Monday, March 5, 2018 Marriott Downtown, Salon J This Isn’t Working: One Institution’s Revisioning of Exploratory Advising Heather Searcy, University of North Carolina at Greensboro Dana Saunders, University of North Carolina at Greensboro Monday, March 5, 2018 Marriott Downtown, Salon J

Who’s in the room?

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro Public, coeducational, doctoral-granting residential university 20,000 students (13,000 undergraduates) Over 100 undergraduate programs Student to faculty ratio is 20:1, average class size is 25 Student body: 43% ethnic minorities Fall 2017 first-year cohort = 2,790 students 2016-2017 retention rate = 77.31%

The Students First Office Established in Fall 2011 as UNCG’s academic one-stop-shop Provides supplemental advising for any undergraduate student Serves as the centralized academic advising center for Exploratory majors Generalists for academic majors; Experts in academic policy

The Fall 2017 UNCG Exploratory Profile Total # of Exploratory majors = 553 Exploratory first-year cohort = 350 % designated as “high risk” = 50.00% % who are pell eligible = 52.57% % who are first-generation = 12.00% Total # of Exploratory freshmen with college credit = 163 (29.47%)

Exploratory Majors - A Historical Perspective Advising Model Until 2012-2013: Assigned a faculty advisor in the College of Arts & Sciences Received advising identical to declared majors Designated as “Undecided” By the Numbers from 2004-2012: Highest risk of attrition at UNCG Average retention = 74.1% % who declared a major by 30 hours = 45.8% Average Cumulative GPA = 2.45

What the Literature Tells Us

Goals of Exploratory Advising Model Drastically expand contact time students have with their assigned academic advisors Intentionally guide and support students to find academic majors that are the best fit based on students’ personal, academic, and career goals Actively promote an “advising as teaching” approach to academic advising through both developmental and appreciative advising practices

SFO’s Exploratory Advising Model 2 Calculate GPA Select courses Registration Advising Build a schedule Review majors & minors 1 Create a plan Establish goals Exploratory Planning Discover values Explore Interests Align strengths and skills

Exploratory FFL 100: Foundations for Learning Partner with our New Student Transitions and First Year Experience office to coordinate Exploratory-specific first year transition course Taught by Exploratory advisors or campus partners with a special interest in working with Exploratory students Common components across all EXP FFL sections

Advisor/Instructor Partnership Model Advisors

Common Components of Syllabi Exploratory Planning meeting Strengths Finder assessment and correlating presentation by Career Coach Informational interview assignment Liberal Arts Advantage Video Series Personal Success Plan

UNCG Explorers Living Learning Community

Career Services Center Collaborations (Past and Present) Exploratory Road Trip The Liberal Arts Advantage Video Series Map It! Major and Career Maps UNCG’s Major/Minor Fair Explore It! Job Shadowing Program

Outcomes Retention averages increased from 74.1% (under previous model) to 80.1% (average since 2012) Average cGPA of EXP first-year cohort: 2.91 (vs 2.83 overall) 53.45% of 2016 first-year cohort declared a major prior to surpassing 30 earned hours 71.71% of 2015 first-year cohort declared a major prior to surpassing 60 earned hours

Challenges and Opportunities Moving Forward Model Participation in Exploratory Planning meeting following first semester Development of and recruitment for Exploratory programming Profile Increasing number of first-year students with high number of college credits Limitations of Predictive Analytics

References Bloom, J.L., Hutson, B.L., & He, Ye. (2008). The Appreciative Advising Revolution. Stipes Publishing. Darling, R.A., & Woodside, M. (2007). The academic advisor as teaching: First-year tranisitons. In M.S. Hunter, B. McCalla-Wriggins, & E.R. White (Eds.), Academic advising: New insights for teaching and learning in the first year. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina. Hagen, P.L., & Jordan, P. (2008). Theoretical foundations of academic advising. In In V.N. Gordon, W.R. Habley, and T.J. Grites’ (Eds.), Academic Advising: A Comprehensive Handbook (2nd edition). San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Hunter, M.S., Henscheid, J., and Mouton, M. (2007). Collaborations beyond the advising office. In M.S. Hunter, B. McCalla-Wriggins, & E.R. White (Eds.), Academic advising: New insights for teaching and learning in the first year. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina. King, M.C. (2008). Organization of academic advising services. In V.N. Gordon, W.R. Habley, and T.J. Grites’ (Eds.), Academic Advising: A Comprehensive Handbook (2nd edition). San Francisco: Jossey Bass. McDonald, M., & Steele, G.E. (2007). Adapting learning theory to advising first-year undecided students. . In M.S. Hunter, B. McCalla-Wriggins, & E.R. White (Eds.), Academic advising: New insights for teaching and learning in the first year. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina. Nealy, M. (2005). Key to student retention—strong advising. Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, 22(14), 12. O’Banion, T. (1994). An academic advising model. NACADA Journal, 14(2), pp. 10-16. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2009). Undergraduate Studies Retention SWOT Team, Fall 2009 committee report. Greensboro, NC.

Heather Searcy Dana Saunders hakern2@uncg.edu dfsaunde@uncg.edu

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