Students
access academic support services through: Academic Advising;
The Career Center; Developmental Education; Disability
Services; The Learning Assistance Center; The Library;
Student Support Services; Distance Learning staff; open
computer labs; The Testing Center; and tutoring services.
Academic
Advising
The College has established a comprehensive advising
program in which each student applying to the College
is assigned a faculty member trained as an academic
advisor. Students uncertain or undecided about career
goals are assigned to the Career Counselor for academic
advising. Students selected to participate in Student
Support Services (SSS) are assigned an academic co-advisor
within the SSS program.
The
primary responsibility of an academic advisor is to
guide students in making wise selections of course offerings
with careful attention to institutional policies and
degree requirements. In addition, effective advising
assists students in identifying available internal and
external resources that can have a positive impact on
their SCC experience. Consideration of each student
as a unique individual with unique needs is recognized
as the foundation of the College’s advising program.
The mission of academic advising and an array of valuable
resources for use by advisors and students are included
on the College’s Academic Advising web page (5).
The
College has an active, divisionally represented Advising
Committee (6),
which designs and guides on-going advisor training and
development opportunities for faculty and staff serving
as advisors (7).
This committee is also responsible for distributing
timely advising updates (8)
that are routinely sent to faculty and staff and are
posted on the College’s web page. Flyers are sent
to students each semester reminding them of the importance
of working with their assigned advisors (9).
Student satisfaction with academic advising was added
to the Student Climate Satisfaction Survey for the first
time in 2004. In 2005, the mean satisfaction score showed
improvement over the first year’s rate (10).
Career
Center
The career counselor provides assessment and counseling
to assist current and prospective students in evaluating
their skills, interests, aptitudes, and abilities. Appointments
may be scheduled for individual assistance in resume
preparation, developing interviewing skills, career
assessment and reviewing job-seeking strategies. Classroom
and workshop presentations are regularly scheduled (11).
The
Career Center also helps students clarify where they
are in the career planning process and assists them
in progressing towards identifying and achieving their
educational/career objectives. The career counselor
serves as academic advisor to students who are undecided
about declaring a major.
LAC
tours are provided upon request, and the LAC is a component
of new student orientation tours. The LAC coordinator
and learning consultants also present workshops on a
variety of topics, such as improving study skills, dealing
with text anxiety, using calculators, documenting research
paper using APA or MLA style, and finding and evaluating
Internet sources.
Library
The Southwestern Community College Library is open 66
hours per week for the use of faculty, staff, students,
and community residents. This single-story 11,000-square
foot facility includes shelving capacity for 40,000
volumes and seating space for 120 people. The Library
had a total attendance of 11,195 patrons during the
fall 2005 semester. Regular Library services include
individual and group orientation tours, reference assistance,
and interlibrary loan services. The interlibrary loan
services allow registered Library users to borrow books
or articles by mail from local, statewide, or regional
library consortia
A
research-oriented Library website provides an index
of online reference sources, medical related reference
sources, and western North Carolina library sites, and
regional publications (16).
Additionally, the NC LIVE site provides students with
access to high quality information – searchable
collections of magazine, newspaper, and journal articles,
electronic books, historical materials, maps, and much
more – covering a wide range of topics (17).
Research
assistance for the individual student or faculty member
is always available from Library personnel. The Library
homepage and handbook (18)
also includes librarians' e-mail addresses and office
phone numbers for the convenience of off-campus users
and distance learners. Bibliographic Instruction classes
as requested by faculty are scheduled either in the
Library conference room or in any classroom or lab with
a computer projector.
Student
Support Services
The College has been funded since 1990 for a Title IV,
Student Support Services (SSS) education grant through
the Department of Education. SSS provides students opportunities
for academic development and assistance with basic College
requirements and serves to motivate students towards
the successful completion of their post secondary education.
The goals of Student Support Services are to increase
College retention, graduation and/or transfer rates
and to foster an institutional climate supportive of
serving the targeted SSS population. To qualify for
services, students must have a need for academic support
and then meet one of three criteria: first-generation
college, income eligibility, or have a documented disability
(19).
Support
services are offered in the following areas: counseling
and advising; assistance with transfer to a four-year
institution; cultural enrichment; volunteer enrichment;
classroom accommodations for students with documented
disabilities; financial support through our scholarship
workshops/supplemental grant aid program and professional
development funds; career exploration; “motheread/fatheread,”
college and community-wide resource referrals; and tutoring
instruction provided through our certified tutoring
program. SSS also has an extensive loan program including
lap-tops, PDA’s and classroom tools to help students
achieve their academic goals. Also available to students
is a large resource area equipped with three open, Internet-connected
computers and a wide variety of course-ready, job-ready,
resource-ready materials in text, video, and software
mediums.
The
2004-05 Student Support Services Performance Report
for the department indicates 188 students participating
in the program with a 65% retention rate of student
participants from Fall 2004 to Fall 2005. The data reported
showed that 81% of the student participants were in
good academic standing at the end of the program year.
Overall, the program has been very successful in working
with students. (20)
Distance
Learning
The College’s Instructional Services division
employs two staff members (21)
who support faculty and student usage of distance learning
technology. Students in distance learning courses have
access to online and face-to-face training in the use
of relevant technology. The distance learning specialist
conducts orientation sessions in computer labs each
semester for students taking online courses. Students
may also access online tutorials for getting started
with online learning, basic computer skills, and using
the Blackboard course technology.
The
College’s Information Technology division staffs
the Student Support and Help Desk (22)
to support distance-learning students. Students can
also take their new student orientation online at this
site.
Open
Computer Labs
Southwestern Community College operates two open computer
labs. The Library, located in the Pines Building has
24 computers available for student use. These computers
have Internet access, printer access, and all have the
Microsoft Office suite installed. There are also scanners
for student use. Library professionals are available
to assist users at all times. The Library is open 66
hours per week, including Saturdays. There is also an
open computer lab in Room 330 of the Balsam Center.
There are 20 computers available there. Faculty may
reserve the room for special lecture/lab activities
but the majority of the time it is open for student
use. Students also have access to computer labs in the
Learning Assistance Center.
In
addition to the open labs, many classrooms and labs
have networked computers that are accessible for individual
student use when classes are not in session. For example,
six computers labs – with 150 computers –
in Founders Hall are accessible to students at various
times throughout the day and evening when classes are
not scheduled. Availability of these labs is indicated
by posted door schedules that identify times for “Open”
student access.
Testing
Center
Testing Center staff will schedule and administer the
Accuplacer College Placement Test (CPT) for students
entering the College. The students’ test results
are made available immediately after completion along
with an interpretation of the scores with regard to
placement into English and math classes. After registration,
the testing coordinator monitors the students who are
enrolled in English and math classes to make sure the
placement is accurate.
Testing
Center staff administer the CPT to area high school
seniors who are vocational completers – the test
serves as a state measurement for the high school. High
school students also take the CPT to meet the admission
requirement for dual enrollment.
Additionally,
the Center staff schedule and coordinate the Health
Occupations Aptitude Exam (HOAE) administration. This
test is given to students seeking to be admitted to
selective admission Health Science Programs. Scoring,
interpreting and relaying score results is done by the
testing coordinator working with the faculty in the
various programs (23).
Tutoring
The tutoring program is available to all full- and part-time
students at Southwestern Community College. Students
may receive up to seven hours of free tutoring services
in most subject areas, subject to the availability of
tutors. Students are individually matched with peer
or faculty tutors for the duration of each semester.
Academic Support Groups provide trained group leaders
for students who want to study together for specific
courses. The Southwestern Community College tutoring
program is certified through internationally recognized
College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA). Campus
tutoring is administered and coordinated through the
Student Support Services Program.
During
the 2006 Spring Semester the College increased student
tutoring options with the addition of online tutoring
through SmarThinking (24).
SmarThinking provides highly qualified online tutors
in various academic disciplines including English, economics,
accounting, science, Spanish, and mathematics.
Compliance
Partial
Compliance