Committee Members From This Past Year

• Michelle Johnson (Chair)
• Erika Bailey (Member) replaced by…
  1. Tom Fellows (Member)
• Emily Davis (Member)
• Marianne Fischer (Member) replaced by…
  1.  Travis Love (Member)
• Shawn Jenkins (Member)
• Mackenzie Prins (Member)
• Denise Gross (Member)
• Elizabeth Clark (CSAL Student Representative)

Vacancies for F22/W23

None

During the past year, how did the committee work positively impact your advising skills?

Working together with other lead TSAR advisors is helpful in learning more about how each center approaches transfer students. Sorting through what worked and what did not, helps to create more a more positive experience for all transfer students.  Below are a couple of examples from our team. 

While we were working on the TSAR website we were also in the middle of onboarding transfer students for the winter 2022 semester. It was nice to have transfer students test our web pages as we were developing the website. Student feedback during the fall TSAR days really helped to test/shape the webpage that is now live. Having this opportunity showed us the value of involving students in this process as it directly relates to their experience and success.

Working closely with advisors in other centers has allowed for connections, as well, which has proven to be beneficial in overall advising skills; if I have questions or referrals of other advising centers, I have more connections within those centers now.

I have a much more comprehensive view of advising by working with advising colleagues in other offices. This committee has allowed me to assess specifically our TSAR practices and how we could change things based on what works for other advising centers. I do not feel like we are in our own “silos” anymore.

What accomplishments did your committee achieve during this past academic year? Projects and initiatives worked on?

Completed projects…

1. Finalized and launched the TSAR website at the end of December 2021
2. Offered a winter 2022 TSAR Welcome event via Zoom at the end of January 2022
3. Identify all transfer student initiatives across GVSU. The following were identified
   1. SEMP Transfer Learners Recruitment
   2. SEMP Transfer Learners Retention
   3. Transfer Conversations
   4. Transfer Modules
   5. Oliver Wilson Scholars
   6. GVSU/GRCC Transfer Initiative
   7. LAAN TSAR
   8. Admissions (TSAR)
   9. Office of Student Life (invite transfers to Transitions)

Initiatives started…

2. TSAR satisfaction survey
3. TSAR common documents

What work will you carry over that was unfinished to the next academic year?

1. TSAR satisfaction survey
   1. Update to GV Admissions TSAR survey
   2. Working on draft over summer 2022
   3. Plan is to have approved for us for fall 2022 TSAR
2. TSAR Workflow & Common Documents
   1. Identifying courses in progress from previous and current semesters & tracking
   2. Verifying credits/courses when planning on future semesters…verify transcripts received (follow-up process)
   3. Create standard TSAR workflow to ensure consistency
   4. Pre-TSAR, Post-TSAR, Follow-up Worksheets

What benefits would advisors gain by joining your committee for F22/W23?

Our committee is a bit different than the other LAAN committees in that the members are usually the lead agent for TSAR within their college. If a general advisor were to join this committee they would find a place to share their experience with TSAR and provide ideas about ways in which we could improve the TSAR process for our future students. We encourage anyone that is interested in learning more about TSAR to join us.