When transfer students arrive at UC Davis, it has always taken months before they get their academic credits evaluated. Without evaluation, they don’t know what courses they will need to graduate on time.
For transfer students in Letters and Science, this year was different. This summer, academic advisor Colin Goulding led a cross-campus effort so new transfers could plan their classes before fall registration closed. For this work, UC Davis honored Goulding with this year’s Outstanding Campus Collaborator Academic Advising Award.
“I'm really trying to remove those kinds of roadblocks and shrinking the time gap between when students arrive and when we can provide specialized academic advising,” said Goulding. “We really wanted to improve the process, and our leadership team empowered us to take those steps.”
Accelerating the credit certification timeline
Goulding specializes in transfer credit and degree certification, which involves making sure all students have completed the coursework they need to graduate. He works with all Letters and Science undergraduates but in particular helps transfer students understand which of their transfer credits apply toward a UC Davis degree.
Evaluating transfer credit takes time. In the past, a lot of the work has been done manually by an advisor going through every student’s transcript and comparing it against UC Davis degree requirements. Since Goulding joined Letters and Science three years ago, he and his colleagues have done this thousands of times.
Goulding has worked across UC Davis. He has worked in undergraduate admissions, in advising and in the Office of the Registrar. He knows how those systems work, and this familiarity led to an idea.
He partnered with colleagues in the Registrar’s Office to automate the credit evaluation he and other advisors in Letters and Science had been doing manually. That shift changed everything for the 1,400 incoming students who were the first to know what courses they would need before the close of fall course registration.
While administrative improvements like these especially benefit transfer students and first-generation students, who often face more challenges navigating university administration, they benefit all students and increase equity overall.
“I think that sometimes we look at specific actions that we can take to help individuals or individual groups, but I’m trying to look at the overall system to remove pain points that affect everyone,” said Goulding.
Taking a risk to improve systems serving students
Goulding said that taking a critical look at the administrative systems serving students can uncover transformative opportunities. Some of these systems are based on decisions made years ago that may not reflect today’s reality or technologies. Anyone might have an idea for how to do things better.
“You have to be respectful, and you have to work through the process with stakeholders,” said Goulding. “If you are willing to go a little bit beyond what you are required to do in your everyday, you can take that risk and know that you're doing it with students’ best interests in mind.”
Because of the risk Goulding took to change the process of academic credit certification, he and his fellow advisors are freed up to provide “transformational” advising. Instead of walking students through basic paperwork and requirements, as an advisor he gets to ask about how they are feeling. He can listen to their dreams and help them make a plan to achieve them.
“It’s always much more impactful to have a 30-minute conversation where I get to ask a student why they picked their major and what about it is resonating with them,” said Goulding. “We want to make sure our students graduate and go on to be successful and feel good about their accomplishments.”