Matt Kiernan / News Editor
Provost Carl Lovitt and President Jack Miller held a campus forum to discuss the future of the Center for Student Success that is to be ready for the fall semester.
“There are a lot of places on this campus where students are well served, but there are some who don’t receive that service for one reason or another,” said Lovitt.
The need for a new advising system sprouted from sluggish procedures and lack of a suitable place for students to obtain the information they needed for classes or other advisement.
The current advising center will be cross-training with the new center to ease the process of getting all of the new employees of advising knowledgeable of what the current employees know and make it easier for students to get the help they need. Some of the cross-training will have training for technology among other things.
One of the concerns being brought up is the need for summer class advisement for the summer semester, which is a month away.
“I think this is something the president and I have to be sensitive to,” said Lovitt.
Lovitt and the president said they want to concentrate on the future of the advising program by focusing on the summer orientation. They want the summer orientation to be a strong start for all students entering CCSU and to have them ready for the fall semester.
Members of the 11 member ad-hoc committee, which will be monitoring the process of the new advising center, could become a combination of various faculty, including members of the athletic center, school-based employees and faculty. The way they’ll be selected isn’t known, but Miller and Lovitt hope to settle the list by the end of the year.
The center will have an introductory role for students entering the university, but is planned to have a continuous role in their time at CCSU.
For the first year starting in the fall, transfer students who have an idea of what they want their major to be are going to most likely be sent to their major’s department for advising. This is to make the establishment of the center an easier process so it won’t be overwhelming for the faculty new to the system and advising.
Although from a poll taken of the faculty where 72 percent of the faculty disagreed with having the new center in place, the provost is optimistic about the idea of the center. The provost said that the center will be monitored carefully and if the system doesn’t fully work, there will be adjustments made.
The managerial faculty will be looking at past advising data and the president’s role will include finding the important factors in graduation and retention.
“I’m certain it won’t be perfect from the start,” said Miller.
The president said that questions and comments will be taken under consideration for adjustments to the system. He gave examples of how the center will know when a student is ready to enter into a major.
The administration will be looking at the biggest problems that will be faced in the creation of the center and try to solve the other problems along the way.
