| Outcome |
During the past year, due to the pandemic and the concomitant lack of student interest in participating in programming as a result of a number of factors including increased stressors related to the pandemic, the center recognized that our energy would be best directed towards connecting with our students on a more personalized basis. As result, we initiated an ambitious plan to call and email all 1411 African American undergraduate and graduate students to do a welfare check, inform them of the broad array of services and resources available to assist them including meeting with me, virtual drop-in psychological services, and virtual, and to gently remind them of the center’s commitment to supporting them.
Method
The effort involved our six (6) apprentice directors contacting all 1411 or 235 student contacts per apprentice director. Each apprentice director was provided with the call script to ensure continuity and quality across exchanges; in the event that a student was unavailable our apprentice directors were instructed to leave a voice mail. Every phone call was followed up with an email which included a list of services and resources available as well as an invitation to reach out to the center director during his virtual office hours.
All 1411 students on the roster provided by the Registrar’s Office were called and we either spoke directly with the student or left a voicemail; regardless of the outcome of the call, each student also received a follow-up email.
Our outreach effort was executed over a three-week period (week 2-week 5 of each quarter) beginning in fall quarter 2020 and concluding in the spring quarter 2021. There were a total of 4233 calls (1411x 3) made to and 4233 emails (1411x 3) sent to students. Every point of contact was entered into an outreach log which included whether or not the apprentice director spoke directly to the student or if they left a voicemail and when they sent the follow-up emails. Any student concerns were also entered into the outreach activity log. This allowed us to track each apprentice directors’ outreach productivity as well as if there were specific areas we should attend to more closely
Results
At the beginning of fall 2020, I averaged 10-12 student visits per week for virtual office hours. By week 8 of the fall quarter, I was averaging 5-8 student (and family) virtual office visits per day; that number remained steady throughout the rest of the academic year.
Based on our results, it was decided that this outreach effort would be extended through the 2021-2022 academic year. It is too early to draw any empirical conclusions about the impact of our efforts. It should be emphasized the goal of our outreach effort was student welfare; it was not intended as a pedagogical exercise. |