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Council for Nontraditional Students

COUNTS (Council for Nontraditional Students), a university-wide council comprised of faculty, staff, and students focused on supporting the success of underserved students through resource sharing, collaboration, and tracking emerging needs.

COUNTS is working to:

  • Build community for underserved student populations by developing new programming and working to create a gathering space for underserved students on campus.
  • Increase collaboration among units that support underserved students.
  • Improve data collection across campus with regard to specific underserved student populations such as student parents and caregivers.

Recent successes include:

  • Working with the Office of Budget and Planning to add a question to the UMAY survey about students with caregiving responsibilities
  • LARC expansion to include gaps in education
  • Partnering with Wolverine Wellness to have events for underserved students on CANVAS site
  • Creation of the COUNTS Toolkit

COUNTS Toolkit

CEW+, the Council for Nontraditional Students (COUNTS), and University Human Resources Organizational Learning have come together to develop an online training module targeting student-facing staff. The COUNTS Toolkit for Student Success is designed to enhance how University staff engage and support students with less traditional, less represented, and therefore under-resourced backgrounds.

The Toolkit highlights a variety of experiences, challenges, and topics that many students face on the Ann Arbor campus. The Toolkit is intended for student-facing staff to 1) develop an increased awareness of these students and the common challenges they face; 2) learn about resources across campus that help address the needs of these students, and 3) build recognition of the many strengths these students bring to campus. Module topics include impostorism, wayfinding, navigating the hidden curriculum, and addressing financial obstacles.

The COUNTS Toolkit for Student Success is available here.

Frequently Asked Questions - Supporting Nontraditional Students

To find out how you can support students with less traditional, less represented, and therefore under-resourced backgrounds, please view our comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions guide.

The COUNTS FAQ document is a comprehensive list of services and resources available on the Ann Arbor campus. The document is categorized by identity to promote ease of navigation. Many resources may apply to a variety of identities, but will only be located under one identity. If you have any questions about resources available, please contact [email protected].

Membership

Interested in becoming a member of COUNTS? Complete this form.

If you have questions, please contact Grace Christiansen at [email protected].

STORIES

Allison is deeply interested in understanding the complexity of public health issues and finding evidence-based solutions to address them.

Kai-Lin is passionate about reducing health disparities as well as nutrition.

Rachel intends to pursue a career that will enable her to enact positive change for the planet while serving as a mentor for women in business.

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