Connecting with student support and outreach

In spring 2023, Lenoir-Rhyne named Carla Fowler ’97, M.A. ’16, as director of student support and outreach, a newly created position designed to help students overcome challenges and connect them with the campus resources best equipped to address their needs.

“Universities around the nation are developing new strategies to help students face the obstacles that could impact their ability to graduate,” Fowler explained. “At LR, the Office of Student Support and Outreach was created to identify who those students are, how to support them and connect them with the services that can help them resolve or manage those obstacles.

After earning her B.A. in business administration at LR in 1997, Fowler returned in 2010 as an administrative assistant in the Lohr Learning Commons and was promoted to director of the Learning Commons in 2015. She completed an M.A. in leadership in 2016, and in 2021 she moved into a new role as director of orientation and fraternity and sorority life. She also serves as co-director for the Engaged Scholars program.

“Caring for others is one of our core values as a university, and we’re living that out through this office. It’s what we do through all our services,” Fowler shared. “In the Learning Commons, I loved being able to support students in their academic endeavors and to see them have that motivation to be better. Working on orientation has a huge impact because you’re really setting the tone for a first-year student’s college experience.”

Fowler compared the Office of Student Support and Outreach to a concierge service ready to connect students with the resources to address the entire range of possible challenges and needs — academic and class attendance issues, relationship problems, health concerns, and financial worries, including food insecurity.

“Students don’t always remember how many resources are available to them here on campus, especially when they’re facing a challenge and feeling the frustration of not knowing what to do,” said Fowler. “In our office, we can get a conversation going, learn what the big picture looks like, and explore the options the student has to move forward,” said Fowler.

For example, if a student is stressed about covering expenses for the semester, Fowler can facilitate contact with student accounts and financial aid to explore options. If a student is experiencing social anxiety, Fowler can help them make an appointment with a counselor at Cornerstone Counseling. If the issue is purely academic, she can connect the student with assistance through BEAR Central – the newly restructured student success unit on campus.

Students can come to Fowler’s office on their own, but the office also has a referral process and is developing a network that faculty and staff can use to bring attention to students who appear to be struggling. The goal is to put the right problem-solving resources and strategies into students’ hands.

“We’re very much about empowerment,” Fowler shared. “I don’t think it’s my place to tell a student what they need to do. I think it’s just helpful to have a conversation, to listen to what’s happening in their lives. Then I can share the options with them, but they’re making their own choices.”