Academic Advising Handbook

Appendices

1. Forms
2. Campus Reference Chart
3. Supplemental Advising Information

1. Advising is The Key C-1
2. Strategies of Advisement C-2
3. The Do’s of Academic Advising C-4
4. Good Advisor Characteristics C-7
5. Effective Listening Skills C-8
6. Tips For Effective Referrals C-9
7. Limitations of Faculty Advisors C-11
8. My Advisor and Me – For The Student C-12
9. Legal Issues of Advising C-14

Appendix A - Forms

The forms enclosed in this section are a selected group of forms that are being used at all WITC Campuses. There are forms that have been designed for a single campus and the business processes being used at that campus. To obtain the most current versions of any forms in use at your campus, you should contact your campus Student Services office.

Additional forms may be added to this section in the future. Revised and new forms will be sent by e-mail to all WITC staff.

Copies of the following forms are included here:

• Advanced Standing Form
• Registration Form
• Section Change Form
• WITC College Incident Report Form
• Authorization For Release of Reference Information
• Sample Faculty Reference Letter
• Job Order Form
• On-Campus Interviews Request Form

Appendix C - Supplemental Advising Information

I. Advising is The Key

1. Advising is the key to student retention. The best way to keep students enrolled is to keep them stimulated, challenged and progressing toward a meaningful goal. The best way to do that--especially among students--is through informed student advising.
2. Good advising is vital to the long-term success of the WITC.
3. Students who stay in college and who graduate are more likely to be students who develop a relationship with one significant person in the employ of the college. Advisors are in an excellent position to be that significant person.
4. The advisor is the link between the student and WITC.
5. Advising can make a difference. Advisors can take a student who might otherwise leave the college and reshape that student to some extent so that the student stays, excels, and feels good about him or herself.

II. Strategies of Advisement

Emphasized below are basic strategies of advisement used to assist in individual student development. Please review them carefully.

BECOMING ACQUAINTED

You should attempt to become acquainted with your advisees in as many aspects as possible. Getting to know your advisees outside the formality of the office when possible, and not only during class scheduling or unusual circumstances, can be extremely valuable. Knowing the academic abilities and background of your advisees is also important. Having good documentation such as COMPASS scores, transfer courses and grades from other universities, and present program status is essential when assessing students’ abilities and future directions.

EXPLORE THE OBJECTIVES

Explore the objectives, interests, and motivations of your advisees. The advisee’s actual certainty of future objectives and goals is difficult to ascertain. When you have some knowledge of your advisees’ nonacademic backgrounds--such as home influence, hobbies, and friends--a more thorough type of advisement is possible.

DEVELOP RAPPORT

Develop rapport with your advisees. If your advisees know you as a professional person who has a genuine interest in them, the advisement process becomes much more beneficial for your advisees and you.

Students should be encouraged to become acquainted with other faculty members on campus because multiple contacts can be useful to students who are attempting to assess personal goals.

KNOW POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Become knowledgeable concerning campus rules, policies, and procedures that affect academic programs and activity. You must be well informed regarding current academic policies and procedures because these are the foundations on which all your advisement efforts will be built. Review of prior policies and study of new policy changes should be a regular activity for you before beginning each registration period.

Familiarity with courses generally taken by advisees, the characteristics of teachers of the courses, and how the courses have been appraised by prior students can make your advisement process smoother and more successful. Of course, it is expected that all faculty advisors would maintain professional standards. For example, don’t discourage students from taking courses from certain faculty members just because the rumor is "they are too difficult or they don’t really enjoy teaching."

Instead, such comments as "I don’t think your learning style matches that instructor’s teaching style" or "Your academic history suggests that you would be more comfortable taking an introductory course, rather than a class in that area or department" would be more appropriate.

EVALUATE MOTIVATION

Evaluate student motivation. Enhancing students’ motivations and capitalizing on good academic planning can be a very helpful strategy. While lack of motivation is generally recognized as the most common cause of poor academic performance, no clear cut methods to help students achieve maximum motivation have been developed. Suggested strategies might include:

1. Matching courses early in the program to students’ academic strengths, interests, and background.
2. Helping students, when possible, have a chance to build on success rather than failure.
3. Challenging capable students to continue their efforts toward academic excellence.
4. Explaining the rewards of a strong academic program and associated good grades.

III. The Do's of Academic Advising

1. Appreciate the emotion behind your advisee’s words (voice intonation and body language.)
2. Constantly check your understanding of what you hear; be careful not to hear what you want to hear.
3. Fight off external distractions.
4. Constantly check to see if your advisee wants to comment or respond to what you have said.
5. Relax--try not to give the impression that you want to jump right in and talk.
6. Avoid nervous and bored gestures.
7. Ask clarifying questions to demonstrate that you are involved in what is being said.
8. Face your advisee squarely. It says, "I’m available to you."
9. Maintain an "open" posture. (This is a sign that you are open to what your advisee has to say. It is a nondefensive position.)
10. Lean towards your advisee, another indication of availability or involvement.
11. Recognize your advisee’s nonverbal behavior, such as body movements, gestures, and facial expressions. Also, recognize para-linguistic behavior, such as tone of voice, inflections, spacing of words, emphasis, and pauses. This will enable you to respond to your advisee’s total message, not just the words.
12. Offer reflections on what your advisee is feeling, based on your observations. Example: "I sense that you are kind of tense about this.’
13. Use self-disclosure if it supports the student’s experience. Example: "I remember how nervous I was the first time I went in to see an advisor."
14. Offer reflections on what the student is saying. Example: "I hear you saying that you aren’t completely sure this is the right major for you."
15. Indirect leads allow the students to choose the direction of the discussion. Example: "What would you like to talk about today?"
16. Direct leads help the student to explore a specific area further. Example: "Can you tell me more about your thoughts on changing your major?"
17. Focusing helps the student zoom in on a particular issue after many issues have been presented. Example: "We’re talking about a lot of things here. Which one is most important to you to work on today?"
18. Asking questions using "what" or "how" can help the student give more than "yes," "no," "because," or, "I don’t know" answers. Example: "What do you like about this major, and what don’t you like about it?"
19. Be quiet sometimes. You can’t listen while you are talking.
20. Empathize with your advisee. Try to put yourself in your advisee’s place so that you can attempt to understand his/her position.
21. Ask questions when you don’t understand, when you need further clarification, and when you want to show you are listening.
22. Give your advisee time to say what he/she has to say. Don’t interrupt when your advisee is talking.
23. Concentrate on what your advisee is saying. Actively focus your attention on your advisee’s words, ideas, and feelings related to the subject.
24. Make your advisee feel that you are listening by looking at him/her. Your advisee’s face, mouth, eyes, and hands will all communicate to you. They will help you concentrate, too.
25. Smile and acknowledge your advisee’s comments appropriately, but don’t overdo it.
26. Try to push your worries, fears, and problems outside the office. These emotions may prevent you from listening well.
27. Control your anger. Try not to get angry at what your advisee is saying; your anger may prevent you from understanding the message.
28. Avoid distractions. Put down any papers, pencils, etc. you may have in your hands; they may distract your attention.
29. Concentrate on the main ideas and not the illustrative material. Stories, statistics, etc. are important, but they are usually not the main points. Examine them only to see if they prove, support, and define the main idea.
30. Your advisee’s ideas may be good even if you don’t like your advisee as a person or the way he/she looks. Don’t let your reactions to your advisee influence your interpretation of what is being said.
31. Share responsibility for communication. Only part of the responsibility rests with the speaker; you as the listener have an important part. Try to understand what your advisee is saying; if you don’t understand, ask for clarification.
32. When you are trying to understand your advisee, it is a handicap to argue mentally while he/she is speaking. Such arguing creates a barrier between you and your advisee.
33. Be aware of the effect you are having on your advisee. Adapt to the individual. Ask for feedback on your behavior. You may cause your advisee to conceal ideas, emotions, and attitudes by antagonizing him/her in any of a number of ways: arguing, criticizing, taking notes, not taking notes, asking questions, not asking questions, etc.
34. Be careful of making assumptions; they can get you into trouble in trying to understand your advisee. Don’t assume that your advisee uses words in the same way you do; that he/she didn’t say what he/she meant; that he/she is avoiding looking at you in they eyes because he/she is telling a lie; that he/she is distorting the truth because what he/she says doesn’t agree with what you think; that he/she is unethical because he/she is enthusiastic in presenting his/her views. Assumptions like these may turn out to be true, but more often they just get in the way of your understanding.
35. Wait until the facts are in before making any judgments.
36. Recognize your own prejudices. Try to be aware of your own feelings toward the speaker, the subject, the occasion, etc., and allow for these prejudgments.
37. Identify types of reasons. Frequently, it is difficult so sort out good and faulty reasoning when you are listening. Nevertheless, a listener should make every effort to learn to spot faulty reasoning when it is delivered by a speaker.
38. Evaluate facts and evidence. As you listen, try to identify not only the significance of the facts and evidence, but also their relatedness to the argument.

IV. Good Advisor Characteristics*

A good advisor:

1. Is personally and professionally interested in being an advisor.
2. Listens constructively, attempting to hear all aspects of advisees’ expressed problems.
3. Sets aside enough regularly scheduled time to adequately meet the advising needs of assigned advisees.
4. Knows college policies and procedures in sufficient detail to provide students with accurate, usable information.
5. Refers students to other sources of information and assistance when referral seems to be the best student-centered response to be made.
6. Attempts to understand student concerns from a student point of view.
7. Views long-range planning, as well as immediate problem-solving, as an essential part of effective advising.
8. Shares advising skills with working colleagues who are actively involved with advising.
9. Continually attempts to improve both the style and substance of his or her advising style.
10. Willingly and actively participates in advisor-training programs, both initial and continuing.

*Taken from a 1981 lecture entitled "The Academic Adviser: Humanist and/or Buckster?" by J. F. Metz, Jr. and T. K. Allan. (National Academic Advising Association, Indianapolis, Indiana)

V. Effective Listening Skills

1. Do not interrupt your advisee’s sentences. Let the story be told first.
2. Establish good eye contact.
3. Use affirmative head nods and appropriate facial expressions.
4. Intermittently respond to your advisee with "uh, huh," "yes," or "I see."
5. Recognize the verbal behavior of your advisee. Listen for feelings and content behind the words, not just the words. Try to recognize if the feeling of your advisee is anger, happiness, frustration, or irritation; and see if this conflicts with the words your advisee uses. This will enable you to respond accurately and effectively to your advisee.
6. Use the difference in listening/speaking rates. You can listen faster than your advisee can talk. Rate the difference: speech rate is about 100-150 words per minute; think rate is about 250-500 words per minute. Use this difference to your advantage by trying to stay on the right track. Anticipate what your advisee is going to say, think back over what has been said, or evaluate your advisee’s development.
7. Listen to how something is being said. We frequently concentrate so hard on what is said that we miss the importance of the emotional reactions and attitudes related to what is said. An individual’s attitude and emotional reactions may be more important than what is said.
8. Listen for advisee’s personality. One of the best ways to find out information about a person is to listen to him/her talk. While your advisee is talking, you can discover many characteristics, such as likes, dislikes, motivations, and value system.
9. Paraphrase what your advisee is saying. Restate in your own words the essence of the message, which includes both verbal and nonverbal elements.

Examples:

"So what I hear you saying is…"

"You feel good/bad about this decision, then, because…"

"You think you should do X instead of Y because…"

VI. Tips For Effective Referrals

It is no secret that advisors depend a great deal on faculty and staff in other departments to help serve advisees. You may already know of the frustration of trying to help advisees make effective contacts in other departments and seeing your attempts fail. Here is a set of tips on making effective referrals, tips that can result in a higher success rate in this area:

1. Inform yourself of campus resources thoroughly, paying particular attention to the names of contact people and the chain of command in various offices. (Ultimately, you will develop an invaluable sense of which people in each area are most helpful and responsive.)
2. Keep a list of names, offices, and telephone numbers at hand for quick reference.
3. When talking with students, pay particular attention to their expressed and implied needs. Often students won’t ask to be referred for help, but they very much need referral. For example, they may express anxiety about their financial affairs without asking for assistance; a referral to Financial Aid may be necessary if you probe further.
4. Do your best to find the right referral. Students may sometimes focus their concerns in an area that is less crucial to their needs than another. For example, students may express anxiety about whether they will be allowed to withdraw from a class late in the term. The appropriate referral, however, is to the instructor of the course, who can help the student determine whether a withdrawal can be avoided.
5. Students are often uneasy about following through with a referral. Try to make them comfortable with the idea, pointing out the friendliness, accessibility, and helpfulness of the people to whom you are sending them. This task can be crucial in the case of faculty and upper-level administration referrals, since students often find these people intimidating.
6. Try to keep the chain of referrals as simple as possible. Often students will have to visit several offices to complete referral procedures. Help students reduce the "runaround" by finding ways to simplify steps. Also, work out with students a proper sequence of steps, so that they don’t have to backtrack to accomplish their ends.
7. Help students draw up agendas for referrals. Have them jot down (or jot down for them) crucial questions and procedures for getting the most of their visits with the people to whom you send them. Make notes about referrals, indicating what the referral was intended to accomplish, so that you can refresh yourself for future interviews.
8. Facilitate referrals by telephoning the parties to whom you are sending students while those students are with you. Telephoning can be helpful in two ways: it can help you to be sure that you are sending students to the right people, and it can give you the opportunity to make an appointment for the students on the spot, which will dramatically improve the contact rate for referrals. In fact, a good strategy for referrals is to make telephone calls and then hand the receiver to the student, encouraging them to set up appointments themselves.
9. When you make referrals, jot down notes in your advising file that will remind you to ask students on the next visit about the results of their contacts. If students report that they haven’t followed through, find out why not, and discuss the reasons. See if you should make a different referral, or if you need to become more involved in ensuring contact. However, don’t take the process over from your students. It is their responsibility to see that their needs are met.
10. Check your records every so often to get a sense of the referrals you have made. Student development is an ongoing process, and patterns of need and growth can be observed in the sequence of referrals you have made.

VII. Limitations of Faculty Advisors

As a faculty advisor, you cannot be all things to all advisees because of the vast differences among students. You must recognize your limitations as advisors. Some of the following are restrictions that impede the effectiveness of faculty advisors:

1. You cannot make decisions for advisees. However, you can be sympathetic listeners and offer various possible solutions for student problems.
2. You cannot increase the native ability of advisees, but you can encourage the maximum use of the ability that the students have.
3. You cannot reduce the academic or employment loads of floundering advisees. However, you can make recommendations that adjustments be made.
4. You should not criticize fellow faculty members to advisees. You can, however, make a friendly approach to an instructor if that instructor is involved in an advisee’s programs.
5. You should not betray an advisee’s confidence on matters of a personal nature. You can help the advisee seek appropriate professional assistance in dealing with personal or social adjustment problems.
6. You should not attempt to handle cases of emotional disturbances that fall outside the behavioral pattern of students adjudged reasonably normal. When complex problems arise concerning financial aid, mental or physical health, or personal-social counseling, you should refer students to professional personnel.

To be an effective advisor, it is important that you know and understand your limitations. When you don’t know the answer to a question or are unclear about a procedure, you should never hesitate to admit your lack of knowledge. At the same time, you should willingly refer an advisee to the appropriate source or resource. You should assist a student in making the necessary contacts, perhaps picking up the phone and making an appointment while the student is still in your office. You should also follow up in these situations and make sure that advisees have kept the appointment or located the correct information.

You must also be aware that advisees also have responsibilities and that when advisors perform the "do’s" of academic advising, students will be successful as long as they are responsible.

VIII. My Advisor and Me -- For The Student

WHAT SHOULD YOU AND YOUR ADVISOR DO?
Advisee Should	Advisor Should
Contact and keep in touch with your advisor.	Post and keep office hours
Make and keep appointments or call if it is necessary to change or cancel an appointment.	Keep appointments or call if it is necessary to change or cancel an appointment.
Come with specific questions in mind.	Provide accurate and specific information.
Come with necessary materials (pencil/ pen, class schedule, catalog, etc.)	Have resource material on hand. (Advising Handbook, catalog, forms, etc.)
Ask about other sources of information.	Suggest other sources of information.
Be open concerning school work, study habits, academic progress, etc.	Listen and help you solve problems.
Build a schedule free of time conflicts.	Check your schedule for appropriate selection of courses.
Make decisions concerning careers, choice of majors, and selection of courses.	Suggest options concerning careers, choice of majors, and selection of courses, or make appropriate referrals.

IX. Legal Issues of Advising

You should seek to understand the legal issues related to advising. Such an understanding will ensure a responsible attitude toward students and protect student rights, as well as your own. By knowing the current legal parameters and by practicing the "golden rule," you will create and maintain those policies and practices which respect the worth and dignity of each student. And by doing so, you will help create a better climate for reducing the chances for legal procedures, while respecting the rights, freedoms, and responsibilities of all (Young, 1982, pp. 41-45).

Educational advisors – professional or faculty – are on the "front line" of the college in dealing with students. It is a critical position, and the success or failure of students’ education and growth is influenced greatly by the advising process. In fact, in today’s litigious atmosphere, the advising process is more critical than ever.

Academic advising occurs under the umbrella of academic affairs. The courts have always hesitated to enter the academic arena and substitute their judgment for that of the academician. In doing so, they have recognized the academic freedom which protects academic decisions, including advising decisions. They have also recognized that their presence in the academic community could possibly cause deterioration in the otherwise beneficial student/faculty relationship.

Keeping this in mind, if academicians do not abuse the discretion in dealing with students, they need not fear judicial intervention. However, the courts will intervene if evidence exists of arbitrary or negligent treatment of students or a denial of their protected rights. The increasing number of court decisions dealing with classroom and academic matters attests to the growing judicial sensitivity to student’s rights in academic affairs.

The faculty advisor’s job falls within this academic affairs arena, therefore, advisors must understand the legal issues involving four major areas:

• The contractual relationship between the student and institution.
• The guidelines governing the privacy of student records.
• The concept of privileged communication.
• The need for grievance procedures and academic due process.

CONTRACTUAL RELATIONSHIP

In academic affairs, a contractual relationship exists between the student and the college. The basic provisions of the college catalog, recruiting brochures, various bulletins, and the student handbook become part of the contract. The college sets forth certain requirements for passing courses and for successful completion of programs and degrees. If students fail to meet the required standards, they can be penalized through such actions as dismissal, suspension, or failure to graduate on schedule. If the college fails to respect its own regulations, then students may seek judicial relief.

Any institution of high education may create certain contractual obligations through statements in its publications. For example, advisors’ obligations and responsibilities usually appear in an advisor’s handbook and often in publications readily available to students. An increasing emphasis on quality advising to enhance retention increases advisors’ responsibilities. More and more, advisors are expected to understand and complete more than scheduling and registration procedures. Advisors may also be expected to serve as a referral service or possibly as career counselors, especially in their major areas of concentration. Therefore, if the college promises such services from their advising system, their advisors must be prepared to deliver such services. In the event that an advisor did not, or could not, perform a contractual obligation, it is possible that liability could be present.

However, because the responsibility for student information, such as course and graduation requirements, is placed on the student’s shoulders, it only seems apparent that a faculty advisor could be liable in situations of gross negligence, irresponsible behavior, or arbitrary or capricious treatment of a student. Once again, it is important to remind faculty advisors of their responsibility to refer whenever they feel incapable of completely answering a student’s questions or assisting with a student’s requests.

Advisors should keep notes on their discussions with students during advising sessions. An accurate record of advising sessions would help solve any disputes over the content of previous advising. These notes would also serve as a legitimate protection against claims of erroneous advising.

PRIVACY GUIDELINES

Because you will maintain educational records – records of advisees’ grades and other academic information, it is important that you understand the provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (commonly referred to as FERPA or the Buckley Amendment). Basically, this act provides students with access to information placed in their educational record. A student’s official educational record under this law is the record kept in the campus Student Services Office and AS-400 (and PeopleSoft) computer system. Furthermore, the law ensures that only school officials with a legitimate educational interest may see a student’s record. Permission from each student must be obtained before any other party may have access to a student’s record.

The law does exclude a student’s right of access to personal notes that you may have made during an advising session. Under FERPA, these noted constitute records made by educational personnel and kept solely in their possession. You may allow someone who is temporarily performing your advising duties to see the notes. However, if you are being permanently replaced, you should remove any personal notes from the student’s file before transferring the file to the replacement.

Under this federal legislation, students have the right to an informal hearing regarding material in their records. If, in their estimation, they do not receive satisfaction as a result of the hearing, they may insert explanatory material in their files. FERPA specifically denies students the right to a hearing regarding the grades they have received. However, students may challenge the accuracy of transferring grades to their records. Students wishing to review their records for accuracy should contact the Student Services office at their respective campus.

Unless we are presented with a legal subpoena, WITC may release only information that we have defined as "directory information" in the college catalog. Whenever information is released we use discretion. Academic information (grades, etc.) is not released to parents without the permission of an adult student, and is not released to the student without proper identification. As a faculty advisor, your safest course of action is to refer all requests for information to Student Services.

Schools are required to provide training to faculty or other employees who, as part of their jobs, have a legitimate educational interest to access student records. Complaints about violations of this law can be made to the U.S. Department of Education and could result in a loss of federal financial aid or funding.

PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATIONS

Although the law recognizes students’ rights to the privacy of their educational records, it also recognizes an advisor’s right to privileged communications. In an attempt to genuinely assist a student, an advisor can discuss confidential information regarding a student with other appropriate individuals. However, this right is not an absolute one, and advisors must exercise good judgment in making all confidential statements. In order to determine the appropriateness of confidential conversations, advisors should simply attempt to determine if such discussions are truly in the best interests of the student involved.

At times, students will come to advisors with personal problems. Normally, these problems should remain confidential. However, in the event that a student informs an advisor of intentions that would prove harmful to the student or to others, such as the intention to commit suicide or the desire to harm another person, the advisor has the right to break these confidences. It is, indeed, an advisor’s obligation to disclose such information to an appropriate party, such as parents, an intended victim, a school counselor, or the police.

In the event that a personal confidence is revealed that is not life threatening to the student or another individual, and the advisor feels inadequate in assisting the student, it is appropriate for the advisor to suggest to the student that a certain comfort level has been reached and that additional outside resources should be consulted.

ACADEMIC DUE PROCESS

Courts have mandated that students receive due process guarantees of notice and hearing in disciplinary cases, but students with grievance concerning academic affairs, such as situations involving suspensions, erroneous advising, disputed grades, or alleged arbitrary course requirements, generally find themselves without due process in academic affairs. Courts will generally respect the institution’s procedures for handling academic affairs cases, as well as their decisions resolving these cases.

So far, courts have only intervened in cases involving seemingly arbitrary or capricious treatment of a student. However, the voluntary application of the spirit and principles of due process to academic affairs can reduce the incentives for legalism and reliance upon the courts by students when they feel aggrieved. With clearly-defined grievance procedures in place, the courts will decline to intervene until a student exhausts this administrative remedy.

Two elements have combined to cause an increase in the number of academic affairs cases: the arrival of consumerism to the campus and the lowered age of majority. Consumerism on campus today considers whether or not an institution delivers to the student the product it claims in its various publications, as well as in oral presentations. As legal adults, by virtue of the lowered age of majority, students must accept more responsibility for their actions on campus an this also may have a great inclination to press charges against the college when they believe they have received arbitrary or capricious treatment. This does not mean that all students might file a court suit when they reach the age of majority, but since they must accept the responsibilities of that status, they will most likely be more zealous of their rights.