Dear Case Western Reserve Undergraduate Students:
I write today to let you know that we are in the process of making important changes to our undergraduate student support and advising structures. We are doing this because we must provide all of the university's undergraduate students an unmatched experience with the highest standard of institutional supports.
While we know many offices provide quality advice and direction, you have told us that the system of support is not as clear as it can be. For some, it is unnecessarily confusing. We have heard you.
Since November—with the assistance of consultants from the Educational Advisory Board (EAB)—we have engaged in a deliberative process with leaders of the offices supporting students, Faculty Senate leaders and associate deans for academic affairs from the college and schools that confer degrees to undergraduate students. Included in this work were listening tours and interviews with students, faculty and staff to gain a wide array of perspectives on how we are supporting and advising our students.
Between now and July 1, we are working to simplify our systems and better communicate how best to obtain the support you need, when you need it. One of our guiding principles is to create a “front door” for our undergraduate students, and we will do this by re-envisioning the Division of Student Affairs to include functions that are currently housed in Student Advancement, Undergraduate Studies and International Affairs. We determined that these structural changes best reflect our aspirations at a time when a new vice president will be coming to lead the Division of Student Affairs.
We have several working groups developing the new structure, and we will provide the campus community with updates on the new structure. It is an exciting time to consider how we best support you, our students, on your journey at CWRU.
Ben Vinson III
Provost and Executive Vice President