The Role of Silence in Academic Advising

Sarah May Clarkson, Juniata College

Filmmaker Philip Gröning waited sixteen years for permission to capture the lives and work of French Carthusian monks on camera for his movie Into Great Silence. As academic advisors, we can wait for two or three seconds for a response to a question or we can allow an advising moment to extend for what seems like a lifetime without a spoken word.

In the din of our hectic and harried world, silence is an under-rated and under-valued gift. Between cell phones, MP3 players, Blackberries, television, e-mail, cars, subways, planes, and trains, many of us hardly ever experience stillness or silence. This article is not an attempt at religious conversion, but when academic advisors are mindful about using silence, or allowing silence to take hold, it can be, truly, revelatory. In my work, I serve both as an academic advisor and have responsibility for administering the college’s policy on academic integrity, so silence is something that I use at appropriate moments with good effect. And when I am speaking with parents or families, there is often nothing more powerful than a moment of rich silence.

First, advisors need to acknowledge what silence feels like as a part of conversation. In presenting on this topic, I have had folks describe silence in a number of ways – few of them complimentary. Silence can feel like a punishment, it can feel uncomfortable, it can be scary; silence can be awkward, frustrating, even infuriating. In a classroom, silence can be interpreted to mean that students are not prepared, are not intelligent, or are not engaged.

But silence is not necessarily absence, it is not docility or withdrawal; it can speak with a fullness that words may lack. When we note the absence of sound or chatter, silence can be quite full. If we want to use silence in our work with advisees, or in our personal or professional lives, we should have an awareness of the possibilities of silence that requires both reflection and attention.

There are many challenges to silence in our work e.g., budget cuts, larger enrollments, full days, multi-tasking (one of the real enemies of silence). We take pride, as we should, in our efficiency and our busy-ness. More than 150 years ago, Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden about the coolest technology of his day (trains) by saying, “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us.” I’m sure we often feel the same about the various technologies to which we often feel attached, sometimes in a burdensome way. And so we approach silence with some trepidation, but with a sense that it has a place in academic advising.

When employing silence, keep the following things in mind:

• Awareness – Allow silence in advising conversations to tell things; allow it to communicate. Silence in advising could be saying what the advisee cannot: fear, exhaustion, stress, uncertainty. As an advisor, be mindful of silence and its absence; the moment to address, confront, console, or counsel may present itself in a way that could not happen otherwise.
• Listen – Listening does not necessarily translate into hearing. As professionals, we appreciate how important listening is. Perhaps we take it for granted that we listen well, but do not just listen to the words: listen to the body language, the tone of voice, and the moments without words. Listen.org is the Web site of the International Listening Association. HighGain.com has a 5- or 10-minute listening assessment that can be a good exercise for advisors.
• Respect – In advising, respect is fundamental, and when advisors use silence in advising we genuinely seek conversation or an answer and are respectfully willing to wait for it. Respect in advising relationships is important and valuable; so is silence.
• Restraint – Do not jump in to fill the silence. Do NOT rescue. Try to allow for what Marion Wrye (2000) calls “abundant pauses.”  This may be the hardest task of all, but when an advisor has done it once or twice, we find that silence can feel absolutely appropriate.

I have found it helpful to go to certain works for encouragement and support regarding silence. Parker Palmer (1998) examines six paradoxes of pedagogy in The Courage to Teach. Number 6 is this:

The space should welcome both silence and speech. Words are not the sole medium of exchange in teaching and learning – we educate with silence as well. Silence gives us a chance to reflect on what we have said and heard, and silence itself can be a sort of speech, emerging from the deepest parts of ourselves, of others, of the world.

Psychologists say that a typical group can abide about fifteen seconds of silence before someone feels the need to break the tension by speaking. It is our old friend fear at work, interpreting the silence as something gone wrong, certain that worthwhile things will not happen if we are not making noise. But in authentic education, silence is treated as a trustworthy matrix for the inner work students must do, a medium for learning of the deepest sort (p. 77).

In Chaim Potok’s (1967) The Chosen, the devout rabbi tells his son Danny and his friend Reuven that “the heart speaks through silence” (p. 278). And David Macfarlane’s (1991) unforgettable memoir of Newfoundland, The Danger Tree, has a priceless passage (pages 16 to 18) about a 1962 Christmas dinner and a reticent uncle.

In advising, then, try not to run from silence. Embrace it. Silence asks hard things from us – presence, patience – but the rewards for us and our advisees can be plentiful indeed. The Quakers have a practice in worship of silence or what can be described as “centering down.” It requires time, thought, and an attitude of acceptance; but, much can be communicated when nothing is said. Think of it this way: talk less, say more.

Sarah May Clarkson

Academic Support Services

Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania

clarkss@juniata.edu

References

Macfarlane, David. (1991). The Danger Tree: Memory, War, and the Search for a Family’s Past. New York: Walker & Company.

Palmer, Parker J. (1998). The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Potok, Chaim. (1967). The Chose. New York: Ballantine Books.

Thoreau, H.D. (1942). Walden. Roslyn, N : Walter J. Black. Chapter 2.

Wrye, Marion. (May, 2000). “The Silent Classroom.” English Journal (89) 5. pp. 79-83.

Building on Our Past, Strengthening Our Future

Susan Campbell, President, NACADA

As my year as President draws to a close, I continue to be honored by the opportunity to serve in this capacity for our Association. This year has been a highlight in my professional career. I want to thank Nancy Walburn for her leadership as Vice President during this year as well as each member of the Board of Directors, Council, and the leaders within our divisions. The true strength of our Association continues to be our leaders, who each volunteer many hours of their time to ensure that our Association continues to grow and prosper.

I must also take the opportunity to publicly thank our long-time Executive Director, Roberta “Bobbie” Flaherty, for her dedication to our Association and her awesome leadership for the past seventeen years. As Bobbie moves into her phased retirement, it is essential that each of our nearly 10,000 members know that without Bobbie’s guidance, management, and total commitment to NACADA, our Association would not today be recognized as one of the largest and most influential associations in higher education. As we look toward the future, it is impossible for us not to express our gratitude to Bobbie for the foundation she has provided us. THANK YOU, BOBBIE!

Much has been accomplished during the past year to build on our past and strengthen our future. First, a work group of members of the Board of Directors, Council, and members at-large chaired by incoming President Jennifer Bloom has conducted a thorough review of the Association’s by-laws and recommended several clarifications and revisions to ensure that the by-laws clearly reflect our organizational structure. This important task will provide a firm foundation for the Association as we move forward. Next, Jane Jacobson, immediate past Vice President, has chaired a work team focusing on policies and procedures to better guide the work of the leadership and Executive Office in meeting the framework of our by-laws. These policies and procedures will ensure that our work at all levels of the Association is consistent and established for the future. And, last, Eric White, past NACADA President, has chaired a work group that has explored recommendations to ensure the sustainability of our Association in our next thirty years. It is essential that NACADA plan now for future expansion and stability. The work of these three groups is invaluable to our Association’s future and I thank Jenny, Jane, Eric and the members of these work groups for their hard work this year.

The Board of Directors and the Council have also been actively involved in evaluating and expanding the Association’s strategic plan for the future. At our mid-year meetings, Gary Levy (University of Utah) facilitated our work with the strategic plan which will continue at our Fall Board meeting. Through this important work, the Board of Directors provides leadership for all members involved in the work of the Association now and in the future.

One of the most exciting initiatives this year has been the implementation of our Emerging Leader program. Under the leadership of the Diversity Committee and its Chair, Skip Crownhart, the first class of Emerging Leaders and mentors has been selected; they will begin their two-years of work together at our Annual Conference in Baltimore. Twenty-eight NACADA members applied to be included in this new program, which is focused on building leaders for the future and strengthening the diversity of our leadership. I am pleased to announce the first class of Emerging Leaders: Melva Harbin (University of Texas-Austin), Erica Byrnes (University of Florida), Criselda Marquez (Purdue University), Tami Clavin (University of Central Oklahoma), Todd Taylor (The Ohio State University), Carol Pollard (University of North Texas), Cornelius Gilbert (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Jose Rodriguez (Florida International University), Darryl Frazier (Bethune-Cookman), and Audrey Jackson (Florida Community College of Jacksonville). The mentors who will be working with these leaders include Jenny Bloom (University of South of Carolina), Jayne Drake (Temple University), Sandy Waters (Old Dominion University), Charlie Nutt (Kansas State University), Scott Amundsen (Eastern Kentucky University), Jo Ann Huber (University of Texas-Austin), Karen Sullivan-Vance (Western Oregon University), Glenn Kepic (University of Florida), and Terry Musser (Penn State University). I know this will be an exciting and fruitful initiative that will impact the future of our Association.

We have strengthened our Association’s future this year through our collaborations with fellow associations nationally and internationally. These collaborations have included the publication of a joint monograph with the National Resource Center on the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition: Academic Advising: New Insights for Teaching and Learning in the First Year. We also have established a very strong collaboration with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) through the development and implementation of an online course and three-day institute that focus on building successful academic support systems for student athletes that meet Academic Progress Report (APR) guidelines. We have also begun work on a partnership with the National Collegiate Honors Council and the NACADA Board of Directors is developing a plan for collaborative efforts that sets priorities and strategies for additional partnerships and collaborations with other associations.

This year has also seen important collaborations at an international level. Again this year, NACADA connected with Counseling Arabia in the United Arab Emirates, where Associate Director Charlie Nutt served as a featured speaker at their annual conference in Dubai. Over eighteen Middle Eastern countries were represented at this year’s conference, where participants gained valuable information on advising and our association. Also, NACADA partnered with the Higher Education Academy in the United Kingdom to sponsor the 1st International Conference on Personal Tutoring and Academic Advising held in Edinburgh, Scotland. Over twenty NACADA members from the United States and Canada joined their UK colleagues at this conference to learn from each other and network at an international level. I had the distinct pleasure of serving as the keynote speaker for this collaborative event. Past President Mike McCauley’s article in this edition of Academic Advising Today describes more about the conference. Plans are already under way for the 2008 collaborative conference to be held in the United States in partnership with our Region 2 conference in Pittsburgh.

As you can see, this has been busy and productive year. As we look toward the future, I know NACADA will continue to grow and expand under the leadership of President Jenny Bloom and Vice President Casey Self as well as Interim Executive Director Charlie Nutt. I know they will move NACADA forward and that each of you will be actively involved in the work of the Association.

Susan Campbell, President

National Academic Advising Association

(207) 780-4485

scamp@usm.maine.edu

We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby! It’s Been a Wonderful Journey!

Roberta “Bobbie” Flaherty, NACADA Executive Director

Life has an interesting way of evolving! Little did I realize in 1978 (at the age of 31) while serving as Director of Conferences at Kansas State University, that a phone call with three advisors (Toni Trombley, Vermont; Frank Dyer, Tennessee; and Billie Jacobini, Illinois) might determine the rest of my life’s work. That call was to discuss the possibility of the K-State Conference Office coordinating the annual conference on academic advising and in particular, the 1979 conference which would be the inaugural meeting of the National Academic Advising Association. I secured that “piece of business” and NACADA was formally a part of my life. K-State coordinated all but one conference between then and 1990. In 1989, NACADA had grown sufficiently to require an Executive Office, and I believed that it provided an excellent opportunity for K-State and me, so I worked with Dean Michael Holen to prepare and submit a bid to host the Executive Office at K-State. Due to Dean Holen’s generous support for the office, we were successful and in July 1990, I began in a half-time position as Executive Director with one full-time assistant paid by NACADA and a grad assistant provided by Dean Holen. The rest is history!

Now, seventeen years after the establishment of the Executive Office, I am stepping down as Executive Director to begin “phased retirement.” In K-State terms, that means that I am reducing my work time to 50% for up to 5 years. The NACADA Board of Directors has concurred with a plan that will permit me to maintain some program development responsibilities while transitioning other responsibilities to staff members and training employees to assume new responsibilities.

These seventeen years have been very rewarding! Membership has grown from 2452 in 1990 to almost 10,000 in 2007, the Annual Conference has grown from 1072 participants in 1990 to a record of 3384 in 2005, and the annual operating budget has grown from $157,000 in 1990 to $2.8 million in 2007. Couple this with the growth in Commissions, all ten Regions having annual conferences that drew a total of 2820 participants in 2007, a vibrant publications schedule, and a variety of professional development opportunities delivered in an ever increasing number of formats, and one can’t help but be proud! However, this pride belongs to the many members who have supported the Association throughout its years, shared their expertise with other members and provided guidance to me. I cherish their support, but more importantly, I cherish their friendship, for I have truly enjoyed most the friendship you all have provided and which I hope to maintain into retirement.

Oh, yes, that “retirement.” My “extra” time to begin with will be directed to completing the home remodeling we began in 1974, extend into some leisure travel, and begin the task of disposing of three family estates currently stored in our garage! Those travels will likely include some opportunities to visit your part of the country – I’ll let you know when! Thanks to all of you!

Roberta “Bobbie” Flaherty , Executive Director

National Academic Advising Association

(785) 532-5717

nacada@ksu.edu

THANK YOU, BOBBIE!

Jo Anne Huber, University of Texas-Austin

It is with mixed emotions that I write an article commending Bobbie Flaherty on her outstanding years of service with NACADA and impending phased retirement. As a long-time member of this Association and one who has held office in many capacities over the years, I can hardly remember not knowing Bobbie or relying on her expertise/guidance and her historical perspective.

In 1990, when NACADA contracted with Kansas State University, Dean Mike Holen wisely tapped Bobbie to provide conference management and financial management expertise. Along with a part-time employee and an association of 2452 members, she embarked on the journey. In seventeen years, NACADA has steadily grown to just under 10,000 members strong with an Executive Office numbering fourteen full time employees. From merely managing a national conference and financial matters, which in itself is no small feat, to the numerous conferences/institutes now held annually, Bobbie has been the driving force in implementing the goals of the Board of Directors and other leaders. She has wisely hired experts in many areas to embark on new waters to accommodate the bulging growth while maintaining existing programs. This has been a key factor in providing the services our members have grown to expect.

While what Bobbie has done for NACADA is too massive to ever completely list, here is an A-Z of some of the accomplishments NACADA has made under Bobbie’s leadership:

Annual Conference attendance tops 3300

By-law review

Continuous growth of Summer Institutes

Development of Assessment and Administrator Institutes

Emerging Leaders program

Foundations of Academic Advising CD series

Growing Web site

Heavily increased member involvement in Association leadership at all levels

Increasing international connections

Just the right amount of “personal touch”

Kansas State University ties continuously strengthened

Lasting collaborations with NCAA, FYE, NCHA and other associations

Monthly Member Highlights gets new format

NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources goes digital

Online Graduate Certificate in Academic Advising Program and new Master’s Degree

Publication partnerships with Jossey-Bass

Quarterly e-Publication, Academic Advising Today, evolved from newsletter

Region connections strengthened

Strong financial reserves for the Association

Truly amazing membership growth

Up-to-date monographs

Varied seminars attached to Institutes

Webinars

X-traordinarily best-selling Academic Advising Handbook

Y-ize oversight

Zealous assurance the Association meets all legal requirements

If the English alphabet had more letters, undoubtedly there would be additional accomplishments to list that Bobbie either administered, facilitated, or had the wise judgment to enlist the services of those who could.

As the chief financial officer, Bobbie has wisely invested NACADA’s monies and provided detailed budgetary details to the Board of Directors and Finance Committee. We are simply in such excellent financial shape due to her oversight.

Congrats, Bobbie!

Jo Anne Huber

President, NACADA 2005-06

Déjà Vu in the United Kingdom

Mike McCauley, Ball State University

NACADA’s first European conference created a dose of déjà vu for me. While in Edinburgh, Scotland, for the NACADA conference conducted in partnership with the United Kingdom’s Higher Education Academy (HEA), I learned that Paula Hixenbaugh of the University of Westminster in England had initiated the first conference on “Personal Tutoring” (their term for academic advising) in 2005 after thinking it would be exciting to have a meeting for those across the United Kingdom involved in personal tutoring. Paula approached the Higher Education Academy, and they agreed to sponsor such a meeting. Expecting a small group, the organizers were surprised when it sold out.

My déjà vu feelings came from knowing that 30 short years ago, Toni Trombley (pictured at left), then at the University of Vermont, had initiated a similar meeting for persons involved in academic advising in higher education in the United States and, expecting a few colleagues, was also surprised when registrations “sold out” at 275 when the facility could accommodate no more.

The Vermont conference led to a group of individuals forming NACADA, whereas this year’s co-sponsored conference in Edinburgh is leading to the globalization of NACADA! Leaders representing NACADA and the HEA have agreed to continue the partnership, which initially will lead to an annual conference to be held alternately in the UK and North America to enhance the collaboration and sharing of best practices in enhancing student success through effective academic advising/personal tutoring.

In Edinburgh, we learned that although our terminology differs, our mission is the same, and we can benefit from an exchange of information. Seventeen NACADA colleagues from California, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, New York, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin, along with a member from British Columbia and three members from Kuwait, attended the conference. NACADA President Susan Campbell (University of Southern Maine) gave the keynote address, Past-President Nancy King (Kennesaw State University) presented a workshop, Associate Director Charlie Nutt and I participated on a panel with two colleagues from the UK, and Tom Kenyon (Indiana University-Bloomington), Mark Beecher (Brigham Young University), Karen Sullivan-Vance (Western Oregon University), Sarah Ann Hones (Southern Oregon University), Lesley Leppert (CUNY-Borough of Manhattan Community College), Erwin Wong (CUNY-Borough of Manhattan Community College), and Darren Francis (University College of the Fraser Valley) presented concurrent sessions. Ninety-five professionals from England, Scotland, and Wales were in attendance, making it a very successful conference.

Our UK colleagues appeared excited about collaborating with NACADA, demonstrated great interest in NACADA resources, and expressed considerable “ah” as Charlie awarded a complimentary NACADA membership to one lucky individual at the end of the conference. These colleagues will join 23 current members from Australia, Bahamas, Bulgaria, Egypt, England, Grenada, India, Jamaica, Kuwait, Netherlands, South Africa, South Korea, and United Arab Emirates in leading the global expansion of NACADA beyond North America. It is evident that NACADA’s resources and expertise are becoming widely known throughout the world as higher education systems face similar issues in these evolving times.

Just as NACADA has grown to almost 10,000 members, I expect this partnership to further swell the ranks of NACADA’s international members – further increasing the visibility of advising and enhancing student success. Deja vu!

Mike McCauley

Ball State University

Office of Academic Systems

Narrative Theory and Academic Advising

Peter L. Hagen, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,

How can we know the dancer from the dance?

Stories have always been one of the primary ways we humans entertain, admonish, educate, acculturate, inform, persuade, praise, and punish. We use stories to create communities. As advisors, we tell and listen to stories every day. An exaggeration? Just think how often you use these words: “I have this student who. . . .”  That’s the way we academic advisors say “Once upon a time. . . .” If this is true, then narrative theory—found mainly in literature, film studies, anthropology, and nursing—recommends itself as an example of how theory from outside academic advising may help us better explain academic advising and make us better practitioners.

Fisher (1987) argues that humans are essentially storytellers, that all human communication is narrative. It’s of paramount importance to us humans that our stories have narrative probability (are coherently structured) and narrative fidelity (resonate with other stories). Does it hang together meaningfully? Does it square with other narratives? Then it’s a valid story. And we advisors just love a good story; we can’t spend a day without them. “I have this student,” says one advisor to another, “who signed up for calculus but got a D in precalculus.” It may be just one sentence, but it’s a story plain and simple and it rings true to us as a story because it sounds like other stories we have heard. But the events in the story don’t cohere with each other. It’s not headed for the “happily ever after” ending. Later, with the student, the advisor will likely use another short narrative to admonish: “I’ve seen dozens of students fail calculus when they had anything less than a C in precalculus. Drop the course!” Faithful and coherent narratives are vital to good advising.

Chatman (1978) makes a clear distinction between the real author of a narrative and what he calls the “implied” author.

He is “implied,” that is, reconstructed by the reader from the narrative. He is not the narrator, but rather the principle that invented the narrator, along with everything else in the narrative, that stacked the cards in this particular way, had these things happen to these characters, in these words or images. He, or better, it has no voice, no direct means of communicating. It instructs us silently, through the design of the whole, with all the voices, by all the means it has chosen to let us learn (p. 148).

We can’t know the author of a text, we only know the author that we infer from the words of the text. “Shakespeare” is in a very real sense a character that you and I invent when we read his works. Yes, there was a Shakespeare, but it almost doesn’t matter. Even when authors are still alive and we ask them what they really meant, all we have is another implied author creating another text. In fact, it’s worse than that, because if we combine this notion of the implied author with Fisher’s (1987) notion that all human communication is narrative in nature, then we’re left with the positively dizzying notion that whenever we read a text, or just hold a conversation with someone, we never really know that person at all. We create that person out of the narratives. Just as you are inferring me at this moment, so do we infer students from the narratives that the flesh-and-blood “real” students present to us.

And they are doing the same thing to us! Chatman describes the situation of the person on the receiving end of the narrative.

The counterpart of the implied author is the implied reader —not the flesh-and-bones you or I sitting in our living rooms reading the book, but the audience presupposed by the narrative itself. Like the implied author, the implied reader is always present (pp. 149-150).

The key thing to remember about applying Chatman’s work to advising is that we and the students with whom we meet are both “implied authors” and “implied readers” simultaneously.

If we can learn anything from narrative theory, it is that we need to pay attention to the stories we tell and receive, especially in three situations:

• Advisor to Advisor. While we all have our catalogs and our policy manuals, the main modality by which we train one another is through narratives, case studies. You can know the rules backwards and forwards, but until you’ve seen how they pertain to some sample cases, you don’t fully understand how to advise. We store our most important advising principles—the unwritten ones—in stories.

• Student to Advisor. They tell us their stories. We listen and use that most vital faculty we possess as advisors—our imagination—to imagine what it must be like to be that student. We only have the implied author available to us as we try to understand and influence the real author underneath. If their story lacks narrative probability or narrative fidelity, we question them. “Wait a minute,” we say, “Earlier you said that you hated working with children as a summer camp counselor and now you’re saying that you want to major in education?”  We question them because we know how that story goes. We demand that the telling of the story take another turn so that a more coherent and faithful narrative can take place.

• Advisor to Student. How often have you illustrated a point you wish to make by telling the student before you some anecdote from your own life? Viewing the advising interaction from this direction, the student becomes the implied reader, the one for whom we “write.” Our hope is to influence the real reader, but all they have to go on is the “implied author” (us) in the narrative we are creating for them. We have a conception of what that student is really like, so we tailor our anecdote to connect with the reader that we imagine is sitting before us.

So what if this “narrative theory” approach to advising seems coherent and faithful to your own lived stories? What should you do if you want to become a “narratological advisor?” Three basic things would make you a better teller of tales.

• Constantly increase your storehouse of stories.
• Recognize the primacy of stories in advising.
• Take to heart and keep ever before you the narratological quandary posed by Yeats in the epigram that began this article. It will keep you humble. How can we know the dancer from the dance? We can’t. But we have to keep trying, because the dance—the story—is all we have.

Chatman, Seymour (1978). Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Fisher, Walter R. (1987). Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action . Columbia : University of South Carolina Press.

GO WEBINAR! 

NACADA's 2007-2008 Webinar Series

2007 Webinar Topics:

• Academic Advising's Integral Role in the Academic Success and Persistence of Students
• Legal Issues in Academic Advising
• College Student Mental Health: Information and Suggestions for Academic Advising
• On the Horizon: The Future of Academic Advising and Technology

For dates, registration details, and more informatio about the 2007-2008 NACADA Webinar Series visit: http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Webinars/index.htm

NACADA and The National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHA) are developing a partnership in order to provide the highest quality information and resources to those advisors and faculty who work directly with students enrolled in honors programs and colleges.

NACADA Advising High Achieving Students Interest Group Co-Chairs Iona Black (Yale University) and Marion Schwartz (Penn State University) tell us, “It is a delight to introduce Academic Advising Today readers to Joan Digby, director of The Honors Program and Merit Fellowship at Long Island University's C. W. Post Campus, author of Honors Programs and Colleges for Peterson's Guides, and former president of the National Collegiate Honors Council. This spirited article exemplifies her experience and enthusiasm for working with honors students. What a wonderful way to begin our partnership with NCHC!”

Advising Honors Students

Joan Digby, Long Island University --C. W. Post Campus

Over the last several years, honors directors have come to acknowledge the critical role that advisors play in helping our students stay the course in honors programs and colleges. As advisors well know, these are the students who do everything: take a double major, play sports, sing, act, dance, write for the newspaper and—in their spare time—prepare for GREs, LSATs, MCATs, Fulbrights and Rhodes scholarships! Whew! Did I mention that they also have jobs?

As an honors director for over twenty-five years and a past president of The National Collegiate Honors Council, I have looked at the profile of these students for a long time. That is why I am extremely pleased that NACADA and NCHC will now be partnering for the benefit of our students. Honors students need advisors more than they know. I hope that my own perspective on the current generation of honors students can be useful to your important work.

High achievers characteristically appear to know what they are doing and where they are going. But this is often far from the truth. Many honors students have been programmed and pushed from so many different directions that they hardly know what to study and what they really want to do with their lives.

Teachers who noticed how bright they were in the lower grades directed them to Gifted Programs and learning camps. Later in high school, they were urged to take AP courses, honors sections and college courses.

Parents delighted with their achievement collaborated in the pushing, getting them tutors and SAT prep courses, music and drama lessons—everything necessary to cultivate talents and ensure admission to a top college. Play was discouraged unless it involved competitive sports, which looked great on a resume!

“You can do it,” everyone said, not thinking so much about whether they might want to do whatever it was that teachers and parents thought they should be doing. Since these very high achievers associate admiration and love with their achievement, they were afraid to say no or disappoint.

Among new wave immigrant families, parental pushing has taken a slightly different form. Many of their children are the first in the family to go to college. Without the means for tutors, camps and coaching they crack the whip at home, enforcing long study hours and searching for college opportunities that will help their children become teachers, accountants, medical technicians—practical degrees from affordable colleges.

From my perspective, I see the work of advisors as helping these students break away from parental influence so they can find their own desires and professions. Advising high achievers is something like training a thoroughbred. Here are some suggestions I hope will be helpful.

Ease up on the reins. They need to feel their own strength and take charge. All their lives they have been tightly reined in, and many of them have also had blinders put on them by parents and teachers. Thus they can’t see to the right or left of where they are “supposed” to go. Let out the reins and take the blinders off. Encourage them to take courses that really interest them rather than just to complete a degree on time. Let them follow their noses, run with the wind, taste the fresh grass and savor the freedom that comes with enjoyment. Whether they opt for Medieval Philosophy or Japanese Flower Arranging—students should take some courses to create avocations or advance the idea of learning for its own sake.

Encourage them to play. Virtually all the academic decisions that high achieving students have made (often not by themselves) are goal oriented. College should expand their sense of personal choice. Instead of pushing them through traditional sessions and on to summer school, advisors might find out whether they would like to do an internship, study or travel abroad and see what it’s like to live away from home.

You should see the look that parents give me when I make these suggestions! Yet, precisely because these students have been overprotected and over-structured, I believe the best we can do for them is open the barn door and let them run. If they want to act like a camel or a donkey for awhile, let them do it! Play stretches the imagination.

Don’t enter them into too many races. These students have been urged to compete, and many have suffered for it. They are often shy and unable to say no. Advisors should try to sense the personality of the students they work with and help them eliminate the tension that comes from being pushed toward too much competition. Not every good horse is a candidate for the Derby .

Lead them to water but don’t make them drink it. College advisors can make suggestions about what courses to take, but they should not let students simply take courses to fit a work schedule, or complete requirements, to get the easy professor or fill in an empty space in a program. Honors students tend to be “different,” even quirky. Lead them to water but let them drink pomegranate juice if that’s what they desire.

These fine thoroughbreds of ours do need advisement and sometimes a great deal of counseling. Many need to get beyond the idea that they are only as good as their grades. The fear of disappointing themselves and their parents plays an enormous role in their self-image. What do they tell their parents when they get a D in Spanish or decide not to go to medical school? Advisors can play a critical role in teaching them to jump these life hurdles.

Advisors can also play an important role in NCHC. The National Collegiate Honors Council is one of the few academic organizations that encourage faculty, staff and students to participate on equal terms at its annual meeting. It is my personal hope that NCHC and NACADA can build a strong working relationship that will encourage us to attend each other’s meetings and share our experience advising honors students.

Joan Digby

Director of The Honors Program and Merit Fellowship

Long Island University --C. W. Post Campus

Joan.Digby@liu.edu

The “Who, What, When, How, and Why” of a Program Review

Cindy Iten, University of Kentucky, Advising Administration Commission Chair

Adrienne McMahan, University of Kentucky

Is it time for a ‘program review’ of your academic advising unit? Would an evaluation by external reviewers be just what is needed to jump-start significant changes in an advising program?

A fresh perspective on the situations we see day-in and day-out can help us assess practical matters such as routine processes, forms, procedures, staffing, and physical arrangements. An external review can help us more closely align our efforts with institutional strategic plans and provide the evidence needed for additional resource allocation.

Why conduct a program review?

The generally accepted purpose of any academic program review is to ensure the continuous improvement of the unit as it relates to the institution’s goals, mission, and strategic indicators. More specifically, an advising center is charged with meeting the needs of a diverse student population through various forms and processes of advising and through numerous administrative actions. How efficient and effective is our unit? Are students receiving the assistance they need? How high is their satisfaction? Can we measure our effectiveness with students? Are advisors within the advising program professionally trained at the level of expertise needed? Is there a plan in place for continuous professional development? These are but a few questions answerable in a program review.

How is a program review conducted?

The program review for the College of Arts and Sciences Advising Center at the University of Kentucky began with gathering historical data, an explanation of the organizational structure, and a self-analysis of the unit’s strengths and weaknesses. We assessed the work climate, consequences of current policies and procedures, effects of the physical environment, impact of leadership changes, and qualitative evaluations from students and parents who attended the freshman orientation. This “self study” was submitted to the Dean of the College and then ultimately was distributed to the review committee as a starting point for their evaluation.

The Dean then appointed a review committee composed of one on-campus faculty member, one advising administrator from another on-campus unit, and two advising administrators from benchmark institutions; one of the external reviewers served as chair. The composition of a review committee may vary according to the needs of the review and mission of the advising unit. Plans were then made for the review committee to spend two full days on campus, in the college, reviewing documents, conducting interviews, touring facilities, and in private discussion. A conference room was dedicated to their use with lunch delivered. Travel and accommodation arrangements were made by the Dean’s administrative staff.

In his initial meeting with the review team, the Dean charged this committee with evaluating unit effectiveness, purpose and goals, and strengths and weaknesses, as well as identifying areas of concern. To do this, they conducted extensive interviews and focus groups composed of internal staff, students, faculty advisors, alumni, and campus-wide student service professionals outside the A&S Advising Center. They reviewed various surveys and institutional reports such as enrollment trends and degrees awarded. The committee again met with the Dean at the end of their two day stay in the college.

From the interviews and the ‘self study’, the review team evaluated the Advising Center’s performance as it related to its purpose and goals, identified obstacles impeding performance, appraised budget effectiveness, and described the relationship between the Dean’s office, his staff, and the Advising Center. A final report was written by the committee chair, approved by other committee members, and presented to the Dean.

How to use the results?

Advising Center staff members were offered the opportunity to identify errors and submit clarifications as needed within the report. The staff and the Dean discussed the recommendations of the review committee and then the staff submitted a detailed response to the Dean, who provided a timeframe for initiating and implementing chosen recommendations. An annual review of the recommendations and their effect on the continuous improvement of the Advising Center will become a standard component in the unit’s annual “Goals and Accomplishments” as required by the Dean.

With confirmation from the most recent program review, the Dean initiated discussions with the staff of the Advising Center and the University administration to totally redesign the advising model in the College of Arts and Sciences. The Provost and the Dean funded ten new advisors to join the eight already in place; four advisors were assigned to work solely with the first year students and fourteen were assigned to specific academic programs.  Having enough professional advisors to adequately cover all students in the College of Arts and Sciences was always seen as the ideal situation, but it took a program review to move the process forward.

While not all program reviews result in such dramatic changes, a program review report can help identify areas for improvement, areas for celebration, and new initiatives which will enhance academic advising service to students. A program review can assist in aligning advising program goals with the institution’s strategic plan and ultimately to the resources invested in that plan. A program review helps everyone in the unit establish a foundation for developing new plans and practices, for developing a timetable of needed resources and for supporting current practice. It is a team endeavor that can assist in developing more open lines of communication or enhance those already established.