Gregory Wolcott (San Jose State University) on Enhancing Retention Through Effective Orientation

On today’s episode of the Illumination by Modern Campus podcast, podcast host Shauna Cox was joined by Gregory Wolcott to discuss the new expectations students have when it comes to orientation and how to create a welcoming environment that will engage and retain learners. 

Transcript

Voiceover: Welcome to Illumination by Modern Campus, the leading podcast focused on transformation and change in the higher education space. On today’s episode, we speak with Gregory Wolcott, who is Associate Vice President of Student Success at San Jose State University. Gregory and podcast host Shauna Cox discuss the new expectations students have when it comes to orientation and how to create a welcoming environment that will engage and retain learners. 

Shauna Cox (00:02):Greg, welcome to the Illumination podcast. I'm so glad you could join me today.

Gregory Wolcott (00:07):Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Shauna Cox (00:09):Yeah, not a problem. So we're here to talk about creating a welcoming environment, especially during a time where I think it's fair to say that there might be a lot of disconnect among people, whether that's in education, students to institution relationship, and quite honestly among society itself. So I want to kick off our conversation and ask you how have campus environments specifically, particularly during say, orientation evolved in recent years?

Gregory Wolcott (00:41):Sure. Well, thank you again for having me. It's an honor to be here to talk about this really important topic. I would say first of all, the first recorded program in our country was back in the 1950s, and that was in the Ivy League schools. And it was basically started with the meeting with a faculty member, very brief meeting, and students were off to fend for themselves after that to get college started. It has evolved a lot since that time. Obviously, highly structured programs, some ranging from a day long to two to three days to even weeks long and a semester long process. So I think that correlates to how complex universities and college life has become and therefore the need to do more extended orientation programs for new students to help get them ready for their college experience.

Shauna Cox (01:34):Absolutely. And I think with the pandemic of course, rapidly changing and shifting higher ed and our lives and the way we do things, what are some of the more maybe new key expectations that student have of their institution when it comes to orientation or that initial campus experience?

Gregory Wolcott (01:57):Yeah, well, I think we learned a lot from the pandemic. Thankfully, as difficult as that time period was, but we were all forced to deliver all of our programs and services online for two years almost. And that includes orientation. So we had that opportunity to develop a virtual orientation program, and many campuses are continuing to utilize some form and format of that in their programming. So that was a win, I think, out of that experience if there is a win from that experience. But from there, students' expectations have changed. I think when it comes to their transition to college and what they expect from orientation, the number one thing I think is getting their classes for the fall semester. That is a serious concern for a lot of incoming students, in particular first generation students. It's almost 50% of students coming into college now are first generation students.

(02:53):So they don't have a lot of context for what this is all about. So that anxiety around classes, that anxiety around, am I going to belong here? Do I fit here? Did I make the right choice? It's a significant financial investment. So that's an important inspiration. But also I think they want to see and feel, get a sense for the campus. What types of activities? Is it a vibrant campus? Is there a lot to do here? Are there opportunities to be employed? And what's it look like after graduation in terms of employment? Lots of expectations that really begins at orientation and the critical need to articulate those things to students so that they feel like they made the right choice and they're now going to get off to a great start.

Shauna Cox (03:41):Absolutely, especially that great start because I think that's going to leave a lasting impression on the institution and their experience. And you want to start off on a good note, but with all these student expectations, they're very valid expectations, but there are a lot of students, there are a lot of students with different needs. What are some of those significant challenges that institutions encounter when they're striving to create a welcoming environment for so many students?

Gregory Wolcott (04:12):And I think for the campuses that are fortunate, they've seen enrollments grow over time. Many campuses are not in that situation. You see campuses merging now and things like that happening. But for those who are in good enrollment status, the scalability is a challenge. So you want to have a high touch personalized approach to orientation and working with new students, but when you're bringing in a class of 5001st year students and their parents and families are along for the ride, it can be challenging to do that in a very personal kind of way. And so that's a challenge. Certainly. I think another challenge is just the differences between high school and even community college and four year institutions is vastly different. And so those who run orientation programs have to be thinking about that and how do they articulate that difference and the expectations now that they're entering a four year institution, whether that's public or private, the expectations are different.

(05:12):In some ways it's going to be more challenging, but mostly just different from what they had experienced in high school in particular. And then I think we have challenges around curriculum and curriculum alignment. So there are many requirements in college that don't necessarily articulate to the college environment or college curriculum. And it's difficult because students spend a lot of time on their coursework and sometimes that coursework doesn't translate. Like if they don't pass an AP test for example, they're not going to get that college credit. They spend an enormous amount of time focused on AP courses in high school. I speak from personal experience as a parent, and so that can be challenging to take all those courses and then not get college credit. I think there needs to be an adjustment between that curriculum that they have in high school and the college curriculum to better serve students.

Shauna Cox (06:05):Absolutely. So I want to ask because of course you're going to have a crystal ball in all the answers and the playbooks to all of these challenges, but what are some effective best practices to at least start with when trying to overcome some of those challenges that you've mentioned while at the same time trying to foster that sense of community?

Gregory Wolcott (06:30):Yeah, I think for my campus and other campuses that I'm in contact with, they utilize sort of a distributed model of programming for new students. So you think about the lifespan of the new student, it really begins an application almost a whole year before they start at the university. And then the campus needs to respond and provide pivotal information at times when students need it. And typically what that looks like is usually around April, there's an exciting event on campus to students to say yes to the campus. And from there orientation information goes out, they attend orientation. There's hopefully a weeks of welcome program in the fall to continue that excitement. But that distributed model, I think many campuses are finding helpful because it breaks down the information into digestible parts for the new student, because otherwise it's just so overwhelming. So I've seen that as a best practice.

(07:30):Also, just as many touch points as you can possibly have with new students throughout that life cycle. Many campuses have the benefit of having a first year experience class in the fall so that there's less pressure to do everything in the summer. You can kind of gradually introduce information to new students in a way that they can understand it and apply it to what they're experiencing. I think the last thing I'd say is just parental and family involvement is so important in recent years. That's become the number one factor for students choice of college is their parental guidance and engagement with the university that they've applied to. And so if campuses need to respond to that and also provide in a similar way provide appropriate information to parents and families as they're helping onboard new students as well.

Shauna Cox (08:25):And I kind of want to throw a question to you. I know it's not in the list, so you totally welcome to pass on it, but in terms of the distribution model that you mentioned, what does that look like from a behind the scenes different department? How do you hand off different responsibilities to different departments or faculty when you want to keep retaining that student through the lifecycle but need to deliver different things at different times, how does that make that nice and possibly cohesive as possible?

Gregory Wolcott (08:58):I think you've named probably the most difficult part of an orientation director's job in that question is herding all the cats and making sure that it makes sense to the external observer or students outside of the campus. There's a lot that happens behind the scenes as you can imagine, to make that a coherent process for students and families. And many campuses have a model that we have on my campus, which is you tend to have a steering committee or a larger group made up of representatives across campus that the orientation department will convene periodically to, okay, what are we going to be doing this year? At what point in time, let's get dates set, let's get processes set. But it is a complicated dance to make all that happen, and especially if there are folks in different divisions working toward it. And that's typically the case. You have your admissions team, which may be different from your orientation team to your registrar team to your advisors. So it is a complex dance for sure, but the campuses that have that sort of broader steering committee or group tend to be more successful in that because you're talking openly about the process all throughout the year before you have to deliver on those programs.

Shauna Cox (10:13):Absolutely. Collaboration is key there. And I want to talk about the actual effectiveness of orientation and look at how do you assess the effectiveness of those orientation programs in terms of student engagement and that sense of belonging that you're trying to achieve?

Gregory Wolcott (10:34):Yeah, I like to say start with the end in mind. So taking a look at what are the common outcomes we want from OTR programming, and you can go to the council for the advancement of standards and other industry standards in the field through NoDa, for example, through ahhe, the parent professional organization to look at what are those outcomes, and then you work backwards from there. On my campus, we include those outcomes in our survey assessment, so they're embedded in the survey assessment. We have to make sure we have program components that align to those outcomes. So if one of those is creating a sense of belonging among new students, how are we doing that? Literally during the orientation program, we allow them to have several meetings with their orientation leader and they get to know their leader and they get to know each other.

(11:25):And it starts to build that sense of belonging among students. So aligning your program with the learning outcomes from the field is a really important place to start. And then making sure you have an assessment process or an evaluation process in place as your facilitating programs. We like to share those results out very widely and transparently after our summer program. And that tends to be effective because folks can see how students are responding. Students will often do the work for us in giving feedback we might know aren't working too well, but they will accentuate that and what they tell us through the evaluation, and then we can share that diplomatically with campus course.

Shauna Cox (12:09):Yeah, students aren't afraid to tell you how they feel about something and then you just kind of have to filter that out and move on from there. But I want to take a step back and look at the big picture here and ask, in what ways does this welcoming environment that you're trying to create during orientation specifically since that's such a pivotal moment in the student experience, influence student retention and overall success at the institution since those students are there for a lengthy life cycle?

Gregory Wolcott (12:40):Well, I think the first thing we have to recognize is that our institutions still operate in a similar way to when they were first created and first opened their doors. So serving a population that is very different from today's diverse population of students, and unfortunately that leads to equity gaps among a lot of different populations of students. So that's where we need to adjust and we need to think about how we are welcoming them, how we are making sure they feel seen here, they see themselves here on our campuses, and then capitalizing that on the different touch points we have throughout the process. But also it doesn't end at the end of orientation or weeks of welcome. We need to continue to cultivate these students and give them opportunities to form friendships and bonds with one another, but also with faculty and staff who can be mentors to students. So you'll see a lot of in recent years, creation of additional like pre-college programs, for example, for specific populations of students. And that's part of the reason why is the broader campus system isn't necessarily serving. So there've been these additional programs that have spread out, which I think are awesome to speak more to the specific needs of certain groups of students.

Shauna Cox (14:03):Absolutely amazing. Well, Greg, those are all the questions that we have for you, but before I let you go, we're going to need a restaurant recommendation from you. So you are of course based in San Jose, California. Someone's coming to town. Where do they need to go?

Gregory Wolcott (14:19):Awesome. I love the question. So we are located in downtown San Jose. I also live in downtown San Jose, and I have to recommend Mezcal. It's a Hawkin restaurant, it's a family owned restaurant, has been for many years. AFO Gomez is the owner and operator, and I highly recommend Thele. It's really good.

Shauna Cox (14:44):Amazing. Thank you so much, Greg, for the recommendation and for coming on the podcast. It was great chatting with you.

Gregory Wolcott (14:50):Thank you. It was my pleasure.