
 Our goal with this particular campaign is to
reach the students who are not matriculating
or are at risk of not being accepted into the
upper division of their major.
 Given
our university’s new focus on 4th
semester students we chose to focus our
campaign on that particular group of students.
Target Group:
Currently enrolled pre-major students who have
between 45-60 credits, are high risk, and have
less than a 2.5 GPA
 Our
Target Group resulted in a total of:
35 students:
 25 Pre-Kinesiology majors
 8 Pre-Social Work majors
 2 Pre-Public Health majors
 We
split the students up between the 3
advisors in our office which resulted in the
following:
 Advisor 1: 12 Students
 Advisor 2: 12 Students
 Advisor 3: 11 Students
 Given
our practical student numbers, we chose
to send individualized emails to each student
consisting of details about their current
academic standing, success markers they have
or have not met within their chosen pre-major
and any other personal affects we found in our
university-wide database for advising notes.
 We were also able to spend quality time with
each student and engage in intrusive advising.
 By steering away from ‘blanket emails’, we
feel the students felt more compelled and
more of an obligation to respond to us.
Plan:
 Advisor
Completed
1 email all 12 students
Email Response rate: 6 responses
 Advisor
2 email all 12 students
Email Response rate: 8 responses
 Advisor
3 email all 11 students
Email Response rate: 7 responses
Hi Raven,
You are receiving this email because the university has begun utilizing a system for early alert targeting
to help students make the most of their academic career at UNC Charlotte. Based on the reporting for
Spring semester, you have been identified as potentially at risk in your major due to one or more of the
following reasons: your high number of credits without being admitted to a major, number of failed or
withdrawn courses, or grades in courses necessary to succeed in your chosen field of study.
I know that when we previously met, you were thinking about possibly changing your major and/or
considering some community college options as you didn’t think the Social Work was a good fit for
you. Are you still thinking about this? Is there anything I can do to help you with this or point you in the
direction of resources towards your classes still this semester?
I look forward to meeting with you soon to discuss your plan going forward to help you succeed in your
chosen major at UNC Charlotte.
Please let me know a few days/times that would work best for you to come in.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you,
Andrea L. Swintal, M.S. | Academic Advisor
Good morning. I am contacting you in regards to your current academic standing and major status.
Currently, you are a Pre-Kinesiology Major with a 2.36 GPA. There is a CHHS Advising hold that has been
placed on your records for the Spring 2015 semester, but our records indicate that you have yet to meet
with a CHHS Academic Advisor to have the hold lifted. Our office wants to ensure that you are aware of
major requirements and have an academic plan in place for Fall 2015. Here are some suggestions:



Increase cumulative GPA to 2.5 to apply for upper division EXER/ATRN.
Meet with an advisor to go over EXER/ATRN application, requirements, and Fall 2015
registration
Change major if you are no longer interested in PKNS.
Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you.
Shawnee Garvin, M.Ed | Academic Advisor
Good Afternoon Melvis,
I hope this email finds you doing well as the Spring 2015 semester comes to a closing. I wanted to touch
base with you because I see that you are currently designated as a Pre-Kinesiology major as well as a
Pre-Communication Studies major. From the looks of what you have registered for the Fall 2015
semester, you are no longer pursuing Pre-Kinesiology as your major. If this is correct, I am happy to
remove Pre-Kinesiology as your major so it will only list you as Pre-Communication. However, if you are
still pursuing Pre-Kinesiology I would like to meet with you so we can sit down and come up with a plan
of action for how we will get your GPA back up to a 2.5 so you are eligible to apply for upper division and
what pre-requisites you still have left to complete.
Please let me know if and how I can be of assistance to you.
Have a good weekend!
Sara B. McConville, M. Ed. | Academic Counselor
Plan:
 Advisor 1 set up individual
appointments with all
12 students
Response rate: 7 appointments scheduled
 Advisor
2 set up individual
appointments with all
12 students
Response rate: 9 appointments scheduled
 Advisor
3 set up individual
appointments with all
11 students
Response rate: 8 appointments scheduled
Completed
 24
out of our total target group of 35 students
met with their advisor and discussed plans for
moving forward. Per these discussions:
 13
students are moving forward with plans to
change their major out of CHHS to another
identified UNCC major.
 7 students are currently retaking courses to raise
their GPA and are planning on applying to their
program in the next academic year.
 4 students are transferring from UNCC to a
community college and/or other university.





Students who are considered ‘High Risk 4th semester premajors’ are not fully aware of how out of sequence they are
or that their timeline to graduation is getting longer and
longer.
They viewed changing their major as a sign of weakness or
failure. They lacked the courage and motivation to seek out
another major/college because they felt as if they couldn’t
be successful anywhere.
A majority of these students felt ‘lost’ and ‘forgotten about’
until we reached out to them.
They lacked awareness of the resources available to them on
campus that could have helped them with personal/social
issues they were experiencing before they became
insurmountable.
They were not knowledgeable of other major options
available at UNCC that could be a better fit.
Hold a Focus Group with each of the 24 students
who participated in this campaign to learn how
this experience affected them. This would also be
a way to learn how students prefer to be
contacted or what about that contact causes them
to respond or take action.
 Perform a Targeted Advising Campaign for this
particular group of students every academic year.
 Use the Success Markers within each of our four
majors to target struggling students before they
reach their 3rd and 4th semester.
 Reach out to students to ‘check in’ more often
throughout the academic year and not just during
pre-registration periods.
