The Mars Hill College Title III initiative for academic advising aims to establish an effective faculty-advisement system that fosters students’ persistence in learning and graduation. This initiative also seeks to improve the college’s first-year experience programs. The Coordinator for Faculty Advising, Diane Hutt, will work to reform and strengthen the MHC advising system, develop our student-mentor program (i.e., Challengers), and instigate a system for assessing the efficacy of our faculty advising in terms of student satisfaction, retention, and achievement.  

• Publish manuals that codify faculty advising procedures
• Provide training to improve faculty knowledge, skills, and abilities in student advising
• Help improve the existing LAA program
• Coordinate the MHC Challengers program for mentoring incoming freshmen
• Promote honors programming
• Facilitate systemic improvements in faculty-advising for first and second year students

• Overall student assessment of the advising and academic/personal support systems will meet or exceed the mean for peer institutions
• September 2009--within-term withdrawals during the first year experience will reduce to 12% (currently 18%)
• September 2009--73% of freshmen will return for their sophomore year (currently 66%)
• 2011--the six-year graduation rate will increase from 42% to 60%
• 2011--increase enrollment to 1200 students