Five history classes = 15 units X 40 students = 600 WSCH Even the most sympathetic administrator is hard-pressed to support a program with such low productivity. Your defense to this reality is in part lowering the expectations of the administration for your program's enrollment and in part building more positive numbers where you can. Which also leads us back to the argument for adding more courses and being more flexible in your scheduling of these courses.
KEEPING THEM ONCE YOU'VE GOT THEM Now that you've worked so hard to attract students to your program, you need to keep them. You need to watch out for students who are unhappy, disenfranchised or bored. This advice is mostly for your newsroom staff because this is the group that not only generally provides you with your biggest headaches, but also generally provides you with your biggest rewards. One of your most important jobs as an adviser is to be a communicator. Once you discover that some of your staff members are feeling left out, you need to bring them back into the fold. Talking with them is a great first step. Getting your student editor to talk with them is even better. Mostly, though, keeping the lines of communication open between yourself and your staff members is vital. This way you can prevent tiny misunderstandings from becoming huge, nasty problems. Here are some tips on how to keep your staff members in your program: * The adviser or the editor should send each staff member a postcard during each semester's break. Keep it informal, short and sweet. Just let them know you're checking in to say hello, are looking forward to the new semester and can't wait to see them. * The first meeting of the production class needs to be upbeat, motivational, filled with information about what you did over the break and even some jokes. (This is also a good way to start the first day of any class.) Doughnuts, candy or other appropriate food would also be good. Keep the meeting short, tell everyone how great it is to see them, have your student editors do the same and get them eating and talking to each other. You can meet the next day to get down to business; the first day, you need to bond.
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