The Advisement Process:

An Introductory Seminar on Advising College Students

 

  • The Roles of the Advisor
  • Institutional Goals for Advising
  • Advisor Expectations
  • In-Between Functions
  • The Balancing Act
  • Advisement Hints
  • Advisement Locations

    •  

    Grayson H. Walker Teaching Resource Center
    The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
    401 Hunter Hall--Mail Code 4354
    615 McCallie Ave.
    Chattanooga, TN 37403-2598
    (423) 425-4188
    (423) 425-4025 (fax)

    Last updated: November 1, 2002

     

    Comments to: Karen I. Adsit, EdD

    Copyright © 1998 The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. All rights reserved.
    The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is an EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504/ADA institution.


    Roles of the Advisor           Find out who the students are and why they decided to go to this institution and choose this major.  Was the choice
              internally or externally driven?  Develop a rapport with the student that sees them as a person instead of a tuition unit.
              Be prepared to put the needs of the student above the needs of the department or university.           Is this the right academic path for this student?  How can you tell?  Does their performance lend itself to the chosen
              field of study?  Are they happy?           Are you aware of the various services available on campus?  Is your student?           Don't let the student strike out on their own.  While independence may be an end product competency for this student,
              you need to make sure that their internal reality matches the external reality.  You are still the one they will blame if they
              fail to do something correctly.  Lots of today's students try to become as efficient as possible with their time expenditure
              towards their education.  Advising cannot be a time for shortcuts.  This is a time for reflection on weighty issues
              involving what they will be doing for the rest of their life.  Advisement is not just a student getting all of the right classes.
              The only thing sadder than a student having to miss graduation because of a forgotten Gen Ed requirement is one that
              decides they do not want to graduate in a particular program after completing all but one or two courses.

     


    Institutional Goals for Advising

    The National Academic Advising Association lists the following as institutional goals for the academic advisement process:

     

    They also have an interesting web page that gives links to pages describing how various majors can be used in the work place.
    http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Addwebsites/whatcanido.html

     

     


    Advisor Expectations

    So, what will be expected of you as an advisor?  First, let's overview what all is considered part of the advisement role.  In a nutshell, it is a process of setting the student up to get the most out of their college experience.  This process is commonly thought of from two different prospectives.  The prescriptive approach and the developmental approach.  Each of these approaches has strengths and shortcomings.  Each, if taken alone will leave the student under served.  The trick is to balance the components of both approaches into a process that provides the most benefit to the student with the most efficiency for the faculty.  Because different faculty have different gifts and responsibilities and students have their inherent individuality, each situation will involve a slightly different mix of the two approaches.  There is no cookie cutter approach and finding the appropriate mix will take practice.

     

    Prescriptive Component

    This is the most commonly thought of duties of an advisor.  They include making sure that the student has taken or is in line to take all remedial and core classes needed to progress through the university.  It also includes making sure that the student has chosen classes that do not overlap or conflict and that the student has met all prerequisites for that class.  The interaction between the advisor and the advisee is fairly formal and time efficient process.  Making sure all their paperwork is completed through can decrease a students anxiety level concerning their educational process so it is not necessarily an unpleasant process in and of itself.

    Everything that your student needs to be aware of is printed somewhere.  Your job will be to locate these resources in your own particular way.  Some of the published information dealing with advising can be found at the Retention and Advisement Center web site http://www.utc.edu/~advise/  This however, is not the only place to find this information.  The following are also places to find details.

              This includes the requirements for:
                    General Education
                    Major requirements
                    Minor requirements
                    American History
                    Physical Education
                    Foreign Language (For BA Students)
                    Additional requirements           All students have to meet "gen ed reqs" but not all will meet them in the same way.  You may want to check with your
              department to see if they have a form to help you keep track of the student's gen ed credit.  General education
              requirements changed at UTC in 1999.  You need to find out which catalog your student falls under and use the
              appropriate gen ed requirements.  The Automated Student Information System (ASIS) compares the student's courses
              to the ones that are required for gen ed.  It can then show you what gen ed categories have been met and which ones
              still need to be met.           After a student is in a major they really need to read the requirements and specifics about that major.  You would be
              surprised at how many students think that if they just don't know about a certain requirement, they can ignore it.  Please
              read the UTC catalog for specifics dealing with the following requirements.  They can be found in the Degree
              Requirements section.
                    American History
                    Physical Education (ex. of choices.  Military service can fulfill one year of Phys Ed.)
                    Foreign Language (For BA Students)
                    Additional Requirements           All this is listed in the catalog.  Make sure you have the correct catalog for your student.  To make it easier the ASIS
              system overlays the students' academic information with the specific requirements of their major.  This makes identifying
              deficiencies much easier.  Training for the ASIS is provided throughout the year by the Walker Teaching Resource
              Center and the records department provides access to the ASIS system.           It is important that the student be made aware that they may have various holds in effect on their registration.  They
              need to be referred to the appropriate location in order to deal with the holds.
                      Parking-In the Administration Building on Palmetto
                      Library-Yes, you guessed it.
                      Measles shots-The student health center in the Metro Building.  Tell them to look for the blue awning.           These require the student to come to an advisement session so you can help them register for their required
              developmental course work.  All developmental and deficiency courses must be completed in the first 42 attempted
              hours (or 30 hours at UTC if they are a transfer student).  This information is seen as you pull up a RAP (Report of
              Academic Progress) sheet on ASIS.  Once you have advised them, then you may give the student the advisement code
              found in ASIS (ADVISECODE) that will allow them to register over the phone or by computer.  They will however,
              still need to obtain a signature from the advisement office before they can register themselves.           The student has probably already looked into this by the time they see you but ask them anyway.  Have they looked
              into what financial aid they might be eligible for?  If they already have financial aid then a few extra rules come into
              play.  Namely that if they drop below a certain number of hours, they are at risk of losing their financial aid.           You can quickly tell if a class is open or closed by logging into ASIS.  This will tell you the current enrollment
              number as well as the maximum enrollment number.  If a class is closed, either encourage the student to adjust their
              schedule to fit a different class or refer them to the department head for that course and the course instructor to see if
              they will let the student into the closed class.           It usually works best if the student identifies the courses they feel will be difficult for them.  Use these courses to
              anchor the class schedule and add other courses around these.  This helps the student gauge a mental overload
              situation a little better.  Some departments have developed course sequence guidelines.  If yours has, you need to make
              sure that the student is taking courses to get into or maintain this sequence.  If your department has not developed a
              course sequence, then you might want to work with the student to develop an individualized course sequence taking
              them through graduation.  This will decrease the chances of the student being caught unaware of a graduation
              requirement.  You can use ASIS to find out one or two semesters in advance, what courses will be taught in which
              semester.  In planning for a year or two out, you need to make sure the student knows that the planning is tentative and
              will need to be checked against the actual courses taught in any given semester.  Courses are generally taught in the
              same semester as previous years though so you can set up this tentative plan using previous semesters from ASIS or
              by using old course schedules.  Remember, this is tentative only.  Have the student sign that they understand it is just
              tentative.  This will save a major headache for you and a student later.

     

    Developmental Component

    This centers around faculty developing a mentoring relationship with the students they advise.  The faculty gets to know the advisees and to probe the reasoning processes and preconceptions the students have.  As the faculty member gains an understanding of what motivates the student they are able to expose ideas or choices that might be useful to the student.  By listening and asking open-ended questions, the faculty can try to identify issues that may be setting up for a successful college career or for difficulty and failure.

    As this approach emphasizes getting to know your students, it has to be mentioned that it is very difficult to do this with large numbers of advisees.  So if you have a large number of students, then talk to your administrator about quality versus quantity.  It may not change anything but this is an issue that needs to be heard.

    You don't have to be a psychiatrist, just use your life experience.  Very few people have gone through life without many misplaced goals.  Does this person talking to you exhibit warning signs that they may not be pursuing this major for the right reasons?  Maybe their family expects them to be a certain thing when they grow up.  Or worse, maybe they only think that their family expects them to be a certain thing when they grow up.  Either way, you are going to see lots of little signs telling you that this is not a good fit.  Motivation is in the toilet.  Guilt is prominent in their justifications.  This is their first taste of the career they will be using the rest of their life.  It should at least be somewhat exciting now.

    If your gust tell you this student may not be jazzed about this major, just ask them to explain why they choose the major.  Don't put words into their mouth and donut accept abstract answers.  Make them think about it and give you the real reason.  Don't worry if you uncover a hornet's nest, you can still guide them to the student counseling office.

    As you get to know your advisees, you will be able to pick up on issues that they have and refer them to the appropriate resources.  One of the options that you have is to provide the interaction with the student yourself.  If you feel comfortable with the subject, say study skills, and you have the time, you could provide a great service to the student.  However, it is even more important to be aware of the resources available on campus and be able to refer a student to these resources.  What sort of issues fall into this category?

    Does the Student seem to be a good fit with the major and the institution?  If not, see if you can find out why.
    Do they have unclear goals?  What are the family expectations?  What are the perceived family expectations?  Are the personal stressors present?

     


    In-Between Functions ***Note:  Student Support Services at 213 Race Hall provides the following services to students that are from low-income backgrounds; students that are considered first generation college students (neither parent has a bachelor's degree); or students have documented physical or learning disabilities. Other forms of student assistance on campus include: (just type them into the search field on the campus web page)

    The Balancing Act

    Quality time with students Versus Productivity and other job responsibilities

     



    Advisement Hints
     

    Advisement Locations

     

     

    Grayson H. Walker Teaching Resource Center
    The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
    401 Hunter Hall--Mail Code 4354
    615 McCallie Ave.
    Chattanooga, TN 37403-2598
    (423) 425-4026
    (423) 425-4025 (fax)

    Send comments to: Karen I. Adsit, EdD, Director
    Last modified November 1, 2002.

     

    Copyright © 2002  The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. All rights reserved.

    The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is an EEO/AA/Title VI/TitleIX/Section 504/ADA institution.