The Office of Academic Advising continued to attend Guided Pathways Institutes during the Spring and Fall 2019 semesters. A. Scalia, Academic Advisor/Retention Specialist, attended Institute V: Career & Transfer Pathways. T. Llosa, Director of Academic Advising, attended Institute VI: Capstone. From our participation in Guided Pathways and conversations in SOEX (SUNY Orange Experience Council), it is clear that we need to address career goals as early as our onboarding process. While career advising is addressed informally during advising conversations, we will attempt to introduce career exploration conversations at scale during the New START (New Student Advising & Registration Tutorial) and follow up with career exploration workshops throughout the Fall 2020 semester. To that end, the former Director of the Office Of Career and Internship Services, Petra Wege-Beers, delivered two interactive workshops on Career Advising to the advisors in the Division of Student Services during the Fall 2019 semester. This training will continue next year to help us better assist students during academic planning conversations. Along with career planning, a refresher on Transfer Advising was delivered to advisors in Student Services by Academic Advisor/ Retention Specialist A. Scalia. This workshop was also presented to faculty advisors through the Center for Teaching and Learning. 

To start familiarizing students with the planning feature in Degree Works, the advising team will attempt to create personalized plans of study for first semester ENG 101 ready students to gauge the usefulness of this academic planning tool. We are currently working with the IT department to test this feature of Degree Works from the students' end before introducing it to our target group next registration cycle.

Students continue to indicate in the CSI (College Student Inventory) their need for developing study skills and we continue to encourage students to utilize our Student Success videos (Student Lingo). These videos are available online and are interactive. Video topics include time management, career exploration, study tips, note taking and test taking tips.

We will continue to utilize students’ feedback to enhance the New START to deliver timely and relevant information for advising and registration. To that end, this Fall semester, a student in the Visual Communications program supported the creation of three videos as part of his practicum in his last semester at the College. These videos will be utilized in the online portion of the New START.

Hiring reception staff in Student Services Central (SSC) in Newburgh who can provide clear guidelines for advising and registration continues to be a priority to improve our students’ experience at the College. The traffic flow in Newburgh needs to mirror the one-stop model in Middletown which has proven to be successful at managing student traffic especially during peak periods.   

The Office of Academic Advising will continue to work with offices in Student Services and Academic Affairs to plan and implement intitiatives in support of the Guided Pathway model.