Here you’ll find an introduction to Truman’s Advising initiative, our 2020-2024 HLC Quality Initiative. You can also see who at Truman is contributing to this project, view a timeline for its completion, and make use of the tools created along the way.
HLC
Truman’s accrediting body is The Higher Learning Commission (HLC), and every 10 years, we begin a new accreditation cycle with HLC. As part of that process, Truman selects a Quality Initiative, a particular area of the university on which to focus its attention during the first 5 years of the 10-year cycle. Our 2020-2024 HLC Quality Initiative is advising.
Why Advising?
The university selected advising as its quality initiative for two principal reasons.
First, our current strategic plan is heavily focused on student retention. The research literature on student retention clearly suggests that advising is a key factor affecting student retention that is within an institution’s control. While measures of advising quality at Truman have generally indicated high levels of student satisfaction, some recent survey results have indicated lower levels of student satisfaction with particular areas of advising.
Second, and following from the above, Truman currently lacks a formal, unified approach to advising. While the professional advisors in the Center for Academic Excellence receive formal advising training as part of their jobs, not all faculty advisors receive such training, nor do all other staff whose jobs involve advising students.
Taken together, Truman has an opportunity to both improve the consistency of the advising experience from the student perspective and better support its faculty and staff as they carry out this critical job function.