L & S Frosh Cohort Advising Coming Fall 2006

February 22, 2006

The Office of Undergraduate Advising (OUA) is preparing to offer cohort advising to all entering first-year L&S students beginning in the '06-'07 academic year. This effort is a direct result of Dean Robert Holub's vision to provide more personalized advising to students as they transition to the Cal community. The Cohort Advising Steering Committee, made up of staff in OUA, spent most of the fall semester working on a proposal for cohort advising which was approved by Dean Holub just before winter break.

The approved proposal describes a comprehensive program that anticipates the advising needs of first-year students, familiarizing them with the measures that they can take to succeed in articulating and fulfilling their academic goals. To this end, the College's cohort advising program will be connected to the campus' residential academic centers, with a concurrent program that incorporates commuting students The on-campus residential community provides an existing structure to divide students into manageable groups. The residence halls also provide additional space for individual and/or group advising. Opportunities will be created to collaborate with residential unit academic program coordinators and other staff.

Each of the five residential units would be served by an "advising team" made up of two to four college advisers and one to two OUA peers advisers. An additional team of college advisers and peers would serve first-year students who commute. Advising teams will provide academic services throughout the year to all first-year students in their residential unit or at a satellite location in central campus. Services will include conducting individual office hours and group advising sessions according to a posted schedule. The college advisers and peers would also collaborate with the residential academic program staff (coordinators and peers) to strategize and plan academic programs and workshops on topics of interest to first-year students. Commuting students will also be encouraged to take advantage of these opportunities.

The possibilities that this program offers are quite exciting. The development of workshops to enable students to better navigate their academic lives and to make progress towards the completion of their degree will enable staff to serve more students and give students the opportunity to benefit from group learning. Each student will be able to build an advising relationship with a small team dedicated to reaching out to a cohort of students.

Year after year, students and parents at CalSO ask who is their adviser, expecting that one-to-one assignments have been made. OUA is pleased that this year, students will be informed via email messages over the summer about the cohort team that they are a part of. Each cohort will have its own web page with a number of ways to communicate information, offer tips, ask questions and build a relationship with their advising team. Stay tuned to learn more about the cohort program!