Reinventing the Mission: The Vital Role of Academic Support in the Higher Education Accountability Era

Abstract

Historically, academic support departments have played a relatively passive role in our colleges and universities. Providing traditional, out-of-class support services such as tutoring, supplemental instruction, and skills workshops, these functions have commonly operated in detachment from the course environment. Faculty, particularly at two-year colleges, frequently encounter students with vastly different academic backgrounds and social experiences all within a single classroom. Within these classroom environments, cultural constructs such as the expectation of student self-determination and student accountability for performance collide with the varied realities of students’ prior educational access and opportunities for accumulating the requisite knowledge, skills, and experiences conducive for success in higher education. As a landscape of elevated accountability has emerged for higher education, institutional administration, department leaders, and faculty are all feeling pressure for student success (Austin & Sorcinelli, 2013). The environment is ideal for academic support units to explore the possibilities for integrating academic support services proactively into programs and courses. Working collaboratively with faculty to develop integrated academic support can create pathways towards the inclusive engagement of all students while equalizing opportunities for learning and success at the collegiate level.