Release date: Aug. 9, 2005
Contact: Elaine Justice at 404-727-0643 or elaine.justice@emory.edu

Emory Takes Team Approach to Freshman Advising, Mentoring

There are practically as many systems of freshman advising as there are colleges and universities, but few programs take advantage of a resource that is often steeped in institutional knowledge: staff members from across the institution. At Emory University, staff members are an integral part of the team approach used in FAME—Freshman Advising and Mentoring at Emory.

FAME pairs a faculty member, a staff member and two upperclassmen with a group of 15-17 first-year students for a six-week program of academic and extracurricular advising. Studies have shown that the connections made—or not—during a student's first weeks on campus determine whether s/he will stay at that school. (Emory's freshman retention rate has been 93-95 percent during the last five years.) As a result, one of the upperclassmen on each team also serves as the group's orientation leader, offering continuity between students' first bewildering days on campus through the first several weeks of school.

"Employing staff members as part of an academic advising team offers the opportunity for students to get to know at least one adult who isn't a professor," says Cynthia Shaw, co-director of FAME and coordinator of staff advisers. "In addition, staff members have a very different perspective of the institution and may know much more than faculty about non-academic areas of interest to students."

The faculty member remains a student's academic adviser of record until the student declares a major. At that time, an adviser within the major department is assigned. The upperclassmen provide the candor and firsthand experience with registration that only fellow students can provide, such as, is it really smart to take Bio 141 and Chem 141 at the same time?

"We know from our surveys that first-year students really value advising and how it helps them negotiate their transition to college—advising that is personal and that responds to their particular concerns and needs," says co-director Robert Brown. "Our team approach tends to work well with each FAME adviser contributing something unique to the overall advising first-year students receive."

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

Subscribe to News@Emory RSS feeds for automatic updates of the latest news at Emory.

Back