Your Academic Health Maintenance Organization

I used to be so jealous of the Financial Aid Office.  Nobody on campus seems to have any trouble understanding what they do for students.  If you have financial issues, they are there to aid you.  That's some spot-on branding right there.

In contrast, and for various historical, linguistic, and cultural reasons, those of us working in Academic Support often have to make more effort to get students, colleagues, and alumni to understand the full range of what we do.  Our roles in the law school community are relatively new, and have been for the most part continually evolving over the past forty years or so; neither circumstance breeds familiarity.  The names chosen for our departments vary from institution to institution -- Academic Support, Academic Success, Academic and Bar Support, etc. -- which I think both reflects and compounds the inherent inability of trying to convey all we do in only two to four words.  And in some cases people jump to conclusions about what we provide because of defensive or dismissive stereotypes -- like "Oh, you are here just to help the weaker students" or "All you care about is bar passage rates".

This year, I started using a new model to help my law school community understand and talk about what Academic Success has to offer.  I introduced this during Orientation, when I asked our incoming 1L students: When do you go to your doctor?  It did not take much coaxing to get them to agree that sensible people go to the doctor for lots of different reasons -- some dire, and some propitious:

• When you are in a lot of distress, maybe even an emergency situation, your doctor can help keep you from suffering or dying.
• When you have a cold or, say, a sprained ankle -- something you might live with, sure, but why suffer needlessly? -- your doctor can help you feel and perform better.
• When you feel a little “off” but you're not sure why, your doctor can test for things like anemia or allergies, and diagnose and treat such afflictions before they snowball into major problems.
• When are feeling fine, and you want to keep from getting sick, your doctor can give you a checkup to confirm that all is well, can advise you about what preventative medicines might be wise, like a flu shot, and can make sure that you have access to them. 
• When you are thinking about undertaking something new (like a new exercise or diet regimen), your doctor can help make sure you do it right and maybe even give you some advice on how to do it better.

In the same way, there are many situations in which it would make perfectly good sense for a law school student to seek help from Academic Success:

• When you are in crisis, you might be recommended or even required to meet with me, so I can try to help you avoid academic catastrophe.
• When you feel you are struggling with a particular task or subject, Academic Success can help you get a better handle on things and help you perform better.
• When you are worried about your progress or preparedness, but you can't put your finger on why, Academic Success can review your work and then provide some diagnosis, feedback, and assistance.
• When things seem to be going well, but you know that new challenges (like your first set of 1L final exams or the Bar exam) are on the horizon, Academic Success can help confirm that you have developed a firm foundation and can help you map out what steps you should take to prepare.
• When you are thinking about undertaking something new (like moot court or a part-time job), Academic Success can help you make sure you have a plan in place to make sure your studies continue to go well, and may even have some suggestions to help improve your performance.

In other words, one way of thinking about Academic Success is as a kind of Academic HMO.  Sure, we are here to help students in distress, and there is no more shame is seeking our help than there would be in going to the emergency room if you were having trouble breathing.  But that doesn't mean you have to wait until you're gasping and blue to come see us!  Just as with physical health, academic health is often best maintained, and at the least cost, when symptoms are addressed early, before they turn into crises.  And with our knowledge and experience, we can even advise students who are in good condition about how to continue to improve while avoiding potential dangers to their academic well-being.

I like this metaphor, not only because it provides an easily-understood conception of Academic Support to incoming students, but also because it conveys an appropriately broad image of the services we provide (and the clientele to whom we provide them) to upper class students, faculty, and alumni who might otherwise have a more narrow view of us.  It is too soon to tell if this explanation will lead to a change in the use of Academic Success here, but at least now, with a vivid, coherent way of explaining what I do, I feel a little bit less envious of my Financial Aid colleagues. (Bill MacDonald)