Holistic, Wrap-Around, Advising Model to Support Student Success and Professional Development

The College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) at Syracuse University enrolls about 1500 full-time undergraduate students in 10 degree programs including Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering and Computer Science. Achieving high retention and graduation rates in these disciplines has been a challenge both at Syracuse and nationally. In 2013, our college was awarded a grant through the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of a special funding focus of the Stem Talent Expansion Program (STEP). The special program was called Graduate 10k+, and the goal was to increase the number of engineering graduates nationally by 10,000 over five years. The title of our project was Enhancing the Climate for Persistence and Success in Engineering (ECliPSE). Our work focused on enhancing the climate in the classroom, through faculty development in teaching and learning, and outside of the classroom, through development of support systems for students in our college, including an overhaul of our advising system. When the proposal was submitted in 2012 the 1^st year retention rate in our college was averaging around 84%, the 2^nd year retention rate was averaging around 73%, and the 6 year graduation rate was averaging around 53% compared to 82% for the institution as a whole.

In fall 2013, a small group of first year-advisors in ECS started working more intentionally with students on academic probation by meeting regularly with them throughout the semester to identify the challenges they faced that resulted in their poor academic performance. They provided ongoing skill development and strategies for navigating those challenges and helped them improve their overall performance and experience in ECS. Students who actively engaged in this recovery program saw marked improvement in their performance, many getting cleared from probation at the conclusion of the semester. While they were sometimes reluctant to participate, ultimately, their feedback and experience was generally positive. We began to wonder how implementing this type of intervention might improve the general student experience if executed more proactively, more holistically, and on a larger scale. Over the course of two years, we used our academic recovery program as a model, along with quantitative and qualitative data, to draft a new advising strategy. We were able to garner significant institutional investment in our plans and by the fall of 2018 we had hired six new full-time professional advisors, in addition to two existing staff members, in order to implement our model.

Our advising model takes an expertise approach by providing students with a team of three advisors for all aspects of their success. Their Faculty advisor provides guidance on curriculum, helps demonstrate how a students’ coursework connects to their future career aspirations, and provides professional mentoring. The students’ Career advisor assists in their career preparation and job readiness skills, helps them secure internships and research opportunities, and provides opportunities for professional networking. And the students’ Success advisor supports the students’ overall success by helping them identify personal, academic, and professional goals, provides guidance and skill-development for reaching those goals, and provides ongoing, holistic support. This advising team collaborates to provide wrap-around support to our students and the same set of three advisors stays with each student from matriculation to graduation.

Our enhanced advising model was implemented in the Fall of 2018 and after only one year, we saw marked improvement in the student experience in our College. Student engagement with advising in the College significantly increased during the first year of the new model. Our professional advisors (Career and Success) held over 4,500 individual student appointments in 2018-19 and facilitated an increased number of small group workshops. We saw that many first year students engaged with their Success advisors, in particular, much more frequently than required (once a semester), likely due to the connections that students were making with their advisors. In addition, all students are required to meet with their faculty advisor at least once a semester in order to register for the following term.

These connections and the ability of our advisors to intervene early and often in meaningful ways with students translated into a significant improvement in many areas in just the first year of implementation. Our first-year retention rate of 95% tied the highest first year retention rate in the history of our college, which was 11 percentage points higher than the previous year. Additionally, the number of first year students on academic probation after their first semester and first year dropped significantly. The number of first year students on academic probation after their first semester also dropped from 7.6% to 5% and the number of students on academic probation after their first year dropped from 15.3% to 10.9%. In Fall 2018, 76% of students who participated in the academic recovery program were cleared from probation, compared to 45% the previous fall semester. In Spring 2019, 67% of participants were cleared compared to 51% the previous spring semester. In 2018, we saw a significant increase in the number of students reporting that they had accepted a job offer prior to graduation (up 40 percentage points) and we saw a doubling of returning students reporting that they had an internship. This is likely due to increased reporting and the impact of earlier focus on career preparation, all facilitated by the connections built between students and their career advisors. We anticipate continued improvement as student-advisor relationships mature and we continue to assess and develop the model.

An ECS Advising Experience survey was administered in Spring 2020, after students were already studying remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This survey assessed the extent to which it was easy to schedule an appointment with each type of advisor, each advisor took the time to listen to student concerns, each advisor demonstrated knowledge in their area, each advisor provided helpful guidance, and the likelihood that the student would schedule additional appointments (outside of required meetings) with each advisor. Overall, 62.5% of students gave favorable ratings to their career advisor, 73.1% gave favorable ratings to their success advisor, and 80.1% gave favorable ratings to their faculty advisor. High levels of student satisfaction were also reflected in open-ended comments, including:

• I am very impressed and overall beyond satisfied with my experience with ECS advising. I greatly appreciate the support of my advisors.
• My overall experience with advising in ECS has been positive. I have been able to interact with each of [my advisors] a few times throughout the time I have been at SU. I like how easily accessible the advisors are.
• I have had a good overall experience with Advising in ECS! My advisors seem to truly care about me and my academic and professional success.
• Advising was helpful toward my academic success. Everyone is passionate about helping me succeed...I think the more hands-on approach and activities help students a lot.

Student retention research shows that many factors contribute to a students’ likelihood of persisting and graduating. Some of these are academic advising, social connections, engagement with faculty and staff, and overall student support. Our advising model addresses all of these factors through collaborative efforts to provide our students with wrap-around support from matriculation to graduation. Early data indicates that this model is effective in supporting student success, retention, and career development. Additional data is needed to determine the impact on graduation rates; however, our four and six-year graduation rates have historically tracked with our two-year retention rates, so it is reasonable to expect that graduation rates will increase as first and second year retention rates increase. We recognize that this advising model is more resource intensive than what we were previously able to achieve without institutional investment. But the return on the investment has been tremendous and these high impact practices have already had dividends in terms of retention rates, probation rates, career outcomes and in enhancing the overall climate for persistence and success in our college.