The Bridge Team: A Model for Collaboration between Faculty and Student Services

Who are you? (A quick poll)

The Bridge Team at LCCC In short: we are a cross- campus team of people interested in, and concerned about, the quality of academic advising for our students. Why we’re here today: we want to share with you what we’ve done and hear from other campuses, to give you ideas for instituting your own collaborative relationships.

What do we mean by “collaborative relationships”? Collaborate = work together; bring different perspectives, ideas and solutions to the table. How are faculty, student services, and administrators working together to address challenges related to academic advising? ▫Why is this even important?

Contributing Factors Campus size Advising model used Campus culture Campus politics Other?

What kind(s) of collaborative efforts do you have, or would like to have? Why? What factors are affecting this decision/potential decision?

History of our program AQIP assessment model (formerly PEAK/North Central) Campus conversations in 2008 showed this was the #1 topic of concern campus-wide It became our first project in 2008 The Action Team recommended that a group be created that fosters communication and sets/influences policy around advising…but no other guidelines (completed 2009) So here we are!

The Bridge Team How members were chosen and who currently sits on it Attended a NACADA Institute in 2010 Goals from that year ▫New faculty advisor training; in-service; marketing campaign; faculty survey; advisor award program. What has been accomplished so far ▫…not as much as we’d like.

Where are we now? Identifying the pitfalls; or, what we wish we’d known then ▫We wish we’d had a clearer idea from “above” on what our objectives were/should be. ▫We were under pressure initially to get going and offer training rather than set mission/vision/goals…wish we’d done that first. ▫We wish we’d had a better idea of our administrative support (or lack thereof). ▫We would recommend that you never give up – keep moving forward, even if these obstacles seem immovable. Our group has decided we are committed to the betterment of advising on our campus, no matter what is happening externally.

Where are we now? Current projects we are working on ▫Getting campus advisors trained on eAdvising (record-keeping component of our student data system) and marketing its presence to students ▫Online resources for advisors and students ▫Advisor training ▫Survey students on their needs and thoughts on areas of improvement around advising

Where are we now? Where we hope to go in the next year or two ▫Not exactly sure…but we’re working on it! It could involve: ▫Proposing changes to our advising organizational structure ▫Continuing to find ways to make the “hand-off” from student services to instruction more seamless and understandable to students ▫Creating a campus-wide advisor training program

What are, or might be, the challenges at your college for putting together a collaborative team? What’s going for you, or what has worked well? (Build on your strengths, don’t focus on your weaknesses!)

Take-Aways What have we learned here today? Any closing comments or questions?

Dave Gaer Jean Zlomke Chrissy Renfro Laramie County Community College