Rich Robbins, Bucknell University

NACADA endorses five documents that “champion the educational role of academic advising in a diverse world” (NACADA, n.d., para. 1). The five "pillar" documents of academic advising include the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) Standards and Guidelines for Academic Advising, the NACADA Core Values, the NACADA Concept Statement, the NACADA Core Competencies, and the Academic Advising Conditions of Excellence. CAS was founded in 1979 with the goal of providing standards for co-curricular student service areas in higher education. The first publication of CAS standards in 1986 included standards for 16 such areas, including academic advising. The most recent revision of the advising standards was in 2023 (CAS, 2023). These standards provide a framework for improving and assessing areas such as mission and goals, organization and leadership, human resources, ethical guidelines, and evaluation and assessment. Prior to the development of the other NACADA pillar documents, the CAS Standards for Academic Advising were the recognized benchmarks against which academic advising programs were measured. They remain an established set of professional criteria regarding the evaluation and assessment of academic advising programs in higher education (Henning et al., 2020), and nearly all of the components of the other pillar documents had their genesis in the CAS standards.

Originally developed in 2005 and revised in 2017, the NACADA Core Values represent the guiding principles for individual academic advising practice (NACADA, 2017b). These values include commitment to student success, respect for diversity, professional excellence, collaboration, and ethical behavior. The NACADA Concept Statement was published in 2006 and provides a comprehensive overview of academic advising, describing the purpose of academic advising, the key components of academic advising, and the importance of academic advising in student success (NACADA, 2006). As such, it is a foundational document for understanding the role and function of academic advising within higher education.

The NACADA Core Competencies (2017a) identify the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that academic advisors should possess to effectively support students. Included are interpersonal communication, student development theory, ethical practice, and understanding of institutional policies and procedures. When carefully considered, it becomes apparent that the core competencies is a complimentary framework to both the core values (which provides guiding principles for the individual advisor) and the concept statement (which provides a general paradigm for academic advising’s role in higher education).

The nine academic advising conditions of excellence were developed as a collaboration between NACADA and the Gardner Institute (NACADA, 2023a), and initially served as the basis for the Excellence in Academic Advising (EAA) program. This program has evolved into the current Excellence in Academic Advising (EAA) Self-Study process designed to advance student success, persistence, retention, and degree completion through a comprehensive, standards-based assessment process that promotes excellence in academic advising (NACADA, 2024, para. 1).  Aspects of the earlier developed NACADA pillar documents are found throughout these conditions of excellence. Similarities include specific content in each framework regarding a focus on student success; the maintenance of high ethical standards in academic advisor’s interactions with others; continuous professional development for academic advisors; collaboration and effective communication with others; a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion; and continuing improvement based on evaluation and assessment.

The NACADA Pillar Documents Mapped to the Educational Advisory Board’s (EAB) Hierarchy of Needs

Brookman (1989) proposed the consideration of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow, 1943, 1987; McLeod, 2007) to improve student retention in higher education. Since then, other numerous higher education authors and organizations have adapted Maslow’s model to represent a hierarchy of students’ needs to be successful (e.g., Freitas & Leonard, 2011; Milheim, 2012; Modern Campus, 2024). This allows for a holistic consideration of students in a developmental process, emphasizing that the lower-level needs must be met before the student can develop and be successful at the next level in the hierarchy. The Educational Advisory Board (EAB) is included among the many entities utilizing this model (EAB 2018a, 2018b). EAB posits a hierarchical model of students’ needs consisting of four tiers: basic needs, foundational needs, growth needs, and self-actualization needs. Below, the NACADA pillar documents and the EAA nine conditions of excellence are mapped to the EAB hierarchy not from the typical perspective of the individual needs of the person/student, but from the perspective of what the academic advising program provides to promote student success. Doing so not only provides additional evidence regarding the commonalities among these respective frameworks, but further provides insight into how the components of each framework contribute to student success.

Tier 1: Basic Needs

• NACADA Core Competencies: Foundational knowledge and skills such as degree requirements and academic policies.

• CAS Standards for Academic Advising: Guidelines for ensuring that advising programs meet basic programmatic needs, such as having a clear mission statement and a defined advising structure.

Tier 2: Foundational Needs

• NACADA Core Values: Commitment to student success and respect for diversity, which are foundational for creating a supportive advising environment.

• NACADA Concept Statement: Foundational role of advising in supporting students' educational goals and providing holistic support.

• NACADA EAA Conditions of Excellence: Advisor selection and training, collaboration, and use of technology to address foundational needs by ensuring advisors are prepared, resources are available, and collaboration enhances support services.

Tier 3: Growth Needs:

• NACADA Core Competencies: Communication, collaboration, assessment, and ethical practice to provide effective advising and support.

• NACADA EAA Conditions of Excellence: Evaluation and assessment, student empowerment, and ethical guidelines to address advisor and program growth needs by promoting continuous improvement, student agency, and ethical conduct.

• CAS Standards for Academic Advising: Professional development and student learning outcomes (and assessment thereof) to ensure advisors are equipped to meet evolving student needs and promote student development.

Tier 4: Self-Actualization Needs:

• NACADA Core Values: Empowerment and commitment to diversity and inclusion that support students' self-actualization needs by fostering an environment where students can fully engage and feel supported.

• NACADA Concept Statement: Emphasis on student empowerment and holistic support that aligns with students’ self-actualization needs by considering all aspects of student well-being.

• NACADA EAA Conditions of Excellence: Mission alignment and diversity and inclusion that support students’ self-actualization needs by ensuring that academic advising practices are aligned with institutional goals and all students are supported.

Note. Adapted from Maslow (1943, 1987; Macleod, 2007) and the Educational Advisory Board (EAB) (2014, 2018)

The NACADA pillar documents are all objective frameworks of goals and strategies developed to externally positively affect, direct, and even control to a degree, the subjective state of the individual student. However, these do not account for the plethora of possible internal, individual student variables (e.g., experiences, beliefs, perceptions, expectations, emotions, etc.) that likely play an even more powerful role in student behavior and decision-making. Advising programs and individual academic advisors must continue to strive for the ideal state of student support and student success via utilization of the NACADA pillar documents and the EAA nine conditions of excellence, despite the intervening personal student variables.

References

Brookman, D. M. (1989). Maslow’s hierarchy and student retention. NACADA Journal, 9(1), 69–74. https://doi.org/10.12930/0271-9517-9.1.69

Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS). (2023). CAS professional standards for higher education (11th version). Standards and Guidelines for Academic Advising.

Educational Advisory Board (EAB). (2014). A student-centered approach to advising: Redeploying academic advisors to create accountability and scale personalized intervention. EAB Global, Inc. https://eab.com/resources/research-report/a-student-centered-approach-to-advising-study/

Educational Advisory Board (EAB). (2018, August 15). Addressing college students’ basic needs. Address food and housing insecurity on campus. EAB Global, Inc. https://eab.com/resources/research-report/addressing-college-students-basic-needs/

Freitas, F. A., & Leonard, L. J. (2011). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and student academic success. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 6(1), 9–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2010.07.004

Henning, G. W., Robbins, R., & Andes, S. (2020, February). Using CAS as a framework to assess holistic learning (Occasional Paper No. 43). University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA).

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346

Maslow, A. H. (1987). Motivation and personality (3rd ed.). Pearson Education.

McLeod, S. (2007). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

Milheim, K. (2012). Toward a better experience: Examining student needs in the online classroom through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs model. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 8(2), 159–171. https://jolt.merlot.org/vol8no2/milheim_0612.pdf

Modern Campus. (2024). A modern student affairs guide to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. https://moderncampus.com/education-center/student-affairs-guide-maslow-needs.html

NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. (2024). Excellence in academic advising, https://nacada.ksu.edu/Programs/Excellence-in-Academic-Advising.aspx

NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. (n.d.). Pillars of academic advising. https://nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Pillars.aspx

NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. (2006). Concept of academic advising. https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Pillars/Concept.aspx

NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. (2017a). NACADA academic advising core competencies model. https://nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Pillars/CoreCompetencies.aspx

NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. (2017b). NACADA core values of academic advising. https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Pillars/CoreValues.aspx

NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. (2023a). Excellence in academic advising. https://nacada.ksu.edu/Programs/Excellence-in-Academic-Advising.aspx