In the 21st Century, institutions are having to deal with increasingly complex educational missions in an era of dramatically reduced resources. As students prepare for a changing world of work, their need for appropriate advising places a renewed responsibility on college personnel. If the current literature on academic advising has one central theme, it is that of shared responsibility. The use of faculty, counselors, professional advisors, peer-advisors and information technology makes for a well-integrated advising system. Applying the concept of shared responsibility, and having students work with an integrated team provide an opportunity for academic advising relationships to develop and enhanced learning experiences to occur.

CPCC began with a dual system of advisement. Technical faculty advised students in the technical programs and counselors worked with new students and transfer students. In 1988 it became apparent that this system was no longer functional due to significant growth in the transfer programs. Hence, the Faculty Advising System was developed and faculty advised all program placed students (both technical and transfer) and counselors worked with new students and students needing career and personal counseling.

The Faculty Advising System functioned under the Instructional Unit, and Counseling Services functioned under the Student Services Unit of the College. There was little communication and coordination of these areas, and resources that could maximize the quality of advising services were fragmented at best. It quickly became apparent if we hoped to address the needs of an ever-changing diverse population of students in the 21st Century, we had to have major paradigm shifts at our institution in reference to achieving student success and enhancing our advisement process. Relinquishing territorial, antiquated methods of providing advisement, and embracing a fluid system of continuous provision of services to students has resulted in a huge step toward addressing the many needs of our students.

The outlook on the purpose for college has changed from an “instruction paradigm” (an institution exists to provide instruction), to a “learning paradigm” (an institution exists to produce learning). Since community college students bring with them a constellation of needs, we must have a developmental approach to advising services to enhance student success and learning. We can no longer depend on certain units of the College to produce learning or to provide quality advising services for students. At CPCC, our faculty began to understand and embrace the correlation between advising and teaching. Likewise, counselors began to realize that their primary role was no longer one of support. Rather, they have a primary responsibility to produce student learning and enhance student success. With these simple shifts in how we perceived our roles, we are now working toward a “total” College, collaborative effort to ensure student success. The focus has shifted from “whose job is it” to “how can we do it better?”

Advising plays an essential role in student persistence and success. Hence, if advising is viewed as part of a retention and student success strategy, it cannot be narrowly defined. Our first step was to view advising as an institution-wide system. In addition, we had to address the issue of achieving transformation in academic advising through the use of information technology. As students at CPCC prepared for the world of work, their need for help placed a renewed responsibility on the College to provide the best counseling and advising services possible. It was in this milieu that a task force was appointed in 1998 and charged with the responsibility to review, evaluate, and make recommendations for developing the most effective advising system possible for our students.

The result of this introspection was the development of a collaborative effort utilizing the student services community, the academic community and technology to effectively deliver advising services to students. In addition, students were not just recipients of advice, but partners in the advising process. This effort was called the Integrated Counseling and Advisement Network (ICAN). The ICAN at CPCC has structured its advisement system to involve employees and technological resources in collaborative ways to enhance student success and provide services at precise points of need (see Figure 1).

Collaboration is not new in efforts to provide advising services; however, the ICAN represents a total collaborative effort from the top administration down to the student. Since the advising system is an integrated , developmental process, the chief administrative responsibilities rest jointly with the Vice-President for Instruction and the Vice-President for Enrollment and Student Services (see Figure 2). The ICAN is based upon a matrix of policies, procedures, personnel, services, and publications that are coordinated on a college-wide basis by the Dean for Retention Services, Emma W. Brown, and the Advisement Management Team (AMT). The AMT is composed of one Advising Coordinator from each academic division, Counseling and Advising Services, and other ancillary offices. Hence, all providers of advising services have a voice in how the overall system is managed and how services are structured for students.

Students across the nation generally cite four major factors as important in the advising process: (1) accessibility, (2) specific and accurate information, (3) advice and counsel, and (4) a personal relationship with an advisor. The ICAN addresses all of these factors and seeks to provide many other services for the student. Initially it provides the ability to front-load the system with professional advisors and counselors who have the skills and training, accessibility, and preparation to work with all students—undecided or decided, adults or traditional age, under-prepared or prepared. As a result, special care can be given to provide a smooth transition to a faculty advisor.

Academic advisors are professional staff (bachelors degree or higher) who work with new students to interpret placement test results, provide general information about the College, and recommend first semester courses. Students are then assigned a faculty advisor in their program area. Counselors are also professional staff (master’s degree or higher) who address the developmental needs of students. They provide personal counseling, career counseling, assist students with adjustment issues, and also provide academic advising. They see students as referred, and provide additional services for undecided students and college transfer students. In addition, the counselors provide training for faculty and workshops for students to enhance their success at the College.

All full time faculty provide advising services for students in their respective program areas as part of their load. Faculty advisors are experts in their areas or disciplines, and knowledgeable about specific courses in their departments as well as educational and career opportunities in their areas. In addition, faculty provide an on-going opportunity for students to have continued, meaningful relationships with them outside of the classroom. Training and any other needed support is provided to the faculty by the Advisement Management Team.

Peer advisors, who are usually students, assist other students with navigating the catalog, preparing schedules, locating classrooms and offices, and basic information dissemination. Peer advisors are paid part time employees and are trained by the Counseling and Advising staff. Also, the students receiving advising assistance are also expected to be partners in the advisement process, and assume responsibility for their academic stewardship at the College.

In addition, we have a heightened awareness of living in a technology-driven environment and realize that students arriving at our campuses (either physically or online) have expectations of service, speed, and access to information. Moreover, to meet this challenge, providers of advisement services need a vehicle through which they can obtain continuous training and development. The ICAN has closed the loop by developing a comprehensive online interactive advisement system (www.cpcc.edu/ican) intended to supplement student/advisor relationships and make available resources and training for professional staff providing advising services. The latest addition to this site is the implementation of a synchronous advising process for providing real time assistance to students (effective August 28, 2003).

The quality of the advisement process at the College has been greatly enhanced by the ICAN system. A comprehensive assessment process is presently under implementation; however, point-of-service surveys conducted by the Counseling Services area indicated that 97.3% of students rated advising services received as excellent. In addition, a recent Curriculum Survey of Students indicated that 73.6% of the students were somewhat to very satisfied with the quality of the advisement process for the College.

The one thing that most community college students lack is a sense of “community.” Having students work with an integrated team of advisors and counselors enables advising relationships to develop. These relationships become the “connectors” for students to the total College community and provide learning experiences for a lifetime.

The exact configuration of an institutional advising system will grow out of the organizational context, the institutional characteristics, the needs of the students, and the delivery system components deemed appropriate. There is no delivery system determined to be the “best” or most appropriate for all institutions of higher education. Rather, academic advising programs must be designed to meet the individual advising needs on each campus.

Academic advising at CPCC is an integral part of the mission of the College—educating students for life. The advising process is designed to help students realize the educational benefits available to them, to help them to better understand themselves, and to learn to use the various resources of the institution and the community in attaining their career/life goals. The ICAN is working each day to meet the challenge of preparing students for a changing world of work, and we very much embrace our vision statement—