Primer
for New Academic Advising Administrators
Renee
F. Borns
Former Assistant Vice President for Student Success Initiatives
Houston Baptist University
The
first day on the job as a new director of an academic advising
unit can be both exciting and intimidating. “Where do I start?”
a new director may silently ask. Before becoming overwhelmed,
remember to take one task and one emotion at a time. The purpose
of this primer is to assist an academic advising professional
who is transitioning into a new role as a director of an academic
advising unit.
Begin
your exploration of this new role by reviewing a NACADA publication
-- Academic Advising:
A Comprehensive Handbook. This book will provide a new
administrator with insight regarding delivery of advising services,
training and evaluation of staff members, and future needs of
an advising unit.
Campus
Community and Culture
Understanding
the campus community and culture is an important aspect for any
administrator in higher education. Make the effort to spend time
with each member of the advising unit; student workers, peer leaders,
full-time advisors, faculty advisors, and staff members. Getting
their perspective and insight as to their role in providing services
to students is invaluable as you begin to assess current needs
and plan for the future. Review the NACADA
Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources (Clearinghouse)
for information regarding advisor load issues. If advisor
loads are too unmanageable, consider developing a peer advisor
program. Peers are an excellent means to providing support for
students in need. In addition, such a program provides an avenue
for emerging student leaders with exposure to the advising profession
and a possible career path in higher education. An excellent book
to read when beginning the process of creating a peer program
is Students Helping Students: A Guide for Peer Educators on
College Campuses. The monograph Peer
Advising: Intentional
Connections to Support Student Learning
is another valuable resource.
Get
to know the organizational chart; find out who the “power-players”
are, who reports to whom in each department, and what lines on
the organizational chart can be crossed when decisions need to
be made. Get to know campus resources, co-curricular opportunities,
academic programs and the people who administer those programs.
Make it a point to conduct informational interviews with colleagues
in career services, counseling center, student support services,
residence life, child care, student activities, maintenance, athletics,
and information systems. Ask them about their vision and goals
for their department and how to partner with them to provide the
best services for students. For example, residential life and
academic advising may team up to have a “The Academic Advisor
is In” station set up in a residence hall before registration
starts. Get to know student leaders; peer-to-peer interaction
is the best way to promote programs or events. Additionally, a
maintenance staff member can become your professional best friend
if you need the air conditioning turned on an hour before an event.
Establish
a relationship with those on campus who can assist with sensitive
or legal issues. Making connections with the in-house legal counsel,
accommodations officer, and registrar can making finding answers
to difficult questions a more pleasant experience. The Clearinghouse
also has information on legal issues,
specifically FERPA.
Get
to know the virtual and physical campus. Where are the good places
to advertise services related to the academic advising office?
Is there a common location where students congregate with an area
to display posters or handout fliers? How do students learn about
campus events? What resources are offered online?
Managerial
Issues
Budget
Managerial
issues are part of daily life for any director. Learn early the
state of the institution’s budget; likewise learn the budget of
the advising unit. Talk with other department heads about the
budgeting process, what pitfalls to avoid, and where to find “hidden”
funding. Find out when budget hearings begin and plan ahead. When
setting goals that may require extra funding, be creative in how
the department can best provide services to students on limited
funds. Investigate available grants that can help meet student
needs for services; for example, Texas institutions may apply
for grants from TG-Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp. Check with
your institution’s grant acquisitions office for grant opportunities
that can provide an avenue for research. While the research process
may take more than a year, the advising unit may benefit in the
long run if data supports providing more resources or continuing
services. NACADA
and the National
Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in
Transition both sponsor
research grant programs.
Collaborate
with academic units to take make your budget go further. For example,
you may learn that the psychology department has money to hire
student workers. The academic advising office could volunteer
the time and expertise of an academic advisor to train psychology
students as peer advisors, as well as supervise them. This could
be a perfect match between two areas in the support of students.
Consider
an advising fee. Several institutions across the country have
an advising fee as part of a fee schedule assessed to students.
An advising fee could potentially pay the salary of needed advising
personnel, stipends for faculty advisors, or supplement the operating
budget of an advising unit. See the Clearinghouse for
more information on advising
fees.
Assessment
Assessment
is a key component for justifying the existence of an advising
unit in times of shrinking budgets. Start developing an assessment
plan that evaluates the current advising model, programs, and
individual advisors. To get started, consider attending NACADA’s
Assessment of Academic
Advising Institute. Also review the advising standards established
in the Council of Advancement
of Standards in Higher Education (CAS).
This document is a useful tool in developing an assessment plan,
as well as creating future goals. Tie in the development of the
advising mission and vision state to the assessment plan. If your
advising unit has an outdated mission statement or does not have
an advising mission statement at all, check the Clearinghouse
for examples of mission
statements that can help you draft or review a statement.
There
are several assessment tools readily available. NACADA members
may utilize the Academic
Advising Inventory (AAI) on their campuses. Another example
is ACT’s Survey of Academic Advising that asks students to evaluate
the present advising model, as well as individual advisor. For
a fee, ACT supplies the instruments,
compiles the data, and generates results. Another option is to
create your own instrument. See the Clearinghouse for
examples of what other
institutions are using. Or contact members of NACADA’s Assessment
Commission; they can provide you with valuable information
as you develop your own instrument and generate an assessment
plan. The Student Learning Outcomes syllabi
is also another useful tool to create to achieve desired learning
outcomes.
Reporting
Assessment
data should be used to set department goals for the coming year,
as well as assess and report the activities from the past year.
Know where to report advising activities and budgetary needs.
In other words, who are the key players who can support the budgetary
needs of advising activities? Consider developing good working
relationships with board of trustee members, provost, student
affairs colleagues, enrollment services members, and student government
members.
Professional
Development for advisors
Continual
training for all members of an advising unit is a key advising
administrator responsibility. Get to know your audience before
providing training opportunities. The needs of peer advisors may
be different than those of staff members. Be creative when designing
training materials and workshops. Collaborate with other departments.
For example, can the advising unit combine efforts to discuss
leadership development, safety issues, and communication skills
with orientation leaders, residence assistants, and peer leaders?
Active learning is best; after discussing what effective communication
is, have training participants model the behavior to each other.
Or when training is finished, have groups of two or three draw
what a peer advisor looks like. Discussion of the drawings is
an entertaining method can help participants comprehend concepts
presented in training. See NACADA’s Advisor
Training & Development monograph and New
Advisor Guidebook for additional ideas.
Staffing
Recruiting
qualified professionals for advising positions is important, and
can be costly. For free online position announcement listings,
see NACADA's position
announcments or local job posting boards. The American College
Personnel Association (ACPA)
and Higher Education Jobs
also have position listings. Work with the institution’s human
resources director to find regional salary surveys when researching
salaries of positions. Examine NACADA's salary
surveys or the College and University Personnel Association-Human
Resources (CUPA-HR).
In addition, the Chronicle of Higher Education publishes a yearly
salary survey. The Council of Christian Colleges and Universities
(CCCU) also conducts a salary
survey of positions at faith-based higher education institutions.
The president or human resource director at your institution may
have access to this information.
Professional
Growth and Development for Self
Remember,
an administrator of a higher education unit needs an outlet for
professional growth. Networking with other advising directors
in your area can be a rewarding opportunity. Rich ideas can come
from sharing thoughts with a director at a large, public university
if you are currently at a small, private college. Collaborating
on advising research or training tricks may result from an informal
Friday afternoon networking lunch. Consider attending an institute
that focuses on leadership in higher education. Two such opportunities
are SACSA/NASPA Mid-Managers’
Institute and the Summer
Institute for Women in Higher Education Administration (Higher
Education Resources Services). To specifically concentrate on
academic advising issues, NACADA offers an institute
for administrators. Consider joining NACADA’s Advising
Administrators Commission to share ideas and ask questions.
If the department budget is tight, some of the listed opportunities
have scholarships; spend the extra time to apply for one and save
the added expense to your budget.
Closing
Accepting
the role of the leader of an academic advising unit is a position
filled with rewards and challenges. As a new academic advising
administrator, use the resources presented in this article, listen
to your colleagues, and trust your instincts. The contributions
you make will have an effect on the professional growth of advisors,
expansion of the advising unit, and especially the growth and
development of students.
SUGGESTED
RESOURCES
Overall
Resources:
