1. 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, Marriott Downtown, Salon J

2. Who’s in the room?

3. 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
retention rate = 77.31%

4. 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

5. 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%)

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

7. What the Literature Tells Us

8. 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

9. SFO’s Exploratory Advising Model2
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

10. 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

11. Advisor/Instructor Partnership Model
Advisors

12. 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

13. UNCG Explorers Living Learning Community

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2009). Undergraduate Studies Retention SWOT Team, Fall 2009 committee report. Greensboro, NC.

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

19. Thank you for joining us today!
Please remember to complete your online evaluation following the conference.
See you in Los Angeles in 2019!