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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.
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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.
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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.
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
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.