The Scenario

Historical Context

California State University, Chico is one of 23 California State University campuses. Located in northern California, CSU, Chico serves over 15,000 students. With a general fund budget of over $150 million, the university employs roughly 2000 faculty and staff members to help provide its students with a high quality affordable education.

A key component of an affordable education is graduation in a timely manner. Currently, it is possible to complete any of the over 100 undergraduate degrees offered at CSU, Chico in 4 years. Academic Advising Programs are in place to provide students with the resources they need to do just that. To graduate in 4 years, students are encourage to develop a plan that lays out the courses they will need to complete their graduation requirements. The plan is generally a “work in progress” that changes from semester to semester based upon the availability of the classes needed and the student’s changing academic goals. A variety of resources, are available to assist students in developing this plan. These include:

· The University Catalog

· The Class Schedule

· General Education Advisors at the Advising Office

· Major/Minor Advisors accessed via the appropriate department

· Other students

These resources and their success have become profoundly important to the University as a whole.

In recent times, budget cuts have brought the issue of students graduating in four years to the forefront. CSUs are no longer being paid on a per full-time enrollment basis so students lingering beyond their allotted four years don’t add to the budget. They simply force the school to stretch their dollars further. The Chancellor’s office has increased its pressure on the CSU campuses to get their students through in four years. The universities cannot afford to turn away new students to accommodate students who don’t graduate in a timely manner nor can they tolerate increasing class sizes.

Problem Statement

Students are not graduating in four years because of advising

Despite the increasing focus on graduating students in four years, the majority of students at CSU, Chico are not making it through in a timely manner. For students entering the Computer Science department as freshmen from 1995 to 1999, the percentage of students graduating in 4 years was 6.8. Clearly, CSU, Chico is not meeting the demands of the Chancellor’s office. Although it is certainly not the case for all students who do not graduate in 4 years, it is our assertion that some subset of these students miss the 4 year timeline because of erroneous or inadequate advising.

Some Students lack awareness of the need for advising or the advising resources available to them

Some students do not have awareness of the need for advising or of the advising resources available to them. As a result they pick courses with little or no planning. Lack of planning easily leads to failure to complete a lower division major class or taking a pre-requisite at the wrong time. These little advising mistakes early on in a student’s academic career are costly often leading to an extended stay at CSU, Chico.

The University Catalog and Class Schedule are inadequate advising tools

The University Catalog provides students with information about both general education and major/minor course requirements. The Class Schedule, published annually, provides information about the courses scheduled for each semester and intersession. Both the University Catalog and the Class Schedule are available in printed format and on the internet (linked to the CSU, Chico website.) Students can advise themselves using these tools to create their plan and a schedule of the courses they will take in the upcoming semesters. However, these resources are inadequate. These resources do not include the kind of advising tips that can be provided by an advisor. These informal advising tips may include the selection of a general education elective that would double count in the major, or avoiding taking a pair of courses in the same semester because the workload would hamper success. Information like this is invaluable to a student building their academic plan and concerned about graduating in a timely manner. These resources are also of very little help to transfer students trying to determine which courses they need to take and which courses have already been fulfilled by transferred coursework. Finally sifting through the course catalog while trying to create a 4 year plan is very time consuming and is especially so if the student is attempting to weigh the benefits or disadvantages of different course selections.

There is no single advisor for students that covers both general education and major/minor requirements

Advising for general education, major and minor courses is handled by different advisors. Assistance with general education requirements is provided through the Advising Office. The Advising Office currently employs 4 full-time Academic Advisors and 6 part-time Advisors. Students can make an appointment or utilize the services of the office on a drop-in basis. Students seeking advising in their major or minor must visit another advisor. They are directed to their respective Academic Department. In the case of students majoring or minoring in Computer Science, the role of advisor to undergraduate students is shared among 9 faculty members. For students majoring or minoring in Computer Information Systems, advising is shared between two faculty members. The same is true for students majoring or minoring in applied computer graphics. Advising in the major/minor is done via appointment or on a drop-in basis during the respective faculty member’s office hours. For students double-majoring or minoring in an area from a different academic department, advising for the second major or the minor would require the student to access faculty advising resources in the other respective Academic Department. This easily adds up to 2 or 3 advising appointments to create one semester schedule.

Faculty take time away from their other responsibilities to do advising

No compensation is provided to the advising faculty either via a lighter class load or an increase in salary for the time spent advising. Faculty are forced to either work additional hours to fit advising into their schedules or the University loses the productivity of faculty teaching or doing research during the time they spend advising students. This is not a good use of the University’s resources at a time when getting the most for their money is vitally important.

Flow Charts and 4 Year Plans are inflexible

The flow charts and “4 Year Plans” available to students are only helpful if the student is lucky enough to fit the single scenario provided. A transfer student or a student facing scheduling or work load issues quickly finds these advising aids inflexible and more trouble then help.

Advising help is hard to find during peak advising periods

Students frequently find it difficult to interface with faculty and other advisors during the peak advising time periods when all students are trying to schedule next semester’s classes or add and drop courses. Long lines during office hours or drop-in periods discourage or make it impossible for students to get the assistance they need when they need it.

Tools to assist advisors are lacking

To adequately advise a student, the advisor must access the student’s transcript, determine what courses that were transferred in count toward the courses needed, check the current course catalog to determine what courses are offered during the Spring and Fall semesters, review the course catalog relevant to the student’s admission to the college to determine the courses required, and finally check the current class schedule to see what is offered when. This is quite a timely task that involves interfacing with multiple applications and/or paper resources. Faculty, who already face a full-time schedule of responsibilities are hard pressed to find this time for each student needing advising. Even full-time advisors in the advising office don’t have this kind of time to devote to each and every student on the campus. To make matters worse, California’s current budget woes will likely only exacerbate the problem as faculty and staff serving as advisors get cut to keep CSU, Chico running within budget.

The Solution

The Chancellor’s office has required each of the CSU campuses to submit a proposal to increase the number of students graduating in 4 years. CSU, Chico has reviewed the issue and in an effort to address each of the problems highlighted during their initial study has decided to develop an interactive, online advising solution to save advisors time, allow students to get self-service advising, and get students graduating in four years. The system will be integrated into CSU, Chico’s pipeline, frequently used by students. This prominent placement will help bring awareness to advising. The system will bring together the information from student records, Assist, the Course Catalog, the Class Schedule, and informal advising tips. This will create one stop shopping for the student and advisor that is available 24 hours a day. The system will have views tailored to the student’s specific situation so no more weeding through irrelevant information or 4 year plans. Time spent planning for students and advisors should decrease significantly and faculty can get back to doing what they do best - teaching and researching.

Your Role

You have been selected to be included in the student focus group that will help generate the requirements for the online, interactive advising system. Be sure to come prepared to provide input. It may help to review your past experiences with academic advisors during your career at Chico State or to think about strategies for picking classes that have or have not worked for you in the past.