Three Key Changes Coming to Academic Success at Chatham
(James Garvin)
Students with questions related to academics, accessibility, international affairs, and career development will soon have a one-stop shop for answers: the Academic Success Division.
Chatham University’s new Academic Success Division will create synergy among four offices to help bring resources and opportunities to students in a new way, Associate Dean and Director of Academic Success Jeff Bukowski said.
“The big change is focusing on what we need to do to better prepare our students in order to face the challenges in their personal and professional lives,” Bukowski said.
A New Structure
Data shows some students “just don’t know” where to get information they need about internships, study abroad opportunities, or other important academic and professional information, Bukowski said.
Under the Academic Success Division, key resources will be shared among four offices:
Bringing these offices into a centralized structure will help them share relevant information with students about where they can find more resources.
For example, a student who goes to Career Development with questions about summer internships may be connected to the Office of International Affairs for additional information about internships that can be completed during a semester abroad, Bukowski said.
Dedicated Staff for Academic Advising
Jeff Bukowski is an associate dean and the director of academic success at Chatham, where he’s also an assistant professor of educational leadership. (Rick Muzzey)
While faculty will continue to provide academic advising, incoming students will be paired with a dedicated staff advisor for their first year at Chatham. Part of that change is due to increased enrollment causing heavy advisory workloads for professors, Bukowski said.
Staff advisors will help students create schedules for their first three terms. After the fall term of their second year, students will be paired with a faculty advisor.
Bukowski said that change is central to this new division: “You have to know where you’re going, be on track, and understand those basic steps you need to take for your own academic progress and to move towards graduation.”
More Help for Students
Bukowski said these changes are informed by students’ concerns, including their frustrations with obtaining answers and their confusion about where to go with their questions.
“All those things add up, and I feel like we’re working on removing those little things, as well as the big things, that have impacted students,” Bukowski said.
He said he hopes this change makes it easier to get students the help they need quickly.
“If there was a path, it may have been a little muddy, there might have been puddles, you might have gotten stuck,” he said. “We are trying to make a more accessible pathway moving forward.”
Some responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.