How many of you still have to go to the Academic Advising Center? A lot of students do. Part of the reason most don’t go is that nobody wants to make that long trek across campus to Pierce or McKenny Hall. Realizing this, Francine Parker, chair of the Board of Regents, decided to create an Academic Advising Center in a more convenient and accessible location for students. So when a space opened in the Student Center, she and the rest of the Board of Regents jumped at the chance to put it there.
The Francine Parker Advising Center is a drop-in center for academic advising, open to any and all students at Eastern Michigan University. Parker was appointed to the Board of Regents for an eight year term at the start of 2007 and is an executive director of the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust with over 40 years of healthcare experience, according to a press release.
President Susan Martin attended the opening of the new advising center on June 18. The new center, opened immediately after a meeting for the Board of Regents.
“We want to thank Regent and Chair Francine Parker for being willing to support student success and advising on campus,” Martin said. “And it’s a great opportunity to show leadership for her to be willing to let her name be on the facility so that other donors and supporters of Eastern Michigan see the difference contributions can make to student success. I’m proud of her for doing it and hoping it brings more people who love Eastern back home to do what they can to help our students.”
Located at the food court level, right next to the E-Zone gaming center, the Francine Parker Advising Center is designed to be reminiscent of an Apple store: Designed by interior designer Amy Knolf and built by Chief of Operations John Donegan along with the staff of the Physical Plant, it is made up of three areas.
• A clean layout with Mac computers and simply uniformed staff of three. A largely paperless affair, it is an area for quick decisions and questions about advising. Instead of going to the station and making an appointment and waiting, the employees approach you to provide assistance rather than you waiting for them.
• Available are stations for longer term meetings where students can have in-depth appointments and really figure out what they should and receive sound assistance.
• Students can contact the center via Skype, or other online methods, never having to even step foot in the center.
Michael Brown, an academic advisor and lecturer in the College of Health and Human Services, thought the placement of this center would be an asset to the university.
“We have an opportunity to reinvent the wheel here, and set the standard for advising across the university,” coordinated advising team member Michael Brown said, “It’s an innovative concept, where we have the opportunity to kind of recreate the wheel for advising.”
But how exactly is this new center different from the normal way of advising students? Brown said the only possible disadvantage he could think of was “high traffic time” where the staff could be overwhelmed by students.
“The advantage of being in some place like the Student Center with the way the office is set up though is that we don’t have to stay here,” Amanda Karel, returning EMU alumna said. “For example, I’ve been going to the communications department on Wednesdays. Because we can go where the student need is, we can support different initiatives as they come up. It gives us more flexibility.”
The primary supporter of the new tool for students, Francine Parker, donated $50,000 of her own money to the center, and made a speech dedicating the facility.
“‘How can we get students to take advantage of advising?’ And the concept came up of, ‘If they won’t come to you, why don’t you go to them?’” Parker said.
“Improving our advising function as a means of helping students stay in school, progress academically and secure a good job is central to our mission at Eastern,” said Kim Schatzel, executive vice president of student affairs said in a press release.
While a website remains a work in progress, students can call the center at (734) 487-4599.
