Wayne State’s commitment to the strength, training and outcomes of its professional academic advising community will reach a new level this fall with the launch of a three-year self-study developed by NACADA – The Global Community for Academic Advising and the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education.

The initiative, known as Excellence in Academic Advising (EAA), will begin with a one-year review of WSU’s current delivery of advising through the lens of nine aspirational standards, or conditions, that include things like advisor selection and development, institutional commitment, and equity, inclusion and diversity. Each condition will have its own committee made up of WSU administrators, advisors, faculty, staff and students, and will use various institutional evidence — including surveys of faculty, staff and students — to analyze each condition and make recommendations for improvement. Years two and three will focus on the implementation, assessment and refinement of these improvements.

“We are very excited to launch this initiative,” said Senior Director of the University Advising Center and EAA project liaison Cheryl Kollin. “The COVID-19 pandemic slowed us down a few months, but it also proved how critical WSU advisors are to the care and support of our students. We already have an amazing, dynamic community of advisors at WSU, but this project will allow us to go deeper and really evaluate our strengths and weaknesses with the goal of improving our processes and maximizing our outcomes campus-wide.”

The EAA project has been in development for several months but will officially launch Nov. 18 via Zoom. The faculty and staff survey is scheduled to launch in November as well. For more information on the project, its leadership and timeline, please visit the WSU EAA site: https://wayne.edu/advising/center/eaa.