Destination Integration: Strategies to Improve Academic Advising. Part 1 of a Series on Academic Advising from the CSU Student Success Network

Many campuses across the California State University (CSU) system are seeking to improve academic advising as part of their efforts to increase student progress and graduation rates. In this exploratory study of efforts to improve academic advising at five CSU campuses, researchers at the Education Insights Center (EdInsights) working on behalf of the CSU Student Success Network identified a focus across the participating campuses on better coordinating advising services across colleges, divisions, and departments and improving their integration with other campus units, such as tutoring, career centers, and financial aid. Through their efforts, these campuses seek to better leverage their limited advising resources to improve student outcomes. This report, based on in-depth interviews with 36 administrators involved in improving advising, describes the campuses' efforts and the context in which they are occurring. Five primary improvement strategies were found across the CSU campuses studied: (1) the use of advising councils or committees; (2) the development and implementation of eAdvising tools; (3) the expansion of professional development opportunities for advisors; (4) the use of advisors in shared positions and teams; and (5) the creation of a new position on campus to coordinate advising across units. Most of these strategies are still in the early stages of implementation. This report describes the campuses' efforts and the context in which they are occurring.