- I started a Peer Advising program
two years ago. Peer advisors take the burden off our staff advisors
by doing routine tasks such as handing out forms and petitions,
telling students what courses they need to complete before they
can declare, and referring them to campus resources. Peer Advisors
are not paid, although some earn 1 unit of credit for their
efforts.
Katie
Dustin
Coordinator of Advising Services
UC Berkeley
- Three areas were becoming bottlenecks
in terms of time demands. Career advisement (assessment, preparation
- resumes, portfolios; opportunities, actual job hunt), graduate
school, and teaching.
Here at
OCAD, we knew this was coming so the last year has been spent
doing and observing what we were doing (even logging everything,
including phone calls) so we could figure out how to improve
a segment or cut it. Over the past year, I compiled the basic
questions students had about careers, about teaching, and
about graduate school. This information has all been put into
word processing documents. Until we upload these onto our
site, I hand out hard copies to students who are making inquiries
regarding any one of them. They must read through these (the
longest, the applying to grad school one, is ten pages) before
coming in to see me. Then they often opt for a mere e-mail
query regarding the material or a short phone call. It's definitely
saved me time this cycle.
Principle:
1) Refer students to written documentation - word document,
Internet site, Web page - prior to formal appointment. 2)
Make a note and keep the same kind of file - "Student referred
to 'Applying To Graduate School' and will call back to come
in and see me." you would for an in-person session. 3) Answer
abbreviated questions via e-mail or short, documented, phone
call.
Thomas
G. Fairbairn
Student Academic Advisor
Ontario College of Art & Design
- At Marygrove College, we were
asked to freeze open positions as well as trim 20% of our operating
budget this fall due to a severe budget crisis. I am Director
of Academic Advising and Career Services for this small liberal
arts college. I cut from 10-25% of line items that I felt we
could most control, or would be able to delay utilizing until
after June 30, the end of our fiscal year. However, I had a
position open which we deemed to be critical - Job Development
Coordinator, who coordinates internships and coops.
After
several attempts to petition to have the job filled, and attempts
to temporarily realign responsibilities within the department
to cover the activities, my boss and I decided to completely
realign the department. We had a mixed model of advising,
with freshman and sophomore students of most majors being
advised within Academic Advising, then being transferred to
Faculty Advisors as they complete developmental and foundational
courses in Reading, Math, and Writing. We served about 300
students.
We
eliminated one Academic Advisor position and transferred that
individual to the Job Development position. We are reassigning
any declared students to faculty advisors as we work with
them to plan Winter term schedules. As of January 1, 2003,
any newly admitted students who have declared a major will
go directly to faculty in that department. We will retain
only undecided students, who will be advised by one full time
Academic Advisor working with freshman. Undecided transfer
students will be advised by the Career Development Specialist.
I, as Director, will take students from any department which
is overloaded (about 20 students per faculty advisor is considered
a load.)
We made the
announcement to faculty about this, and have had little reaction.
It will mean the faculty will be advising more freshman than
ever before. It will also mean that the Registrar's office
will see more students during registration, because we used
to register them during their advising appointments, and faculty
do not. By June, we should have a better idea of how this
will work.
Martha D. Adamson,
MAIR Director of Academic Advising & Career Services
Marygrove College
Detroit, MI 48221-2599
- The best idea we have implemented
successfully is our NSider and our E-Adviser. We are sending
out weekly emails to our students and posting that information
on our web site as NSider (somewhat of a newsletter) to keep
students abreast of any deadlines and issues or concerns of
importance. E-Adviser allows students to ask their advising
questions via the web as an alternative to coming into the office.
That has worked VERY WELL for us. We are looking at our web
site and our bulletin and ways we can make more "helpful" information
available to students via alternative means--the web site, bulletin,
orientation/group advising sessions, etc.
D'Vee
Buss
Director of Undergrad Programs
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- We had an academic advising fee created
last year. However, the plan mostly was to shift advising offices
onto soft money at the same budgeting levels.
Kriss
Boyd
Director General Academics
Texas A&M University-Main Campus
- In the Greenspun College of Urban
Affairs Student Advising Center we have trained our two clerical
undergraduate student workers to advise limited populations
of new students. Although we requested a half-time advisor when
our college undergraduate FTE increased 28.89% this fall, a
hiring freeze was put in effect shortly thereafter.
Carol Jensen
Director, Greenspun College of Urban Affairs Student Advising
Center
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- Resource re-allocations to continue
to meet basic needs of students. Technology plays a big role
on this one. Is your records system one that can be tweaked
to enhance advising? Such as email advising and web-based advising
information? What are your students' basic needs? What special
populations are served and, thus, need the one-on-one advising
whereas others might get what they need from group sessions
or the web?
How can you cluster students so group
advising would give a positive pay-off when staff reductions
are required? Information sessions provide a vehicle to educating
students about their majors or graduation requirements, etc.
without having to meet one-on-one.
Linda Chalmers
Executive Director of Academic Advising
University of Texas at San Antonio
- We held a staff retreat when we realized
cuts were going to need to be made and asked for suggestions/ideas
that included looking "outside the box." You would be surprised
at the ideas people came up with as possible options. A team
effort usually provides some thoughts others may not have considered.
D'Vee Buss
Director of Undergrad Programs
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- I have let four advisors shift to
flex time - 4, 10-hour days. So far they seem to like the tradeoff,
and it means we can provide some evening hours for the students.
Kriss Boyd
Director General Academics
Texas A&M University-Main Campus
- We continue to maintain employee morale
in the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs Student Advising Center
by celebrating birthdays with a one-hour reception (food brought
in from outside sources rather than using the expensive campus
food service's catering). We also celebrate the winter holidays
with a name-drawing gift exchange ($5.00 limit) and again refreshments
brought in from off campus. Our full-time professional staff
advisors meet quarterly off campus for a half day (long-range
planning) mini-retreat, at our own expense. We continue to participate
in NACADA conferences, even if we should need to cover a portion
of the expenses ourselves.
Carol Jensen
Director, Greenspun College of Urban Affairs Student Advising
Center
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- This is an objective that should be
occurring during times of plenty as well as retrenchment. If
schools have to lay-off staff then it should have the wherewithal
to assist the staff members with interviewing skills, job placement
resources, and recommendation letters where warranted. Bringing
in campus counselors is also an important step as the employees
who stay may likely feel guilty about their good fortune. Looking
at technology usage and improvements for the remaining staff
is critical, too.
Linda Chalmers
Executive Director of Academic Advising
University of Texas at San Antonio
- Thus far, I'm not able to offer a
19 hour per week professional advisor position that is open
to the selected candidate. I am performing 50% of the duties
of this position and have distributed the other 50% of the position
between two other part-time professional advisors.
Susan
L. Heyward , Director
Academic Advisement Center
Eastern Connecticut State University
- Oregon higher education has been especially
hard hit. As a result, student services is being reorganized,
and an enrollment manager will be hired; thus, I will no longer
have a position here at Eastern Oregon University as of June
30, 2003. Any job leads would be greatly appreciated.
Pat North
Director of Academic Services
Eastern Oregon University
- The advising format in the College
of Business Administration at the University of Nebraska includes
an Advising Center that is staffed by both student and professional
staff. We have not done many of the following, but are considering
them: With student staff, we will cut the number of hours they
work. To continue to accommodate students best, we will first
look at cutting hours which least impact students (first thing
in the morning; late hours in the afternoon; Friday afternoons
which tend to be quiet). We will also look at cutting back on
hours for normal working days and then increasing them at peak
times (priority registration, first of the semester, etc.).
We have an enormous amount of paper work we continue to deal
with (substitutions, evaluation of transfer credit, etc., etc.).
We are looking at different ways to manage this paper work in
a timely fashion given a cut in staff--possibly having paper
work pool parties, where we all come together for a designated
period of time where we all work together on paper work to get
it done in a concentrated period of time. In some instances
we are looking at whether or not we will process paper work--depending
what it is--holding it in the file until student indicates a
need to have something done with it (this will vary with the
'kind" of paperwork). We're simply going to stop doing
some things. Even though we have had a wonderful customer service
reputation, we just know we cannot continue to do everything
we have done in the past. We have begun to use DARS and will
continue to look at ways to utilize this format of advising--putting
some training information on the web, etc.
D'Vee Buss
Director of Undergrad Programs
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Fortunately, we haven't had
to make cuts, yet. Our legislature only meets every other year,
though, and we have been asked to make projections for this
spring's session about what we would cut if we had a decrease
in funding.
If I had to cut, I would: Reduce
the size of one learning community program by excluding 30
guaranteed spaces for student athletes - maybe the Athletic
Department could find some funds to cover that reduction.
Eliminate a program we have to serve students with over 60
hours (we are the home base for Gen. Stds. majors up until
that time) and let the colleges decide if they want to try
to retain those students. Eliminate a pilot cluster-registration
program for which we have not been allocated permanent funding.
Reduce the size of a program which is a collaboration with
a local community college. We have advisors that actually
go over to that campus two days each week, and I would have
to bring them back to our campus. Reduce student worker hours.
Kriss Boyd
Director General Academics
Texas A&M University-Main Campus
- We have made cuts in hiring by using
undergraduate student workers for limited advising. Although
we increase their pay for the hours they advise, these wages
are far less than the cost of a contracted half-time professional
staff advisor. We have switched to a less expensive on-line
mode of placing bulk orders for copies of printed materials.
When small equipment, such as space heaters or microwaves are
purchased, we look for sale items off campus, rather than using
the more expensive Boise catalog. I guess the bottom line is,
"It is possible to find ways to deal with funding reductions;
the next step is to do so without increasing substantially the
amount of time required."
Carol Jensen
Director, Greenspun College of Urban Affairs Student Advising
Center
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- At the University of Texas at
San Antonio we went into a student advising fee assessment structure
starting last spring term. In 1999 we reorganized our whole
advising operation with a $500,000 commitment from the President
to fund more advisors. In 2000 we were faced with the strong
possibility of curtailing our advising services with impending
legislative cuts. The Deans went forward with a fee assessment
and the students agreed.
The assessments
have brought about new challenges but have been generally
accepted due to the increased level of advising quality and
services. We are constantly assessing and reassessing. We
have a fee advisory group with students and will be utilizing
the group in the spring to educate the student population
about the increase in fees, advising in general, and the student's
responsibilities in the process.
We
will be raising fees for next year to meet our growing enrollment.
Space limitations are our biggest issues now.
So we are on
the upside of the funding swing but we still must do our homework,
collect data, and communicate to the executive management
about the importance and successes of the increased level
of advising services. We've already seen an increase in our
freshman retention rate this fall that correlates to the increase
in advising services from 1999 - 2001. We are starting to
see an increase in the number of students who graduate although
it's too soon to tell if the time-to-degree factor has been
impacted positively. One general thing to remember---always
be assessing, talking, educating, and proclaiming the good
of advising.
Linda Chalmers
Executive Director of Academic Advising
University of Texas at San Antonio
- One way I am dealing with the budget
crisis here at Michigan State in my office is by asking staff
to go to a reduced status by having a month off without pay.
This reduces their position from 100% to 91.6%. The particular
time off is negotiated taking into account the needs of the
office, student traffic flow, and the circumstances of the staff.
I got 5 staff to volunteer for this and also received requests
from 2 staff members to go to half-time. Since we have fairly
predictable student traffic throughout the academic year, it
has worked out well. There is no significant interruption in
services and staff really appreciate the time off to rejuvenate.
Bonita
Pope Curry
Professor Director Undergraduate University Division
Michigan State University
Reinarz,
Alice. (2003). Advising administrators' tips for dealing with
funding reductions. Retrieved -insert today's date- from theNACADA
Clearinghouse of Academic Advising ResourcesWeb site at http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/clearinghouse/admintips.aspx