Spring 2012 - Webinar: 'Creating Possibilities for Commuter Students'

Wednesday, April 25, 10-11:15 a.m.
Student Union, Lyla Richards Conference Room

If you work with commuter students, you may find this one-hour webinar very useful. Here is an overview of the session:

Are your commuter students transitioning successfully to college? In general, commuter students have more difficulties adjusting to college compared to residential students. But within the commuter student population, there are large variations between academically successful and unsuccessful students. Using data collected from a national retention project, we built a profile of academically successful commuter students and compared those students to less successful students. The profile includes cognitive, demographic, behavioral/environmental, and non-cognitive components. The data set utilized consists of nearly 15,000 commuter students from 82 institutions ranging from highly residential to highly commuter. This webinar will include recommendations for turning this data into action to support the success of commuter students. 

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Participants will become familiar with the current literature on commuter student success and support.
• Participants will understand the profiles and experiences of academically successful commuter students (those who earned a GPA >= 3.0) as compared to unsuccessful commuter students (those who earned a GPA < 2.0).
• Participants will be able to identify at-risk commuter students.
• Participants will be able to apply this information to their specific campus contexts to develop programs and services to support commuter student success.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

• Off Campus/Commuter Student Center staff
• Professionals who work with non-traditional student populations
• Academic Advisors
• FYE Seminar Instructors
• Professionals who work with retention and student success programs
• Enrollment Management staff
• Student Life staff
• Student Affairs administrators
• Academic Affairs administrators

PRESENTER:
Jennifer Hodges, Assistant Dean of University College at The University of Akron, coordinates First-Year Seminar courses, manages the review of Academic Progress, works with students on academic probation, serves as the Campus Coordinator for MAP-Works, and assists with assessment of academic advising and other areas. Prior to this position, she served as the Director of Undergraduate Programs in the College of Business Administration at Akron. Jennifer earned her Ph.D. in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education from Michigan State University in 2007. She worked in academic advising at Michigan State University and Northern Kentucky University prior to pursuing her doctorate. While a masters student at Texas A&M University, Jennifer worked in Off Campus Student Services. She has taught undergraduate courses in career planning, leadership, and orientation to college as well as graduate courses in student development theory and history of higher education.

If you have questions, please contact David Murdoch at (907) 786-1124 or murdoch@uaa.alaska.edu.