ACCESS For All! 2015 Report on ACCESS the College of Social Sciences Student Success Center

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1 ACCESS For All! 2015 Report on ACCESS the College of Social Sciences Student Success Center June 30, 2015 Lynne Trulio, Acting Associate Dean, and Hien Do, ACCESS Director Mission and Goals for Success Dean Sheila Bienenfeld and Associate Dean Jan English Lueck established the College of Social Sciences (CoSS) student success center, Academic Counseling Center for Excellence in the Social Sciences or ACCESS, in Spring They envisioned a center where students could hang out, conduct club meetings, check in with advisors or mentors and find the shortest path to the right university office to have their needs met. Establishing this center is part of a nationwide move by universities to create hubs that provide students with advising to promote student retention and graduation. The ACCESS Center s mission is to provide advising for undergraduate students majoring or wanting to major in any department or program in the College of Social Sciences. Ultimately, we hope the ACCESS Center will help more students graduate, enhance the college experience for Social Science majors, and build confident leaders. Specific goals of the Center are to: 1. Help a large number of students navigate SJSU processes; 2. Provide tutoring on writing, statistics and building academic skills; 3. Provide CoSS students on probation with direct intervention to help them stay at SJSU and succeed; 4. Increase retention and graduation rates in CoSS programs; 5. Connect students to careers or graduate school; 6. Build leadership skills in student advisors; and 7. Make a positive difference in the academic experience of many CoSS majors. Staff and Facilities The Center is supported administratively and financially by the CoSS Dean s office and is managed by the CoSS Associate Dean. The daily operation of ACCESS is directed by a faculty member who ensures that programs and projects are implemented. From its inception to the writing of this report, the director has been Dr. Hien Do, professor of Sociology. There are two full time academic advisors who are hired by Dr. Do and the Dean s office. These advisors provide high quality GE advising, educational plans, graduation checks, information on SJSU s academic policy and procedures, and assistance with the petition process; they connect students to appropriate majors for major advising, and they work with probationary students to help them succeed at SJSU. The Center also has one administrative support person who handles student appointments and other operational tasks. Each semester, the Center employs a number of Peer Advisors (PAs) who work with probationary students. There were two PAs when the Center began; by Spring 2015 the Center had nine PAs (six undergraduate students, one graduate student from Communication Studies, and two Counselor Education Interns) to work with students. Peer Advisors are students in the College of Social Sciences, or occasionally from other 1

2 colleges, with proven skills in research, writing, and statistical reasoning. These students use their experience to help other students excel. PAs provide coaching on time management, successful study habits, and academic skills, such as research methods, statistical analysis, and academic writing. The Center also has two writing advisors and one to two statistics tutors to assist students. ACCESS is located in Clark Hall 240, a relatively large room that allows students to study individually or work in groups. There are also areas for advising and for small events (15 people or so), and a small conference room. In addition, there are offices for the Center director and for the academic advisors, allowing for confidential discussions. Services to Students ACCESS provides this array of services to students: 1. A quiet, attractive place to study during the day. The Center can easily accommodate 30 students who wish to study or work individually or in groups. 2. Drop in and by appointment advising from two trained Academic Advisors who staff the Center to provide students with accurate, up to date general advising information, educational plans, graduation checks, information on SJSU s academic policy and procedures, and assistance with the petition process. They can check student records and give targeted advising. 3. By appointment writing and statistics tutoring. Any CoSS student can make an appointment with a tutor in these critical areas in which CoSS students must succeed. 4. Events to promote student growth, such as the annual Getting into Graduate School workshop. 5. Student focused events such as the Halloween and Holiday parties, end of semester pizza lunches, and movie nights. 6. Extended study hours during exam weeks. 7. Outreach and events in student housing. 8. Weekly career advising from the Campus Career Center. In addition to this range of services, a significant focus of the Center is to help students on probation return to good standing and ultimately get their degree. Each semester, an excess of 200 students in CoSS are on probation and are in danger of being disqualified from SJSU. To help these students, ACCESS staff identify the most at risk students on probation who then receive mandatory advising and are required to enroll in SSci 90. SSci 90 is a one unit course designed to help students develop study, timemanagement and university survival skills. Students in the course must also receive weekly advising from a Peer Advisor or Academic Advisor and must log in 2 hours per week of study time at the Center. In Spring 2015, approximately 50% of probationary students were taking SSci 90. The other probationary students, those not in the course, received mandatory academic advising and were required to meet with a Peer Advisor once a week to help them stay on track. Benefits to Departments ACCESS directly benefits CoSS departments in a number of ways. By helping CoSS students on probation to stay at SJSU, ACCESS is working to improve student retention and 2

3 graduation rates in all departments. The advising that ACCESS staff give probationary students reduces the amount of advising that departments must provide. ACCESS also reduces the amount of GE advising that departments must do. In Spring 2015, ACCESS began working with the Peer Connections Early Alert program to assist students needing help in their classes, which may help reduce advising needed by faculty. Social sciences students now have a place to go for statistics and writing assistance that is easier to obtain to than university centers and this assistance is targeted to social sciences majors. Students also receive exposure to a variety of different career paths and the option of graduate school through special programs in ACCESS. Starting in Fall 2015, ACCESS will offer three workshops each semester for any CoSS student struggling in the major. For the first time, social sciences program advisors will have a place to send students they know are having difficulty with the university experience. These workshops will cover university success. Goals Assessment The first section of this report listed seven goals for the Center, the first one being to help a large number of CoSS students navigate the college experience. Several metrics show ACCESS is achieving this goal. From October 30, 2014 to June 18, 2015, there were 4,282 student visits to ACCESS and 3814 of these were from CoSS students. Many students returned multiple times; the number of unique students served was approximately 720 in a 6 month period. The percent of student visits by undergraduate majors closely reflected the proportion of majors by department in the College (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Percent of students visiting ACCESS by major Geog 2% Hist 7% PolS 7% EnvS 8% Anth 8% Econ 6% Comm 11% SISS 15% Psyc 36% Data collected when students sign in to use ACCESS showed that students visited ACCESS for a number of reasons. Almost 40% were there to meet with an advisor, many as part of the advising required for the SSci 90 class. Another 15% were there as part of the SSci 90 required study hall. An additional 32% or so came to the Center to study. Other 3

4 reasons students visited were: 1) for GE, course, or hold advising, 2) to meet with a writing or statistics tutor, and 3) to get a question answered. Another key goal of ACCESS is to help probationary students return to good standing and thereby improve CoSS retention and graduation rates. In aid of assisting students on probation, the College developed a class, SSci 90, to help probationary students stay at SJSU. During Fall 2014 and Spring 2015, approximately 100 students/semester took this course. This number is nearly half the number of students on the SJSU list of students on probation for CoSS in any one semester. To assess the effectiveness of the course in returning students to good standing and retaining them through graduation, Acting Associate Dean Trulio conducted an analysis of students taking SSci 90. She compared students in the first three semesters that the course was offered to CoSS students who were on probation in those semesters, but did not take the course. SSci 90 students had a significantly higher GPA in the semester they took the course than the non course students, averaging 2.11, which was above the 2.0 semester GPA needed to prevent students from being disqualified. The students not in the course had an average GPA of In the semester they took the course, students were almost twice as likely to move to good standing and were three times less likely to be disqualified than students not taking the course. And, as of Fall 2014, almost 10% of students taking the course had graduated and less than 5% were disqualified. For students not taking the course, only approximately 2% had graduated and almost 14% had been disqualified. See the full analysis in Appendix A. These results indicate the great value of SSci 90 to CoSS students and indicate that this course is significantly improving retention and graduation rates for this group of students. Such analyses should conducted regularly to monitor the effectiveness of the course over time. These results also lead to recommendations for future action to assist the students who did not take the course. The students not in the courses were considered to be at a lower risk of disqualification than those placed in SSci 90. They received regular advising from Peer Advisors and the academic advisors in the semester they were on probation to help them stay at SJSU. Yet, they did substantially worse than the students in the course. This result indicates further intervention is needed for students not in the classes. Having SSci 90 sections for all students on probation students is currently not economically feasible. To give more support to these students, in ACCESS staff will develop and offer three workshops that these students will be required to take. We will evaluate the effectiveness of the workshops after they have been offered for three semesters. Connecting students with careers and/or graduate school is another goal of ACCESS. To support this goal in , ACCESS hosted a Career Center representative each week for students to talk with about life after SJSU. We also held a Getting into Graduate School event and instructors helped the SSci 90 students to consider what they would do with their degree. In , Dr. Do will be a member of the American Leadership Forum, which will allow him to connect students to local employers. Another goal is build leaders in ACCESS with our Peer Advisor, writing tutor, and statistics tutor positions. ACCESS has served as an internship location for the Counseling Education Program (MA) at SJSU, which provides work experience for students seeking a career in academic advising. We have offered two year long internships during which the students are supervised by either the ACCESS Director or the Academic Advisor and also serve as Peer Advisors to our students. We have hired two of these students to be 4

5 Academic Advisors, a leadership position in ACCESS, and a third as an instructor for some of our SSci 90 sections. In addition, we know that: 1. Several PAs have been accepted to the SJSU Education Counseling MA, as well as other graduate programs (psychology, sociology, communication studies); 2. At least one PA has become the executive director of a non profit organization in the Bay Area and others have started careers in their home towns; and 3. Several students who were on probation have become PAs. To track this goal more systematically, we will begin giving PA exit interviews in Fall 2015 to learn how to improve services to students, how to enhance the leadership experience for PAs, and find out the immediate and longer term plans for our departing PAs. Finally, with respect to the goal of improving the experience of CoSS students, a number of students who benefitted from ACCESS have offered testimonials. For example, DJ says: Because of the motivational experiences I received from the ACCESS center and the people who work within it, even the very helpful receptionist Susan, I have improved my academics and become even more motivated to do well. If it weren t for Professor Do, and all other advisors the Access Center provided me with, I would not have been able to reach my full potential as a student. The reflecting I did during probation and the endless advising and encouragement I received through advisors have enabled me to become the student I am today. Today, I am a fourth year Communication Studies major with a Public Relations minor on track to graduate in Spring And this from Amy: I took the SSci 90 class when times got hard for me in school I had the tools [to succeed] but didn t know how to use them or access them, and this class helped me to do that. This class was a life saver and helped me to get back on the path that I should have been on throughout all of college. I am happy to say that with the tools I had received from the class, my GPA has increased and I am on my way to a graduate program where I will only learn how to better use these tools and really put them to the test. This class really helped me and I am sure it will help anyone who is interested Very significantly, one of the students helped by the SSci 90 class donated $5,000 to ACCESS in Spring 2015 to continue the work of the Center for students. Future Changes, Programs and Activities During its three years of operation, ACCESS has become an integral part of the College of Social Sciences. Based on our evaluation of ACCESS and work so far, we are planning these new activities in ACCESS: A Canvas site for students providing tutorials on different majors, skills, and careers. A dedicated career advising component to take students from campus to career. More SSci 90 classes. 5

6 At least 3 workshops per semester for students on probation who are not in the SSci 90 course and for other students referred to the Center by department advisors. More donor funded programs to grow ACCESS and help liberate the Center from university funding. Hire a Faculty in Residence for Student Success, when SJSU funding exists, to build capacity in ACCESS, especially to develop workshops and connect with departments. Budget for In , the budget for ACCESS was approximately $326,000. Salaries for staffing the Center were approximately $318,000 of this cost, with the remainder funding primarily supplies and food for events. The ACCESS Center s sources of funding are shown in Figure 2. The College provided 34% of the funding followed by SSETF ( student success fees ) and CERF (special session funds) at 33% and 27%, respectively. Donors and work study funds were minor sources of funding. Funding sources will evolve over time. Ideally, ACCESS would be funded more by donors and University level monies, such as student success funds. Donors may find the tangible nature of the Center and its direct support of students very attractive. It is appropriate for the University to provide funds as this Center is actively increasing retention and graduation rates in our large College, benefitting the university overall. It is highly likely that CoSS will continue to be a significant funder of this Center. Making the benefits of ACCESS clear to the departments in CoSS is critical to having strong support for using College funds to maintain ACCESS as a vibrant and valuable resource to students. Figure 2. Funding Sources for ACCESS in $13, $7, $86, $110, $107, College SSETF CERF Donors Workstudy 6

7 Appendix A. Assessment of the ACCESS course, SSci 90: Are we helping probationary students? Date: October 30, 2014 From: Lynne Trulio, Acting Associate Dean, College of Social Sciences Introduction. The College of Social Sciences student success center, ACCESS (Academic Counseling Center for Excellence in the Social Sciences), implemented a one unit class to help probationary students return to good standing and, ultimately, graduate. This report provides an analysis of the effectiveness of the course with respect to three metrics: 1) GPA during the semester students took the class, 2) academic standing that semester, and 3) the fate of students as of Fall The course was first offered in Spring 2013 as SSci 96, and has been offered each semester since. The course number is now SSci 90. One section of the course was offered the first semester, two sections in both Fall 2013 and Spring 2014, and four sections in Fall The course was designed by Dr. Hien Do, the ACCESS center director, and he taught all sections of the course until Fall Enrollment in each section is 25 or less. All students in the courses were on probation. During the period the class has been offered, over 200 College of Social Science students have been on probation each semester. Since the course cannot accommodate this number of probationary students, Dr. Do selected the most at risk students for the class, based on lowest GPA and those most likely to be disqualified from the university. Methods. To assess whether and to what extent the course is helping to retain and graduate probationary students, I compared students in the first three semesters the course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 to randomly selected CoSS students who were on probation in those semesters, but did not take the course. I used a Mann Whitney U to test the hypothesis that the GPA for students taking the course would not differ from those not taking the course, for the semester the students took the course. I also compared the fate of students in the course and those not in the course with respect to whether they moved to good standing, continued probation, or were disqualified the semester the course was offered. Finally, I compared the fate of the two groups of students as of Fall 2014 to determine what percent had graduated, were in good standing, or were disqualified. Results. ACCESS enrolled 44 students in five sections of the course in three semesters. Compared to 44 randomly selected probationary students not taking the course, the ACCESS course students had a significantly higher GPA in the semester they took the course than compared to non course students (MWU = 1,244.00; df = 1; P = 0.021). The GPAs for the ACCESS class students averaged 2.11 (SD = 0.353) which was above the 2.0 semester GPA needed to prevent students from being disqualified while the students not in the course had an average GPA of 1.88 (SD = 0.512). In the semester they took the course, students were almost twice as likely to move to good standing and three times less likely to be disqualified than students not taking the course (Figure 1). And, as of Fall 2014, almost 10% of students taking the courses from the three semesters had graduated, while less than 5% were disqualified. For students not 7

8 taking the course, only approximately 2% had graduated and almost 14% had been disqualified. Conclusions. Based on all three measures of success, the one unit course in ACCESS was found to significantly benefit students compared to students not in the course. Students taking the course had higher GPAs right away, were more likely to be in good standing, less likely to be disqualified, and more likely to graduate than those not in the course. These results are especially impressive given that the students in the ACCESS course were considered the students most at risk for disqualification, while the non course students were a random selection of students, who were expected to represent a wider range of probationary students compared to those most at risk. Expanding the number of sections of the class would reach more probationary students and may be appropriate, if the budget allows. The sections analyzed in this report were all taught by one instructor. Since expanding the number of sections will require multiple instructors, assessment should be designed to examine whether student performance differs by instructor. If having more sections of SSci 90 is not feasible, alternative advising approaches, such as workshops, may be adequate; such approaches would need assessment, of course. Future assessment should continue to follow students on probation taking SSci 90 to determine final rates of graduation and, perhaps, GPA at graduation. Also, analysis could consider the impact of other types of advising provided by ACCESS such as peer mentors, writing advising, and statistics support. Figure 1. Fate of students the semester of the course (percent of students) Course No Course Continued Good standing probation Disqualified 8

9 Figure 2. Fate of students as of Fall 2014 (percent of students) OU = Open University; DQ = Disqualified Course No Course Continuing Graduated OU Reinstated Not Enrolled Probation DQ 9