Summer Tour Stop #8 - The Counseling and Advising Center

Good Morning!

My week (or at least parts of it) in Counseling and Advising come to an end today. The common thread through all of my visits so far is that I continue to learn so much. It’s one thing to understand in general what an office is responsible for, but quite another to actually experience it first-hand. It makes all the difference.

 The Counseling and Advising Center was no exception to my education. The Center provides assistance in academic advising, career and transfer planning, and personal counseling to currently enrolled students at Parkland College.

The Counseling and Advising Center provides a full range of counseling and academic advising services on a voluntary, confidential basis.   All services are offered in a way that supports cultural diversity and promotes respect for individual differences.

Students can make a 50 minute appointment for personal counseling with one of the counselors. Patti Arthur very ably organizes appointments, phones, and student traffic, thereby minimizing the time a student is required to actually sit and wait for a counselor or an advisor.

The Center is led by Director Donna Tanner-Harold and assisted by Julie Shumate-Meece. There are seven additional counselors and four advisors, and a pool of part-time academic advisors and student workers support the unit.

The Center provides transfer planning, academic advising, career and personal counseling and crisis intervention.  Counseling services are offered free of charge to Parkland students. Assistance with issues such as relationships, depression, stress management, anxiety, grief and loss and gay and lesbian concerns is also available to all students.  

Intensive support services are offered to students returning after academic suspension and for students on academic warning and probation.  Counselors and advisors collaborate with and support the college by participating on committees, presenting workshops and classroom visits. 

Counselors and advisors also serve on a variety of community based boards and committees.

During the week, I was able to “sit in” with most of our advisors and counselors, but give that this is the first week of class, I wasn’t able to get in with everyone.

Our counselors and advisors have nearly infinite patience. This type of work with students requires exceptional listening skills and the ability to “translate” what a students is attempting to communicate. Some students provide very little information and other times, it’s a flood.

Each counselor and advisor has their own style, from the way they address the student to the set-up of their office. I found it very interesting to see the different techniques in action. I view it as a good thing that we have such a diversity of approach in the Center as it allows our students to find a compatible soul and a connection with that person.

I would extend my appreciation to all in the Center for allowing me to join you during a very busy week. I enjoyed the time and learned much.

An enrollment update:

At this point in time we are 328 in headcount ahead of where we were at this time last year. We are standing at 9,542 in headcount, up 3.5% from Fall 2009.

FTE stands at 6,632, 4.95% better than last Fall.

Reo offers a word of caution regarding the comparisons as, “we are not exactly comparing apples and apples since we are not dropping every night for lack of tuition payment.”

The next drop for lack of tuition payment will be Monday morning, August 30th.

The weekly drop gives us a chance to attempt to contact students to let them know that they will be dropped if payment is not received by the next deadline and the Call Center will continue to contact students with outstanding balances through tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

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