Role at the Center:
Mary Stuart Hunter has a broad background in student development administration, counseling, academic advising, and teaching. After advising undecided students early in her career, continuing her advising work through the training of faculty and staff academic advisers, and teaching at the University of South Carolina, she is currently Director of University 101 Administration and the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. Her commitment to the special needs of first-year students guides her in her work with students and educators nationally and internationally.

Since 1978 she has taught University 101, the University of South Carolina's first-year seminar. She has developed an adaptation of the original course for students undecided as to academic major/career direction. She is a designer and facilitator for the faculty development workshops of the University 101 Program. She hosts the series of annual national and international Conferences on The First-Year Experience and other student transitions. She is also an adjunct faculty member with USC's College of Education. She facilitates workshops at many of the Center's conferences and in other settings on the topic of First-Year Seminar instructor training and development and peer leader programs.

Background & Accomplishments:
M.Ed. University of South Carolina 1978 Student Personnel Services

B.A. Queens College 1974 English Literature, N.C. Teacher Certification

1984 -Present Director (formerly Associate Director and Co-Director), the National Resource Center for the First -Year Experience and Students in Transition

1980 -1984 Academic Adviser, Center for Undeclared Majors, University of South Carolina

1978 -1980 Director, University Visitor Center, University of South Carolina

1974 -1976 National Representative, Chi Omega Fraternity, Cincinnati, Ohio

Activities & Associations:
National Advisory Board, Policy Center on the First Year of College; National Advisory Board, Cooperative Institutional Research Program (ACE and UCLA); Member of the American Association for Higher Education , National Orientation Directors Association, and National Academic Advising Association; Omicron Delta Kappa

Research & Publications:
authored and co-authored various chapters and articles on the topics of academic advising and freshman seminars in the following monographs and texts:

Editor in Chief, Solid Foundations: Building Success for First-Year Seminars Through Instructor Training and Development, National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, 1999

Academic Advising: Patterns in the Present, Pathways to the Future, National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, 1995

Your College Experience, Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1992, 1995

Theoretical and Practical Perspectives on the Undecided College Student, National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience, 1994

The Freshman Year Experience, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1989

College is Only the Beginning, Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1985, 1989

for more information click here to download the vita.