Faculty Advising

Overview

In the summer of 2022 an initiative was launched to build a faculty advising corps to support General Studies students (declared majors in the A.A. in General Studies, the A.S. in General Studies, and the A.S. in Pre-Health Sciences). In a collaboration with Student Affairs, instructional deans in three areas each received two positions (former completion counselors) who now are assistant deans for faculty advising under the Science, Engineering & Math dean, the Health Sciences dean, and the Liberal Arts, Social & Behavioral Sciences dean.

Accomplishments

Launching a new faculty advising initiative required creating job descriptions for the assistant deans of faculty advising as well as for hourly adjunct faculty advisors who would be hired to advise General Studies majors. It also required examining the data around persistence, retention, and completion of declared majors in the three General Studies majors, and developing a communication, vetting, and hiring process for interested adjunct faculty.

A seventh completion counselor has been named an assistant dean for faculty advising in Continuing Education (CE), with a focus on helping CE students transition from noncredit to credit programs in high- demand, high-wage career paths.

To date, 24 adjunct faculty have been hired and trained to support the General Studies majors across the three credit dean areas (Liberal Arts, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Science, Engineering, and Math, and Health Sciences).

Several surveys have been distributed to learn more from General Studies declared majors.

• A survey was sent to all declared General Studies Associate of Science (A.S.) majors in the spring semester to gather input directly from students. Results indicate that three-fourths of General Studies A.S. majors plan to transfer and that many of them want help with career and/or declared major options, and with understanding pathways that lead to graduate school.
• A survey was sent fall 2022 to majors in the A.A. in General Studies with 30+ semester credit hours; a similar survey was sent in spring 2023 to A.A. in General Studies majors with 0-29 semester credit hours.
• All three surveys indicated that students need clarification about career and major options, and additional information about college supports and resources for students.

Impact

• To support declared majors in General Studies in Science, five hourly faculty advisors were hired in April and, to date, 121 A.S. in General Studies majors have received direct advising support.
• Early numbers for the declared majors in the A.A. in General Studies show that 140 students received direct advising support, and a total of 13 hourly faculty advisors have been hired to support General Studies A.A. majors.
• Also in April, Science Engineering & Math hourly faculty advisors were given a list of 1,732 students deemed close to completion and they began auditing those students’ records. Some general trends are emerging:
  • Multiple students on the list are eligible for graduation if the catalog year is updated appropriately or upon receipt and evaluation of reverse transfer transcripts.
  • Some students had multiple declared majors, indicating that their General Studies A.S. major was not closed properly after students declared a new major.
  • Some students were referred to the Pre-Health Sciences A.S. as the appropriate declared major for their career plans.
• A faculty advising referral form was created to facilitate this advising effort to support declared majors in the General Studies A.A., the General Studies A.S., and the Pre-Health Sciences A.S.

Next Steps

Further collaboration with Student Affairs is needed to fully flesh out the student population being advised under this initiative to ensure that students are getting the help they need when they need it without duplicating effort or support. The summer focus of this effort will be on “near completers.” Future work includes drafting updates to the administrative rule and guidelines related to faculty advising. Additional hourly adjunct faculty advisors will be hired to support the thousands of students who are declared majors in the three general studies degrees.