Concerns, recommendations for challenge of change

December 3, 2009

By Communications staff, Washington State University

After years of recommendations by internal task forces and external consultants – but no significant changes – the status quo for academic advising at WSU is no longer an option.

That was the message from Provost Warwick Bayly at Wednesday’s academic advising retreat at the CUB and it was echoed by President Elson S. Floyd, who spent nearly an hour outlining his vision not only for academic advising but for the new University College.

The college will be an academic home for first- and second-year students who are undecided or uncertified, as well as for entering transfer students or anyone else who is in transition between majors, he said. Advising is not the only component of University College, he said, but it is central to its mission and everyone involved in academic advising – regardless of where that person’s home unit is – will be connected to the work of the University College.

“At the heart of any really great university is to have a rich, vibrant, dynamic undergraduate student experience, and that is what your work is all about,” he said. Academic advising should be focused on helping students understand what it means to earn a degree from a premiere research university and helping them build a degree that will further their career aspirations.

Advising is academic

The reason advising was moved out of Student Affairs and into University College, which is headed by Dean Mary Wack who reports to Provost Bayly, is because advising is primarily an academic concern.

“It is an academic priority,” Floyd said, and WSU must treat it as such.

He said he understands that the issues are complicated: “There is nothing that’s easy at Washington State University,” he said at one point during the discussion – to laughs from the audience – “everything is very, very complicated.” But he said he anticipates the majority of reforms will be in place by fall 2011.

While much of Floyd’s remarks focused on elements of high-quality advising and a model for a more transparent and consistent delivery system, he also touched on the need to work with the Faculty Senate on several curricular issues critical to quality advising:

Definitive certification and graduation requirements that do not fluctuate semester to semester or year to year.
Elimination of required minors unless there are compelling pedagogic reasons for them.
Providing sufficient seats in required classes so that students can meet graduation requirements without delay.

Longtime concern

Lasting from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the retreat began with opening remarks from Provost Bayly acknowledging that advising had been a concern on campus for many years.

“For some of you this is like playing Barry Manilow music in the elevator,” he said. “You’ve heard it before.”

But, he said, the university leadership is determined that the current model of advising, which is inconsistent and confusing, will change. At the heart of the issue, he said, is what system of advising will work best for the majority of students, knowing that most students change majors several times.

After Bayly’s opening remarks, Susan Poch, assistant vice president for educational development, talked about the connection between retention and advising, as well as about findings from previous advising task-force reports.

Lack of satisfaction

According to Poch, data from the 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) show that at both freshmen and senior levels fewer WSU students report that they received “excellent” or “good” advising than students at either peer land-grant or public AAU institutions. More WSU seniors report “poor” advising than at the comparison universities, while fewer WSU freshmen report “poor” advising than freshmen at peer universities.

That trend was borne out by student satisfaction surveys that WSU has conducted, she said.

“In a nutshell, the longer you stay at WSU, the less satisfied you are,” she said.

Poch also said that surveys have shown that dissatisfaction varies across the colleges. While the variations aren’t significant enough to conclude that some colleges are doing things right and others aren’t, they do show that the advising experience varies by college and that shouldn’t be the case.

Since 1997 there have been at least seven task force reports, student surveys or consultant recommendations regarding advising, she said. While there have been variations, all of the studies and reports have mentioned the following:

Inconsistent models of advising
No required adviser training
No standardization of policy or practice
No assessment of advising
Lack of understanding between advising and retention
Lack of rewards for quality advising

How to make it work

Following Poch’s remarks, students who had been invited to participate in the retreat along with faculty and staff advisers were asked to talk about their experiences with advising.

Those students were also part of the afternoon discussion sessions, during which participants considered such questions as how to close the loop on students who change majors, how to integrate academic college advising with University College advising, how to deal with space issues that may arise if department advisers begin meeting with students within the University College offices, and how to use technology to help stretch resources, knowing that most advisers are already overburdened.

Fear of losing students

Another question participants addressed was how to overcome disincentives for one department to help a student leave that department and find a new major. Kim Kidwell, associate dean in CAHNRS, said the elephant in the room was that student numbers do matter and small departments ignore that at their peril.

“The guiding principle must always be what’s in the best interest of the student,” Floyd responded. If there are incentives for people not to do what’s best for students, he said, those incentives would have to be looked into.

Later in the discussion, Mary Sanchez-Lanier, associate dean in the College of Sciences, said she did not believe it was possible to eliminate fear.

“Budgets are a reality,” she said. Knowing that departments are protective of their student numbers, she said, it might be more realistic to find a way to hold advisers accountable for doing the right thing.

More ideas

Other suggestions that emerged from afternoon table discussions included:

An electronic advising file that would follow a student throughout his or her college career
A clearinghouse for all academic advisers at WSU so everyone would know their contact information and advising area.
Using MyWSU to communicate with students about advising
Mandated adviser training
Updated Degree Audit Reports that acknowledge double majors or minors

According to Poch, those suggestions and others generated during the day’s retreat will be considered by an advisory committee comprised of academic advisers from all of the colleges.