December 2004
One of the crucial components of successful retention programs is providing programs and services based on individual student needs. As educators, we would like to assume that students will seek out available services as needs arise. However, research indicates that as many as 86% of students do not seek out the service voluntarily. Consequently, proactive and intrusive intervention is necessary to truly impact retention.
Academic Advising is an opportunity for institutions to develop long-term, individualized relationships with students. Two things to consider in reviewing the effectiveness of your advising function are structure and philosophy.
Structure. Typically, colleges either have a centralized advising function or they faculty advising. Either model can be effective. Faculty advising provides the students with more in-depth knowledge and understanding of a particular major, career opportunities and suggested course sequencing. Faculty are also the group that students spend the most time interacting with, so assigning faculty to provide student advising makes a lot of sense from a relationship standpoint. However, this model also lacks a broader approach to advising, since faculty are typically departmental-based. Students interested in options or resources outside of the department may not receive the information needed. Much of faculty time is also spent on instructional issues—preparation, teaching and tutoring. Centralized advising does provide information for institutional resources and a broader-based understanding of all available options. This model, however, lacks the depth of knowledge within a particular field and they typically have more time to focus on individual student interactions (but not always!) Some colleges have taken the ‘best’ of both and combined them in a way that makes the most sense for their student population. The structure you adopt should fit within the culture and goals of your institution.
Philosophy. The most important consideration is not structure as much as your advising philosophy. Will the primary role of advising be to schedule students for upcoming sessions or to provide student development opportunities in addition to scheduling classes? If the focus is primarily a registration process, neither model will significantly impact retention.
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Registration. Making sure students are scheduled and complete the registration process for upcoming sessions is important. This certainly should be one of the things advisors do. Students who do not schedule need to be followed up on to identify issues and keep them in class whenever appropriate. If this is the sole focus, however, you are missing an opportunity to provide assistance to students in a way that will keep them at your institution.
Student Development. Developmental advising is proactive and intrusive. Advising with a student development mindset requires that you treat students more holistically than just scheduling classes so they can complete their program. You will need to find out what is happening in their life and resolve issues that may arise.
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It requires an additional set of skills than focusing on just the registration process. It is much more difficult to accomplish. It takes significantly more time, which means you will need to assign smaller advising loads. Additionally, it can be confrontational. As you discuss with students how their decisions and behaviors are negatively impacting their progress it can become emotional. Adopting a developmental philosophy will provide exceptional results, however, in terms of increasing your graduation rate.
How do you get at what is really going on with students? Use probing questions to encourage sharing, clarify responses and get at the real issue. No one likes to admit they are having difficulties, let alone that they may be self-inflicted! People in general will try to avoid the real issues by stating ‘acceptable’ responses. The more you question, the more information you will have to better assist students.
As you question, you must also listen actively. Through active listening we will hear clues, uncover signs of overload, acceptance of responsibility, patterns, and strengths. Advising should be an exchange between the advisor and the student. Advisors need to have discussions with students about what is going on in their lives and help them to over come road blocks, barriers and problems that impact their ability tot be successful.
Advice given to students should be based on what is actually going on in their life, not based on our perception of what the student should be doing. Advisors should certainly make use of personal experiences and provide suggested resolutions. However, care should be given to not automatically categorize how a particular problem can be overcome. Each student is different even though the circumstances may be similar.
The key is to treat each student as an individual and take in to consideration outside factors that may be affecting their success.
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Charles Valentine has over 14 years experience in higher education at short-term institutions and university-level institutions. His professional roles include adjunct faculty, and administrative positions in advising, student affairs, and student services. Charles has extensive experience in developing and implementing enrollment strategy, process refinement and staff training. He has special emphasis on student services, advising and career development. He also regularly participates in data analysis and report development initiatives. He holds both an MBA and Masters in Counseling.
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