First Year Advising Center

Oakland University NACADA Outstanding Advising Program Award

PROGRAM ABSTRACT

The First Year Advising Center (FYAC) at Oakland University was established in 2012 to provide centralized services and support for first-year students transitioning to college. After a campus-wide analysis of student success strategies, first-year students were highlighted as a population of focus for efforts to increase foundational student metrics.The FYAC provides proactive support for students through relationship-centered and technology-driven innovative action. The FYAC’s unique caseload and real-time outreach based model offers students responsiveness that has led to 95% of first-year students completing their mandatory appointments. In its first six years, the FYAC has served over 18,000 students by helping them understand curriculum choices, offering support in finding best-fit majors and supporting students as they navigate the complexities of their first year on campus. Using this model, the FYAC has helped increase retention by 4%, credit accumulation leading to “on track” status of students in their second year by 18%, and led to a record-breaking six-year graduation rate of 55%. The FYAC continues to drive advising practices forward across campus with innovative use of student data, targeted interventions for students most at risk and a commitment to intentional student-centered advising. The FYAC moves students in the right direction and is committed to students at every critical turn of their first-year.

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