Student Services Program Review-Spring 2010 - Shasta College

II. Quality StaffingWhenever the opportunity arises to hire new staff or faculty in the CounselingCenter, we strive to hire applicants who will add diversity to the staff. Whenfunding is available, counselors make an effort to attend conferences that willfoster professional growth. Some counselors attend conferences at their own costwhen the College budget does not support professional growth.III. Fiscal IntegritySince our last program review many new processes have been implemented toimprove efficiency. Currently, we are seeing more students with fewer counselors,have very few unused appointments and are writing more educational plans thanwe have in past years.IV. Community ConnectionCounseling faculty member, Sue Loring, prepares a monthly podcast highlightingupcoming student services events and deadlines. We also host a high schoolcounselors meeting each fall, featuring Shasta College‘s programs and services.Are there any national trends that need to be taken into consideration by your programas a basis for improvement?Counseling faculty members who serve on the Basic Skills Initiative Committee havereviewed the literature pertaining to student services and basic skills students. As aresult, we have developed a counseling support program for the BSI that includes aspecialized orientation, follow up counseling and consultation with instructional facultymembers.We continue to implement the developmental counseling model.We need to conduct a literature review regarding best practices in career counseling todevelop a more effective model. We also need to survey other community collegecounseling programs regarding their approaches to probation notification andcounseling.How do you market your program’s offerings and/or services? What are your ideas forimproving or expanding your marketing efforts?In December of 2007, the newly developed Student Recruitment and Outreach officesuccessfully implemented an array of direct services with the goal of increasing access,awareness, and opportunity to prospective students and their families. The servicesinclude the coordination of high school and junior high visitations, campus tours,participation in tri-county events, distribution and maintenance of all campus brochures,distribution of informational packets, presentations, assistance with orientations, and oneon one matriculation assistance and follow up. Student Recruitment and Outreach goalswere developed around three areas – 1) Academic Community, 2) CommunityEngagement and 3) Technological Support for Recruitment Efforts. Although many ofthese goals were met, we were unable to replace the now vacant Student Recruitment- 52 -