Find Out How RIC Lays the Groundwork for Student Success

The moment students arrive on campus, the path to success and, ultimately, graduation begins. 

Rhode Island College’s Vice President of Student Success Cindy Kozil and Associate Vice President of Student Services Ducha Hang are two key architects in designing that path. They explained how the college has a robust portfolio of success-targeted initiatives, with the top initiative being academic advising.  

“The advisor is a key point person for students,” Kozil says. “They have the knowledge base to help students determine all they need to know about their major and to discover which clubs, organizations or volunteer experiences they can get involved in to help build on their academic experience and thereby their résumé. We know that students today need not only the coursework but supplemental experience. Their advisor helps them with that from the first day until graduation.” 

Hang says advisors take a developmental approach.

“We work with the students where they are, and that’s perfectly fine because part of going to college is learning who you are and what you want to do professionally,” she says.  

Another key initiative geared toward student success is the ongoing reorganization of the former Office of Academic Support and Information Services (OASIS) into two separate offices – the Office of Academic Advising, and more recently, the Academic Success Center.

“In conversations with our deans and various department chairs, we are seeing an opportunity to elevate the way we help our students in the Tutoring Center,” Hang says. “For example, when there’s an embedded tutor assigned to work with students in a course, a student won’t have to think about making an appointment at the center. We have a few embedded tutors in some of our writing courses, but it’s in our plan in the next two years to build that up in other courses.”  

Hang stressed that because of RIC’s size – an institution that is “not too small but not too big” –collaborative work, such as the OASIS reorganization, can “enhance the student experience not only in the classroom, but outside of the classroom.”   

Advisement and tutoring are just two of the ways Rhode Island College supports its students. To learn more about the resources available to help our students achieve success on campus and beyond, attend the Fall Open House on Saturday, Nov. 4, from 1-4 p.m. in the Murray Center. You’ll be able to meet RIC’s dedicated faculty, staff and current students, as well as tour the campus.