Today, as budgets continue to shrink and expectations continue to rise, we face our own crisis in higher education.  Many advisors are being asked to do more with less: more advisees, more meetings, more technology, more nights and weekends, more data, more assessment, fewer resources, less time.  This kind of environment has the potential to become toxic, leading to a culture of fear, competition, segregation, and blame.  Permaculture offers us insights as to how we can respond to these challenging times in a positive, productive way.

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stress, community relationships, advising environment, Nancy Willow

Transitioning from high school to college is a life-changing event for all students, but may be even more challenging for students who are academically underprepared… The adage Advising is Teaching is applicable where advisors use developmental theories to help students on academic probation enhance their education.

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at-risk students, probation, underprepared students, first generation students, Joy Cox

Bossier Parish Community College (BPCC) has become the first college in the nation to create a cross-disciplinary, open-source series of free, online, non-credit developmental-level math, English, and reading courses called BPCC Open Campus... Ultimately, the College hopes that what it is doing may serve as a valuable resource for other colleges and universities facing similar challenges of advising and remediating underprepared students.

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underprepared students, Allison Martin

In response to a lack of on-campus advisor development opportunities and a reduction in employee travel funds, OASIS staff at Valdosta State University created the Master Advisor Series

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Kohle Paul, professional development, advisor training, Michael Kitchens, advising workshops

I chair the Advising Committee on Minnesota State University Moorhead’s campus, and we have great ideas during our committee meetings, but never seem to find the time to develop and implement the ideas.  We needed to make a time commitment to our ideas, but we also needed some leadership and direction. To achieve these goals, we decided to send a team to NACADA’s Academic Advising Administrators’ Institute.

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advising director, Amy Sannes

“Do you believe that you advise without borders?” This is a question that we strive to answer each day working toward a style of advising that critically listens to the experiences of students in order to guide the direction of our work. As practitioners who work to empower students, we value their voices.

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communication, cultural differences, active listening, Robert Mack, Ikenna Acholonu

Complete editions of AAT are provided to facilitate one-touch print capability, but readers are encouraged to view the individual articles to utilize the site’s enhanced search and “related articles” features.

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Often our days are so full of daily commitments and operational tasks that we neglect to recognize our achievements and the ways in which they benefit students, our departments, and our campuses. Please reserve a few minutes to reflect on the ways you have improved, or created a plan to improve, your advising practice.

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news, Joanne Damminger, president

Those of  us who are children of the ‘60s and ‘70s either loved, hated, or made fun of a singing brother-and-sister group, The Carpenters, but no matter where we fit on the spectrum we could not have lived in those times without hearing their music and of course one of their big hits was “We’ve Only Just Begun.”  While NACADA has made huge strides in our nearly 40 years as an association, it is important that we all know “we’ve only just begun” to make the significant impacts on higher education globally that our mission and goals demand we make.

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Charlie Nutt, news

Over the past four years, over one million veterans and their dependents have enrolled in colleges and universities across the country, and there are many more to come… This unique group faces many challenges that are different from those of a more typical college student… Advisors can help with the transition into college life by addressing key aspects of the relationship of advisor to student.

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military, Jackie McReynolds