I agree that having more interaction between the administration that educates prospective students and the educators themselves makes everyone part of the education team.
I think that the whole faculty, directors, instructors, admissions reps, etc...will work toghether for the benefit of the students.
As Faculty we often wonder what students are told by the admissions department. They do not train at all by going to any of the production classes, this is a culinary school, so we do not know what they tell prospective students regarding what they willl actually be doing in then school.
What can you do to get this information, Katianne? Is it something that could be included in staff meetings?
Sometimes it easy to get a job and say I am only going to do my job and everyone can do there own. In reality we got to learn how everybody's job is done and what the importance of their job is to a company, institution, college or school the more involved we are and realize how the dice roll the better the line of comminication will be. Not only will we know how to answer student's questions and concerns but we will know who to send them for help or who we can ask to get the proper information to relay back to the student. This is a way to improve reteention showing the student that we care by giving them the right information in a timely manner.
I like the idea of bringing admissions, instructors, and supervisors together. Sometimes I feel there is a disconnect. I myself am unsure of the admissions department's criteria for accepting students, and am unsure of how the university is billed to incoming students. Knowing that would help me as an instructor manage student expectations, as well as help admissions know what is going on in the programs.
Is this education an ongoing process? How do you inform admissions about curriculum changes or the success of graduates?
I strongly agree with what you have stated, it is sometimes hard to keep a student interested and keep them in school if what was told to him during the admissions process is totally false. This is an excellent way to loose students. I have in a college for 5 years and we encountered this type of problem in the past. It all starts with the admissions process so what we have done to improve our situation is we gathered all instructors and supervisors to train the admissions representatives in all the programs and explain to them what is really going on in the programs that they are trying to get these students to join. This has worked out well and our communication is alot better and students get what they expect from the programs and the training they will receive.
Schools that misrepresent what they do generally don't survive in the long run and don't have a very good reputation in the community. Communication, communication, communication.
