For Immediate Release
November 17, 2009

Group Counseling/Registration Model to Help New and Continuing Students

Group counseling and registration will shorten the wait time to see a counselor.

Cañada College is moving to a group counseling and registration model for Spring 2010 that is expected to reduce the amount of time it takes to see a counselor and provide more resources for new students who have questions about signing up for classes.

"Because of state budget cuts, students across California are frustrated with the amount of time it takes to see a counselor," said Peter Barbatis, vice president of student services at Cañada. "We are implementing a new counseling and registration model to address that frustration. Our goal is to make it more convenient for students to see a counselor and have their questions answered regarding scheduling." While Cañada’s new student enrollment has increased by 15 percent this fall, its counseling staff has been reduced by 66 percent. “We cannot sustain the level of individualized service offered to new students in the past.”

Barbatis said the goal of the new model is to help counselors focus on the continuing students and organize new students into uniform groups so that a team of counselors and student peers can provide them with consistent information and help them use on-line scheduling tools and services. "As continuing students near graduation or transfer, they have specific questions that need to be addressed by one-on-one sessions with counselors," Barbatis said. "New students, on the other hand, need help registering for classes. We can help them faster in group sessions led by a counselor with student peers available to assist them with on-line tools."

For the new student, after placement testing is completed, they will be advised of their placement in math, English, or ESL. In addition, based on the number of college units they have achieved, a determination will be made as to whether the student will proceed to group counseling, or to a one-on-one counseling session. Beginning Nov. 19, a series of group counseling sessions are scheduled for new students. More sessions will take place Jan. 4-18 and, if needed, additional sessions will be added. Immediately following the placement test, students are directed to the front desk to sign up for those sessions designated by their English or ESL placement. The only exception to this are the evening and Saturday testers who will sign up online. Directions on how to do this are printed on the reverse of the matriculation ticket.

To evaluate the new group counseling sessions, data will be collected to compare the Spring 2009 and 2010 average waiting times for continuing students. In addition, new students will be surveyed to be sure they were served satisfactorily. “New students will still see counselors but they will do so in groups and peer counselors can help them with the process of class registration,” Barbatis said. “We no longer have the resources we once had so we have to look at new models for serving our students.” Based on current data, Cañada could see approximately 600 new students enrolling this spring. Realizing that more than half of those students will be registering in January, it was imperative to have a model in place to begin serving them.

"Our primary goal is to better serve students," Barbatis said.

For more information, contact Robert Hood, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, at hoodr@smccd.edu or 306-3340