INTRODUCTION – WHY FACULTY?
Once viewed as a set of scheduling procedures, academic advising programs have been established to assist students in the development of their human potential (Abel, 1980, p.151). In most institutions of higher education, faculty members are required to assume the role of Academic Advisor (Dressel, 1974, p.57)
One of the key reasons faculty is utilized as Advisor/Mentor is experience in their field. Only the recognized professional in the field can tell a student what the true day-to-day experiences or real outcome
of a degree or career choice will be. Students can explore their personal, educational, and career goals with their faculty mentor and compare them to their career choice and current achievement.
The second most important reason is that advising truly is an extension of teaching. A faculty Advisor/Mentor teaches all day long in their field. Would you, as faculty, allow a student to come to you in class and state “I am going to write my paper on the role of fate in Madame Bovary” or “the carrying capacity of that 14 acre stand is 42 deer” … without your asking why, or where did you come up with that idea, how can you explore that further? Neither would an effective advisor. We are to GET THE STUDENT THINKING AND EVALUATING!!!!! Schedules and class selection come later and they should be done by the student before your meeting or after your meeting and you can review their choices, but advising itself is not to schedule a course – it is to see if the advisee knows how that course will interplay with their goals. Ask them why they want to take a class and then ask them why again, like you would in class.
STUDENT BENEFITS OF FACULTY DRIVEN ADVISING
One of the major emphases at this university has been person-to-person education. CLU has advertised and is committed to the concept that the student is of utmost importance on the university campus. The concept magnifies the significance of the faculty advisor’s role and functions. When the faculty member accepts the challenge and assumes the responsibility of being an advisor and when other university professional personnel support the faculty member in the advising role, a number of positive student benefits offer. Some of these benefits include the following:
1. The student will know at least one member of the faculty in another-than-classroom
acquaintanceship.
2. The student will have an opportunity to discuss with a faculty member one area of
occupational or professional specialty.
3. The student will have a “lifeline” to the administration through his advisor, a member
of theacademic community.
4. The student will have a role model close at hand. The accessibility of an adult who is
sought and admired is a powerful stabilizing force in the life of the student learner
(Hardee and Mayhew, 1970, pp. 11-12).
The desire to enhance and create a more comprehensive facilitative process for the faculty in their advising has brought about a mission statement and a goal for the Center for Academic and Advising Resources (CAAR)
HELP FOR FACULTY ADVISORS: CENTER FOR ACADEMIC RESOURCES
See powerpoint: www.callutheran.edu/car/undergrad/documents/ResourcesatCaliforniaLutheranUniversityFall2006.ppt -
The Center for Academic Resources facilitates the faculty advising process and provides additional materials both on-line and in hardcopy for both students and faculty helping further student success.
PLAN:
1.) Study skills and advising workshops both on campus during the day and in the
evenings in the Residence Halls. These workshops are 30-50 minutes in length
including: Exam Strategies, General Study Skills, Stress Management, Note
Taking, Time Management, How to Register, and many more.
2.) Coordinates and trains certified tutors, class based study sessions,
3.) Coordinates accommodations for Students with Disabilities
4.) Coordinate/monitor students on probation/suspension, and poorly performing
students.
5.) Faculty development in areas of advising and disability awareness.
6.) Successful advisor selection and assignment.
7.) Create web pages, flyers, documents for students and faculty to utilize that will
enable students and faculty to be more aware of the resources and their choices
in advising. (www.clunet.edu/advising)
FUNCTIONS OF THE FACULTY ADVISOR
The chosen method of faculty driven advising facilitated by an advising office proceeds successfully under the following assumptions:
1. The faculty advisor explains to the student the program of general or basic education
as it relates to the first two years of college, to the major of the student and to
preparation of life pursuits generally.
2. The faculty advisor helps the student examine the course offerings in his/her major,
relate these to other possible majors, and understand the graduation
requirements for the curriculum leading to an appropriate degree.
3. The faculty advisor helps the student explore the career fields for which his major
provides training and obtain related vocational information and survey job
opportunities.
4. The faculty advisor serves as a link between the student and the administration by
counseling the student on scholastic problems (course scheduling, course
adjustment, and academic progress and by making appropriate referral to other assistance agencies)
5. The faculty advisor serves as a “faculty friend” to the student by demonstrating a
personal interest in him/her and his/her adjustment to college; by serving as a
central contact person in obtaining information that can be used to help the student; and by allowing the student freedom to make his/her own choices after the limitations, alternative, and consequences involved in a decision are
pointed out (Brown, 1972, pp. 93-94)
LIMITATIONS OF FACULTY ADVISORS/ADVISING
There are varying limitations and restrictions on faculty as well as different needs for each student and what they present to the advisor. The advisor…
1. Can not make a decision for a student, but can listen and guide them.
2. Can not lighten or change a schedule for a student, but can encourage them and help
them see the reality of their choices.
3. Can not change innate abilities of students, but can help them work within their own
restrictions orrefer them to other sources that can better serve the students.
4. Should not criticize other faculty, but rather find the resource for the student so the
faculty member can be addressed.
5. Should not betray confidences of a personal nature, unless restricted by law, but \ should find and utilize the proper referral sources.
6. Can not go beyond their training in issues of mental or physical health. After an initial
assessment is made and there is adequate concern – REFER!! (ACT Program,
1979a, p. 4.149)
According to Hoffman (1965) there are two additional factors that hamper the effectiveness of academic advising. Those two limitations are:
1. Competition for the budget dollar.
2. Faculty reluctance to become engrossed in anything other than teaching and research
which pay dividends in money and status (1965, p. 16).
STEREOTYPES OF ADVISING
Certain aspects of faculty advising have tended to gloss the process so that the true dimensions of advising have been obscured. Among the stereotypes are these:
1.) THE AUTOMAT STEREOTYPE: This is the common “slip a coin in and get a schedule out” process wherein the student and advisor interact solely in a mechanical process of working out a program suitable for a given period of registration. Students deserve much more assistance in the forms of analysis of their achievement, assistance in occupational exploration, referral to remedial and development services, effecting suitable work-study and recreation patterns, referral to health service, financial assistance, part-time work and discussion of appropriate graduate and
professional programs with eventual placement.
2.) THE THOUSAND MILE CHECKUP: This stereotype is one that conceives the advisor as active in arranging a program of courses and subsequently checking in a month or six weeks thereafter to see how the program has worked. This and little more!
3.) THE PATCH-AFTER-CRASH STEREOTYPE: In this role, the faculty advisor is galvanized into action at moments of crisis. The student fails miserably, is entrapped in a violation of academic or social regulations, and is about to drop or be dropped, with the result that the faculty advisor races to the scene— office of the academic or personnel dean— with sirens blowing. Too little and too late is usually the appraisal of this well-intentioned but ill-planned maneuver.