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Grand Valley State University

From the Director...

Jennifer McCaul

We are so excited for the new academic year to begin! However first, allow me to share what has been going on this summer.

First, we packed up all of our offices and thousands of student files and moved! Our office is now located on the 3rd floor of Building C in the DeVos Center. We love our new space which provides us with much needed room for transfer orientation sessions and workshops. Please come see us in 321C DEV!

Another big activity for us this summer was working closely with the university-wide new student orientation program to welcome over 4,000 new first year students to GVSU. We provided staffing for 35 out of the 40 scheduled day-long sessions (including 10 days with more than one staff member). The College of Community & Public Service is welcoming over 150 new first year students who declared CCPS majors while at orientation.

In addition, our office has provided small group orientations for over 175 new transfer students coming into our college during the spring/summer and fall semester.

Other big projects this summer included completely overhauling our department website using the new CMS4 design template and getting ready to launch the use of the Student Success Collaborative, both of which are highlighted below.

We hope that you will continue to review our newsletter on the second Monday of every month (after this) and share the information with students as appropriate. If you have questions or need more information please do not hesitate to contact us.

I am grateful to have so many talented faculty and staff that work in our college to provide information and opportunities to our students. Without you, our office could not do what it does. Have a wonderful semester!!

--Jennifer L. McCaul, Director
CCPS Undergraduate Advising Center

A New Year Starts with Service

comprenew logo

On August 12th, the staff of the CCPS Undergraduate Advising Center started the new academic year with a morning of service at CompRenew a nonprofit organization that is focused on recycling electronic waste.

After a quick rundown of what the inside of a computer looks like we donned gloves, grabbed our screwdrivers and pliers, and went to work tearing apart computers, including some with GVSU property tags! The staff was able to dismantle about 30-35 computers in our time at the facility. This kept over 600 pounds of material from going into the landfill and provided the organization with about $300 of recycled materials to be used for their job and education programs.

Learn more about what this organization does through a GVSU student project video.

 

CCPS Staff Retreat at CompRenew
CCPS Staff Retreat at CompRenew
CCPS Staff Retreat at CompRenew
CCPS Staff Retreat at CompRenew
CCPS Staff Retreat at CompRenew
CCPS Staff Retreat at CompRenew

New Web Enhancements

webpage screenshot

Our web enhancements have been completed and went live last week! We are excited to highlight who we are and what we do in this newly formatted design. All of our links and pages have been changed so please take some time to review your own websites for links to our page that may no longer work. Our new site is categorized by audience to provide the best information to all of our constituents. There are pages specific for future students and familiies, current students, and faculty/staff. Please take a look around and let us know what you think!

Welcome New Students

welcome to gvsu

Every year our office reaches out to all new CCPS students and their families to offer a welcome and information about the services that our office provides.

In an effort to be more sustainable, we are in our third year of an e-newsletter format. We have been better able to track how many students and families read the document and which links are the most popular. Last year we had a 46% open rate which was an increase from 37% in our first year of tracking.

This year's issue was sent on August 18th to over 650 new CCPS declared majors (First year and Transfer) as well as first year student's parents (if an email address was on file). Check out this year's issue for yourself and let us know what you think!  Welcome New Students & Families

Introducing Kathryn Timm - 1st Year GA

Kathryn Timm

You may see a new face when you come to visit our office this fall semester. Kathryn Timm is a graduate student in the College Student Affairs Leadership program and will work as a graduate assistant in our office. She earned a bachelors degree in French from Central Michigan University. After graduating she lived in Clermont-Ferrand, France for a year and taught English as a Second Language. For the past year she has been working before returning to graduate school. Please say "Hello" and welcome  her to GVSU and CCPS when you see her!

Student Success Collaborative

educational advisory board

In earlier issues of our newsletter we have talked about CCPS's participation in the Student Success Collaborative. This collaborative provides another tool for faculty and staff to provide information to students about their performance and timely progression to degree by using predictive data analytics. Faculty and staff are encouraged to learn more about the collaborative and to sign up to delve deeper into the research library that is available to all members of the collaborative. Additional information will roll out to CCPS faculty and staff as we move forward with implementation during the fall.

STUDENT SUCCESS COLLABORATIVE OVERVIEW

CREATE A MEMBER LOG-IN AND REVIEW E-LEARNING MODULES