Meeting Students Where They Stand

In the months to come, Meeting Students Where They Stand will become a familiar term on campus as the institution develops and implements its plan to assist students achieve academic success. Heading this campus effort is Raymond Whiting, professor of political science and newly-named special assistant to the vice president for academic affairs.

Dr. Whiting prepared a preliminary retention report to assist academic and non-academic units in their planning to meet this new key University System of Georgia initiative. Announced last August by Regent Tim Shelnut, chair of the Board of Regents, retention was identified as a key initiative for the year, with a focus also on improving student progression and graduation rates, and thereby promoting student success and achievement. Each institution was given this charge. ASU has begun to implement Phase I of its retention plan.

Phase I has been divided into two goals. The first goal is to improve student advising. In order to accomplish this goal, all academic units will be asked to advise freshmen and sophomores every semester. Some units that have large amounts of majors will be asked to identify their resources and challenges to achieving this goal.

"We want them to put particular emphasis on freshmen and sophomores," says Dr. Whiting. He says that these two groups are important to reach when dealing with retention because they are most prone to transferring to other colleges and universities or in failing to achieve academically.  

The second campus goal is to enhance opportunities for interactions with students. "We want to improve the students' feelings of connectivity to the faculty, staff, and services offered at ASU," says Dr. Whiting. He also adds that this feeling of connectivity shows the students that someone really cares about their success and that they belong at ASU.

Dr. Whiting also says that the university is developing a serve list that will be a resource for units in developing their plans.

"This retention effort is a long-term process. We're committed to this, not just for the next six months, but forever," says Dr. Whiting.

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