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Published: April 14th 2011
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University of Connecticut
Monday 11 April 2011
The University of Connecticut has around 16,000 students.
Met with Student Support Counsellors who are responsible for the TRIO program. The program is designed to provide access to "First in family" and low income students. The program is funded through Government Grants and some University funding. The application process is similar to Access Melbourne, however, this program has been running for over 40 years and is well developed.They are initially put into a 6 week summer bridging program which provides them with 6 credit points (2 subjects). The students are housed in university colleges with all food and academic programs supplied. The cost to the student is $61 for the 6 weeks.
There are usually about 150 students who undertake the program and they are supported through tutoring and advising throughout the 6 weeks.
The counsellors provide advise about the course,financial and personal issues.
The students continue to be supported throughout their first two years by the TRIO consellors until they are handed over to either the Department/School or ACES advisers. They can move to college or ACES advising at any time, but still maintain a relationship
with the SSS staff.
The staff receive feedback from academic staff each year and there is an early warning system across the University.
These students have also had exposure to exchange opportunities with the University of Liverpool funded by the university and government. The university also pays for the passport application.
There are Student Success Seminars and a tutoring program available to the SSS students. There is also funding available to support the students cultural experiences. For example, many of the students have never experienced going to a restaurant and being served. They may also take the students to a conference to experience this type of cultural experience.
The split model which focuses on one hand on low SES and first in family and on the other hand mainstream students from local high schools.
There is a transition program that starts in year 9, whereby students are bought into the University at least 3 times per year. They visit UConn and other colleges in the region. This outreach program is funded by the University and many times the student will not come to UConn, so it's not a recruitement program but an outreach program designed
to connect the University with the Community.
First Year Advising and Support
There are a huge number of programs available at UConn to support first year students and every day I seem to come across another one. They exist centrally, within departments and within colleges.
There are First Year Experience Classes for Freshman for credit (1 credit point). The classes are taught by professional staff in the TRIO and ACES program as well as a range of other professional staff across colleges, departments and schools. The classes last for 6 weeks for 2 hours per week, Students do have to submit assessment but it's usually a reflective piece describing their experiences during the first few weeks. Students are often picked up during this time as potentially at risk. This program is available to all Freshman stduents. All freshman students have an advising block applied until they see an adviser. The adviser may sit in a college,school or department. They may also sit centrally in the ACES or SSS program.
Students are assigned to either an ACES, SSS, or college adviser in most cases for a period of two years. At this point they would have declared
their major and would then be assigned to a Faculty (academic ) adviser within their discipline.
If a student decides to change majors then they could potentially go back to ACES for further support and counselling or be referred to another school or department.
For the professional degrees, for example Nursing with a fixed program, academic staff undertake all advising. This provides students with links to industry. Academic staff generally have around 10 to 15 advisees and teach the equivalent of 15 credits (5 subjects) over the year.
The largest college - Liberal Arts and Science, see every Freshman student to discuss their major and to schedule them into classes. They have an intake
The Health Services also have an outreach program - as this is a very closed community and as such they experience the full range of health and social issues that would be experienced in a larger town.
PEER MENTORING.
Students are involved in just about every program for first years. From assisting with the First Year Experience Seminars to running Facebook sites and English Learning Communities in the residences. Students all have access to a mentor in their Freshman year and the student gets to pick which mentor they would like based on their interests and majors.
I had an opportunity to meet with several ACES students or students who had been through the program. They were all extremely positive about their experience and valued the personal connections that the advisers made during their time with them. The ACES advisers are generalist advisers who only see undecided or 'exploratory' students. They have appointments and drop-ins and have an on-line system where they record conversations. Students are assigned to an ACES adviser and stay with that person for the full 2 years or until they move into the college.
UConnects - a program for students on probation
This program is a student run program and ensures students on probabtion are assigned to a peer adviser who will ensure that they are connected to the services available through the Academic Achievement Centre (study skills, coaching and tutoring). There is a significant amount of tutoring available to students and provided by other students.
The really interesting part of this program is that the peers who are involved in mentoring enrol into a 3 credit point subject (12.5 @ Melbourne) to undertake this mentoring. Basically this means that the stduents are paying to provide peer mentoring!
There is also a program called "Alternative Breaks' where students may undertake to be involved in a project during the summer break. For example, students travelled to New Orleans to assist those affected by the Cyclone. They ahve also been involved in a range of not-for-profit projects across the US including Habitat for Humanity.
The Connection between advising and administration.
it varies across colleges and departments but basically the Registrar's Office looks after admissions, timetabling, graduations etc. very much in the same way that we do. They rely on the schools and departments to provide them with the information and basically deal with the systems to support the processes. Policy sits centrally with the registrar.
In many cases, staff in the smaller schools/colleges do not have access to amend student records. So waivers, adds and drops are all managed by the registrar's administration unit.
College of Liberal Arts and Science
Students who enrol into any of the Liberal Arts and Science programs are assigned an adviser for a period of two years of their 4 year program. All students have an enrolment block upon commencing and must see an adviser before term starts.
Staff have a case load of around 400 students, however, there are also departmental advisers who sit inthe larger departments. For example, biology have 4 advisers in the department/school who also see students about specific discipline issues. Tehse staff assist the college advisers at the beginning of the year as it is a very busy time.
Staff in the college advising office also sit on committees, teach into the FYE subject, help with orientation and do administrative tasks such as add/drop, approvals and waivers. Staff in the departments also have an administrative workload. They take in around 1200 Freshman students per year.
Grad students are also employed to assist during the busy time.
Once a student comes to see an adviser the block is lifted for 24 hours. In this time the student must go on-line and register for classes. The University blocks all returning students at this time so that they do not have to deal with enquiries from both new and returning students.
They have a monthly meeting with departmental advisers and other staff from ACES etc. to network and share information. The departmenal advisers report to the Head of Department and not the College. This is similar in part to the way that we meet with the AP managers, however, they are not advising.
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