COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND

HUMAN SERVICESAdvising Campaign for Spring

2015

Sara McConvilleAcademic AdvisorCollege of Health and Human ServicesUniversity of North Carolina at CharlotteMay 19, 2015

CHOOSING OUR TARGET GROUP

Our pre-majors apply to the upper division of their major in or around their 3rd or 4th semester.

Our university has now started focusing more on the 4th semester student by incorporating degree mapping and the Student Success Collaborative to assist moderately performing students who are borderline in matriculating into CHHS majors.

Our goal with this particular campaign is to reach the students who are not matriculating or are at risk of not being accepted into the upper division of their major.

OUR TARGET GROUP

Given our university’s new focus on 4th semester students we chose to focus our campaign on that particular group of students.

Target Group:Currently enrolled pre-major students who have between 45-60 credits, are high risk,

and have less than a 2.5 GPA

OUR INTERVENTION

Our Target Group resulted in a total of: 35 students:

25 Pre-Kinesiology majors 8 Pre-Social Work majors 2 Pre-Public Health majors

We split the students up between the 3 advisors in our office which resulted in the following:Advisor 1: 12 StudentsAdvisor 2: 12 StudentsAdvisor 3: 11 Students

OUR PLAN

Given our practical student numbers, we chose to send individualized emails to each student consisting of details about their current academic standing, success markers they have or have not met within their chosen pre-major and any other personal affects we found in our university-wide database for advising notes.

We were also able to spend quality time with each student and engage in intrusive advising.

By steering away from ‘blanket emails’, we feel the students felt more compelled and more of an obligation to respond to us.

OUR ACTION PLAN

Plan: Completed

Advisor 1 email all 12 students Email Response rate: 6 responses

Advisor 2 email all 12 students Email Response rate: 8 responses

Advisor 3 email all 11 students Email Response rate: 7 responses

EXAMPLE EMAILS:

Hi Raven, You are receiving this email because the university has begun utilizing a system for early alert targeting to help students make the most of their academic career at UNC Charlotte. Based on the reporting for Spring semester, you have been identified as potentially at risk in your major due to one or more of the following reasons: your high number of credits without being admitted to a major, number of failed or withdrawn courses, or grades in courses necessary to succeed in your chosen field of study. I know that when we previously met, you were thinking about possibly changing your major and/or considering some community college options as you didn’t think the Social Work was a good fit for you. Are you still thinking about this? Is there anything I can do to help you with this or point you in the direction of resources towards your classes still this semester? I look forward to meeting with you soon to discuss your plan going forward to help you succeed in your chosen major at UNC Charlotte. Please let me know a few days/times that would work best for you to come in. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Thank you, Andrea L. Swintal, M.S. | Academic Advisor

EXAMPLE EMAILS:

Good morning. I am contacting you in regards to your current academic standing and major status. Currently, you are a Pre-Kinesiology Major with a 2.36 GPA. There is a CHHS Advising hold that has been placed on your records for the Spring 2015 semester, but our records indicate that you have yet to meet with a CHHS Academic Advisor to have the hold lifted. Our office wants to ensure that you are aware of major requirements and have an academic plan in place for Fall 2015. Here are some suggestions:

Increase cumulative GPA to 2.5 to apply for upper division EXER/ATRN. Meet with an advisor to go over EXER/ATRN application, requirements, and Fall 2015

registration Change major if you are no longer interested in PKNS.

Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you.

Shawnee Garvin, M.Ed | Academic Advisor

EXAMPLE EMAILS:

Good Afternoon Melvis, I hope this email finds you doing well as the Spring 2015 semester comes to a closing. I wanted to touch base with you because I see that you are currently designated as a Pre-Kinesiology major as well as a Pre-Communication Studies major. From the looks of what you have registered for the Fall 2015 semester, you are no longer pursuing Pre-Kinesiology as your major. If this is correct, I am happy to remove Pre-Kinesiology as your major so it will only list you as Pre-Communication. However, if you are still pursuing Pre-Kinesiology I would like to meet with you so we can sit down and come up with a plan of action for how we will get your GPA back up to a 2.5 so you are eligible to apply for upper division and what pre-requisites you still have left to complete. Please let me know if and how I can be of assistance to you. Have a good weekend! Sara B. McConville, M. Ed. | Academic Counselor

OUR ACTION PLAN

Plan: Completed Advisor 1 set up individual appointments with all 12 students Response rate: 7 appointments scheduled

Advisor 2 set up individual appointments with all 12 students Response rate: 9 appointments scheduled

Advisor 3 set up individual appointments with all 11 students Response rate: 8 appointments scheduled

RESULTS

24 out of our total target group of 35 students met with their advisor and discussed plans for moving forward. Per these discussions:

13 students are moving forward with plans to change their major out of CHHS to another identified UNCC major.

7 students are currently retaking courses to raise their GPA and are planning on applying to their program in the next academic year.

4 students are transferring from UNCC to a community college and/or other university.

LESSONS FROM ONE-ON-ONE APPOINTMENTS

Students who are considered ‘High Risk 4th semester pre-majors’ are not fully aware of how out of sequence they are or that their timeline to graduation is getting longer and longer.

They viewed changing their major as a sign of weakness or failure. They lacked the courage and motivation to seek out another major/college because they felt as if they couldn’t be successful anywhere.

A majority of these students felt ‘lost’ and ‘forgotten about’ until we reached out to them.

They lacked awareness of the resources available to them on campus that could have helped them with personal/social issues they were experiencing before they became insurmountable.

They were not knowledgeable of other major options available at UNCC that could be a better fit.

RECOMMENDATIONS Hold a Focus Group with each of the 24

students who participated in this campaign to learn how this experience affected them. This would also be a way to learn how students prefer to be contacted or what about that contact causes them to respond or take action.

Perform a Targeted Advising Campaign for this particular group of students every academic year.

Use the Success Markers within each of our four majors to target struggling students before they reach their 3rd and 4th semester.

Reach out to students to ‘check in’ more often throughout the academic year and not just during pre-registration periods.