1. MetLife Phase 2:
Counselor Community of Practice
Virtual Session
April 26, 2012

2. Today’s Emphasis
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3. Agenda – Virtual Session #2
 Introductions (10 min)
 Education Expressway (50 min)
 What support services are available for
mature students?
 How do they know about them?
 Persistence Parkway (15 min)
 Do your policies support students’ efforts?
 Your Best Ideas from Today (10 min)
 Confirm next COP topics (5 min)
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4. Services for Mature Students
 How are their needs different?
 Sandwich generation
 Disability issues
 Health insurance
 Veterans affairs
 PLA
 Remedial courses
 Study skills
 Technology assistance
 Financial Aid

5. Innovation in Student Services
 Financial aid specifically for mature students
 Match students with others who can help
 Child care/elder care assistance for students
and staff
 Transportation solutions
 Public transportation pass
 Parking/Escort to car
 Safety workshops
 Inter-campus shuttle
 Mature Student Officer
 Social Networking Sites

6. Getting the Word Out
 Orientation
 Emails
 Faculty and Staff
 Messages through online courseware
 Bulletin boards- Actual and electronic
 Texting
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7. Keys to Persistence
 Planning process tailored to
students’ needs
 Self- Motivation
 Knowledge of available resources
 Supportive network
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8. One Study- Eight Themes
 Major life transitions
 Multi-faceted educational goals
 Awareness of personal assets
 Relationships with professors
 Peer relationships
 Life-role conflicts
 Supportive institutional infrastructure
 Experiential learning opportunities
8 Source: Mature Students in the Persistence Puzzle, Canadian Council on Learning, 2008

9. The Problem
• Low rates of student persistence in
community colleges
• Community college responses to
persistence frameworks, such as
implementing student support
services, have had minimal impact
in increasing retention and
persistence.
Source: Institutional Policies and Student Use of Support Services: Beware Unintended
Consequences, Community College Research Center, Teachers College/Columbia University
9 Council for Opportunity in Education’s 27th Annual Conference, September 18, 2008

10. Influence of Support Services
• Participating in support services was
related to progress toward a degree
– Of students using two or more
services, 80% made progress toward
a degree
– Of students using fewer than two
services, 60% made progress
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11. Differential Access to Services
• Support services were generally open
to everyone but not all students
accessed them equally
• This inequality was institutionally
structured: Policies and practices
actually discouraged student use of
services
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12. Example: Student Success Courses
• Northern Community College only required full-time
students to take Student Success
– “I asked if I had to take this class, the Forum,
and they said no I don’t have to because I’m
a part-time student. I say what if I go back
and be a full time. [They said] you’re not
now, so you don’t have to.”
– “Sometimes they have like tutors in the
building, peers. But I’ve never been to one
myself personally because usually they
charge.”
• Part-time students are more likely to need the
information provided in these classes
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13. Program Advising
• College counselors
– Available to everyone during mass registration.
Information provided ranged from adequate to
incorrect. Using them is like “throwing darts at a
board.”
• Program counselors or faculty advisors
– Available to those who have declared a major or
completed a certain number of credits. Information
provided was useful but eligibility was confusing.
• “Casual counselors”
– Available to those who take the initiative. Information
provided was most helpful but available to the
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fewest students

14. Unintended Consequences
 College policies addressing student support
services inadvertently leave out some students.
 Access easiest for those with the most pre-existing
capital
 Students entering college with the greatest level of
family resource used more services (2.25 v. 2.0)
 Need networks to access services
 Part-time, older, low-income students less likely
to create networks or have a chance to
participate
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15. Study Conclusions
 “Open access” doesn’t mean all will participate
 General advising is less effective than
personalized advising
 Savvy students find their own information; the
students who need the information don’t have
the savvy to get it
 Word-of-mouth doesn’t reach all students
 Students who are part of a network get the best
information; but students who need the
information aren’t part of networks
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16. 16

17. Next Session
 Job Seeker Junction
 What’s new in job search coaching?
 How much counseling is reasonable?
 Social networking, e-folios, video
interviews
 LinkedIn – “CAEL Career Pathways
and Counselor Initiative”
 Post and check
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