Student Success

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Onboarding

Project Status: Complete

This project aims to implement a clear, comprehensive, and consistent onboarding experience for first year and transfer students during their first year at PSU. With a supportive plan in place, students will know who their ‘success’ team is and the knowledge and access to resources that support student success. This project is a collaborative effort between Advising & Career Services and the Transfer & Returning Student Resource Center. 

Accomplished

  • Coordinated and prepared FRINQ content (in-person and online) for presentations during Week 5 of Spring term. In total, 10 academic advisors presented in 12 FRINQ courses. 
  • Workgroup met with members of the FRINQ Student Success Pilot team to discuss Year 2’s content, structure, and logistics for consideration. 
  • 24 PSU staff, including advisors, student services, enrollment management, and student success leadership tabled at various locations on campus during Spring 2025 Welcome Week, handing out swag, directing students to classes, and promoting the Monday/Tuesday academic advising drop-ins. 
    • In total, 179 students were served during Welcome Week academic advising drop-ins.
    • The Welcome Week team tracked student interactions for the first time, yielding 150 across tabling efforts.
  • Workgroup sought feedback on Welcome Week, FRINQ advisor presentations, and FYAR Tool Implementation across Pathways from academic advising and PSU staff on implemented interventions in 2024-25, yielding a 25% response rate for all feedback forms. These were incorporated into the End-of-Project Report, as well as additional feedback from students on FRINQ classroom presentations and the Student Success Resource Fair. 
  • During the final meeting on June 16th, the Project Team shared their successes, challenges, and recommendations for future onboarding efforts, noting themes around collaboration & cross-unit engagement; project design & management; student-centered feedback & engagement; and advisor roles & campuswide participation.
  • Drafted a comprehensive Advising Onboarding End-of-Project Report for Project Outcomes, Deliverables, Scope and Stakeholder Engagement, Impact, Feedback & Synthesis, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations for Future Onboarding Efforts.

In Progress

Project Leads, Manager, and Sponsors met to discuss project wrap-up and recommendations for onboarding next steps and sustainability of the implemented practices:

Welcome Week:

  • Recommendation to coordinate campus-wide WW partnerships and alignment of efforts. This is outlined in a Welcome Week Proposal, to be shared with University Communications for support during AY25-26.

FRINQ Advisor Presentations: 

  • Recommendation to form a yearlong committee, or smaller subcommittee made up of academic advisors, to work on building content for the academic year and event coordination and communications with academic advisors for recruitment and presentations, as well as someone to act as a liaison to the FRINQ Student Success Pilot and Project Manager.

FYAR Tool & Practices:

  • Recommendation to integrate FYAR and milestones into advising onboarding practices and create a small subcommittee, or designate an advising liaison, to work on integrating pre-appointment survey into Slate implementation and assess the outcomes, build exploratory and transfer practices and resources into the existing and updated FYAR learning objectives and outcomes.

Other:

  • Recommendation to review the Student Experience Survey 2025 results, particularly the sections on academic advising, to inform future onboarding efforts and assess the effectiveness of the implemented onboarding practices.
  • Recommendation to review the comprehensive Advising Onboarding End-of-Project Report for Project Outcomes, Deliverables, Scope and Stakeholder Engagement, Impact, Feedback & Synthesis, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations for Future Onboarding Efforts.

Project Health

  • The project timeline could be impacted by other program and project timelines, availability of resources and budget, and what the project team learns through the discovery and design process.
  • For sustainability of implemented onboarding practices, there is a need for continued participation from the academic advising community, particularly the UAA Leadership Team, and additional stakeholders, including University Communications, Office of Student Success, the Slate Project Team, and the FRINQ Student Success Pilot Team, ensuring that the implemented onboarding practices and resources are integrated into future onboarding efforts.

Project Team

Sponsors: Andrea Garrity and Randi Harris
Project Leads:  Ilka Bailey and Ryan Wagner
Project Manager: Kara Hayes
Team: Ilka Bailey, Saori Clark, Kara Hayes, Csendi Hopp, Shay Snyder, Caitlin Sweeney, Ryan Wagner
FYAR Subgroup: Becki Ingersoll, Clara Martinez, Sam Peters, Shayn Snyder
Collaborators: Undergraduate Academic Advising, University Career Center, Office of Student Success, Transfer and Returning Student Resource Center, ISS