Webinar Registration

Please join us on Thursday, August 18, from noon to 1:30 for an Advising Lunch 'N Learn: Transfer Pathways from Community Colleges to Private Institutions webinar. This facilitated conversation for community college and private college advisors will provide a space to speak with each other and gain an understanding of what is most useful for students transferring from community colleges to private institutions.
The event facilitators, all of whom are deeply enmeshed in the Oregon Transfer to the Liberal Arts Pathways (OTP-LA) project, will be:
· Elizabeth Cox-Brand, Oregon Student Success Center Executive Director
· Linda Samek, OTP-LA Project Director
· Brent Wilder, Oregon Alliance of Independent Colleges & Universities President

Register Now!

Community College Corner - February 2020

Guided pathways

Chatter about guided pathways is in the air. Community colleges around the state are in various stages of implementing and/or discussing this massive shift in how we serve students. Of course, this impacts advising in many ways. I hear from various colleges that advisors are in the process of being assigned to certain "meta majors" where they will work more closely with departments and faculty. What many university advisors don't know about community college advising is that many "general" advisors advise for every potential transfer scenario. Pathways will allow advisors to focus more, while working more closely with faculty. 
 

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​In other news, Clackamas Community College is about to break ground on a new student services building that will centralize all of their services into a one-stop experience. I haven't heard an estimate of how long this will take, but I am sure advisors are excited to move into their new home when it's ready.
 
Clear across the state, Klamath Community College has been awarded a 2.2 million dollar grant to implement a career-oriented program. Their goal is to help support students early in their academic journey to identify career possibilities. As every advisor can attest to, this dramatically impacts the advising conversations we are having with students, not to mention its impact on pathways.
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 Community College Corner - January 2020

Hello, advising colleagues around the state, and welcome to the first posting to the Community College Corner of the OAAA website. I am the community college representative on the OAAA leadership team, and incredibly excited about the role this young professional organization is beginning to play in the state of Oregon, and more specifically, the future of academic advising in Oregon. Academic advising at community colleges takes many shapes and forms, ranging from ultra-focused Career Technical Education (CTE) advising to general transfer advising and everything in between. In my current role as the general advising coordinator at PCC’s Sylvania campus, I am constantly in awe of my colleagues and the combination of knowledge and interpersonal skills they bring into each appointment. They understand who community college students are, and that best practices for working with a “traditional” university student may not apply to the student sitting across the desk, a student who may have children at home and needs to work fulltime to keep food on the table and make sure the utility bills are paid, or the recent high school graduate who is making an economic decision to live at home while attending college and working a part-time job. One thing is absolutely clear: academic advising at a community college is it’s own unique form of advising. Community college advisors are expected to know transfer program specifics to many in-state and out-of-state universities, while also working with vulnerable populations. Community college advisors help guide students through significant life decisions in an ever-changing world of transfer requirements. Even though the work is tiring and the demands can be overwhelming, academic advisors at community colleges believe in providing access and guidance to a high quality educational experience. This section of the OAAA website will be dedicated to advising within the community college setting (and the goings on within community college advising in Oregon). 

William Butler-Paisley, Ed.D. (he/him/his)
Interim Academic Advising Coordinator
Student Development Committee (SDC) Chair
OAAA. Leadership Board -Community College Rep
Portland Community College, Sylvania Campus