One of the areas that WSU graduates and students have consistently rated as needing improvement over the past six years is advising. Graduates felt that the advising system was not helpful to them during their undergraduate career. The new general education requirements, the writing portfolio requirements, and many new changes in departmental certification requirements, make accurate advising a difficult process. Over the years WSU has increased the number of resources devoted to advising and has developed several means of improving the advising process. WSU allocated additional resources to the Student Advising and Learning Center to develop ways of improving the usefulness of the advising process to students. The following changes were made in WSU's advising process: (1) the number of peer advisors was increased and some peer advising is now done in the residence halls; (2) an advising system for special admits which involves five separate advising meetings during a semester has been implemented; (3) an advisor's handbook has been created which contains information on the course sequences and requirements for each academic program of study; (4) an individualized interactive computerized advising system has been established; and a taskforce of faculty was formed to review and recommend changes in WSU's advising system. The Academic Affairs Committee at WSU has been developing a First-Year Adviser Training and Evaluation system to help improve faculty advising. The goal of this system is to identify and train a number of faculty whose main job will be to advise students. These faculty are expected to become more knowledgeable of WSU requirements and be able to provide better advising and also be able to provide better training and supervision to peer advisors.
Another repeated finding in the alumni survey was dissatisfaction with opportunities for exposure to cultural and artistic forms. In response to this, the Office of Residence Life and Housing allocated resources to make changes to improve students access to cultural and artistic programming. A series of art programs was created and presented in residence halls and Greek chapter houses. Other cultural and art programs were also established in order to provide students with greater opportunities for these programs.
Another theme that emerges from the assessment data collected during the past six years is that students are somewhat concerned about their quantitative abilities. Three data items point to this concern. One source is the items on the freshman CIRP surveys which ask students to rate themselves on various academic abilities. WSU students, both males and females, are less likely to rate themselves as above average or in the top 10%, as compared to nationwide students from comparison schools. A second source is the items on the alumni survey which ask students to rate their satisfaction with WSU's contribution to their academic growth in various areas. Ratings for understanding and applying quantitative principles are among the lowest for all areas, and has been declining as well over the past six years. A third source is data from the quantitative skills exam which indicates average performance from samples of students. With both incoming freshmen students and recent graduates expressing concerns about their quantitative skills, this seems to represent an opportunity for WSU to respond as it did with its writing initiative.
