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Blue Sky: An Opportunity to Reinvent Student Advising at Carolina

Curriculum 2019 Task Force on Advising, Assessment and Amendments May 2017

Provide undergraduate students with the advice and support services that they need to be successful in their academic endeavors and postgraduate pursuits. Advising will be:

• Coordinated
• Consistent
• Convenient
• Easily accessed
• Efficient
• Assessed for effectiveness and continuous improvement

Goals

• Restructure student advising and support around the

mission of student success. Provide a comprehensive approach to academic advising, career development, and learning support services;

• Support and incentivize faculty engagement in the

mission of student success; and

• Improve facilities and technology infrastructure to

support student success, especially in terms of course planning and degree audit.

Proposed Initiatives

• Fall 2015 – UNC’s Provost, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Vice Provost

for Enrollment and Undergraduate Admissions, and Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education establish the Blue Sky Committee and challenge the group to imagine an entirely new approach to student advising, career development and academic support.

• Summer 2016 - Blue Sky Committee presents data findings and

recommendations.

• Fall 2016 - Provost creates a new charge to consider the Blue Sky

Committee’s recommendations, scan the current advising environment at Carolina, benchmark best practices at peer institutions* and create a plan for implementation.

• Spring 2017 – Presentation to the Chancellor, a plan to reinvent student

advising at UNC

Timeline

*UC Berkeley, Duke, Michigan, NCSU, Tulane, UVA, WFU, Wash U

Fall 2015

Charge & Blue Sky Committee Meetings

December 2015

Storyboard Presentation

Spring 2016

Data Collection Survey & Focus Group

Summer 2016

Data Analysis & Recommendations

Blue Sky Committee 2015-16

• I want to be known by someone on campus who

remembers my name and my individual story

• I want to belong to a community
• I want information to be accurate and easily accessible
• I seek advice from my peers and social media
• I want a clear path to graduation
• I want easy access to advising on postgraduate
• pportunities

UNC Students Are Telling Us

“This is not a surface level problem – it is a deeper rooted

• issue. It is very simple to come to this university and never be

a person – to just be a name and a number – students need to feel like people, engage in community, be known and supported .” (UNC Senior)

KNOWN: I want to be known (adults on campus who know my name and story). COMMUNITY: I want to belong to a community.

UNC Students Are Telling Us

“Half of advising is tech support for ConnectCarolina – fix this so advisors have time to talk to students.” (UNC Senior)

INFORMATION: I want information to be accurate and easily accessible.

UNC Students Are Telling Us

PEERS: I seek advice from my peers and social media.

“There is “advising” and there is un-official advising – the best information is unofficial – information from peers.” (UNC student)

UNC Students Are Telling Us

All students are not the same. Non-white are students are less likely than white students to:

• be satisfied with guidance for

specific life skills (e.g. finances and career advice)

• have a personal connection to

UNC-Chapel Hill

• feel a part of the community

77% 67% 49% 35% 53% 41% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Non-White White Non-White White Non-White White

Career advice Feel a part

• f the

community Personal connection to UNC

UNC Students Are Telling Us

“The problem is that you have a lot of professors that care but they have to go out of their way and do not get any incentive for it – could hurt themselves doing this – they don’t have time to breathe.” (UNC Senior)

UNC Students Are Telling Us

Benchmarking

Fall 2016/Spring 2017 we engaged peer institutions to benchmark best practices:

• UC Berkeley – public, 19,000 undergraduates
• Duke – private, 7000 undergraduates
• Michigan – public, 17,500 undergraduates
• NCSU – public, 25,000 undergraduates
• Tulane – private, 7000 undergraduates
• UVA – public, 16,500 undergraduates
• Wake Forest – private, 5000 undergraduates
• Washington University – private, 7000 undergraduates

Trends & Observations

• Not necessarily centralized but standardized approach to

advising; expectation that all students receive the same information but in different delivery models based on their particular needs

• Accessibility and convenience, both in terms of information

technology and welcoming space

• Focus on faculty/student interaction and engagement
• Reliance on department faculty for major advising
• Professional development and load balancing for advising

staff are key concerns

• Process alignment never ends; no one is “there”, constant

assessment, review and improvement

UC Berkeley

• Case approach, students matriculate to the College and are

assigned to a dean-level advisor for four years; assignments are random and not based on intended majors

• Participants in 1st and 2nd year seminars live together in the

residence halls and are assigned to the same faculty advisor, who also teaches the course

• Key takeaways:
• Cal utilizes its Course Leaf catalog system to provide

students with career information & stats for each major

• Leverages undergrad peer advisors, incentivized with

meal plans

Duke

• Case approach, students matriculate to the College

and are assigned to a dean-level advisor for four years; assignments are based on residence halls

• 300+ faculty volunteer to advise students (1/3 of all

advisors)

• Key takeaways:
• Duke has a truly student-centered, hub approach

to advising

• Duke seeks to align advising with curriculum

development

Michigan

• Case approach, students matriculate to the College of

Literature, Science and Arts and are assigned to a dean-level advisor for four years

• LSA Advisor assignments are based on several

designations e.g., Honors, Comprehensive Studies (includes first-generation, pell-eligible, low resourced high school), and Residential College

• Key takeaways:
• High demand from students for co-advising

appointments with academic advisors and career counselors

NCSU

• Students matriculate to one of ten undergraduate colleges,

they are assigned to an advisor in their particular college

• Advising structure and assignments vary across the ten

colleges but the delivery, expectations and outcomes are standardized by a central Undergraduate Advising Office

• Key takeaways:
• All advisors (9 of the 10 colleges currently participate)

must complete two-day Advisor Development Institute

• Assessment of student learning outcomes are

determined and standardized by the Advisor Development Institute

Tulane

• All students matriculate to the Newcomb Tulane College; the

College provides advising & career services to all five schools at Tulane

• Had to completely rebuild after Hurricane Katrina in 2005,

they reinvented their advising and career services

• Tulane is the only peer institution I know of with a combined

Office of Advising and Career Services

• Key takeaways:
• Effective use of technology; Customer Relationship

Management approach allows 360 degree view of student vis-à-vis advising

• Hopes and Dreams student survey

UVA

• All students in the College (11,000) are assigned to an

Association Dean for their four years at UVA

• Assignments are based on various associations e.g.,

Residence halls, Student athletes, Echols Scholars, Transfer students

• Key takeaways:
• Although the advisor:student ratio is very high (1:800),

their strategic use of technology helps tremendously. UVA has a robust information technology system that allows students to complete most transactional advising online (e.g., drop/add, pass/fail, declare a major, etc.)

Wake Forest

• All students matriculate to the College and are assigned

to a faculty advisor and an upper-class undergraduate peer advisor for the 1st and 2nd years. They have a faculty major advisor, based in the academic departments, during the 3rd and 4th years.

• Key takeaways:
• Faculty engagement is high
• Office of Office of Career and Professional

Development is widely known as a model approach to college career services

Post-Graduation Readiness Requirement?

WFU would like to implement a Post-Graduation Readiness Requirement for all students, so that by the beginning of junior year (Nov 1?) they must have:

• Approved resume
• Approved LinkedIn profile
• Approved Handshake profile
• Approved mock interview
• Watch a video on effective networking
• Approved elevator pitch

Wash U

• Case approach, all advising is based in the College of Arts

and Sciences

• Students matriculate to the College and are assigned to a

dean-level advisor for four years

• First-year advising assignments are based on residence hall
• Students will get a major advisor during their 2nd year
• Very low advisor student ratio 1:150
• Key takeaways:
• Strong emphasis on making connections and engaging

with students

• Extensive ongoing training for all advisors

UNC Advising by the Numbers

2015 – 2016 2014 – 2015 2013 – 2014 Number of Students in the College of Arts & Sciences 16,237 16,125 16,162 Number of Advisors (full-time) 35 35.5 30.5 Documented Advising Contacts with Students 72,075 69,021 66,374 Student to Advisor Ratio 464:1 454:1 530:1 Students Cleared for Graduation 3,327 3,358 3,374 Approved Double Majors for Students in Professional Schools 156 149 161 Approved 10th Semesters Approved 9th Semesters 4 235 8 203 6 221 Course Drops Approved Course Drops Denied Course Drops Deferred 210 (37%) 351 2 287 (53%) 253 5 296 (51%) 288 Semester Withdrawals Approved Semester Withdrawals Denied 52 (29%) 130 49 (35%) 92 56 (41%) 79 Grade Appeals Approved Grade Appeals Denied Grade Appeals Pending 9 5 3 (25%) 9 4 1 (9%) 10 5

What does advising look like at Carolina?

Current Advising Environment

Broken systems and complicated curricular policies prevent advisors from having time for holistic advising Few faculty incentives to spend time advising undergraduates Faculty and staff are “flying blind” with uncoordinated student data and tracking Not everyone sees themselves as responsible for the undergraduate student experience

• UNC has a wide variety of advising and support programs for

students.

• The current structure lacks cohesion and is organized around

administrative convenience and historic reporting lines.

• Services are not always coordinated around the goal of helping

students succeed.

• Students are dissatisfied with the disconnect between

academic advising, career services and other support units.

• Students are succeeding in spite of our structure and

processes.

• Some students are slipping through the cracks.
• Faculty and staff are frustrated in their efforts to help.

What does advising look like at Carolina?

Meet Kayla What could advising look like?

As an undergraduate student, Kayla encounters student- centered academic and career advising based on the Thrive@ Carolina definition of student success: We believe that students succeed when they

• 1. Take full advantage of the breadth and depth of our

curriculum

• 2. Set academic and personal goals
• 3. Take responsibility for their education, choices, and

decisions

What could advising look like?

UNC provides Kayla with the advice and support services she needs to be successful in her academic endeavors and postgraduate pursuits. The advising services that Kayla has access to are:

• Coordinated
• Consistent
• Convenient
• Easily accessed
• Efficient
• Assessed for effectiveness and continuous improvement

What could advising look like?

How do we get there?

• Restructure student advising and support around the

mission of student success. Provide a comprehensive approach to academic advising, career development, and learning support services;

• Support and incentivize faculty engagement in the

mission of student success; and

• Improve facilities and technology infrastructure to

support student success, especially in terms of course planning and degree audit.

Proposed Blue Sky Initiatives

• Create an integrated approach and location for academic

advising, career development, and learning support services

• Each unit brings unique expertise and services
• Shared areas of focus that allow for connection,

communication and collaboration

• Strengthened assessment to measure effectiveness and

student outcomes

Restructure Student Advising & Support

Restructure Student Advising & Support

Examples of Unique Expertise in Support Functions Support Functions Shared Focus on Student Outcomes and Development

Tutoring Study skills Research preparation learning support Intellectual curiosity and exploration Identity development Self-awareness Self-efficacy Self-advocacy Resilience Decision making Meaning making Personal responsibility Educational planning Curriculum requirements Course load balance academic advising Career readiness Professional connections Interests to opportunities career development

• Restructure to maximize academic experiences, support,

co-curricular experiences and post-graduate opportunities

• Coordinate with Division of Student Affairs units (e.g.,

Dean of Students, Accessibility Resources and Service, Housing), Center for Faculty Excellence, Office of University Registrar, Office of Student Scholarships and Aid, Study Abroad, and other support offices

• Leverage connections to Excellence in Action to expand
• pportunities for out-of-class reflection and growth
• Leadership development as “connective tissue”

Coordination and Connection

• Academic Advising in Hardin Hub represents a successful model for

comprehensive advising at Carolina

• Conveniently located on the first floor of Hardin Residence on South

Campus in seminar space that was initially intended as classrooms

• Supports mostly first- and second- year students
• Generalist approach to academic advising, not major-specific
• Open late with extended drop-in hours and expanded services
• Provides Academic Advising and Career Services
• No student is turned away, even if s/he has not made an appointment
• 2014-15 Hardin saw 2300 students for 3300 advising interactions, and

more than 90% of these students returned to Hardin the following year

• 2015-16 Hardin saw 3200 students for 5400 advising interactions
• More than 30% of the students who visit Hardin are first-generation

and/or from underrepresented populations

Pilot Success: Hardin Hub

• Incentivize faculty engagement in the daily lives of

students

• Link faculty engagement in student success to rewards

and recognition

• Provide consistent training and support for major advisors

and faculty mentors

• Expand and promote opportunities for faculty to support

and encourage students outside of the classroom (e.g., student success grants, course release)

Faculty Engagement

• Simplify general education and major requirements to

improve the student experience

• Always make curricular decisions with advising and

student support in mind

• Provide consistent and continual faculty advisor training
• “Close the loop,” increase interaction between advising

and the majors (especially complicated degrees such as STEM, PWAD) to ensure that information and advising are consistent

• Do not provide contradicting/conflicting information to

students

Faculty Engagement

We need:

• Technology that reliably and efficiently tracks

students’ progress toward degree completion

• Shared student information portal between support
• ffices
• Early warning system for students who may be

having academic difficulty

• Convenient one-stop locations that feel welcoming

and inviting

Improving Technology & Facilities

• Revise proposal per the Chancellor’s strategic

planning efforts and Modernizing Student Support Working Group

• Create detailed plan for phased

implementation

Next Steps