Abstract
Higher education positions related to advising first-year students are becoming more popular at colleges and universities to help increase retention. However, these efforts can fail if students feel abandoned by their advisors when students transition to faculty advisors the following year. While some students report wanting to continue the first-year advising relationship, others say that their faculty advisors could be more attentive and offer the assistance they expect (Hart-Baldridge, 2020). This case looks at the first-year advising model at ABC University.
Keywords/Phrases: Academic advising, First-year student success, Student Retention, one-stop
Primary Characters
Jake Bolston – Director, Student Success Center (he, him, his). Jake oversees the first-year student advising program. He was brought in for this role and worked closely with Melissa Senegal, VP of Student Experience, to build the Student Success Center (SSC). His team works with students in first-year seminar classes throughout their first-year in college to provide academic advising and coaching. These courses help students feel connected to each other and the university and involve skill-building activities to help students transition to college life. ABC University created The Student Success Center to help increase the retention rate of students.
Melissa Senegal – Vice President, Student Experience (she, her, hers). Melissa oversees the recruitment process and the university’s retention efforts. Melissa is considered one of the President’s “insiders.” She worked with the President at a previous institution and has a track record of getting things done. She worked to build the Student Success Center and is under pressure from the President to increase student retention by 10% over the next two years.
Joann Smith – Provost, Chief Academic Officer (she, her, hers). Joann has been in her role as provost for the past ten years and has always focused on assessment and accreditation. She has a close relationship with the Deans of the Colleges and has worked with them for years. In addition, Joann was formerly the Dean of the College of Education and is knowledgeable about the faculty’s role and advising duties.
Margaret Pennybaker – Dean of the College of Business (she, her, hers). Margaret is a close friend and ally of Joann Smith. She firmly believes that ABC University should be run like a business and often advises the President on financial matters. She is aware of the university’s troubles related to tuition dependency and knows retention is essential to financial solvency.
Gerald Peabody – Full, Tenured Professor of Management and Chair of Faculty Senate (he, him, his). Gerald has been at ABC University for 42 years and is in his second year of a four-year term as Faculty Senate, Chair. He is a devout believer in academic freedom and works to protect the faculty from pressure to take on outside projects. He understands the importance of academic advising duties and thinks faculty should be given course releases for the time spent advising.
Context and Case
Overview
This case discusses the student experience and role of a Student Success Center at a private university. The SSC provides first-year advising and supports faculty advisors assigned to students in subsequent years. The case concerns relationships students form with Student Success Center advisors upon entering college and the dilemmas students face when given a non-responsive faculty advisor after completing their first year.
Institutional Context
ABC University is a medium-sized private university struggling with enrollment following the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In 2020, the university had to close its doors and pivot to remote learning like many others around the globe. Subsequently, ABC University experienced a decline in enrollment. Over the past ten years, the university also struggled with retention rates, but with a new administrative focus on streamlining the student experience, the university saw gains in this area. The turnaround was mainly credited to implementing a one-stop student experience at a newly created Student Success Center. First-year student advisors assist with registration, financial aid, and accepting payments within the center. The model works so well that students return to the SSC after completing their first year to see their first-year advisors for registration. During these visits, students often provide feedback regarding their assigned faculty advisors.
Case
Jake Bolston emerged from the Student Success Center’s administration meeting with his head in his hands, but he was considering pulling his hair out! He just met with his staff of advisors and learned six more upper-division students had visited the SSC last week, reporting they needed academic advising. Jake was a proponent of helping anyone who walked through the door. However, while his goal was student success, his division was trained and charged with advising first-year students. A month ago, Jake was not concerned when a few students stopped back into the center to visit their former advisors, but the number of these students was growing while neither the budget nor staff had increased. Jake previously spoke to his boss, Melissa Senegal, and reported this mounting issue. They followed up with Joann Smith, the provost, to discuss and consider some workable solutions.
Five years ago, Melissa came to ABC University and created the Student Success Center to help with the dismal retention rate on campus. She instituted a one-stop student service model, and ABC University observed its retention rates go from a low of 67% to 80% with the implemented changes. Joann Smith was a strong proponent of the model, but she was adamant that the success advisors would only serve first-year students. She wanted to ensure that students in subsequent years would have faculty advisors who would not only give them advice on what courses to take but also be trusted guides to the students, helping them prepare them for careers upon graduation. At the meeting with Jake and Melissa, Joann listened intently and seemed supportive. She assured them that she would speak with the Deans in her weekly meeting and even went as far as reporting back to them that it had gone well and that the Deans all agreed that they would stress the importance of student advising to the faculty.
Once back in his office, Jake took a deep breath and emailed the provost requesting another meeting. The provost had told him to reach out directly if he found the problem persisted. He wanted to avoid a drop in retention but knew his office needed more staff if they were going to advise the entire student body. Meanwhile, the provost logged into her computer and read a new email from the Dean of the Business college, Margaret Pennybaker. She could not believe her eyes. While she felt encouraged when she spoke with the Deans about advising, Dean Pennybaker (the Provost’s close friend) warned her that the faculty senate planned to propose a change to the advising model. When she saw the email from Jake, her heart sank. She knew she was in for a battle unless she could work to resolve this before it became an even bigger issue.
Joann picked up the phone and immediately dialed Margaret to see what she had to say about the changes to the advising model. Margaret did not answer, so Joann decided to call an emergency meeting the following day to discuss the future of student advising. She invited Jake, Melisssa, Margaret, and Gerald Peabody, Head of the Faculty Senate. Putting the loudest voices in the room would get her the needed answers.
Joann took a deep breath at the meeting and got right to the point. She began by summarizing what she heard and explained that she would ask everyone to share their point of view to help clarify the issues at hand. She started with Jake. Jake clearly expressed that his Student Success Center advisors shared that several of their previous advisees returned to the SSC to ask for help with course registration. All the advisees were dissatisfied with their assigned faculty advisor and needed help. To be clear, Jake prepared a list of the top five complaints the SSC advisors had with their faculty advisors:
- Faculty Advisors did not respond to requests for meetings.
- Faculty Advisors did not take the time to get to know the students and were often dismissive when they asked for clarification or disagreed with the given advice.
- Faculty Advisors did not want to think creatively or brainstorm alternative ways to add an additional major or minor.
- Faculty Advisors were assigned, and no flexibility was given to select another advisor if desired.
- Faculty Advisors were not knowledgeable of graduation requirements, the current job market, or how to find assistance with other campus services.
Melissa chimed in and joked that this would not be an issue if the advisors were not so good at their jobs. She stressed the importance of student advising and how it helped increase retention. She shared her fear that these dissatisfied students would leave ABC University because they could not get the needed services. At that point, Margaret Pennybaker jumped in to add that her faculty were doing their jobs and they could not be responsible for personality conflicts that might arise. She also joked that maybe they should use a dating app to help match the faculty advisors with the students. No one laughed.
The quiet was interrupted by Gerald, who took the opportunity to add that he called a special faculty senate meeting to discuss this issue. He said several faculty members approached him after their respective Deans told them to do better with faculty advising. All the faculty conveyed that they were overworked and underpaid and were doing everything they could to satisfy the job requirements. At this point, he threw his hands in the air, sighed, and growled that he agreed with them.
After that, the room was completely silent. The silence continued until Joann unmuted and thanked everyone for their feedback. Then very slowly, she asked that they all put forward their best ideas to resolve the issue. Gerald spoke first and gruffly reminded them that the faculty senate would be taking up the issue, that they would most likely recommend that the SSC advisors advise students and that the faculty focus on teaching, research, and service. While Joann knew it was best to let everyone brainstorm without interruption, she could not help but stop and remind Gerald that advising was part of the “service” in the faculty contract.
Melissa jumped in and gave a list of reasons faculty should do the advising. Her list included: faculty can act as mentors, faculty have industry connections to recommend students for employment, and faculty know the department’s major requirements. She quoted research about faculty connections leading to greater retention rates and explained that faculty advising was “best practice” (Troxel, 2018).
Jake reminded everyone that his staff was overworked and could not take on a caseload that would be quadruple what they currently had. There was no funding or office space for that type of increase.
Joann had heard enough. She thanked everyone and ended the Zoom meeting. She sat at her desk for a moment and thought about everything she had heard. They had all made good points, and she knew that any decision she made would have negative consequences. This was a dilemma that she needed to address by looking at the issue through the lens of the student. This approach served her well over the years, and she knew that the best solution would come if she remembered that.
Discussion Questions:
- What aspects of the first year advising model should ABC University rethink?
- How might using a student-focused lens help resolve this issue?
- How could using data support the decision-making process?
- How should Joann attend to relationships between each of the stakeholders?
References and Additional Resources
Alzen, J. L., Burkhardt, A., Diaz-Bilello, E., Elder, E., Sepulveda, A., Blankenheim, A., & Board, L. (2021). Academic Coaching and its Relationship to Student Performance, Retention, and Credit Completion. Innovative Higher Education, 46(5), 539–563. https://doi-org.libill.hartford.edu/10.1007/s10755-021-09554-w
Baird, S. B. (2020). Faculty Perceptions of Academic Advising at Small, Christian Universities. Christian Higher Education, 19(5), 321–335. https://doi-org.libill.hartford.edu/10.1080/15363759.2020.1712559
Hart-Baldridge, E. (2020). Faculty Advisor Perspectives of Academic Advising. NACADA Journal, 40(1), 10–22.
Troxel, W. G. (2018). Faculty Advising: Roles, Rewards, and Requisites. New Directions for Higher Education, 2018(184), 83–96. https://doi-org.libill.hartford.edu/10.1002/he.20305
Walker, R. V., Zelin, A. I., Behrman, C., & Strnad, R. (2017). Qualitative analysis of student perceptions: “Some advisors care. Some don’t.”. NACADA Journal, 37(2), 44-54.
Author Biography
Barb Haines (she, her, hers) is the Associate Dean of Online and Professional Education at the University of Hartford. She has worked in Higher Education for over 25 years in various roles. She is also an adjunct professor in the University Interdisciplinary Studies department, teaching in the classroom and online. Currently, Barb is pursuing a Doctoral degree in Educational Leadership, investigating the role of coaching in online student success. [email protected]