Gordon State College Shares Advising Redesign Concepts At USG Momentum Summit V

The Momentum Capstone event is an opportunity for GSC’s Momentum team leadership to present and share plans for Momentum and engage with peers on how to move the work forward on the campus and across Georgia. It’s structured to give institutions the opportunity to report out on the plans developed during Summit Planning week from February 28th through March 4th.

“The opportunity to gather our Momentum team leadership and discuss our successful strategies is a day I look forward to. It reiterates, The Power of We,” said GSC President, Dr. Kirk A. Nooks. “When each person can better understand how they contribute to learning, inside and outside of the classroom, then Gordon State will be able to fulfill our mission to our students as well as to the region and state.”

Teams of up to six were invited to participate. GSC’s panel consisted of: President Nooks; Dr. C. Jeffery Knighton, GSC provost; Dr. Stephen Raynie, professor of English and president of the Georgia Organization for Student Success (GOSS); Dr. Tonya Coleman, director of residence life; Jerry Oliver Jr., director of student success, advising, testing; and Britt Lifsey, director of institutional research and effectiveness.

For the 2021 Momentum Summit, GSC submitted an advising redesign as the, “Big Idea.” Gordon has spent the entire academic year of 2021-2022 on developing the plans for the advising redesign with the help of personnel from the system office. The plans were submitted to the president and provost in Dec. of 2021 after five intense months of campus meetings, committee work and campus presentations. The president and provost shared the plans with the GSC campus community in January of 2022 and have been revising the plans to meet the needs of the institution.

“Student success is at the heart of everything we do at Gordon. It’s why we constantly challenge ourselves to imagine how we can do better. The Momentum Summit is part of that vital process,” Raynie said.

GSC’s plan includes more proactive support for incoming freshmen beginning at new-student orientation in summer of 2022. GSC is also leveraging the use of the student support and predicative analytics software, EAB’s Navigate, to provide a holistic approach to reform the student success strategy and meet the needs of today’s students.

“Ensuring that students start strong is a key foundational element of them developing the Highlander EDGE. That’s why this Momentum Summit is so important. Our team is refining our skills so that we can help all of our students experience a successful first year of college,” Knighton said.