My presentation is for my ANTH270 class where we have been doing a semester long project. We have been conducting interviews and doing participant observation for anything of our choice. I decided to do student resources at LCC.
2. Intro to Student Resources
In my time working at the center for career and
academic pathways at Lansing Community
College, I have observed students falling
through the proverbial cracks when it comes to
access and knowledge about the resources
provided to them. During my observations, It
was clear to me that many students take
advantage of the resources provided, but many
do not as well. The three particular sections I
studied include academic advising, career
advising, and success coaching.
3. Ethnographic Methods
I worked, on average, 25 hours a week during
my participant observation in which I was able
to answer phone calls, to answer questions and
set up appointments for students with the
academic advisors. I was also able to conduct
9 interviews, with 3 academic advisors, 2
success coaches, 1 faculty member and 3
students, all of which provided informed
consent to be interviewed. The interviewees
will be referred to as follows: academic
advisor #1, academic advisor #2, academic
advisor #3, success coach #1, success coach
#2, faculty member #1, student #1, student #2,
and student #3.
4. Academic Advising
Academic advising is the main resource for academic
help at LCC. They are typically used to create a plan
for what classes to take for the upcoming semesters.
There are several different ways to meet or
communicate with them, including text with the online
chat, email with the e-advising email, as well as
creating standard appointments. There also has been
drop-in advising where students can walk in or call for
an appointment on Wednesdays, but they have now
changed that to same day appointments also known as
express advising. These are set up time blocks of 30
minutes that are able to be scheduled starting on
Tuesdays at 3pm, but the appointment does not actually
occur until Wednesday.
5. Career Advising
Career advising is a resource offered at LCC primarily
used for career services such as career options, resume
building and review, LinkedIn building and review, and
plenty more. This service is offered not only to students
but prospect students that may be interested in attending
LCC but are not quite sure what career opportunity to
pursue. You are able to meet with the career advisor
through virtual or in person, and you can also go into the
physical career center area and see what kind of
opportunities for jobs are available on the whiteboard.
All students are able to schedule their appointments
online, but typically they are scheduled through student
employees that answer the phone calls or inside the
career center.
6. Success Coaching
Success coaching is one the most widely used
resources on campus, as they are one of the most
readily available. Success coaches are assigned to
every student at LCC, and the student will have the
same coach for the entirety of their time at LCC. The
coach is able to help with many problems a student
may have or refer them to someone better equipped to
help. There is many ways to reach your success coach,
including text, email, setting up an appointment, or
walking into the success coach lounge. Typically,
success coaches will contact the student first on their
own just to check in, so there is always some sort of
connection between them.
7. Conclusions
The main conclusions I made regarding academic advising are as follows:
1. many students do not know the difference between academic advisor and success coach
2. some students do not feel a need to meet with an academic advisor for success
3. despite an overwhelming amount of appointments and reminder calls made for all of them, many students cancel
or miss their appointments
4. there is a significant amount of drop in appointments despite long wait times and the pressure put on advisors
The main conclusions I made regarding career advising are as follows:
1. there is only one career advisor, who is also only part time
2. this causes 2-4 week wait times for students looking to make an appointment
3. many students do not know career services are offered here
The main conclusions I made regarding success coaching are as follows:
1. many students do not know about the success coach lounge
2. not all students feel the need to respond when their success coach contacts them
3. not all older students are assigned a success coach if they return to campus
8. Suggestions
The main suggestions I have regarding academic advising are as follows:
1. offer seminars outside of orientation that explain different resources more in depth
2. implementation of a text reminder rather than reminder calls, or a mixture of both
3. implementation of a waitlist for students if an appointment is missed, cancelled or rescheduled, to lessen wait
times and the amount of missed availability slots
The main suggestions I have regarding career advising are as follows:
1. hire a full time career advisor
2. hire a marketing specialist that can help students with LinkedIn profiles and social media output
The main suggestions I have regarding success coaching are as follows:
1. gain more outreach to the student body with success coach social media
2. advertise the success coach lounge more often
3. implementation of a semester check-in form sent to the whole student body to make sure everyone is in contact
with their coach if that’s what they wish
