As we stated in our oral presentation on November 2, our Momentum Year started last year, and we have already invested significantly in numerous initiatives that address the goals of USG’s Momentum Year plan. If we are awarded a Momentum Year Grant, our Provost has agreed to match the funds, redirecting an additional $ 10,000 to this initiative to maximize impact.  We plan to use the award (plus matching institutional funds) to actualize The Gordon Edge program to focus all of our efforts towards superior momentum and maximum impact.  As part of this new program, we plan to implement four specific new initiatives to reach a critical mass:

1. Centralize First-Year Advising

Need: A consistently excellent advising experience for first-year, Momentum Year students.

Current Situation: Currently, only first-year students with a Learning Support requirement are advised by GSC’s professional advising staff; other first-year students are advised by faculty across the college whose advising skills and commitment to excellent advising vary considerably. Although it is a difficult truth to confront, currently not all our first-year students experience the excellent advising they deserve, nor are they likely to be encouraged to follow the three tenets of the Momentum Year plan.

Solution: Further centralize our first-year advising program so that ALL first-year students are advised by highly trained professional advising staff in our Student Success Center or highly trained faculty “Advising All-Stars” supervised by the SSC professional advisors. We propose using $6,000 to hire NACADA consultants for a two-day campus visit to review our advising structure and processes. The NACADA consultants will train both the current SSC advising staff and the faculty Advising All Stars, who will be taking on bigger—and more intensive—advising loads than before. Assigning all first-year students to a smaller group of highly trained advisors will help us clearly communicate and effectively implement Momentum Year goals and objectives.

2. Restructure our Onboarding Process/New Student Orientations

Need: A measured, deliberate onboarding process that helps students make the informed choices needed for a positive start in college that includes successful completion of English, Math, and 9 focus-area hours in their first year.

Current Situation: Currently, student orientation is less than stellar. Last summer, we eliminated New Student Orientations entirely. In previous years when we did hold NSO’s, some incoming students chose majors and focus areas arbitrarily (the first choice on a drop-down menu, for example) or chose “General Studies” as a default. Because they were scheduled based on these arbitrary choices, many ended up in the wrong Area A Math class and did not take 9 hours in what would eventually become their focus area. As we know from the data presented at the Advising Academy, those types of failures seriously compromise students’ chances for success.

Solution: Completely restructure our New Student Orientations (NSO’s) to make them more engaging; to facilitate onboarding; and to give primacy to both major and career counseling so that incoming students can make informed choices about focus areas and pathways. We propose hiring and training student ambassadors to supplement current Career Services and Academic Affairs staff, to conduct informational and exploratory workshops at NSO’s , and to gather survey information from students to help with a new scheduling process (see below). We propose using $3,000 to hire four Student Ambassadors to help current professional staff with these crucial tasks at our newly revamped NSO’s.

3. Centralize Schedule-Making Process for First-Year Students

Need: A consistent, informed, centralized schedule-making process so that all first-year students enroll in English, an Area A Math class, 9 hours in their focus area, and 30 hours overall in that first year.

Current Situation: Last summer, with the elimination of NSO’s, we allowed incoming students to make their own schedules with the help of some online advising tools and a few supervised “registration events.” In the past, we did make first-year students’ schedules for them, but those schedules were based on limited and insufficient information gathered from a one-page online survey students filled out. Students were then allowed the opportunity to change those schedules at NSO’s during mass schedule-change events supervised by faculty whose knowledge of first-year advising varied greatly (see “Centralize First-Year Advising”). We suspect that neither of these practices was effective in meeting Momentum Year goals, particularly the 9 hours in a focus area and 30-total-hours goals.

Solution: The First-Year Advising Staff will work over the summer to construct first-semester students’ schedules, after they have attended a completely restructured New Student Orientation, with intensive major and career counseling designed to help them choose a focus area. After such counseling at the new NSO’s, Academic Affairs staff and student workers will gather the relevant student information that the First-Year Advising Staff will use to develop personalized, sequenced one-year (two-semester) schedules of 30+ total hours that include English, the appropriate Area A Math course, and 9 hours in the student’s area of focus. After receiving their schedules, students may change them only after making an appointment with a member of the First-Year Advising Staff. We will need $8,000 for faculty stipends to help with the schedule-making process in the summer.

4. Facilitate Even Earlier Onboarding

Need: As many students as possible receiving full benefit of onboarding/orientation processes.

Current Situation: Serving a low socioeconomic area and attracting a high number of first-generation students, we tend to get students who apply late—sometimes very late—and thus miss the onboarding processes we currently offer; some even miss the first few days of class as they frantically tend to the issues that confront every first-year student: financial aid, housing, medical records, and so on. Also, because they come late, these students receive the worst schedules—the “leftovers.”

Solution: Develop and implement an early onboarding program that educates students and parents in our immediate service area about college practices, procedures, and necessities. “College 101” seminars will be delivered on a regular basis in area high schools by Admissions Office staff, aided by trained faculty and Academic Affairs staff.  We propose using $3,000 for training and stipends for this initiative.