Toro students looking for academic advising or other support now have a new place to go on campus—five places, in fact. CSUDH advising options that used to be centered in the University Advisement Center are now divided up among the five colleges, with Student Success Centers opening their doors during the Fall 2023 semester.

“These new centers are meant to be extremely collaborative, and have a focus on holistic student support,” said Andrew Drummond, associate vice president for academic advising and career development. “Our new model recognizes that it takes the whole campus to support the whole student. We’ve created centers that bring multiple different offices together to support Toros throughout their college careers.”

Senior Associate Vice President of Student Life Matt Smith added, “We looked at data around student success and experiences, and realized that the way we did advising was a little bit confusing and disorienting for students. We wanted to leverage those recommendations with the student experience to figure out the best set-up and model for CSUDH.”

The Student Success Centers don’t just offer academic advising—they are meant to offer support to students throughout their college careers. To that end, the centers are staffed with retention specialists, graduation specialists, and faculty advisors from the specific college they serve. Students can do everything from plan their course loads to research career opportunities.

“With our new advising structure, you’ll have faculty, staff, and administrators working together closely to support student success,” said Smith. “All of those different types of expertise and experiences come together to work as one for our students. We can do so much more when we come together to advance those efforts instead of working in silos.”

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