1. What Comes Next…The Story of One Founding Institution Jodi Koslow Martin, Assistant to the Provost/ Director, Crouse Center for Student Success Brynn Landwehr, First-Year Academic Advisor Foundations of Excellence Winter Meeting 2008

2. Who We Are… Aurora University Private, independent university 45 miles west of Chicago, IL Approximately 1800 undergraduate students 350 students in the Fall 2007 first-year cohort Foundations of Excellence process

4. Strategy defines value for an organization.

6. Where We Were… Former First-Year Advising Program The Strategic Market Survey Report prepared by The Alford Group in November 2006 noted: Students and parents brought forward concerns regarding academic advising 48.5% of students are “somewhat satisfied;” 12.1% are “somewhat unsatisfied;” 6.1% are “completely unsatisfied” with academic advising Student and parent comments reflect perceptions that academic advisors do not know requirements well enough, do not track student academic progress enough, do not offer enough academic mentoring in students’ early years

7. Where We Are… 1 Director 6 Professional Advisors 1 Administrative Assistant 5 Student Assistants

8. How We Got Here…

9. Challenges Redefining faculty involvement First-year student engagement in social events Aligning institutional identity with student identity

10. Successes Heightened attention to first-year efforts First-year engagement in academic advising Data gathering on first-year students

11. Recommendations “Don’t re-invent the wheel” Cast a wide communication net Find momentum in unlikely places

12. Jodi Koslow Martin 630-844-7510 jkoslow@aurora.edu Jkoslow347 (AIM) Brynn Landwehr 630-844-7861 landwehr@aurora.edu AUBrynn13 (AIM) Aurora University 347 S. Gladstone Avenue Aurora, IL 60506