STUDENT SUCCESS CENTER
I am pleased to announce several changes related to the Student Success Center (SSC) on our Winona Campus, serving the academic needs of our undergraduate college students. The Student Success Center will now be located organizationally under College operations, rather than standing as a separate unit and will be guided by a senior director who will now report to the dean of the College. The First Generation Initiative (FGI) will continue to be a crucial part of SSC and is expected to increase the number of its FGI students substantially over the next few years; the new director of FGI will report to the senior director of SSC.
The role of the Student Success Center is crucial. As we emphasize the need for holistic support and retention efforts across the university, the Student Success Center stands to be a support system for students at every stage of the journey; first year to senior year and beyond. As the Student Success Center rebuilds its team, emphasis will be placed on offering excellent advising and services for first generation students, new student transition, and learning support, while researching best practices and staying up to date with current student needs.
To better support the student, this restructuring of SSC will mean four of its current staff are moving into different roles of service and leadership in the Student Success Center at Saint Mary’s:
- Tricia Dobrient, M.Ed., who most recently served as director of Advising & New Student Experience, has assumed overall leadership of the Student Success Center as the senior director of Student Success, which replaces a dean-level position in this restructured model. Tricia reports to the dean of the College, Dr. Darren Row.
- The new director of First Generation Initiative, Jennifer Hanifl, Ed.D., leads two programs geared toward first-generation students and underrepresented college and high school students within the Student Success Center: First Generation Initiative Scholars (FGI) at the College and Countdown to College (C2C) for high school students. Previously, Jennifer served in Student Success as the assistant director of First Generation Initiative and Learning Services under the leadership of Alisa Macksey. The currently posted vacant Countdown to College coordinator position, once filled, will report to the director of FGI and support FGI as well as C2C. Jennifer’s position reports to the senior director of SSC.
- The new director of Advising, Samantha Borawski B’15, M’17 leads specialized academic advising and retention-related activities and supervises two open positions, academic support adviser and New Student Experience adviser. Sam’s position reports to the senior director of SSC.
- In addition to the above leadership changes, Joe Justman, M.A., will promote a broader range of academic skills programming and coordinate tutoring activities and resources as the coordinator of Learning Services. Joe’s position reports to the senior director of SSC.
The Student Success Center will continue to offer academic advising support, learning services (such as tutoring), early alert case management, new student experience programming, and first generation study support. Earlier this year, Student Success renovated the center in Griffin Hall 70 to include new furniture and updated study spaces which are getting a lot of use so far this fall.
For a quick guide to the various services of the Student Success Center and contact information, please see this one page guide. Student Success Center staff will continue to work together very much as a tight-knit team who wants to collaborate with and serve our college faculty and students. We would like to thank them for their zeal to serve our students and faculty at the College.
ACCESS SERVICES
Another important announcement relates to the university’s Access Services office, led by Billy Brooks, M.Ed. Because of the importance of this universitywide academic support function and the unique focus on learning accommodations, Access Services has now become part of Academic Affairs under the leadership of vice provost for Faculties and Academic Affairs, Dr. Matthew Nowakowski. Formerly Access Services was located under the Winona Campus’ Student Success Center. The Office of Access Services will continue to utilize the Student Success Center for testing and student intake meetings at the undergraduate campus. As the Access Services team, Billy, director of Access Services, and his two Access Services specialists, Kaitlyn Taylor (serving the College) and Katherine Markquart (serving SGPP), work very hard to maintain an inclusive and accessible academic environment across all learning platforms to best meet the needs of everyone at the university.
Congratulations and much gratitude to these teams for all their hard work in supporting the success of our students!