“The times, they are a changin’.”

Georgia Perimeter College’s Don Pearl used Bob Dylan’s musical ode to the 1960s to preview changes to GPC’s student advisement and assessment processes at an Aug. 11 collegewide faculty meeting.

The song reference was especially apt as the college will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year—the Dylan tune was released in 1964, the same year GPC opened its doors as DeKalb College.

The biggest change Pearl announced is that GPC’s student advising will move from oversight by Student Affairs to Academic Affairs and that professional academic advisors will be hired to assist faculty with advisement. The new model will increase faculty engagement with students.

It’s all part of GPC’s participation in the statewide Complete College Georgia initiative, said Pearl, who is heading up CCG efforts at Georgia Perimeter.

Complete College Georgia focuses on retention and progression to keep students on track for graduation.

While Georgia Perimeter has long been considered an avenue for transfer to other colleges, now GPC is placing a new focus on graduating. “It’s important to stress the value of an associate degree in and of itself,” said Pearl. “This is an accomplishment to be proud of.”

He also stressed the need for advisement to retain students on track for a degree. “We don’t want students to take 90 credits from us and still be one credit short of graduation. What good have we done for someone if they don’t finish?”

That means encouraging part-time students to take nine credit hours and full-time students to take 15 credit hours. “College can’t be the last thing on the list,” Pearl said.

The emphasis on graduation over transfer also aligns with the new state funding formula guidelines.

Dr. Susan Finazzo, GPC’s interim dean of institutional effectiveness, spoke about the new early alert and assessment procedures for students.

This fall the college is implementing PASS, which stands for Performance Alert for Student Success.

The PASS system requires faculty to log student performance benchmarks; students then get frequent academic alerts if they are at risk for failing a course. They can get the generated messages in their student email, in iCollege and via text messaging.

“We surveyed students, and 98.5 percent said early alerts were a good thing,” Finazzo said. The first alert will go out Sept. 6—just three weeks after school starts.

“PASS was devised because many of our students come to us with many risk factors,” explained Finazzo. Currently, 43 percent of students stay at GPC for the entire year. “We are losing students from semester to semester, and we can’t have that trend continue,” she said.

Other proposed strategies to implement GPC’s Complete College Georgia plan include program of study “maps”; Degree Works, a software course-tracking program; a redesigned First Year Experience; and increased use of the web, social media and text messaging to communicate with students.

Faculty attending the meeting also learned about the planned collegewide 50th anniversary spring symposium, which will feature a 1960s theme, and heard details on new digital library film resources before breaking up for discipline meetings.