Did
Einstein Know the Date to Withdraw? Techniques
and Activities to Educate Your Campus Community About Academic
Advising
Sharon
Aiken-Wisniewski, Associate Dean
University College Advising and Undergraduate Studies
University of Utah
Casey
D. Allen
Ph.D. (Geography) Research Associate
Institute for Social Science Research
Arizona State University
Could
a future U.S. President be a current advisee? Did the 21 st century
Albert Einstein discuss with us the course withdrawal process
or did we assist the future Frida Kahlo identify her major and
exhibit venue? While i t is exciting to consider who we interact
with in our roles as academic advisors, t hese interactions only
are possible if we identify techniques that foster awareness of
advising.
How
do we reach out to students and alert them to valuable resources?
How do we communicate with students when the advising center is
not temporally or spatially convenient? There are techniques and
activities that can answer these questions and help us reach out
and engage students.
Academic
advisors are creative individuals who enjoy "shaking" things up
to serve students. Most campuses are faced with a parking challenge
and many campuses offer a shuttle service that transports students
from classroom buildings to parking facilities. Why not have an
"advisor onboard" to share deadlines, coming attractions, and
identify resources for students? At Weber
State
University
we utilized this strategy
in a program named "GAS" - Get Advising on the Shuttle. Large
signs placed in the windshield of the bus alerted students to
the onboard advisor who provided information and answered quick
questions.
Other
advisors wear bright t-shirts embroidered with "ADVISOR" and walk
around campus during class changes to advertise advising and answer
quick student questions. This supportive activity can occur during
the beginning of a semester, at significant deadlines, or prior
to registration. If your limited office resources won't allow
for the utilization of real people, try a famous person cardboard
character placed in strategic locations around campus. Keep the
message brief and provide a number or location for more information.
We
must communicate the existence of new programs to students if
we want our programs to succeed. While an "open house" is a common
way to accomplish this, consider stretching your open house beyond
your four walls. Identify high traffic classroom buildings and
secure the utilization of a common space. Buy donuts and beverages
(milk, coffee, juice, etc.), and invite people to enjoy a donut
while you tell them about your services. We utilized this technique
when we extended our advising center hours; we sponsored "open
houses" in the evening during the course break times. We not only
informed students but had the opportunity to converse with faculty
interested in the scope of our services. Activities that reach
out to the campus community build rapport, increase understanding
of academic advising, and deliver students to your center.
Registration
periods and the start of each semester are guaranteed to ensure
plenty of student customers. Why not ease the stress of these
high demand times with office themes? Sponsor a "Happy New Year's
Party" for the new academic or calendar year; decorate with a
few balloons and streamers, have some refreshments, rent a bubble
blowing machine and you have an instant party in the reception
room. At the University
of Utah ,
we included a "Back to School" picture booth, took digital photos
and sent them to parents.
The
reception area of our advising office is ground zero-everyone
travels through this space. We offer a "quick answer advisor"
service located in the lobby and staffed by full-time and peer
advisors. The "quick answer advisor" easily comprehends when a
situation requires more than a quick answer and helps students
make an appointment so they can be adequately served. This strategy
serves three purposes. First, the receptionist no longer has to
answer informational advising questions while trying to schedule
appointments, answer telephone calls, etc. Second, this eliminates
the two-minute interaction scheduled for a 30 minute appointment.
Third, it allows students to interact with an academic advisor
on a regular basis for routine information. This could be taken
a step further to include other locations on campus to increase
visibility of the advising office to the entire campus community.
Perhaps, like Lucy of Peanuts comic fame, a booth with
an "Advisor is in" sign could be created and moved around campus.
The
reception area is also a great place to share information with
students through posters and brochures. As proponents of assessment
of academic advising, we find the reception area a wonderful place
to share the results of the student surveys. These posters identify
the learning outcome, what students told us through our assessment
tools, and what actions the advising office pursued to improve
our services to students. These are large posters that include
key information, graphs, and photos.
In
addition to decorating the reception area with information relevant
to students, why not offer them information in a fun form. We
are all familiar with fortune cookies with a few common fortunes.
Try a different spin on this: a "tip jar." This is a large wide-mouth
container that invites the student "to take a tip from your advisor."
The tips can be philosophical or information relevant to campus
written on paper and folded into a small square. We have watched
many smiles emerge as a tip is revealed to the curious advisee.
In
this cell phone era, a dedicated number-and dedicated advisor
during certain hours-can go a long way toward keeping students
informed of important academic advising related information.
But
some students prefer to be advised at times that advisors prefer
to sleep while other students do not have the time to visit the
office for an appointment. Electronic tools are easily-accessible
on most campuses and are one way to offer "non-traditional" advising.
Many of today's students are technologically savvy and enjoy interactive
websites. We found that a short personal Web page for each advisor
and staff member is a good draw for some students, and often times
students actually request specific advisors based on the advisor's
personal Web page.
While
advisors are familiar with academic jargon, students are sometimes
confused by it: how can there be a college in a university? What
is a credit hour? Why is a catalog year important? Two avenues
can be pursued to facilitate student understanding of academic
jargon. One is to create a "lingo link", not unlike a glossary,
that outlines the jargon used in your institution. The other is
a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, perhaps arranged topically,
where students can find answers to their questions.
Most
students have email accounts so it makes sense to reach out to
students using this electronic resource. The "quick answer advisor"
could answer "advisor hotline" emails-emails that come to a generic
account such as advise@yourschool.edu. The duty can also be rotated
between full-time and peer advisors throughout the week. It is
important to be respond in a timely manner, with a less-than-24-hour
turn around for answers suggested. Interactive, real-time chat
rooms are also a readily available resource that might be mediated
by the "quick answer advisor" or a specific staff member. Chat
rooms give the student immediate information from a "real" academic
advisor.
One
final note about electronic resources: while having a dedicated
"advising hotline" is advantageous, privacy is important. Federal
law protects students' rights. Some information can not be released
without verification of student identity. Nevertheless, the use
of electronic resources is an important way to address many informational
advising issues.
Creativity
in academic advising helps invigorate advisors. It also grabs
student attention and helps them be more receptive to the academic
advising process. A variety of techniques can increase the visibility
and utilization of academic advising within the campus community
and help Einstein know the date to withdraw.
Cite
the above resource using APA style as:
Aiken-Wisniewski,
S. and Allen, C.D. (2005). Did
Einstein know the date to withdraw? Techniques and activities
to educate your campus community about academic advising.
Retrieved from the NACADA Clearinghouse
of Academic Advising Resources Web site: http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/Einstein.htm.
