Helping Students Succeed
New Center to Replace University College
UNLV’s new Academic Success Center (ASC) is addressing one big hurdle for students: where to go when they need a little help.
On a campus as big as UNLV, simply finding the right resource can feel daunting. The ASC is a central resource for academic assistance and a link to the many resources across campus that students — and many faculty and staff members — may not know are available.
As its name suggests, the ASC's mission is to encourage students to complete their studies, and its services are key to improving retention and graduation rates, say campus officials.
Ann McDonough, newly appointed dean of the ASC, said faculty and staff often have been unsure where students should go for particular services. Now there should be no doubt. Students with academic success needs should go to the ASC.
"If students need any kind of counseling or other services related to academic success, they should be encouraged to come to us," McDonough said. "We'll either be able to provide the service ourselves or we will find out for them exactly where on campus that service is available.
"We'll get them a concrete answer," she said. "We won't send them out the door to figure it out themselves."
In addition, the ASC will provide a more subtle benefit — letting a student make a direct connection with someone at UNLV, she said, pointing out that many studies have shown that students who make personal connections are more likely to graduate.
Building the Program
This fall, ASC services are concentrating primarily on developmental advising and support of the largest group of alternate admits in UNLV history. In concert with the college advising centers and Gayle Juneau, executive director of academic advising, a range of support services are now in place specifically for these students. Juneau also is working with the ASC to launch a class concierge program that will assist students with processes regarding enrollment, course scheduling, and graduation.
A director of first-year programs will engage the campus in planning, development, and implementation of learning communities and programs for freshman, transfer, and re-entry students. A director of learning support will work with units across campus to identify ways in which academic success support can be provided for all students.
Over the next few years, the services will increase steadily. Center staff will have more resources to assess students' academic skills and advise them how to improve, be it through tutoring, online aides, or special classes.
A Valuable Re-Do
As the ASC grows, University College will close. Both will exist this academic year but University College's resources are being folded into the ASC. The College of Liberal Arts is resurrecting an interdisciplinary studies degree to replace the degrees offered by University College. All students currently pursuing a bachelor of university studies, however, will be able to complete the degree.
Moving those resources to the ASC was one idea that came out of the Focus: 50 to 100 planning process.
Neal Smatresk, executive vice president and provost, noted that University College was created in part to serve students who had high enough GPAs to remain at UNLV but not high enough to get into individual academic programs. "That was the wrong approach," he said.
The root of the problem, Smatresk said, was that many students ill prepared to succeed in college were admitted to UNLV but found limited resources to address their skills gaps.
Now that UNLV has increased its GPA admission standard to 3.0, entering students qualify for most degree programs in the university, eliminating one need for University College, Smatresk said.
At the same time, the ASC will provide a better avenue for addressing student skills gaps. "The ASC is fixing the skills gaps issue up front as opposed to providing a patch after students slip through the gaps," he said.
"Rather than using the 'many are called and few are chosen' paradigm of allowing kids to fail and get washed out and disillusioned, our job should be to work with them to help them achieve success," Smatresk said. "The university is a pump, not a filter."
Though improving student retention is a challenge, Smatresk believes his expectation that the ASC will move UNLV far forward in a short time is well grounded.
"To me, this represents one of the first efforts for us to radically re-do the learning environment of our campus. I believe we can leapfrog institutions all over this country and do something really special," he said.
Many universities are too set in their ways to "do the bold, new thing," Smatresk said. "We have faculty who really understand and embrace the need to provide great career pathways for students. I think we are unafraid as an institution and that's a tremendous advantage."