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ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT TEAM AND UNDERGRADUATE/GRADUATE
ADVISORS COMMUNICATE WITH STUDENTS
Prospective UMUC students
initially communicate with one of 18 enrollment management
team members who are under the direction of Interim
Associate Provost for Customer Service Bob Gay. Enrollment
management team members work directly with prospective
students to ultimately get them enrolled. These prospective
students have contacted UMUC primarily through the
institution’s marketing efforts, which includes direct mail,
radio and television promotions.
For tracking communications
with prospective students, Gay currently uses GoldMine,
which is a contact and customer management software product.
"It is essentially a customer resource management tool that
captures a complete record of a student’s communications
with the university," including all e-mails and a log
feature for phone calls, says Gay.
Basically, the enrollment
management team helps prospective students apply for
admission, identify financial aid opportunities, plan their
curriculum, and register for classes.
Prospective transfer students
are advised to assess their potential transfer credits by
using Curriculum Planning Worksheets, provided online as PDF
documents.
"We handle students in the
prospective and applied stage and are responsible for
working with students up through when they first enroll in a
class," says Gay. "At that point they are transferred over
to an advisor who works with them for the rest of their
time."
Advisors
UMUC has 29 undergraduate-level advisors and eight
graduate-level advisors, all of whom are professionals
trained to understand the full complement of curriculum and
academic policy.
Finding, training and keeping advisors over the long haul
can be a challenge. "It usually takes about six months
before an advisor is really feeling comfortable and can
operate independently," says Diane Lampe, associate provost,
undergraduate student affairs. "It takes someone who has an
outgoing attitude, that’s flexible and can handle a lot of
different things at the same time," adds Pamela Demartino,
associate provost, graduate student affairs. Being positive
and creative, and having good listening skills and excellent
written communication skills, especially since typically
most of the communication between advisor and student is
done via e-mail today, were other important criteria listed
under the category of necessary advisor competencies.
Training Advisors
At the undergraduate level, UMUC advisors take a
web-based training program that is comprised of six modules
that they study independently and take self-assessment tests
that provide feedback on their progress. A workshop
compliments the web-based training. Biweekly "content
meetings" are also held where internal guest speakers come
in to keep advisors informed about curriculum and policy
issues, financial aid, veteran benefits, etc. "Our advisors
have varied backgrounds," says Lampe. "The majority have
master’s degrees, and a good number are in the counseling
areas, but some have degrees in history or English."
At the graduate level, Demartino says they have
"piggy-backed" on the undergraduate web-based training. "We
also have a lot of mentoring that happens throughout the
time someone is employed here. And we have advisors who
serve as departmental liaisons with different academic
programs. They come back and share new developments and ways
to best direct students."
Student Affairs Vice Provost and Registrar Matthew
Gaglione adds that, overall, a long-range plan is to make
all advisors more curriculum-specific. "We would have
advisors who are well-versed in various majors. These
advisors would also partner with faculty members and
department directors and be made more aware of and
participate in curriculum development issues. The intention
is to get advisors more connected to the curriculum."
Curriculum Planning Worksheets
Undergraduate Student Affairs
Graduate Student Affairs
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