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11:10 a.m. to 12:10 p.m.
Presentations

Strengthening Transfer Culture and Community on a Non-Traditional Campus

Amanda Avci, Senior Advisor Transfer Student Specialist, The New School
The 2015 National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported that more than one third of college students transfer
at least once within six years. Current transfer student research is grounded in building transfer receptive culture between
two and four year institutional partnerships. Small team and sole advising practitioner challenges and efforts have
garnered relatively little attention on a national scale in transfer student research. This session will equip small teams and
sole advising practitioners with methods and ideas for strengthening transfer student culture on non-traditional campuses.

There HAS to Be Something We Can Do to Help: Creating Support Services for Academically

Demanding Programs
Michelle Mora, Senior Academic Advisor, University at Albany
Demanding schedules and high faculty expectations in challenging programs may lead students to feel distressed and
overwhelmed. As advisors, we work alongside these students on a daily basis - we offer them advice and point them in the
right direction. But as they walk out the door, many times we are left saying: “There HAS to be something we can do to
help.”

This presentation will describe how an academic advisor and tutoring coordinator came together, alongside faculty, to
help first year students’ transition into their demanding curriculum. The presentation will explain how the initiative was
developed, its structure, the role of the department and tutoring center, and how the effectiveness was measured and
assessed.

This session will offer practical tips on how to create and sustain student support services for academically demanding
programs. Advisors attending this session will be given the Plan-Do-Study-Act assessment plan; the framework that
guided the development of this initiative. It is our hope that this session will give advisors the tools needed to help develop
and sustain similar initiatives at their home institution.

Recognizing and Addressing Micro-Aggressions in Academic Advising
John Mascetta, Director of Advising and Academic Services, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
University of Maine
This session will discuss the negative impact micro-aggressions has on students and the importance of creating and
appreciating a deeper understanding of diversity. I will be adapting a framework on micro-aggressions from Dr. Wei-Chien
Lee’s 2009 article, Promoting and Practicing Diversity in Advising: Rationales and Approaches. Guests of this session will
first participate in brief exercises and discussions that will encourage how to identify their own micro-aggressions. These
activities will allow participants to discuss how their own implicit biases can negatively affect diverse student populations
they serve through academic advising. The second part of the session will focus on a deeper meaning of diversity and
the various ways it can be defined. The hope for this second part is to encourage a more inclusive definition of diversity
that isn’t limited to race and ethnicity but rather includes various aspects such as sexuality, gender, socioeconomic status,
and religious identity. The final part of this session includes sharing anonymous testimonials from students with diverse
backgrounds who experienced micro-aggressions from previous academic advising meetings and how it hindered their
academic experiences. The goal of this session is for participants to establish a multicultural foundation and awareness in
their academic advising approach while taking steps to acknowledge and confront their implicit biases which influences
micro-aggressions.