Students looking for support from Transfer Services and Success Coaches have had a tough time this year. Two of the three Success Coaches on the West Windsor campus have resigned and the Transfer Services department had no advisor throughout the fall term when many students were looking for help managing transfer applications.
Now Transfer Services has one advisor in a department that used to have as many as three and there is one Success Coach serving Liberal Arts in an interim capacity though his primary position is in Health Services.
Athena Patwary, the new Transfer Services Advisor, was just hired two months ago having previously worked as a recruiter and transfer counselor at other universities including Pace and St. Peter’s.
“Back then my role was to go out there into community colleges, build, sort of a network, meet students and then guide them through the transfer process from outside. But here at Mercer, my role has been reversed,” says Patwary.
Patwary said, “I am the sole transfer person right now,” adding, “At this very moment I don’t think there is any initiative being taken to expand the department.”
Another setback has been the need to move all the services online.
Patwary says, “Unfortunately when we returned from the [winter] holiday, we had a huge rise in COVID numbers.”
Dr. Latonya Ashford-Ligon, Director of Center for Retention and Completion, says, “In the absence of the [Transfer Services] positions students have made their way over to our area.”
Other stopgaps have been put in place while the multiple Success Coach positions remain empty.
Honors Program Coordinator, Eugene Mok, is taking on some of the overflow responsibilities.
Angel Agyeman, a Business Administration student, is one such student who was switched to Mok. “I think when it came to registering, and dealing with summer courses and stuff, I was very grateful to have Eugene, but I think the original Success Coaches could’ve helped me with the whole process, especially when I first started.”
Mok says, “The Liberal Arts students were being split up between myself and Mr. Medina.”
Emanuel Medina, Success Coach for the Math, Science, and Health Professions Division is also serving as interim Success Coach in Liberal Arts.
One Success Coach who resigned from her role is Jehan Mohamed who worked in the Business and STEM Division.
According to Mohamed, the position is valuable. She says “It’s very successful when the Success Coaches and the faculty are on the same page. The collaboration can be very beneficial to the student, to the faculty, to the division, to the graduation rate, it’s beneficial for everyone.”
But Mohamed says the position had limitations. “I was looking for growth and there was no opportunity for me to grow as a Success Coach.”
Now Mohamed is working as an adjunct professor while also completing a doctoral degree.
Dr. Ashford-Ligon says she has asked the college to refill all of the Success Coach positions, “because the positions are so important to the academic support for our students.”
She adds, “I always like to have a staff of Success Coaches, and even the entire department, that depicts the diversity of our students.”
College President, Dr. Jianping Wang, says efforts are being made to refill the positions but the reason the jobs have been or remain empty extends far beyond MCCC.
“Country-wide, we have more vacancies than the people looking for the job. Statewide, we have the biggest workforce shortage in recent history. College-wide, we have the same experience with severe work shortage,” Dr. Wang says.
She adds, “We have talented, talented people here who are still serving the needs of students. They’re doing everything they can to meet your needs.”
Eugene Mok, the Honors Coordinator, says, “Hopefully there will be a trend towards hiring more advisors who are case managers, and you know, being able to reduce those caseloads so that each and every student can get more [of the] in-depth counseling that they should get.”
