Much of the work for the group this past month has shifted to the Title III Grant.  Several meetings with John McClain discussing details of how the funds will be used resulted in direct cost analysis of four specific Activities associated with Evergreen’s grant proposal/application.  John is waiting for the application deadline to be published.  The group believes it is ahead of schedule to meet the deadline when it’s made public.

Preliminary discussions of the group’s Holistic Advising Summer Institute session(s) have begun.  Professional Academic Advisors as well as others within and outside of IESS will be invited to participate in session planning.

To keep staff informed of the status of HA, Therese will be sending ACA and Admissions an update email of what’s taken place with HA planning.

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Most of the recent work from the Holistic Advising (H.A.) group has focused on preparing to submit application for the Title III Grant.  John McLain received notice of the date in which to have our application completed and submitted.  The team will amp up its activities beginning next week to meet the time frame to expand conversations with other stakeholders of Evergreen as they may be critical in providing valuable information needed as part of the grant application process. 

The H.A. group presented an update on the grant application process to Senior Leadership on April 8, 2021 and received welcomed feedback from those in attendance.

Aligning professional advisors with CAT Leaders and Conveners is one of the high impact practices outlined in the H.A. proposal now in effect.  Professional advisors have been assigned to at lease two Paths with which they are expected to closely work and the students studying in such disciples.  Students selecting the “Create You Own” Path will be assigned to a professional advisor by alphabet.

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The Holistic Advising team continues to meet bi-weekly, revising the proposal to include feedback solicited from various constituencies of the College.  One of those stakeholders is Evergreen faculty.  As a followup to its Faculty Meeting presentation, the Holistic Advising group participated in Mentor Day.  The session afforded faculty and others to dive deeper into how Holistic Advising can improve student outcomes.  Further, participants were able to ask questions of the team and hear results of the questionnaire faculty were asked to complete prior to the February 2021 Faculty Meeting.

The Title III Grant preparations continues to be a work in progress.  The team recently included the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment in its discussions to ensure it has relevant statistical data to incorporate into the proposal.  The group has had lengthy conversations concerning incorporating technology to support Holistic Advising initiatives as a key piece of the grant proposal.  Evergreen’s IT department has been consulted on this issue and will continue to provide support where needed.  Banner 9 Self Service Advising Notes Project is one piece of technology that will be included in the proposal and a Holistic Advising team member is part of that working group.

Lastly, as part of the larger New Academic Directions discussion, a representative of the Holistic Advising group recently met with with CAT leaders concerning Paths and how to frame Holistic Advising and Paths intersections.

The team, Cholee Gladney, Therese Saliba, Andy Corn, and Allen Thompson has spent the past three weeks presenting their work on Holistic Advising to multiple audiences with plans to incorporate, where appropriate, feedback from the presentations into the plan.  These audiences include: the Division of Inclusive Excellence and Student Success, Senior Leadership, Student Affairs Design work group, Campus Leadership Group, and Faculty.

The second Coaching professional development session with Dr. Christina Downey, Indiana University, Kokomo was well received.  Participants were presented with real-life Evergreen case scenarios to reflect upon and discuss in small groups, how to resolve issues faced by Greeners using content presented by Dr. Downey.

The group continues to meet regularly with John McLain to develop content used for submitting a Title III Grant application.

IESS will host Part II of the Mentoring/Advising/Coaching workshop with Christina Downey from Indiana University, Kokomo for professional development on January 25, 2021.  Several Evergreen specific coaching case studies will be presented and analyzed allowing participants to examine unique scenarios of the Evergreen student.

In the coming weeks, the team will make presentations at various meetings: Sr. Leadership (1/21), SALLT (1/27), and a Faculty meeting (TBD).

Planning continues to move forward in the pursuit of the Title III Grant with the main focus of the grant funds earmarked for technology review, assessment, and support of under-served and first generation student populations.

Additionally, the group is considering a preliminary design for a Holistic Advising Summer Institute.

IESS invited consultant Christina Downey to facilitate a seminar entitled “Crash Course in Coaching” on Dec. 10, 2020—nearly 40 cross-divisional staff and faculty participated in the session. A follow-up session is on the calendar for early January 2021.

Therese Saliba, Cholee Gladney, Andy Corn, and Allen Thompson are formulating plans to present their work on Holistic Advising to Senior Leadership in January and to the Faculty in February.  The team is  also exploring best of practices to coordinate technology system(s) for Holistic Advising.

The team is in the process of designing a pilot plan focusing on historically underserved students with lower retention rates in hopes of improving these students’ success.   Additionally, they are seeking a Title III Grant to aid funding priorities for the project.

In depth discussions have begun to further explore the engagement of faculty in the role of advising, in coordination with professional advising partners.