Dr. Ebony Green began her role as Assistant Dean for University Advising and the lead on the University Advising Initiative earlier this week. Dr. Green is an MSU alumna with nearly two decades of advising experience and has conducted research focused on leadership development for professional undergraduate academic advisors. It is our pleasure to welcome her to the project.
This year’s University Advising Summit was a joint event with the Student Success Launch. We had an encouraging turnout and look forward to the engagement that will result from the presentation. A recording of the event will be available soon, and distributed in this newsletter. As we continue to improve our work and communications across silos this platform provided a perfect opportunity for us to join forces and collaborate.
We have made great strides despite the busy time of year and work on everyone’s plate. Representatives have had great discussions on integrating interest areas to connect what students experience from their introduction to majors on their MSU application to major interests and careers. We are collaborating on aligning majors across academic interest areas and have begun work on identifying advising administrative functions for centralization
The Professional Development Working Group's plan is to begin imagining and identifying what professional development could look like at MSU. Some things we will be looking at are the differences between onboarding, ongoing training, and professional development; and what should be included in each. We will also determine what units/departments should be responsible for and what should be conducted centrally.
The Assessment Working Group had a productive meeting with the Office of Faculty and Staff Affairs. This group is working on defining the term academic advisor as it pertains to this initiative.
The University Advising Initiative website is almost ready to launch. The site will serve as a repository for information about the project’s mission, working group membership, timeline, news, events, and frequently asked questions.
If you have questions about the University Advising Initiative, there are many ways to engage: you can email the project leads directly, refer to the FAQ on the site after launch, or contact your colleges representative in the Working Groups.
The University Advising Initiative Project Team:
Amy Martin, Project Lead, Personnel and Org Change Lead
mart1742@msu.edu
Qiana Green, Professional Development Lead
greenqia@msu.edu
Jonelle Golding, Advising Pathways Lead
goldingj@msu.edu
Beth Judge, Assessment Lead
judgebe@msu.edu
Greg Teachout, Communications Lead
teachou4@msu.edu
