Advising committee suggests uniform policies

A Student Government Association (SGA) committee on Academic Advising has compiled a list of essential practices of successful advising programs and a proposed a set of uniform advising policies for campus as part of a continued effort to improve advising. The committee has also developed a list of detailed expectations of advisors and students in the advising process.

The committee started forming the proposals based on data about student satisfaction with advising at Tech from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSEE).

“The student committee was very quick to pull out what were they key parts of the (NSEE) data. They figured out what the schools with strong advising were doing and what schools may need to do,” said Dana Hartley, who worked with the committee and is director of Academic Advising.

“The first thing [the committee] did was to develop essential practices based on top [advising] schools on the NSEE. We’ve interviewed each individual school and now we are going to talk to each department to discuss what they need to do,” Hartley said.

The committee also used this information about the top advising programs on campus to develop advising policies that they think should be uniform across campus (see graphic). Hartley said that some of these uniform advising policies will be able to be implemented and some will be strong suggestions. A proposal of the policies is currently being evaluated by associate deans.

One key finding of the group was that there is higher satisfaction in departments where there is not random assignment of a faculty member as an advisor to a student. The uniform policies include three points under the bullet point that each department should have dedicated advisors. They propose that the advisors be defined as someone allocated time and resources to focus on advising, that they focus on the overall program as well as curriculum and that they follow the essential practices of schools with strong advising.

The committee has not limited their evaluation of advising to curriculum advisement only. Results from the SGA survey on academic advising that was given last year and comments from the two town hall meetings held last fall guided the group to realize that students needed more out of advising than just guidance on course selections, which is what many reported was all they had been receiving.

“We realized how much we assumed was going on in advising and how much needed to go on at advising that was not available elsewhere on campus. We want them to get the full experience while they are here,” Hartley said.

Services that students said they wanted more access to included career planning, pre-professional advising and advisement from outside their major. Some students voiced concerns that since faculty advisors study one particular field, they be biased.

The new Resource Center in the Library will allow students access to general advisors at more hours.

“The new academic advising available in the library will support students. They can go for an appointment with advisors who understand all [academic] areas and will be unbiased so they can advise students on what they should pursue,” said Alison Graab, the SGA vice president of Administrative Affairs who helped coordinate the committee.

“Students who are concerned talking to their academic advisor because they work in their field of study can go to the [Resource Center ] and speak to someone who is neutral,” Graab said.

Today is the last day to complete an online SGA survey on centralized advising services at www.advising.gatech.edu/survey.

“The survey is much more targeted towards identifying what students would like to have in the new central advising in the library. Also, we are trying to see how good our pre-med, pre-law and pre-teaching services are,” Hartley said.

Graab said that the committee based their proposal on what students had said was working and that the new survey will help them determine if the new policies meet their needs.

In addition, the committee and Hartley are trying to help simplify and clarify the advising process.

“The committee is proposing expectations of students and advisors. It is really important that students can’t forget their half of it,” Graab said.

Among the items included as expectations of students are that they know who their advisor is, make appointments and are responsible for reading advisor email and responding.

Graab said that the committee is currently working to present these expectations and the uniform policies. “Students from the committee are talking to undergraduate coordinators…and relaying the concerns of the student body,” Graab said.

“ The goal is to make sure students are getting the advising they need. The goal is consistency and excellence across campus,” Hartley said.

Proposed uniform advising policies

• Remove advisement dates from registrar’s calendar
• Each department should have dedicated advisors
• General advisement should not be mandatory
• Advisors should always follow-up with students with unsatisfactory’s (U’s) in a course or who are in poor academic standing
• All advisors should use the online scheduler unless they offer walk-in appointments only
• Advising booklets should be handed out at FASET
• Have one session on advising in each GT1000 before registration
• Every department’s website should have a link to www.advising.gatech.edu