Student Support Services
Suite 514 Gruening ● P.O. Box 756350 ● Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-6350
Phone (907) 474-6844 ● Fax (907) 474-7480
Email: ● Web: http://www.uaf.edu/sss
FACULTY ADVISOR ROTATION PLAN
WHY: Student Support Services (SSS) may fund faculty advisors during the fall and spring semesters to assist with STEM-field advising. As SSS has grown and evolved, staff advisors who had been previously doing all of the advising have taken on additional duties to enhance the variety of services offered to students through the program. The program recently added a STEM coordinator/advisor who is assigned a caseload of 40 students, though the STEM-field majors in the program number over 100. Additionally staff has taken on other duties which include administrative and teaching roles which detract from their availability as advisors. The emphasis on STEM fields is significant for several reasons. First, there is a national push on STEM degree completion. Many high paying jobs exist within STEM fields which will aid in reversing cycles of poverty. SSS students are often discouraged from STEM fields because of the lack of connection to faculty and departments and consistent exposure may help in retention. SSS staff (with the exception of the STEM coordinator) does not typically come from STEM backgrounds and have limited practical experience with STEM careers.
Faculty involvement in SSS will benefit the program in several ways. Students will become familiar and comfortable in interacting with faculty in general. They will be exposed to mentorship, research and scholarship opportunities. Faculty will become more familiar with advising and the SSS program. Faculty advisors are a valuable part of the department’s program and will be continued as long as funding is feasible and space allows. The faculty advisors are also assigned projects to work on such as calling campaigns targeting selected students; developing professional development academic advising activities in their home college/school; developing print or electronic academic advising assistance programs; and so on.
WHO: Each UAF STEM department may be represented by one or more faculty advisor. Because of the high number of majors in SSS and UAF, engineering and biology faculty are especially relevant and faculty from these disciplines should always have a presence at SSS. The others may come from any other STEM department and at least one faculty should be outside of engineering and biology. Other relevant disciplines include, but aren’t limited to, chemistry, geology, physics, fisheries, and natural resources management.
WHAT: Faculty advisors are initially expected to complete a three-year term of service in SSS as long as their overload is approved by their dean and department chair and their work in SSS is satisfactory as determined by the director. This review will occur each semester before the upcoming semester contracts are issued. These faculty advisors are considered to be junior-level faculty advisors.
Once the three-year term is completed, former or current faculty advisors may apply for another two-year term (for a total of five years’ service with SSS) as senior-level faculty advisors and will be asked to advise complicated student cases involving petitions and/or appeals; and develop academic advising professional development activities in their home college/school or other advanced-level projects. Each semester the senior-level faculty advisor will require overload approval from his or her dean and department chair and a satisfactory review by the director before the upcoming semester contracts are issued.
The ratio of junior-level faculty to senior-level faculty shall be at minimum 3:1 so that approximately 3/4 of the faculty advisors will be at the junior-level and 1/4 at the senior-level.
WHEN: The faculty advisors are provided an appointment overload contract by the SSS director in concert with their college/school dean for the upcoming semester based on the faculty’s union collective bargaining agreement policy which is currently $1300 per semester for junior-level faculty advisors and $1800 per semester for senior-level faculty advisors.
WHERE: The faculty advisors will be advising in 514 Gruening within Student Support Services, unless other arrangements have been made with the Director. There are times when SSS participates in special academic advising events. Senior-level faculty members will be offered first priority to attend these events.
HOW:
Current faculty advisors: Current faculty advisors who have worked with SSS for five or more years will be cycled out of service, two or three per year, so that faculty from the respective college/school of the leaving faculty may be openly recruited to work with SSS.
Junior-level faculty advisors: Recruitment for vacant junior-level faculty advisor positions will be targeted to the college/school of the vacant position. Preference will be given to faculty who are from a different department within the school/college of the leaving faculty member. The recruitment will be heavily publicized to faculty, deans, department chairs, faculty senate, Cornerstone, and the academic advising listserv. Applications outlining the responsibilities and duties of the junior-level faculty advisor and semester calendar will be accepted via the SSS web site. At least two references concerning the applicant’s academic advising and professional interactions with undergraduate students may be required.
Since work is based as an overload appointment through the collective bargaining agreement of the faculty unions, approval from the faculty member’s department chair and dean is required before interviewing the applicant. The applicant will be interviewed by a committee of at least three: to include a current SSS or AAC faculty advisor, one or two staff SS advisors or administrators, and when possible, an SSS student.
Entering junior-level faculty members must have at least two years of academic advising experience, preferably at UAF. Faculty who have recently been tenured are preferred candidates for recruitment since they do not have the immediate pressures of completing their promotion and tenure portfolio, but are still relatively new to the institution.
Junior-level faculty advisors who have successfully completed their three-year term may apply for a senior-level faculty advisor position if there is a vacancy.
Senior-level faculty advisors: Recruitment for senior-level faculty advisor positions will be targeted to current and former SSS faculty advisors who have completed a three-year term. Applications outlining the responsibilities and duties of the senior-level faculty advisor and semester calendar will be accepted via the SSS web site.
Since work is based as an overload appointment through the collective bargaining agreement of the faculty unions, approval from the faculty member’s department chair and dean is required before interviewing the applicant. The applicant will be interviewed by a committee of at least three: to include a current SSS or AAC faculty advisor, one or two staff SS advisors or administrators, and when possible, an SSS student.
When the senior-level faculty advisor has successfully completed the two-year term, the faculty advisor will cycle off and will not be eligible to work for SSS as a junior-level or senior-level faculty advisor for a period of five years. However, former senior-level faculty advisors may be recruited for special projects and programs as determined by the director, or if no suitable applicants can be recruited for junior-level or senior-level faculty advisor positions.
Ideally, rotations of two to three faculty members per year will be staggered so there are faculty advisors with varying levels of experience working in SSS with approximately one-third of the faculty having five or more years of experience to serve as senior-level faculty advisors
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Revised 2/17/14