ESTABLISHING AN ADVISING PRESENCE IN RESIDENCE LIFE

Working Together to Encourage Academic Success

Welcome!

Stephanie Lang, M.A.Senior Academic

Advisor

Aparna Saini, M.S.Senior Academic

Advisor

Academic Advising Center

Advising for freshmen and most sophomores

General education and lower division requirements

19 Central Advisors

located in main office

11 Bridge Advisors

housed in 8 colleges

Goals of Session

Understand the unique needs of housing students Discuss programs and services to meet the needs

of housing students from an Academic Advising perspective

Be better able to integrate Academic Advising into a Student Affairs setting

Recognize the successes and challenges of establishing and maintaining relationships between an Academic Advising Center and University Housing

Discuss strategies to publicize services and programs to the housing community

Florida International University

Located in Miami, FL 4 year public research university 46,000 students Hispanic-serving institution Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral

programs

Student Demographics

His-panic61%

White Non-His-

panic15%

African Ameri-

can13%

Asian or Pa-cific Is-lander

4%

Other7%

Total Population

His-panic19%

White Non-His-

panic23%

African Ameri-

can13%

Asian or Pa-cific Is-lander

7%

Other7%

On-Campus Residents

Student Demographics

Freshmen37%

Sophomores17%

Juniors22%

Seniors15%

Graduates8%

Classification

Number of students living on campus:

2,700

Recent Findings

According to the National Survey of Student Engagement annual report (2007): Students will gravitate toward what they

view as comfortable and convenient Conditions must be intentionally structured

and promoted for students to take advantage of them

Needs of Housing Students

In order for students to be academically successful, students need a support network

Our Goals

Outreach to an already established population Create an environment where students feel

comfortable Provide more accessible services

How can we achieve this?In addition to the central academic advising

office, we integrated ourselves into the Academic Resource Center located in University

Housing & Residence Life.

Academic Resource Center

A structured and convenient environment for students located within housing

Provides: Tutoring from peer mentors Academic Advising

1:1 advising Academic workshops

Collaboration w/ First-Year Librarian

ARC Peak Times

Monday-Wednesday 5-8pm & Thursday 1-4pm

Number of Students

Spring 2011: 75 students Fall 2011: 65 students Spring 2012 (as of March 8th):15

students

Spring 2011 Fall 20110

20

40

60

80

ARC Advising Numbers

Marketing

Tabling In Residence Halls Campus-wide

Postcards/posters Orientation Facebook RAs

Academic Programming

Advising sessions

Integration of Academic Advising

1. Identify existing population of students2. Current resources3. Avenues that are available to bring

Academic Advising to these students4. Collaboration with department to establish

goals or outcomes before initiating services

5. Brainstorm strategies on how to meet and implement goals

6. Review and evaluate the results

Breakout

In groups of 2-3, please discuss the following:

How has your institution adapted Academic Advising in your Residence Halls, or how do you see this adapting to your institution?

What are some possible challenges? What is the most important component

to this type of program?

Challenges

Privacy of Housing information on students

Marketing constraints Poster locations Door-to-door Mailbox fliers

Lack of support and buy-in by residence life

Benefits

Outreach to greater number of students Specified advising for housing population Convenience Flexible hours Comfortable environment Accessibility of Advisors

Moving Forward

Evaluation Marketing/Outreach # of students Peak times Workshop topics

“In house” Academic Advisor

References

Dalton, J. & Crosby, P. (2008). Challenging college students to learn in campus cultures of comfort, convenience and complacency. Journal of College and Character. 9(3), 1-5.

National Survey of Student Engagement. (2007). Experiences That Matter: Enhancing Student Learning and Success—annual results 2007. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research.

Thank You!