Academic Affairs is making changes to create a more coordinated, student-focused approach to academic advising and career coaching. As part of the Student Experience Project (SEP), a new regional structure is being implemented to improve how students access support and how advising teams work together across campus.

Why this change is happening

Over the past several years, the university has built new tools to support student success: predictive analytics, milestone tracking, early alerts and coordinated care models. However, many of these efforts have been developed and deployed independently, limiting our collective impact on retention, graduation and job placement rates.

In practice, this lack of coordination shows up in tangible ways for students. For example, advising access and caseloads can vary widely across units, affecting how quickly students are able to connect with an advisor or receive consistent follow-up at key decision points. The current structure also makes it difficult to ensure continuity when advisors are unavailable, leaving some students without clear backup support during critical moments in their academic journey.

The SEP regional model was created to organize advising and career coaching in a way that supports shared standards of practice, more balanced caseloads and clearer backup protocols. The goal is to ensure that students receive consistent, high-quality advising support regardless of their major, starting point or which advisor they happen to meet with. The university is implementing this reorganization in two phases.

Phase One focuses on leadership and administrative structure.

Academic Affairs has appointed three senior directors to lead academic advising and career coaching across SEP’s regional framework. Cyri Dixon (Region A), Hilary Flanagan (Region B) and Liz Leckie (Region C) began their roles in the past month and are now working with deans and the vice provost for student success to transition our advising structure, which includes aligning regional directors, associate directors and administrative support roles with this model.

As the transition moves forward, some existing roles will be phased out at the end of the fiscal year. At the same time, new positions (director, associate director and manager, administration) are now posted, with additional advising roles to follow in the coming weeks. These changes are reflected in the updated organizational charts.

Phase Two will focus on caseload alignment.

Once the new leadership structure is in place, Academic Affairs will begin realigning advising caseloads across regions to ensure they are more balanced and sustainable. Managing caseloads at the regional level creates flexibility to adjust when enrollment shifts, helping maintain equity across advising teams and ensuring students receive consistent support. This work is guided by national best practices, with the goal of giving advisors the capacity to build more meaningful relationships with students, helping them navigate key milestones and stay on track toward graduation and career success.

For students, this change means:

• Clearer points of contact within their advising region
• More consistent advising experiences across colleges/schools and programs
• Deeper coordination between academic advising, career coaching and student support services
• More proactive outreach when students reach key milestones or face challenges

For faculty and staff partners, the new structure creates:

• Strong regional leadership to champion our collective commitment to student success
• Clearer escalation paths for complex advising and student success issues
• Better integration between advising, career readiness and academic programs

This reorganization supports more effective collaboration across teams and helps ensure that all students, regardless of major or entry point, receive the guidance they need to meet their academic and career goals. In doing so, it strengthens the university’s broader efforts to improve retention, graduation and job placement outcomes, key priorities of our Impact 2030 strategic plan.