Surname Name: Task: Tutor: Date: Bay State University Performance Question One Academic advising undertaken by the

advising department serves a key role in assisting students to make sound academic decisions and develop significant educational objectives and goals in Bay State University. The university, through the advising department spends most of their good time to deal with incoming learners, who need considerable advising as compared to continuing students. Academic advising is a co-operation relationship between the academic advisors and students. In Bay State University, advising department has numerous roles to undertake. The department disseminates and clarifies graduation requirements, policies, and procedures to students, which include the number of units need for one to graduate; monitor the academic progress of students and provide the needed advice; offer consistent and accurate information to students; offer advice to the department to register new students to the company particularly freshmen; review waiver requests and substitution by students; provide readmission contracts into the campus; develop and reproduce advising materials needed; correct graduation checks to

meet university standards; advise and tutor students on math and writing classes for all students; organize for career fairs in the campus; and recruit and check prerequisites for students in the

Surname campus (Spencer & Sandra 56). The department also assists students to fully use the extensive network of academic support services accessible in the campus, thus empowering students in BSU realize the full potential of their time in the campus. In addition, the advising department assists students who transfer into the university without proper reviewed prerequisite during the registration process. Question Two From the 2007 report on advising spending for the AMC and college of education, it is

clear that there are different outcomes from the different advising activities in terms of Full- time equivalent (FTE). The AMC College spends $ 20.00, which represented 25.0% in disseminating graduation policies, procedures and requirements while college of education spends $17.80, which represented 20% (Spencer & Sandra 56). College of Education spends approximately $4.45 (5.0 %) and $6.23 (7.0%) in developing advising materials and reviewing waivers and substitution respectively. The AMC College did not undertake any development of advising materials and reviewing waivers and substitution. AMC uses $9.60 (12%) for enrollment of new students especially the freshmen while college of education used $6.23 (7.0%) of the total spending in advising department (Spencer & Sandra 57). The highest spending in advising funds in both colleges was in advising students since this was the key role of the department. The college of education spends $25.60 (32.0%) while AMC spend $25.37 (28.5%). This financial spending within the department indicates how significant advising services are paramount to students success and welfare (Spencer & Sandra 56).

Surname Furthermore, the department spends $14.40 (18%) in AMC to maintain its website that could play a key role in enabling the department gather some advising needs of the students through online modes. In readmission contract services, AMC did not spend any amount while

on the other hand, college of education spend $2.23 (2.5%), which represented the least spending in the department. The departments in both colleges, did not incur any expense in activities such organizing career fairs, tutoring and recruitment of students in the college. The total spending for AMC in the year 2007 was $80.00 while spending in college of education was $ 89.00. This pinpoints the fact that college of education spends more funds on advising students and providing other related services as compared to AMC. Question Three College of Business Academic Advising (COBAA) performance was poor compared to benchmark performance report, undertaken in various Bay State colleges. There were many reasons behind the poor performances as shown by the statistics available in 2007. The advising department in many colleges did not provide adequate information regarding dissemination of graduation requirements. This made many students in these colleges lack adequate knowledge concerning their degree program requirements. This is evident in the funds allocated by department to advising. The benchmark advising offices recommend allocation of 28% of the total funds. On the other hand, Bay State universities awards only 25% of the total funds in the department. In most of the colleges, students had their degree programs because their advisors lost their paperwork for waivers and substitution. Most of the students were dissatisfied with the advisors thus terming as low performers, which leads to department performing poorly. COBAA department posted poor results because

Surname the students felt that the advisors misguided them thus unable to attain their educational goals. Therefore, this was the greatest concern among the students, which led to poor performance of the department. In Bay State, most universities preferred group advising; however this became source of dissatisfaction among students who registered their dissatisfaction with group advising. Furthermore, in focus groups, students identify poor advising as the main source of their additional units and time to graduation. The students believed they need confidentiality that the group thing did not provide them (Spencer & Sandra 57). In colleges, fund allocation was

approximately 28.5% for student advisement while in benchmark performance, it was 42%. This disparity clearly underscores the fact that colleges did not put much emphasize on student advisement, which is a core practice to the continuation of an institution. Furthermore, students cited their dissatisfaction in that the advisors frustrated their efforts to meet the advisor in the right time. Question Four In order to improve the performance of Bay State colleges, there is need for the development of shiny brochures for each major and options in the college and distributed in colleges in community and high schools to enable students get the relevant information about their preferred degree programs. This will be effective through outreach programs undertaken by colleges (Spencer & Sandra 57). There is need for colleges in Bay State to expand the A1 activities by approximately 25%, to accommodate group sessions on waiver and substitution process. This program must aim to benefit all the students who come from different backgrounds or cross-enrolled from other

Surname colleges, attending a study overseas, or those who have transferred. The cost may be reduced by

removing appraisal of special waiver and substitution activities, which seems to be duplicated in the department. The colleges should hire an ombudsman to gather students complaints and help resolve the issues. The key responsibility of ombudsman will be to trace lost paperwork, finding space to undertake advising classes, arrange for make-up classes and maintain financial assistance with unit reduction. The departments should coordinate with companies providing internship programs to enable students attend such firms and get internship positions or invite those companies to attend career fair. The colleges through advising departments should organize career fair and days and invite experts in career fields to impart students with more knowledge in careers and other fundamental aspects of life (Spencer & Sandra 57). Advising Departments Budget 2008 Item Salaries Amount ($) 500,000 % Comment

57.2% Six-full time advisors ($57,000), manager ($85,000) ,one full-time office worker ($40,000), part-time student assistants ($8 per hour)

Travel Equipment and software Reproduction and development and materials

40,000 106,000

4.6%

Outreach expenses to recruit minority learner

12.2% Refurbish rate ,after every third year. 15 stations for tutoring and 25 PCs (10 headcount)

135,000

15.4% Reproduction and development of advising materials (Handouts to students)

Surname Telephone services Office supplies and phone Hospitality Total 23,000 874,000 2.7% 100% 6,000 63,700 0.7% 7.3% Each worker has a telephone. To be awarded based on number of workers (headcount) advising. Hosting career exhibition

Surname

Works Cited Spencer, Janet, and Sandra Maleson. The Princeton Review Visiting College Campuses. New York: Random House, 2009. Print.