The Provost’s Office at Grand Valley State University has conducted a “University Wide Academic Assessment” on undergraduate advising services based on the feedback from students, faculty, staff and administrators. As a result, colleges involved are already discussing changes they could make to improve students’ advising experience.

The assessment, which began in the summer 2011, has just completed its preliminary phase. Once all phases are complete, the provost office will present its findings and use the assessment to improve or enhance services in the advising departments, said Nancy Giardina, assistant vice president of Academic Affairs at GVSU.

“A majority of students are very pleased with services in general in Academic Advising,” Giardina said. “However, we are waiting for the entire assessment report (to be completed).”

Giardina also said the academic advising department has increased resources and personnel over the past six years.

“We have allocated more space and locations for academic advising, and we are increasing use of technologies in addition,” she said, adding that ooVoo is one of the most recent advancements.

Giardina said the student-advisor ratio varies with each academic department, and so does satisfaction.

The responsibilities of being an advisor are not just to pick classes, but to help students consider co-curricular options outside of class, such as internships. Faculty advisors can also help students connect with resources to make progress on and complete their degrees in a timely manner. Advisors in any field should also work with students to see if they are hitting the right landmarks throughout their entire college careers, such as signing up for the appropriate classes for upcoming semesters. All of these factors are based on a student’s wants, needs and circumstances.

College of Health Professions’ Student Services director, Darlene Zwart, said three academic advisors in the college have been able to meet with over 700 students over the course of each semester.

“In terms of complaints the main concern expressed by our students is that we do not offer enough academic advising appointments in Allendale,” Zwart said. “We currently have access to an office two days a week in the Connection but it isn’t enough for us to serve all the students in a timely manner.”

Zwart said she realizes visiting the downtown campus for health-related advising appointments involves a time commitment, and her hope is to obtain a “permanent satellite office in Allendale” with a CHP academic advisor or faculty member who is available for students five days a week.

Paul Plotkowski, dean of the Padnos College of Engineering and Computing, said the assessment conducted confirmed a need to be more proactive in the department’s advising process.

“We’ve started to more heavily invest in early outreach, even before students get to campus,” Plotkowski said. “We started this with our incoming freshman students and are now in the process of integrating more proactive advising with transfer and international students.”

The dean described the students’ feedback as “overwhelmingly positive,” and said he knows that not all students come in and take advantage of what is available, but those that do often come back multiple times to discuss academic plans and career and life goals.

Mike Messner, director of the Student Academic Success Center, which specializes with pre-major students at GVSU, said he believes these students make good use of his office.

“It is always important to start working with one’s advisor early in one’s academic career to start strategically planning educational goals and narrowing down major and career possibilities,” Messner said.

He added that students have an overall positive view about pre-major advisors in the office.

“I often hear that students are appreciative of the time staff takes in working with them as individuals and assisting in guiding them to resources that help in their educational planning,” he said.

The university assessment is not yet complete, but strides for improvement in academic advising will be taken once the assessment is reviewed and have already been considered in some colleges.

For more information about academic advising, visit the website at www.gvsu.edu/advising.

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