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Faculty Advising Breakfast and Forum
Key Point Summary
May 14, 2015
1. What should be the primary roles and responsibilities of faculty advisors?
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serve as the bridge between classwork and the professional world
focus on career development (planning, fit, confirmation that they are in right major,
determine long-term goals) and academics (requirements, find courses that fit their
interests, internships, etc.) vs. the nuts and bolts of degrees and academic progress
(academic advisors)
focus on professional development- can provide the “why” behind the reason to take
some classes vs. arranging schedules (AA focus on “nuts and bolts”)
build relationships with students to optimize retention- some suggested avoiding faculty
random assignment and build on existing connections or create opportunities for
connection
Note: Faculty roles vary in colleges/departments depending on complexity of majors, number of
advisees assigned, availability of professional advisors—try to minimize changes of advisors within
colleges and clarify functions of different types of advisors
2. What is working well and what are some challenges?
Working well:
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Advising allows faculty to build relationships with students and engage them in more
opportunities
Faculty who advise are more familiar with campus resources
Technology support (Advising Hub, Appointment Scheduler, APEX)
When faculty teach intro courses they meet students early in undergraduate careers
In-time team advising (AA and FA working with students simultaneously)
Using a check-off sheet or cheat sheet to track student progress
Having an Academic Advisor as a resource
College variance in terms of model- all AA, hybrid model—works well for some
Advising Network for informational updates
Challenges:
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Lack of consistency of advising models across campus- creates confusion for students
Not all colleges/departments require mandatory advising appointments
Advising holds are at times lifted by others not the advisor
Lack of credit in DOE and lack of reward/incentive for faculty advising
Communication across campus and colleges (with each other and with students)
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Student challenges (underprepared or unmet financial need)
Early alerts- faculty don’t know if issue reported has been addressed- no feedback
High advisee loads
Inconsistency in how advising contacts are documented (e.g., not all use Advising Hub)
Lack of training of faculty advisors
Unevenness in quality of advising and accessibility/approachability of advisor
Lack of assessment of advising activities
Faculty not having the IT permissions they need (e.g., granting overrides, etc.)
Lack of credit for advising on DOE
3. Faculty advisors and/or mentors, how do you interface with professional (full-time) advisors
about the students that you share?
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Informal and as needed- when a FA has a question asks either PA, DUS or director of advising for
help
Periodic training meeting- PAs meet with FAs to update them on advising issues
Regular joint meeting- PAs attend regular curricular committee or departmental meetings
Student-based discussion- FA and PA discuss a shared student’s situation
Note: Responses indicated a wish for more contact and noted that there may need to be flexibility in
terms of choosing which forms of communication works best and when.
4a. How do we create a culture of rewarding advising in promotion, tenure, merit raises, and
performance evaluation?
 Negotiate/formalize reward for advising via quantifiable measure in DOE, tenure and evaluation
processes
 Provide course releases for faculty who wish to provide more student advising
 Actively engage department chairs in promoting advising in tangible and visible methods
 Advertise advising awards more prominently and emphasize their importance by having a
tangible reward for receiving one (e.g., promotion, bonus)
 Decrease larger faculty advisee caseloads so that ‘high touch’ services can be offered
4b. Ideally, what should faculty mentoring of students look like?
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Faculty mentor initiates contact with student at the start of freshman year and
continues all four years to build relationship, ask bigger questions, and assist with
academic and career mentoring
Establish lower ratios of faculty- student mentees to allow for quality time
It should not be mandatory for all faculty and those faculty mentoring should have other
work re-distributed
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Faculty who are ‘good’ at mentoring should be recognized/rewarded for it (part of DOE)
and those that aren’t should not be and should be held accountable
Culture change is needed---faculty’s ability to mentor (advise) should be considered
when hiring, they should receive training, be provided with expectations, have
mentoring accounted for in DOE and promotion, and activities evaluated.
Develop mentoring models that fit college/major program; assign mentors early and
allow students to work with faculty mentors with whom a connection develops (some
flexibility if they wish to be mentored
Note: Definition of ‘mentoring’ should be clearer
5a. Should student advising be optional or mandatory for faculty?
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Only faculty who want to advise should advise (only one or two exceptions to this view)
If advising is optional, there must be a tangible reward/incentive and documented DOE
recognition for those who do it
Faculty need to have training, small enough student loads, and enough time to do it well
5b. Should student mentoring be optional or mandatory for faculty?
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Mentoring should be available and strongly encouraged for all students
Faculty need proper training and resources to be mentors- if mandatory, faculty need to receive
credit for it
However-- Participants did not all agree on making this mandatory. Some faculty do not have
the mentoring skill set while others do
6. How do you think we could approach student advising differently as a campus (e.g., models,
structure, roles, etc.)?
 Advising models need to be developed that suit the units, based on data regarding what will
work best
 FA and PA need to be better defined and the two groups bridged/combined to best serve the
students
 Professional development and training needs to be provided
 Advising needs to be clearly defined, those doing it well should be recognized and rewarded,
and both FA and PA given adequate resources to offer quality advising
 FA should be incentivized to develop innovative advising models and strategies
 Some support for PA doing technical advising and FA offering mentoring
 Advisors should touch base frequently with their advisees
 Students should receive special advising attention when they change majors (to avoid them
falling through the cracks)