MORE GUIDANCE, BETTER RESULTS?

Toward the end of each student’s second semester in the study, the Opening Doorscounselors prepared them to make the transition out of the program and encouraged them tobegin using the college’s standard advising and counseling services. During interviews withMDRC, Opening Doors counselors reported that some students continued to seek assistancefrom the program after their two semesters ended, and that the counselors tended to help thestudents who reached out to them. This scenario occurred more frequently at Lorain than it didat Owens.Also, some students in the program group received assistance from Opening Doorsduring the summer semester, but the services were far less intensive. During summers, counselorswere available to help students, but they did not offer help as proactively, systematically,or regularly. (As discussed below, during the summer of 2004, Lorain used extra programfunding to provide an additional $75 stipend to program group students who were taking atleast one course.)Administrative Structure, Staffing, and TrainingThe Opening Doors program at Lorain and Owens was housed in the Student Servicesdivision of the college and was overseen by administrators in that division. Each program had afull-time Opening Doors program coordinator, who also served as an Opening Doors counselor,and two or three part-time counselors. The part-time counselors all worked full time at thecollege, and thus had other duties (including working in the college’s counseling center, leadingcareer development workshops, and recruiting students to the college). At Lorain, one of thepart-time counselors spent about half of her time on Opening Doors, another spent about onefourthof her time on the program, and the third part-time counselor spent about one-tenth of histime on Opening Doors. At Owens, the part-time counselors each spent about half of their timeon Opening Doors.Most of the Opening Doors counselors had experience working at the college, while afew were hired for the program. The Opening Doors counselors received some training in theprogram model. Staff without experience as academic advisers also received training in thataspect of the role. Training topics included the requirements of different majors at the college,and course scheduling and registration issues.Both colleges assigned administrative staff to Opening Doors, who helped recruit samplemembers, scheduled appointments, and maintained program records. Owens also hired astudent worker to help with the administrative tasks, and arranged for staff from the college’sStudent Outreach Services (SOS) unit to call students during recruitment and to remind themabout appointments.27