Almost a year in the making, the Student Advising and Success Project is out of the planning stages to help students, faculty and staff build more connections on campus. The project, heavily focused on more than just class schedules, is changing the way advising will look for current and future students.
“We want students to have an advising experience that is more than just, ‘Here, this is the classes you should take,’” said Kelly Bartling, the vice chancellor for enrollment management and marketing.
The project originally started last year with a grant from a private donor. Administration at UNK then gathered a steering committee made up of students, faculty and staff to conduct listening sessions and research on ways to elevate the advising experience.
A major theme that the committee found was the lack of standardization, personalization and connection that students need when it comes to planning their futures.
“We’ve found that advising is important to faculty, staff and students,” said Nita Unruh, the associate vice chancellor of academic affairs. “The faculty and staff recognize the importance of a relationship with students when moving them from a freshman to a professional and (we) want to aid in that process.”
To counteract these themes, the committee started slowly with implementations. This year, they added another LOPR101 class that teaches students how to operate Stellic, the new course scheduling program that UNK switched to a few years ago.
“If we can get students to understand little parts of the planning behind advising, then these meetings don’t have to just be about classes,” said Aaron Estes, the senior director of the Loper Success Hub. “Advisers can talk with their students about what they want to do with their life, their goals outside of college and things that are impacting them from achieving them.”
Changes have also been made on the faculty and staff side of things. Faculty and staff will now be undergoing standardized training for advising. Although each adviser does things just a little differently, Unruh and Estes hope that this training will better equip them with the potential to have a good impact on students.
The committee hosted a celebration of the first phase of the Student Advising and Success Project on Oct. 15 to showcase the changes that have been made.
“This celebration was an opportunity to give ourselves a pat on the back for the amount of work we’ve put into this project,” Bartling said. “But, we also wanted to use it as a rally to keep momentum going to show we aren’t settling and done with the project yet.”
The project has now moved into the second phase of the two-tiered plan, which heavily focuses on relationships and ensuring more funding. With advising appointments for next semester quickly approaching, the steering committee is hoping to give students the knowledge of their career path while building a connection with their advisers.
“I’m hoping that with the connection building we want to focus on that every student will have their ‘person’ here that they can come back 10 years down the road for advice and a relationship they can rely on,” Unruh said.
The steering committee, including Bartling, Estes and Unruh, will continue to ask for support as they conduct more research on student needs.
“We’ve been laying a foundation for this project that we want to make sure is solidified to be lasting for students, faculty and staff to come,” Estes said.
