Enhancing Academic Advising with a Monthly Newsletter

A monthly departmental newsletter can be an effective means of communicating academic and career information to students in a large department. I initiated an advising newsletter in spring 2001 while I was a full-time academic adviser in the Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology (EPOB) department, a department with approximately 800 students, at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The newsletter was distributed in a print format rather than sent to students via e-mail. Students were voicing their frustration at the number of e-mails they were receiving from the university, and many stated that they were not using their university e-mail account. With such a large number of students and limited face-to-face contact with individuals, I decided to try an alternative method of communicating essential and useful information by printing a monthly departmental newsletter.

Each issue of EPOB Advising News compiled important department information, supplemented by campus and career information. The first column on the first page of each issue was titled “B³ – Beyond Biology at Boulder.” Each month, this column profiled a professional who had used an undergraduate degree in biology to enter a field that students may not have considered or heard about, such as aquatic forensic entomology or Antarctic biology. The column became a tool that gave students a way to explore major-related career fields. The remainder of each six-page issue was filled with seminar announcements, department club announcements, registration reminders, course information, and discipline-specific employment/internship listings. Copies of the January 2001 through May 2001 issues, constructed using Microsoft Publisher, can be found on the EPOB Advising News website.

I emphasized to students that the newsletter should serve as a supplement to the other resources available on campus. Students were still encouraged to speak with department faculty to discuss and develop their interests. I advised students to first review employment and internship listings at the career services office and then to use the EPOB Advising News for additional listings of opportunities.

Distribution

Copies of EPOB Advising News were made available in the advising office and in the department main office. E-mail messages informed students when the latest issue was available, fliers were placed around the biology building to remind students to pick up the newsletter at the beginning of every month, and some of the department faculty passed the word along in their classes as well. Students were handed copies of the newsletter when they entered the advising office and were encouraged to read issues while they were waiting for their advising appointments. Approximately 200 copies of the newsletter were picked up by students each month. In addition, some students mentioned that they would read someone else's copy in the residence halls or in classes.

Evaluation

An on-line survey was administered at the end of the first semester of implementation. The survey included questions about the services of the advising center as a whole as well as about the newsletter specifically. Students were notified about the survey through e-mail (an announcement was sent to all biology majors on May 1) and through the May issue of the newsletter (which included the Web address of the survey). The survey remained on-line throughout the month of May. Students who were seen in the advising center during that time were also reminded to complete the survey.

A low number of students (approximately 6 percent, n=46) responded to the anonymous survey. Students were asked their class year, sex, if they had heard of the newsletter, if they had read the newsletter and how many issues they had read, and how they felt about the value of the newsletter as a supplement to their advising. Although the data collected do not have statistical significance, they are interesting to consider nonetheless. Thirty-seven female and nine male students supplied feedback. The data are tabulated below.

Number of female student respondents to this question = 37.

Number of male student respondents to this question = 9.

The data, which are spread across four class years, show that one-quarter of the students responding had not heard of the newsletter. This figure is not that surprising, since it is difficult to get the word out in a department with many students who may not come in for advising during the semester. Thirteen percent of the students had heard of the newsletter but chose not to read any issues (all of those students were upperclassmen). With almost one-third of the students reading three or more issues during the semester, the data suggest that the newsletter did fill a void for some students who were looking for additional advising information.

The advising newsletter was designed to target undergraduates from all class years (freshmen through seniors). The results of the survey indicated that it did reach students from all four classes, based on female student data.

Table 1b Female student responses to on-line survey about advising newsletter

Number of female student respondents to this question = 24.

Number of male student respondents to this question = 5.

When asked whether the newsletter should be continued the following semester, all of the students, regardless of whether they had actually read a copy of the newsletter or not, wanted the print newsletter to be continued. The freshman female student who said that the newsletter was of no help whatsoever to her, even though she had read two issues, said the newsletter should continue. The two male juniors who said that the newsletter was not really of much help to them – one had read all five issues, and one had not read any issues at all – agreed that the newsletter should continue. Perhaps those students feel that the newsletter will be of help to them in the future and would like the newsletter to be available when they are ready to explore career opportunities.

The survey also included questions about the frequency and content of e-mail messages sent from the advising office. When students were asked how often they wanted to receive e-mail from the advising office, 41 percent replied “once a week,” and 48 percent replied “once every two weeks.” (Other responses were once a month, once every two months, and once a semester). When asked what content they would like to see in the e-mail messages, almost all students checked off every category that was listed on the survey (i.e., seminars, information sessions, internships, jobs, and medical/graduate school information). It is clear from the students who responded that they would like to continue to receive advising-related e-mails. However, since all students also said that the newsletter should continue in a print format, it appears that students are open to a variety of methods of receiving advising information.

It is difficult to assess if the newsletter was of more value to the female students than it was to the male students. The ratio of male to female students in the department is approximately 50:50, yet only 19 percent of the students who participated in the survey were male. All but one of the female respondents stated that the newsletter added some level of value to departmental advising. Of the five male respondents to the question of whether the newsletter was of additional value to advising received from the department, three felt there was some value while two did not.

Student comments confirmed that the majority of students found the newsletter a good addition to their advising, a “place for good information to be consolidated,” and “fun to read.” One student volunteered that, “as a student who is still unsure of my educational and career path, the information in the newsletters is informative and a great way to get ideas about career options.” Another student remarked that the newsletter is “a good way to keep students mindful of events and their future goals with the EPOB major.” Students had some suggestions of additions to future issues of the newsletter, including adding career profiles of department alumni and more employment information.

Summary

It is always a challenge to find the most effective method to communicate important and helpful information to students. I would argue that the level of the challenge increases with an increasing number of students in a department. Student responses for this particular department indicated that e-mail should not be the sole means of communication to students. The addition of a print departmental newsletter that contains a strong advising and career mentoring component can serve as a valuable supplement to faculty mentoring and can effectively circulate information to students.