Navigation Office cut; faculty advising becomes focus

By Hannah Newman

As the university balances an ongoing budget deficit, Rider administrators decided to cut the Student Navigation Office over the summer, along with multiple other staff positions.

“It was certainly having a positive impact in terms of what we ended up with for retention last year, but at the same time, it’s … your wants versus your needs,” said Provost DonnaJean Fredeen in an interview on Sept. 9 with The Rider News. “What we need is very strong faculty advising. What we wanted was another group of people who were helping supplement that academic advising. It was a difficult decision, but I feel confident in the work.”

The short-lived Student Navigation Office was created in 2020 for holistic advising beyond what the faculty provided, according to Fredeen. The office stood as a mentorship resource for new students and zeroed in on keeping students on track to meet their Engaged Learning requirements.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to the need for us to align our expenses with our revenue,” said Fredeen in an interview on  Sept. 13 with The Rider News.

The office consisted of a director and three navigation coaches assigned to meet with students throughout their first year. Coaches aimed to ensure new students knew where to find resources so they could focus on campus engagement. The office consisted of two coaches at the time it closed, according to Fredeen. 

The coaches were hired specifically for the positions and did not have prior roles at the university. However, the two coaches were given the opportunity to move into the financial aid department, but only one took the offer, according to Fredeen.

The Engaged Learning Program still remains a graduation requirement so that students continue to immerse themselves in campus life and prioritize diverse involvement throughout their Rider experience. 

“I do think that the Navigation Office was a good motivator for Engaged Learning points, but I don’t think it’s going to hurt students in their ability to complete their Engaged Learning [requirements],” said Fredeen. “With the advisee task force that Dean [Eugene] Kutcher led all of last year and the resource we are creating for them, Engaged Learning is highlighted in there, and we are really trying to make certain that advisers are not just thinking about courses but Engaged Learning.” 

The responsibility of Engaged Learning resides in Career Development, Engaged Learning and Leadership according to Fredeen. They run reports every semester to quantify how many Engaged Learning points students have earned and how many categories they hit in the process.

Beginning in the second semester of a student’s junior year, deans offices call students who are in danger of not meeting their requirements, according to Fredeen. 

“I want to bring the focus back to faculty advising, because that is the most important relationship our students have here on campus in terms of their success,” said Fredeen. “Which is why I asked Dean Kutcher to spend all of last year really looking at what additional support we can be providing to the faculty as they are working with their student advisees.” 

According to Quinn Cunningham, president of Rider’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, faculty do not receive updates when staff members are cut or moved, making the action of guiding student’s a bit more difficult. 

“The nice thing about the Navigation Office was that students could ask some of the questions about what they wanted to try and were financially related [questions],” said Cunnningham. “They sort of have that information ready to go, versus [how] we’re more focused on the curriculum.”

The former Student Navigation Office in the Bart Luedeke Center is now the Educational Opportunity Program’s space on campus. According to Fredeen, this provides the same level of mentorship to students who qualify for the program all four years. EOP is a state-sponsored program that helps low-income New Jersey residents attend college.

Although the Navigation Office is now closed, first-year students are automatically enrolled in a Canvas module called “Navigating Rider,” an online program that aims to orient students to the institution’s resources. “Navigating Rider” is still a requirement run by the Academic Success Center.