Implementing a Data-Informed Advising Model

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In this episode, I’m talking with Allison Chase Padula, Assistant Provost for Student Success at Roger Williams University. Roger Williams University is a liberal arts college in Bristol, Rhode Island.

We discuss how this liberal arts institution navigates the enrollment cliff, mental health crisis, and enduring impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. We also talk about their transition from a faculty advising model to a first-year professional advising model and how student success analytics and intelligent case management software enable faculty and staff to deliver proactive student support.

Their innovative approach ensures that all students succeed while ensuring faculty aren’t stretched too thin. To do this, faculty and professional advisors use actionable analytics to provide proactive support and create an environment where all students can be successful.

Show Notes:

[2:10] – Allison shares her background in higher education and her current role at Roger Williams University.
[3:47] – Roger Williams University is a Liberal Arts institution, but it offers something unique.
[4:55] – There are demographic changes on the horizon, and they are trying to plan for it.
[6:27] – The pandemic left institutions with many big questions.
[8:02] – At about the same time as the pandemic, Roger Williams was working on their vision and strategic planning.
[9:55] – Student success is a key component of their strategic planning and is prominent in their vision.
[11:01] – Allison shares how each component in the strategic planning has aligned many other initiatives that are making a difference.
[12:14] – Allison describes some of the services they offer for first-year students and the extra support they need.
[13:39] – At Roger Williams, they offer seminars that help explain things to first-year students, and they have moved to a first-year professional advising model.
[14:57] – Civitas gives staff the tools to advise these first-year students best.
[16:27] – After their first year, students move to a different advisor that gives them the preparation for their later years in the institution and what comes next.
[17:49] – Change management presents challenges but also opportunities.
[19:00] – There is a lot of change happening at the same time at Roger Williams. It’s important to know how people react to change.
[20:52] – With the new advising model for first-year students, advisors get the time and space to really connect with their students.
[22:54] – What are the challenges in higher education that we don’t always do a good job of communicating?
[25:00] – Proactively supporting students at scale can be tricky. Data is an important piece that helps.
[27:38] – Allison shares the experience of showing faculty and staff how to use the Civitas learning tools that will change the way they reach students.
[30:21] – Early outreach makes all the difference.
[31:36] – How do we make the decisions institutionally that make us student-ready?