Who 'owns' student success at an institution of higher education? Which unit is responsible for student outcomes? The answer to those questions at most universities is complicated. The evidence-based programmes, processes and interventions institutions implement to bolster student success are rarely 'communications' initiatives, but they all…

Although Virginia Gordon framed an effective model for career advising, student respondents in national surveys continue to report unmet needs. Several national organizations have called for further integration of academic and career advising. Previous scholars, however, have not fully acknowledged environmental constraints or provided a recent…

Academic advisors in higher education interact and engage with students in various academic disciplines from freshman year through graduation, and have the greatest opportunity to impact students' sense of belonging to their universities. During a time of global hardship in education, it is crucial to equip frontline student-facing personnel with…

This article highlights a two-year institution's efforts to deliver personalized guidance and direction to students, providing essential support resources in hope of facilitating meaningful connections that will lead to increased enrollment, persistence, retention, and three-year graduation rates. The project includes efforts by student services…

University as an institution has shown structural and functional uniformity across historical periods and cultures, despite distinct evolution in response to local needs. Historically, social norms, political stability and economic concerns were the variables that determined the objectives of higher education. Today, normative concerns about…

Virginia Gordon contributed considerable and comprehensive work in the field of academic advising, including writings on topics ranging from the history of academic advising to her groundbreaking research on the undecided student population. Her model for training and developing new academic advisors stood out as exemplary. This article focuses on…

The Latino and Adult Student Success (LASS) Academy is a multi-year initiative administered by CAEL (the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning) focused on supporting Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in their efforts to improve outcomes for adult and Latino adult learners. In its first phase, from 2018 through 2021, the LASS Academy…

The critical thinking process of professional reasoning underlies academic advising practice. Although an essential component to effective advising, professional reasoning is rarely explicitly taught. Tenets of clinical judgment models routinely applied to the development of reasoning in health professionals, specifically clinical competence and…

This article investigates best practices in instructional design to assist in creating a multimedia learning object to supplement a face-to-face sophomore seminar. The course requires the completion of a degree plan that adheres to complex advising rules, creating stress for many students as well as causing a very advising-heavy load for…

The approach to motivational interviewing discussed in this book will be useful to student affairs professionals and academic advisors working in a variety of higher education positions. It begins in Chapter 1 by providing a description and a brief history of MI, noting some of its connections to counseling and social psychology. Chapter 2…

Servicing online degree-seeking students using a one-stop student service advising model that is both individualized and relevant contributes significantly to students' positive experience with the university and supports overall student success. Through its development of a new advising dimension, the Division of Online and Professional Studies…

This program profile describes a restructure of the PhD exam intended to enhance graduate-level instruction and advisement within the Rhetoric and Composition program at Georgia State University. We explain how a mix of institutional constraints and mentorship opportunities drove revisions to our doctoral exams and processes of doctoral…

This article describes the strategies employed to make a university-wide commitment to student success, persistence, and graduation rates. The shift in culture has made student success everybody's business, and there has been a high level of buy-in to the enterprise. The predictive tools that have been developed have given focus to serving those…

Investing in community colleges is a central part of the Biden administration's education agenda, with the goal of strengthening America's middle class and opening the benefits of education to all Americans. CCRC has conducted 25 years of research on how community colleges can more effectively educate students and set them up to successfully…

Students' level of engagement with general education and their grasp of its goals are a problem at many institutions. Academic advising, which is often viewed as having the "signpost" function of directing students to the completion of their course requirements, has the potential instead to be a place where students learn to approach…