Final Report

2017 NACADA Region 2 Evaluation

Q1 - The session that was most valuable to my situation was: (Session #, Session name,

Presenter name). Please explain why.

C20: Ch-ch-ch-Changes: Easing the new student...Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Uni We are looking to start something similar this summer, on our campus.

PreConference Workshop on Training and managing staff This session provided me with great information and has helped me in my everyday position

Nothing stands out.

C23: Academic Coaching - Strategies, Tools & Tips Ivonne Cruz (The College of New Jersey); Frick Room (Conference Level) This session was most valuable to my situation because I work with students who are on academic probation and need coaching to overcome these academic issues. This session provided me with valuable strategies for doing so in a number of different situations.

All weee great

NACADA Core Values. I always appreciate the opportunity to listen to colleagues and NACADA leaders. The chance to be heard is also very valuable.

C19 A Winning Team Marie Deem, Erica Germanoski (La Roche College)

C4- Using peer advising to engage at-risk students, Erwin, Racchini- the peers used went through a training course and they were truly peers- previously at risk students. They used SWOT analysis and they were very descriptive in what they did .

C5: Academic Advisor to Administrator - Thought the topic was great and loved how the speaker shared their personal experience. This presentation was one I think should be repeated at future conferences.

Life Coaching Session

P#3. Mindfulness in Academic Advising for Student (Advisor) Success.Presenter :Fairmount Stae U. As a practice Mindfulness can increase student engagement: attentive listening,self awareness,and relaxation. Academic Advising gives information ;many times our students do not hear the important facts to guide them; therefore it's useful to integrate moments of mindfulness practices in Advising.

C42 Introversion. College - by design - if forth extrovert. But at least 1/3 of our students are introverts. How do we make it work for them too! Great session!

I really loved the "Will you accept this rose?" presentation-- it was clever, pertinent, and very helpful for me as a new advisor to see what my advising sessions look like when I take a step back.

Motivation in Students

Student Success for Life: An Integration of Life Coaching and Academic Advising, Dr. Sylvia Hart Frejd and Dr. Brian Yates. I appreciated the information AND the exercises that they took us through. It was a very engaging presentation with takeaways that we could implement immediately upon returning to our home institutions.

C8, Transforming the Advising Culture at Your University, Dr. Kimberly Smith: Part of my current role is overseeing the Advising Center for Exploratory Students, so I am always interested to hear and learn from others who have been innovative in the advising process at their institutions.

P3: Mindfulness in Academic Advising for Student (and Advisor) Success (2:00-5:00pm) - $25 Lead Presenter: Jennifer Jones, Fairmont State University; Frick Room (Conference Level) I found it helpful because I tend to get scattered or pulled into many directions at work. This helped me focus and remember to stay in the moment while advising my students and give them my undivided attention.

Will You Accept This Rose?: Choosing Your Approach to Academic Advising. Although I've been working in higher education for 15+ years, I am fairly new to academic advising. This session helped me to take a step back and realize

that I have clear preferences and strengths when it comes to working with students and that I'm already using these in my advising role.

Life Coaching (Liberty University)

C30: Practical Strategies to Identify and Mitigate Learning Weaknesses. I felt like this presentation was on something that isnt talked about too much so it was refreshing and I felt like there was a lot of valuable information.

C20: Ch-ch-ch-Changes: Easing the new student transition with summer communications. I spearheaded a reformatting of our New Student Orientation program last summer, and the suggestions that Virginia Tech advisors offered in their session are additions that are definitely worth considering.

Session # C25, Understanding Our Privilege within the Context of an Academic Advising Relationship, Quentin Alexander and Amanda Houchens. This is a very important and relevant topic that frequently is overlooked in higher education. The presenters provided firsthand examples of how privilege is experienced by students and how advisers can effectively work with students.

I enjoyed the Imposter Syndrome (C35). I work with some high-achieving students and the tips shared were relevant to my experience with them.

Understanding privilege at PWI

Unable to recall number but loved the Pre-conference on Mindfulnesss and the conference of Adult Learners

C22 Why Didn't I Get an A?: using Educational Psychology to make Sense of Pre-health Student Motivation and Achievement Dumke and Tyndall This session was valuable to me as I focus my advising interest is working with students with academic difficulty. While the onus of this session was high achieving students the research and information on motivation was applicable to all students.

Rutgers session on transfer advising

'Understanding and combating imposter syndrome in our students'

C26 Facilitating the "seamless transfer" I got some really good ideas on how we can work with admitted students who may not have deposited yet but also those who have deposited.

C23: Academic Coaching, Ivonne Cruz. I felt I walked away with easy, actionable items to help my students immediately.

Academic Coaching - Strategies, Tools, and Tips C23 Ivonne Cruz. This session provided practical strategies to take back to my advising sessions. The strategies were supplemented with materials that can be tailored specifically to my office.

Session #C10, Student Success for Life: An Integration of Life Coaching and Academic Advising, Sylvia Frejd, Brian Yates, Liberty University. This session was helpful for me because I'm currently in a dual role of advisor/coach so I learned some helpful strategies to implement with students.

C49: Building Transfer Champions: Tools to create a successful transfer center, Whitney Lovelady Information directly connected with our institution's future goals. Presenter was excellent, clear, and helpful. The suggestions were insightful and realistic.

I believe that all sessions were able to show me one thing that was beneficial.

I found the session on Life and Academic Coaching by Liberty Univ. very useful. I also learned a lot from the Imposter Syndrome session by Carnegie Mellon Univ.

One? I can only pick one? C8 Tranforming the Advising Culture at Your Institution - Kimberly Smith I chose this as my most valuable because the work that Kimberly did at her institution NEEDS to be done at our institution. Her process was easy to understand (and possibly implement - as yet to be determined). She was honest about her experiences, including the struggles.

Will You Accept This Rose?: Choosing Your Approach to Academic Advising. As a new advisor, I found this session to be very helpful in learning about different approaches and I walked away with tangible information.

# C12, Becoming Champions of Change, RCBC. At my institution, a newly developed "School of Student Success" is already undergoing a reorganization, so the topic of change is very relevant for me.

c18, Raising value as a professional: Determining your level of involvement in the scholarship of advising, Wendy Troxel. I'm looking to get into research long-term and this helped me identify some ways to do that in my current role.

C-8--Kimberly Smith--Transforming the Advising Culture. I too am looking to becoming a change agent on our campus and it was great to hear how the presenters and participants have help change the prevailing culture.

Power & Privilege in Advising - incorporated elements from Student Affairs. This was a very powerful session that allowed me to walk away with tangible steps to take back to my institution.

C9, Voluntold as Tribute: Navigating the First Years as an Academic Advisor, Kevin Corea and Bonita Gray. I'm in my second year as an advisor, and this session was extremely helpful in thinking about how I approach advising and developing my own personal style

Student Success for Life: An Integration of Life Coaching and Academic Advising Sylvia Frejd and Brian Yates, Liberty University

Will You Accept This Rose?: Choosing Your Approach to Academic Advising. I learned about advising approaches I've never heard of, and learned which one(s) fit me best.

Will You Accept This Rose?: Choosing Your Approach to Academic Advising; Amanda Neuber. It was a great way to see different approached to academic advising, especailly as a new professional. It was informative, engaging, interactive, and very thought provoking.

C30: Practical Strategies to Identify and Mitigate Learning Weaknesses, Christopher Selena

Session C35: Understanding and Combating Imposter Syndrome in Our Students

52 - I am currently working with this population and have recently completed a qualitative study similar to the one in this presentation.

C56: Building a Culture of Academic Integrity and Accountability with International Students, Jana Clinton, Ellie Labrin, Dawn Maguire. I advise international students and therefore encounter academic integrity issues a lot. Their research was great, especially to get me started thinking about doing my own research at my school. They brought up a lot of good points.

Ch-ch-ch-changes: Easing the New Student Transition with Summer Communications (#C20), Kelley Ausman, Lindsey Ramey, and Alison Wade. This provided a lot of valuable information about some new techniques to try as we create our first ever first-year team within our office. We were looking for new techniques to engage out first-year students and hopefully increase retention, and this helped!

Imposter Syndrome session

C27, Will You Accept This Rose?: Choosing Your Approach to Academic Advising, Amanda Neuber. Logical progression through material, time to practice advising technique, explanations of 4 approaches, entertaining and interactive.

C10: Student Success for Life: An Integration of Life Coaching and Academic Advising Sylvia Frejd (Liberty University)

Explained below. The rest of the conference in general was a disappointment. Christopher Selena's presentation was all over the place and very condescending. Other presentations were very generic or did not have depth. I really don't know that I will attend again, unless I know the vetting process for presentations has changed.

C39: What Do You Meme I have an Advisor?, Lyndsay Durham

C49, Building Transfer Champions, Whitney Lovelady - Session was specific to the ever-expanding needs (and number) of transfer students. Wish there were more transfer sessions like this.

C27: Will You Accept This Rose?: Choosing Your Approach to Academic Advising. This session was fun, interesting, and I learned a great deal. It was a great combination of presentation, and individual and group activities.

C39, What do you Meme I have an Advisor, Lyndsay Durham; Session was full of specific example and creative ideas to communicate effectively with students.

The keynote speaker was not appropriate. His speech was self-centered, and it had nothing to do with advising. In addition, the enrollment numbers at his campus are appalling. The sessions presented by Temple University were excellent!!!

Will you accept his rose - excellent speaker, very engaging, quality information.

Q2 - Overall, I thought the Conference was:

# Question Poor Fair Good Very

Good Total

1 Advanced Mailing, Publicity, Etc. 0.76% 1 0.76% 1 34.85% 46 63.64% 84 132

2 Conference Location 0.00% 0 3.73% 5 21.64% 29 74.63% 100 134

3 Facilities 0.00% 0 5.97% 8 26.12% 35 67.91% 91 134

4 Meals 6.82% 9 25.00% 33 39.39% 52 28.79% 38 132

11 Conference Communication 0.00% 0 4.48% 6 35.07% 47 60.45% 81 134

5 Registration Process 0.76% 1 3.05% 4 22.90% 30 73.28% 96 131

6 Keynote Speaker: Dr. W. Charles Patrick 3.10% 4 14.73% 19 43.41% 56 38.76% 50 129

7 Opening Reception 0.99% 1 11.88% 12 37.62% 38 49.50% 50 101

8 Quality of the Concurrent Sessions 2.29% 3 5.34% 7 36.64% 48 55.73% 73 131

9 Closing Business Meeting, Brunch, Awards &

Raffle 0.00% 0 7.69% 7 47.25% 43 45.05% 41 91

18 Quality of Preconference Workshops 6.52% 3 6.52% 3 23.91% 11 63.04% 29 46

19 Accommodations/Sleeping Rooms 0.00% 0 2.94% 3 16.67% 17 80.39% 82 102

10 Overall, I thought the conference was: 0.75% 1 5.26% 7 33.08% 44 60.90% 81 133

Q3 - How many NACADA Region 2 Conferences have you attended before this conference?

# Answer % Count

1 None 43.61% 58

2 1-2 26.32% 35

3 3-4 13.53% 18

4 5 or more 16.54% 22

Total 100% 133

Q4 - How did you learn of this conference? (Mark all that apply)

# Answer % Count

4 NACADA website 47.01% 63

2 E-mail announcement from NACADA 50.00% 67

5 Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blog) 12.69% 17

1 Word-of-mouth/Colleague 47.76% 64

3 Other: 3.73% 5

Total 100% 134

Other:

at national conference

last year's conference

on steering committee

announcement at last year's conference

From an alumni mailing list from Penn State or IUP

Q5 - To what extent did the conference meet your expectations?

# Answer % Count

1 Not at all 3.01% 4

2 Some 9.77% 13

3 Most 53.38% 71

4 All 33.83% 45

Total 100% 133

Q6 - Which of the following best describes your primary role at your institution?

# Answer % Count

1 Faculty Advisor 3.73% 5

2 Academic Advisor 61.19% 82

3 Counselor 4.48% 6

5 Advising Administrator 14.93% 20

6 Administrator with responsibilities over several areas, one of which is advising 11.19% 15

7 Graduate student 0.75% 1

8 Institutional position supports advising i.e. Registrar, admissions, financial aid, etc. 2.24% 3

9 Affiliated with a college or university but not in any of the roles previously mentioned 0.75% 1

10 Not affiliated with an institution of higher education 0.00% 0

11 Other: 0.75% 1

Total 100% 134

Other:

learning center coordinator

Q7 - How many years have you been in advising? (as an advisor, administrator, or faculty

member)

# Answer % Count

1 Less than 5 years 38.35% 51

2 5-10 years 34.59% 46

3 11-20 years 17.29% 23

4 More than 20 years 9.77% 13

Total 100% 133

Q8 - In what ways was this conference valuable to you?

Valuable sessions with ideas we can implement on our campus.

Always good to hear from professional colleagues facing issues similar to mine, and learn from their approaches, as well as expanding my professional network.

It was interesting to talk to a few newbies from different types of schools.

Learned some new ideas to better serve the students..

It provided me with new advising strategies to try at my institution and share with my team.

Provided me with some valuable information to help me with my future advising goals and how to handle certain situations.

Connecting with colleagues, mentors, and NACADA members.

It's a good way to meet other professionals in the field; it helps to see how other schools are handling common challenges.

I love the networking aspect. It's fun to share ideas with others from other institutions.

this is hard to describe- 1- this is the first time there was a great concurrent session of interest to me at EVERY time period 2- I love Pittsburgh (Husband, 2 sons, and I are alumn) 3-networking 4- listening to others gets my wheels turning- coming up with a lot of new ideas

New ideas and resources from concurrent sessions.

Networking with colleagues, ideas and new insight, renewed passion about what I do, and more.

Since it am new to advising, I found it very helpful.

Great conference. Loved, loved the session by folks from Liberty University for the center for digital wellness; very information, useful techniques I have used already and above any training I have ever attended.

NACADA conference offered me more useful insights into the practice of Academic Advising.

Learning so much from others but also feeling good about what we are doing at my home institution as well!

Some good takeaway ideas to implement, such as giving out a small snack with a study tip, or creating a syllabus chart to mark off important things.

professional development

Conference was very valuable to me since I am a new advisor- there is a lot to learn and I found most of the sessions to give very useful information that I can bring back to my school.

Networking

It was helpful to learn what other colleges and universities are doing in their approaches to programs for students on academic probation, first-year seminars, and peer mentoring. Even though I'm not titled an advisor, I work closely with our advising manager, and the topics are applicable to what I try to achieve through that partnership and our campus Learning Center.

This was the first NACADA conference I have attended and hearing about other institutions successes and challenges is always helpful, but particularly in the area of advising.

As a new academic advisor, I found the conference a wonderful way to connect to new faces and share interesting stories and outcomes.

This gave me an opportunity to learn about new and best practices in academic advising. I am a new advisor and I was looking for tips and help on how to better serve my students and engage them when I have them in my office. I got the chance to meet new people and other advisor that gave me tips on my journey too.

I learned new and useful information in each session. I valued the opportunity to meet and network with colleagues. It helped me to feel a part of something bigger, the professional of academic advising.

Networking

professional development, networking

The self-reflection talk in Session 1 gave me some ideas for improving my practice.

The opportunity to network and learn from my peers is extremely valuable!

networking, sessions, chance to refresh

Reconfirmed my decision to pursue academic advising as a career.

Good validation for current practices coupled with ideas to enhance other areas.

Getting to know my colleagues better was wonderful! The sessions this time were fantastic and I enjoyed talking to the presenters after their sessions.

As a new academic advisor, I was happy to see that NACADA provided sessions and support to new advisors. The New Advisor sessions were extremely valuable on many levels, especially because they focused on varied issues. From foundational reflection to working with students, it was extremely helpful to listen to experienced advisors and engage in networking opportunities.

I like the networking, learning new ideas and revisiting other issues that need refreshed.

Information for a new Advisor.

It allowed me to network with peers; see that many issues I face are not unique to my institution; hear fresh ideas

Hearing success stories from other schools, what worked and what didn't work, so I don't make the same mistakes. I always leave excited to work with my students. Wish my college was more receptive to change.

It was good to compare with others in my field and better understanding of Advising in Higher Education.

networking and sessions

Networking with colleagues, learning about new programs and ideas to bring back to my campus, meeting new people within the region

I always enjoy the concurrent sessions. I consistently bring back excellent ideas for improvement!

As a member of Region 3 in WV - thanks for letting me crash. I was able to come away with great ideas to assist students, help with planning my freshmen seminar course, and develop professional goals for myself.

Practical ideas to bring back to my work with students.

I enjoyed the opportunity to network with other colleagues, I also learned about great programs to try to implement in my current role.

Always great to hear what others are doing and collect ideas to both bring back and adopt to improve my practice.

This was my first NACADA conference and I was pleased at the welcoming environment. I felt comfortable asking my questions and offering suggestions/insight on what we do at my institution. I was able to expand my network and my institution will benefit from my attendance at the conference and the connections I was able to make.

The sessions were good this year. I did not enjoy last year's sessions as much and I only had that to compare to.

Interacting with other professionals in the same position as I am. Exchanging encouragement and ideas.

Several sessions were extremely valuable to me. In particular, C8: Transforming the Advising Culture at Your Institution, Kimberly Smith, was excellent!

I have so many takeaways that will help me in my everyday interactions with students and that will help my institution by implementing new ideas.

As a new advisor, many of the sessions were geared towards me and my learning objectives. I also found the orientation to NACADA very helpful.

New ideas, networking and time to think, away from every day work and life.

It is so refreshing to hear from other Advising professionals about their successes, failures and in progress work. NACADA conferences always reinvigorate me to come back and try new ideas and be the best advisor I can be for my students.

Hearing perspectives of advisors at different institutions, and identifying some common challenges.

The opportunity to network is always one of the reasons I like to attend. I also like to talk with colleagues from two year colleges.

Networking opportunities - I enjoyed the different activities and dinners planned after the sessions. Pittsburgh was a great location - loved the hotel!

Connecting with local colleagues and learning about their successes and challenges is valuable, as it helps generate fresh ideas and perspectives that I in turn bring back to my campus.

Allowing me to network with other advisors, see ways people in other offices do thing, provide professional development

Exposure to different institutions and valuable ideas

I learned new ways to not only better myself as an academic advisor, but to also help implement changes on my campus.

I'm a new advisor, so it was helpful to hear new tactics and suggestions for academic advising. Some of the info I am bringing back to share with colleagues, such as academic advisor development training and mission statement review.

Networking, understanding practice outside of my institution and I was connected with a Mentor through the Reg 2 mentor program.

As a new advisor I was able to absorb a lot of valuable information. I appreciated the "new advisor track" so I could choose sessions more appropriate to my needs.

Networking

Networking; fresh look at old problems; rejuvination!

Learning about what other schools are doing, networking with other advisors, spending time with advisors from my institution that I don't work with directly.

It was helpful to attend self improvement workshops to help make sure I am mentally healthy to help students.

We are shifting caseload models starting in the fall, and will have a dedicated team just for first year students. Most of the sessions I went to were related to advising first year students specifically, which provided me a lot of valuable information as plan for this shift. I am excited to present these ideas to my team.

Helpful to see differences in advising structure at different institutions.

Meeting new people from the region, sharing ideas and practices

Practical information, exploring advising strategies, managing stress, managing difficult student situations, mentoring program, networking, information on NACADA

Practical ideas in academic coaching and utilizing social media.

Two speakers: Kim Smith from Virginia Tech has been doing this since 96 and was incredibly knowledgeable. Deb Hendricks from BGSU is doing her dissertation on mindfulness and was a fabulous addition the session I paid EXTRA money for. Gave direct correlations to advising, but the rest of the presentation not so much, just more mindfulness in general.

It is a chance to meet with colleagues as well as to hear region updates and updates from the executive office. It is also an opportunity to hear new and innovative ideas related to advising.

Pre-conference workshop on Mindfulness was very valuable as the the C39 mentioned above. The networking opportunities were amazing.

This was my first NACADA Conference. I was able to learn a great amount about advising and it was an amazing network opportunity.

As an Advising Administrator, I was able to provide an opportunity for my advising staff to participate in an excellent professional development opportunity being local to us and cost effective.

Got a chance to meet others and discuss ideas. Presenters challenged us with new ideas.

networking

Great resources to use in my career.

Q9 - My recommendations for future conferences include: (topics/speakers/external

activities/type/length of sessions, etc.)

none.

More topics for those who've been in this gig for 20+ years--surprise us with something genuinely NEW. Most of it was SOS.

Topics that apply to those that do not work as full time advisors. I am a faculty member who also does advising, and many of the sessions did not apply to me. Also, I would like to see more sessions on working with students on academic probation and working with students with undeclared majors.

Hosting one in State College, PA, Topic of Motivational Interviewing, Live music on one of the networking nights we are there. More networking group activities in our sessions and possibly at our dining tables. More sessions providing information to help POC, FGS, Underrepresented, Diversity and Inclusion.

More sessions for faculty advisors, please!

I think it would be helpful to have a common list of general attributes that a presenter could use in the session abstract to identify general type(s) of content included. For example, First-Year Initiatives, Professional School, Liberal Arts, STEM, Undecided Students, Advising Within the Major, etc. It would help attendees choose according to their advising priorities and interests.

I would like to see more sessions about sharing best practices. More like conversations and less like presentations.

i can't think of anything- it was so perfectly organized. just wish we had more time!

Sessions should be less theoretical in nature and more practical, with tangible, measurable takeaways that individuals can implement in their own settings.

More food, coffee, etc... if you need to include this in the registration fee please consider increasing it. $140 is a cheap rate and I'm sure institutions could/would pay additional. My institution would save money by paying a little more registration fee than having to reimburse me the per diem rate. I think this will also keep people around and engaged more.

Round table discussions on topical practices and impact on the institutions.For example "Transforming the Advising Culture at Your Institution" would be a great Round table discussion.

Coffee on morning 2. I'll pay the extra 5 bucks!

More sessions about sophomore/second students; academic difficulty, and mentoring with faculty.

student motivation, underprepared students, info that looks at how advising is being affected by Complete College America.

I was disappointed to not be able to attend some sessions because they are held at the same time as others. I don't know how to alleviate this issue though.

Maybe a buffet versus sit down meal, unless you have a bigger venue. It was little tight.

Better banquet food please!

I thought all of the rooms were really cold. Otherwise, the conference was amazing. Great variety and quality of sessions!

Please include a list of attendees in the conference packet/agenda. Please recognize your volunteers next time!

make awards more special. people who receive them work hard on submissions but award presentation was pretty 'meh'. maybe separate from the closing, so they aren't overshadowed by conference committee thank yous and door prizes.

My main recommendation would be to hold the keynote prior to the opening reception. It would give an official open to the conference, and in my experience, lunchtime keynotes have had a lot of problems. It is difficult to hear and pay attention in a large room where people are seated around tables, clinking forks, and wanting some downtime, and a chance to eat and socialize.

More games and chances to win (good) prizes. Please don't ask us to bring raffle items! Maybe a t-shirt or sweatshirt would be fine, but I really don't want a lot of freebies from other institutions. My supervisor asked me to gather items for our raffle bag at one of the most busy times for me, and it really wasn't fun! More free time to go back to our rooms would have been nice.

I would like to hear more about current challenges within the profession, focused more on student behavior and attitude. This seems to be a growing concern on college campuses, and I would be interested to see how other advisors are dealing with this issue.

I was a presenter and sticking to 1 hour was difficult. I prefer the 90 minute sessions. In doing this, you can eliminate the conference follow-up held on Thurs. at 5-6pm. It was very poorly attended and I believe questions from the audience are better answered during the session. It was a long day for those who presented then attended the 1 hr. follow-up.

The ballroom facility was a very nice space. but it was difficult to hear anyone speak in that room. I could barely make out what was being said by anyone.

Many of the topics were for undergrads, and many focused on new undergrads. Wish there were more on the nontraditional or older students.

Would like to see more workshops on the Adult and Non traditional students. The displaced factory workers with TAA funds for retraining and meeting their needs. Also, ways to work with Developmental needs of students

The hospitality crew did a wonderful job of arranging outings, dinners etc. Please include for future conferences. The future of academic advising in the midst of changes in higher education would be a good topic especially as related to how we can continue to show that our work is valuable. Also topics on student health and wellness as related to academic achievement and student develpment

I did not participated, but I heard that the mentor/mentee gathering could have been better. Venue was very small, very warm, food choice was questionable. Spent time waiting for folks to leave their state meetings. May have been more effective to stage the gathering at the hotel, for time sake. Wasted time waiting and walking.

More activities in the presentations.

The concurrent sessions I attended offered no new ideas or strategies to help me become a better Academic Advisor. Presenters should indicate how their presentation will help Academic Advisors improve their skills.

It was very difficult to hear the keynote speaker during the luncheon. I am not sure if it would be possible to have two separate lunches in the future for a smaller crowd.

Would like to see more related to online. Only a handful and some are repeats from years past.

Sessions geared towards faculty advisors

Separate sessions based on roles. Sometimes when an administrator is facilitating, although they have great ideas, people in other roles do not have the same "power". On the other hand, some advisors need to remember who the audience is so they are not "preaching to the choir".

Although Omni Hotels are wonderful, please choose a more affordable hotel. Some of our positions have very limited professional development funds and find it difficult to attend.

Please try to schedule away from the current week. It was the week of or after midterms and/or registration week for many schools, and it made the days at the conference complicated by needing to troubleshoot campus happenings while away.

I'm always looking for sessions related to community colleges and undecided students because that is my institution type and caseload of students.

Just like we meet as a state, I wouldn't mind meeting as an institutional type. Two year college meeting; private, large research. we could even organize the meeting as a panel so we can discuss practices common to us as a whole.

It was hard to hear the speakers during the opening conference. Most of the people standing near me weren't paying attention because it was hard to hear the speaker. The state meeting was less than expected - it seemed unorganized. The pre-conference webinar was not helpful at all - it would have been helpful to advertise things to do/networking opportunities during this meeting.

More spread out -- too many people in a small area

First-year student challenges and success.

I'm sort of a niche individual, so having more options for sessions that aren't completely undergrad focused would be nice.

Maybe a session on publishing that's more intense than the general session on how to get published through NACADA; editing/reviewing/tips for topic trends likely to be accepted/ etc.

As a new member I would have liked some "forced networking" to help me get connected with other advisors. Not everyone likes this, but I feel it could have been helpful. I felt like a lot of people already knew each other and with such a large crowd it was a little challenging to make connections with new individuals. A more structured opportunity to do so would have been helpful.

Have a continental breakfast available. Due to not having breakfast available so many people were late to workshops due to waiting in line for breakfast at the places downstairs.

I'd really like to see ideas/best practices for advising STEM populations.

More in the western side of the region!

For a conference with 500 people, I think you need to pay for a great keynote! I also think that there should be some criteria for presenting. If they tried something once at their institution, they should not be presenting. Also, what they present about should relate DIRECTLY to advising. For example, not just life coaching or mindfulness in general, but a direct practical connection to advising

If possible, it would be nice to have the poster sessions back on Thursdays in the morning. Since many attendees do not come on Wednesday night, due to travel and other financial constraints, I felt that the audience for the poster session was much smaller than in past years.

The mix of options for concurrent sessions was amazing. It was very difficult to choose which to attend. Keep up that strong mix.

I would like a future conference in Virginia, which would allow more advisors from my institution to attend.

I think most individuals who have advising responsibilities also have a role in retention initiatives. Have a few additional sessions on retention might be beneficial. Also, effective use of early alert systems.

I would have liked to stay longer for Opening Reception, but I cannot stand for extended periods of time. With there only being a few tables and chairs, I could not sit down (after eating while standing at a hi-top table) and had to leave.

dont have the post game networking session, instead increase breaks between sessions to 20 minutes to encourage talking then. no one showed up at the post game and not even half the presenters were there.

Generation iY and advising

more space, some -many areas were cramped, especially when serving food

Better Keynote.

Q10 - Additional comments:

none.

The lunch on Thursday was pitiful. The salad was good, but the entree--a very small piece of dry overcooked chicken with very little sauce to liven it up, and a few pieces of teeny red potato.One of my tablemates looked at her plate, shook her head, and said "Overdoing it on the portion control, here."

I have been to two NACADA conferences in the USA and one in Canada. Both conferences in the USA had sessions on a low floor in the hotel and sessions on one of the top floors. I found this very inconvenient and a bit stressful. All sessions at the conference in Canada were on the same floor which was more convenient and less distracting and chaotic.

My suggestion above is based on having been attracted to creative titles and general abstracts that turn out to apply to a more specialized group than it first appeared (for instance, advising initiatives for first-year engineering students following a locked-in curriculum are of limited use to those of us who advise within a liberal arts college). Sometimes limited scope is not clear from title.

The walkability of this conference was great. There were a variety of places to go all within easy walking distance.

this seems nit picky, but i'll share anyway. the food was great at the welcome reception- much more than what was expected. there was great disappointment, however at the $10 cost of a glass of wine.

Breakfast should be included for early conference days.

Just the food! Although it was good, little was actually served and the need for breakfast and break foods goes a long way with making people happy and engaged!

Looking forward to other successful Region 2 conferences.

Who knew Pittsburgh was such a beautiful city. The hotel was so amazing - left a lasting impression.

Please do not include a dress code. Not necessary and no one seems to listen to it anyway!

The meal/dining was chaotic and the room seemed too small for the number of people we had. I think that even though assigned seating is more constraining, it would have helped to have some sort of organization. We were searching for seats since our session got out later than others. Also, the food wasn't that great-- I know it must be hard to feed that many people, but still.

Thank you! It was a wonderful conference! I love how the theme was carried out. The keynote lunch was very good, too.

Thank you to all those who dedicated much time and energy to the conference!

Had a great time as always, NACADA folks are the best, and region 2 is the best of the best!

The conference hotel was absolutely lovely, but I would trade some of that loveliness for more food.

The food at the tailgate was great! Never had better kielbasa and the pierogies were delicious. I really didn't expect that. Pittsburgh is a great city and I wish I had more free time to enjoy it!

The conference was excellent in all ways. The location of the hotel and the city of Pittsburgh offered a variety of unique experiences and opportunities to tour the city and dine in wonderful restaurants. A big thank you to Deb and her coworker from Duquesne for their great tour and Duquesne Incline experience. What a breathtaking site to see the city from Mt Washington. Thank you committee

Must have continental breakfast & coffee in the AM, as a networking opportunity as well as time saver. Wasted time waiting in line at Starbucks or the bagel store. The "taste of Pittsburgh" gathering food was good, but not warm. Chicken was dry with very little salsa on top, brunch on Friday was cold. It was a beautiful hotel, but the food service was fair to poor. Need bottles of water too.

Very disappointing internet connection and food quality -- the cutbacks (ie. no breakfasts/ no free drink at the opening dinner/cheap NACADA bag) were obvious and a let down.

The only real negative was the lack of wifi :( but I understand the hotel was charging a lot for it.

You guys did an amazing job! I was really impressed with how much information was available so far in advance.

Also, members on the hospitality committee should be screened. One member of the hospitality team was not hospitable or friendly--actually she was somewhat rude to my colleague.

Everything about this conference was awesome, and I appreciate what everyone did to make it successful!

Another excellent Region 2 conference in the books!! Thanks so much to the conference committee for all your blood, sweat and tears (all figurative, I hope!) in putting together an excellent, informative experience in a great location!!

Well Done! Great job to all who were part of the planning process.

Overall, nice job! I would be interested in assisting with the planning process of future conferences.

I had a really poor experience for my pre-conference. I took the day off work and I found it wasn't really worth it. The presenter just talked about what was specific to mentoring at her institution (which was abnormal in general) when it was marketed to making peer mentoring programs in general. There are plenty of other presenters who I would have loved to hear a half day presentation instead.

I had trouble registered as a non-member: it wanted me to select my institution when registering but I couldn't find my office, I had to use some other department when I selected. This would probably be challenging for people who are coming from institutions that have never attended before.

Also, the Keynote was hard to hear and not very engaging and did not seem to bring any new information to the topic.

Specify before the conference if meals are going to be provided or if they are on your own i.e. the group dinners were confusing as if they were provided but the conference or if we were to pay on our own. This would be helpful to know when asking for meal stipends from our institution.

This was my first Region 2 conference, and I loved every aspect of it! Kudos to the team that put this together!

I was disappointed in the presentations. I did not get very much out of any of them, and gave it my full effort. Speakers seemed to have learned stuff off of YouTube, or tried something once and were reporting on it. They did not have anything that really showed HERE'S SOMETHING THAT WORKS and here's how to do it! Could you have the submit a sample of their presentation, not just an abstract?

Great hospitality options. Food wise, the lunch and brunch were disappointing. For such an expensive venue, I expected better quality. The tailgate was fun and the food was great! The local flare was fun!

I was divorced since my last conference. I emailed NACADA and was told they would change my name on my account. I arrived and had to wear a nametag with my lying cheating ex-husband's last name on it. Please follow through when you make promises. When I checked in I asked about my name tag and was handed a pen to cross out the mistake. Really? That's your best work?

GREAT job to the planning committee.

This was my first conference. I walked onto the 17th floor and did not know where to do. There were people sitting at a table and behind the counter, but I was confused where to go. If there were signs of where to check-in, they were not that visible. Did not feel very welcomed when I first arrived because of this.

very disappointed in the lack of breakfast foods and the lack of coffee Friday morning.

Q11 - What conference costs were covered by your institution? In the comments section,

indicate other sources of funding or any explanations of your answers to help us in our

future planning.

# Answer % Count

1 Conference registration fee 95.52% 128

2 NACADA Membership 69.40% 93

3 Hotel expenses 69.40% 93

4 Mileage and tolls 67.16% 90

5 Airfare 20.15% 27

6 Meal expenses 70.15% 94

7 Other: 8.96% 12

8 Further comments about your response: 10.45% 14

Total 100% 134

Other: Further comments about your response:

Some travel

ELP funds

travel

none

TRIO

Parking

Taxi to/from Airport Meals to an extent, we have a daily maximum that the university will reimburse.

Parking

Parking

parking

Parking

parking