Advisory Committee (AC) Recommendations

University of Minnesota

Career and Counseling Department

Advisory Committee (AC) Recommendations

1998 - 2005

Summary of Recommendations:

• Recommend that because of increasing student population separate the Counseling and Career Center's mission, goals and objectives into two separate entities. Most colleges UMC's size have separated offices and more staff. 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002, 2003-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005. Completed.
• Review staff needs for counseling and Career Center. SP Document.
• Career Center needs full-time director: A full-time director to promote and assist faculty and staff in developing field experiences, internship programs, placement programs, freshman orientation/seminars, workshops, school to work programs, job fairs, recruiting, working with alumni, employer participation in on and off campus programs and activities (career courses, conferences, and alumni career fairs) and other career related job duties.
• Full-time counselor to work with students on probation, personal/social problems, other educational problems.
• Need for full-time Administrative Assistant position with computer, data entry, and human resources skills. 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005.
• Develop a marketing plan for Counseling and Career Center to market services to students, faculty, alumni and employers. Completed.
• To create, articulate, and explain a campus wide vision for UMC's Counseling and Career Department. Completed SP.
• Continue to work with All University of Minnesota Campus-Wide Career Services Coordinating Committee to create a vision for Counseling and Career Services Department. In progress.
• Disseminate to all students the model of the Career Development process for 1styear students through graduates. 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005. Completed Flyer.
• Continue to work with Job Service as efficiently and productively as possible. 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002,2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005. In progress
• Make visits to career center mandatory for all incoming freshman (1 st year students), sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Students at every stage of their collegiate career need to be involved in career-related planning, exploration, and development activities. 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005. In progress.
• Continue to be sure that all faculty and staff know how to refer a student for counseling services. 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002,2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005. Completed annually.
• Provide separate budgets for Counseling and Career Center functions. Completed.
• Increase funding $3,000.00 per year for technology. 2004-2005
• Increase funding at least $2000.00 for professional development for staff training and for the director to attend a National Conference at least every other year like other colleges do. 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005.
• Coordination and integration of C & C Department services with academic advisors. 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002,2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005. Completed annually.
• Explore the possibility of coordination and integration of advising and career services. There seems to be a lack of campus-wide coordination. 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2005.
• Provide a review of employer relations, offering solutions to problems employers may have in interacting with the Career Center and the University of Minnesota, Crookston. 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2005.
• Develop the Counseling Center as the testing center on campus. (i.e. ACT, GRE, LSAT, psychological testing). 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002. Completed.
• Develop the Career Center as the on-campus center for employment (including field study and internship coordination) Market this to all faculty and staff. Continuous.
• Continue to coordinate all on campus recruiting for all departments and majors. Continuous.
• All jobs need to be posted centrally and all students need to have access to all job postings. 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2005. Done on line and in new Student Center .
• Adaptive technology for computer access, maintenance , and selection is a concern for the Office for Students with Disabilities. We would like to recommend a review of the computer services budget to provide funding from this office for students who need these services. 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2005. Continuous-In progress.
• Language interpreter services cost are also of concern to the C & CC. 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2005. Budget concerns arise annually depending on number of students needing services.
• Adaptive technology for computer access, maintenance, and selection is a concern for the Office for Students with Disabilities. 2000-2001, 2001-2005. Need resources and continuous review.
• Supplement our Computer System Staff with at least part-time support for our Adaptive Technology Issues. 2000-2001, 2001-2002.
• Available resources are needed to test students who feel they have a disability but do not have the personal resources available to complete testing. 2000-2001, 2001-2002. Working with SSS and AC for services.
• Continuous support from computer center for technology. 2000-2001, 2001-2005. Development of on-campus AODAP program is a good idea. 2000-2001, 2001-2005. Review funding for 2006.
• Is this committee for show or do we have an effect on improving services from C&CS for students, faculty, staff and employers? 2000-2005.
• We have served on this committee for some time and it seems that our advice is not utilized to improve services. The same issues are discussed year after year and “limited” changes have occurred. 2000-2005.
• Staff of C&CDepartment seems to be doing all they can to provide services with limited resources in proportion to the increase in numbers of students over the years. More demands are placed on the offices with limited increase in budget and staff. You can’t continue to provide quality services without an increase in staff and budget! 2000-2005

Advisory Committee Recommendations 2003-2004

• Mission : For all areas is quite impressive.
• Well articulated—need to prioritize with time tables.
• Overall mission seems incomplete without the long list of “goals”
• Key words highlighted-shorten-prioritize. Focus. Doable implementation and who—timelines (label ongoing or complete)
• Well articulated and reviewed frequently—need implementation plan of goals. Narrow focus of implementation to a small priority list. If target dates assign primary person responsible. Also key ongoing or reoccurring components a part of process but designate that in the strategic plan.
• Very well articulated, quite detailed.

Counseling –

• More one on one with students. Don’t wait for the e-mails to come in. More hands on. Prioritize.
• Network through advisors and other students as well as alumni.
• Study habits.
• Didn’t hear much about this area.

Career Center –

• Attend club meetings, set up special sessions for all students to attend in the evening and make sure to contact faculty and have it mandatory for their class to attend. Speak to classes.
• Educate students to focus on skills and do networking. Need for personal services.
• Develop better personal connection with students, help with Internet
• Interface.

Students with Disabilities –

• Incorporate this info posters along with all other courses.
• Excellent job and accomplishments have been seen.
• Recommend a full FTE for disability coordinator.
• Include a rep from ODC.
• Great job, understaffed, if student population grows…you’ll be in trouble.

Alcohol and Other Drug Awareness Programs (AODAP) –

• How involved are you making the community? Give information to businesses that haven’t participated. Don’t give up.
• It’s a new program with a new director who is motivated to accomplish many things with new ideas. A reminder that priorities should be set to accomplish quality work instead of quantity. Get involved in the community. A goal of the student association is greater interactions with the community.
• What are the privacy issues related to your grant? Idea: DUI cannot enter Canada . How do some individuals become “drunks,” “druggies,” and others (who start drinking in H.S./college don’t?)
• Community demographics noted—Glenmore local—use resources.

Diversity Programs –

• Marica Walker, what a welcome addition to the staff. (just wanted to put that thought down.)
• We have a lot of diversity, but we need more interaction between the locals and internationals and also disability students interact more with maybe some programs or events…such as…wheel chair basketball.

“I hate diversity focused months.” Doesn’t really encourage diversity and may encourage bias.

Program Components-

• Need more funding in all areas.

Counseling –

• Short staffed—how can you do it?

Career Counseling –

• Website looks great—needs to be currently updated.
• I was concerned about students frustration about being able to use the website-doesn’t seem like you offer ongoing seminars and workshops (interviewing, resume, networking, how to use the internet/computer in your job search).
• Be in contact more with each department since most students associate with their department and seek services through them because they have more “network connections”
• Excellent job with designing online job information.
• Capture more with faculty because this is an “Applied” focused school and that should be something the Department needs to focus on.
• Additional emphasis on networking as a big part of the job search process. Website is not the only way to find a job. More workshops on job fair skills. Try noon hour workshops. We are trying that at UND now. Work closer with the academic advisors to make the students understand the whole job search process.
• More emphasis on student desires. Work with student leadership.

Employment Services –

• Tie in and utilize available community resources whenever possible.
• Partner with more local business to do interning in this town. Contact businesses to find out interest in this. I have offered my business a number of times and it has fallen on deaf ears.

Experiential Education and Career Exploration –

• More linking with academic faculty and department.

Student with Disabilities –

• Programs sound so good—short staffed.
• Well developed/Under staffed
• Laurie does a remarkable job using the resources she has.
• Good program-Understaffed and under funded.

AODAP Program-

• What a great idea to get this grant/staff—plan ahead to make it last.
• Continue on more community involvement! Posters are not effective. I recognized students on the posters that have a binge drinking problem.
• Connect with community. Save money for events on campus and in community.
• Grant’s help lots—key is how to continue after the grant-the answer is to set the stage now during the grant.
• More community focus.

Diversity Program-

• Sounds like you’re lucky to have Marcia on staff-WOW!
• More money, more staff.
• On the right track, can only go up from here.
• Publicity.
• Work to be inclusive in all areas of cultures. Encourage all groups to be part of one purpose to grow respect and understanding for and with each other.

Miscellaneous comments-

• You have a small staff but you still must offer students what they need for skills in job searching.
• C&CS Program Management and Organization:
• From the student’s perspective, they are probably not totally familiar with the automated format. However, students don’t always want web assistance when searching for jobs. Sometimes they are more interested in getting some personal interaction. The websites are a great resource. However, students don’t always find what they want online. I feel CCS should be willing to help students find jobs they want. That is the purpose of CCS. If students wanted a job they didn’t like they would have probably never come to a college. College is supposed to give you the opportunity to get a job that you will like.
• C&CS Human Resources (Leadership):
• Need more staff and funding.

Professional Positions –

• Need additional positions—certainly can’t afford any loss of staff:
• C&CS Facilities, Technology and Equipment:
• Need larger budget and more staff across the board. Campus and External Relations:
• Need to involve students more in determining what services that they want.
• Diversity of advisory board members reflects strong external relations.
• I think we need to work harder today to provide career services than we ever have before. It is paramount that, as professionals, we develop new and creative ways to serve our students.

Employer Relations and Services-

• Watch out for E-Recruiting Master Account process for employers-a fee of $200 goes to Boston per school if E-RecruitPro is used.

• Collaborate with Dept. Faculty on employer development. Continue to develop career fairs. Continue to work with student leaders to get students to attend fairs and campus recruiting.

Advisory Committee Recommendations 2002-2003

• Mission : Sound for all areas

Counseling -

• I noticed books (resources) in the student center. I have read some and found some really good information about doing interviews (interview tips). I don’t think most students know these one available to read, but whenever I mentioned them to follow students, they wanted to know where these books were. Students are very busy so having resources (like the books) helps because they are available to the students whenever the student had time to use them.

Career Center –

• Full time resource person needed
• Would be good to send another letter to juniors/ seniors about online resume how- to, URLs etc.
• Good to not rely totally on e-mail for your advertising

Students with Disabilities –

• Laurie does an incredible job considering the small staff.
• Disability Awareness training with faculty and academic advisors very good idea.
• Some suggestions after looking at the Office of Disabilities (OSD) website:
• You might want to consider including a policy on what constitutes eligibility for accommodations.
• Also a policy on what constitutes acceptable documentation (we use the AHEAD guidelines) and how OSD determines reasonable and appropriate accommodations.
• Having these policies in place and available to students, their parents and special education providers may very well avoid some misunderstanding on what UMC can provide.
• I really like the model of services delivery UMC uses, ie accommodationsprovided through the Academic Assistant Center. Accommodations are provided to make the education accessible rather than accommodations perceived as a “student service”.
• Also downplaying the organization link to the Counseling Department is something to consider. Students with disabilities are not in need of counseling any more than any other student group.

Alcohol and Other Drug Awareness Programs (AODAP) –

• Team backers- if student 21+ still can’t drink, but non-students can not really fair.
• Keep records to survey and report stats regarding AOD each year.

Diversity Programs –

• Good, broad perspective on diversity; black student mentor programs - excellent idea; add programming for adult learners.

Program Components:

Counseling –

• seems like you’re doing a great job!

Career Counseling –

• More help in finding internships jobs, more resources, contacts
• ISEEK www.mnwfc.org (condensed address)
• Let students know that they need to do more than post a resume

Employment Services –

• Web site address easier access: i.e. www.career.umc.com (one click away)
• Skills identification soft skills evaluation

Experiential Education and Career Exploration –

• Push internship as a way to develop long-term employer relations
• Non traditional?

AODAP Program-

• “Alcohol & Other Drug Awareness Program” counsel designated drivers on encouraging drunks to ride with them. (how to encourage). Dry campus should pertain to all events.
• Great focus: being real instead of preaching “don’t drink!”
• I like the change in focus on the real life positive speakers as far as drugs, alcohol, sex etc… obviously, there is some confusion about alcohol on campus.
• I would recommend allowing alcohol in the dorms. The effects of alcohol fines greatly help RA’s keep “law & order” within the dorms. I think students see & feel the effects of the fines and learn how to drink responsibly (to avoid the fines).

Diversity Program-

• BSU has a program called Family Friends, people (couples or families or single people) from the community ‘adopt” an international student and act as their family-away-from-home during the school year. Most families and students share meals, special outings, visit, and spend Christmas together etc… most foreign students who participate really appreciate it.

• C&CS Human Resources (Leadership):

Management/Director Level Position –

• Need to keep focus on more leadership staff and Director of Counseling and Director of Career Services.

Profession Positions –

• Maybe two associate directors under one Director is another possible management/ leadership consideration. Associate for Career Services and Associate for Counseling Services.

Pre-Profession Positions-

• Maybe use counseling grad students from UND/ U of M etc.??

Support Staff and Technical Positions-

• Need a F.T. senior administrative specialist especially with all the added programs.

C&CS Facilities, Technology and Equipment-

• If possible have more space in new area than currently have to make area more welcoming and accommodating.

Campus and External Relations-

• Doing a good job here and encourage continues effort in this area.

Employer Relations and Services-

• Need more staff to be better equipped to do more employer development!! Employer/ job developer position would be a start.

C&C DepartmentFinancial Resources:

• More operating $ to better equip and advertise the offices and services.

Legal Responsibilities, Equal Opportunity, Access, and Affirmative Action, and Diversity:

• Continue emphasis on Freshman registration as well as academic support for registration of all students with the Career Services office through the on-line system.

Miscellaneous Comments:

• Mission – All appear to be well founded and strong
• Program Components – Good balance of programs together to serve students