Intrusive
Advising for Freshmen
The following article was
first published in the Academic Advising News, Vol. 9(3),
September 1987. It is reprinted here as a portion of the association's
25th anniversary celebration.
Walter
R. Earl
NACADA Charter member
Retired from Old Dominion University
"In
loco parentis" has been replaced on the modern campus by the philosophy
that students are responsible for their own survival and must
relate to their educational experiences in the same way that other
adults relate to their environment. The administrative strategy
is that delivery of academic assistance services is based on deliberate
self referral to advising centers, counseling centers and study
help resource centers by any student who needs more than required
"programming" for classes. While this philosophy is functioning
relatively well for the delivery of financial, medical and protective
services, it is not functioning well in a campus environment for
delivery of academic assistance services.
The
first problem of the application of the self responsibility of
life style to a campus is that the recipients of services are
primarily late adolescents with low orientation to adult responsibilities.
Students frequently do not place the proper emphasis on collegiate
study skills, time management or academic motivation to meet the
standards of success that are defined as earning a grade point
average of C or higher. While we might reasonably expect upperclassmen
to have maturated, suspension of freshmen is not a good teaching
method.
The
second problem is that although there are many developmental tasks
for a college student (developing autonomy, managing emotions,
etc.), the only one measured as the criterion of continuance is
intellectual competence defined as grad point average. Unlike
many other circumstances where mistakes simply reduce the quality
of life, students who do not meet the minimum standards are suspended,
which means they cease to exist in the environment. The problem
is particularly crucial for freshmen. One-third of all college
freshmen will not return for the sophomore year (Editor's note:
2003 statistics compiled by ACT show little difference in the
ensuing years with the 2003 the national freshman to sophomore
drop-out rate at 32.7%). Recent studies have shown that these
non-persisting students are not identifiable as academically underprepared
but are a standard cross-section of the entire freshman class
(Earl, 1983). A 33% loss of standard population in any other environment
would be considered an epidemic!
Current
research on the importance
of freshman year has shown that student retention is linked to
the freshman year experience, that academic and social integration
is the key to student success in the freshman year, and that students
who become academic "high risk" can be identified and taught to
be successful.
The
intrusive model of advising
is action-orientated to involving and motivating students to seek
help when needed. Utilizing the good qualities of prescriptive
advising (expertise, awareness of student needs, structured programs)
and of developmental advising (relationship to a student's total
needs), intrusive advising is a direct response to identified
academic crisis with a specific program of action. It is a process
of identifying students at crisis points and giving them the message,
"You have this problem; here is a help-service."
A
study at Old Dominion
University
of an intrusive model that
identified students on probation at the end of their first semester
and contracted with them for specific strategies of academic assistance
resulted in a statistically significant improvement three semesters
later in grades and in persistence as compared to a control sample
(Earl, 1987). In this case, as in most intrusive advising, students
were contacted at the point of crisis (receiving probationary
letters from the dean), and offered options for help (hot line,
specific advisor availability). Motivation was enhanced by the
students' (and parents') shock of poor grades and students received
counseling about positive ways to deal with their failures. These
counseling sessions identified the student's critical needs and
then strongly recommended specific orientation modes (contracting,
extra advising sessions, workshops, study groups, and orientation
classes) that were responsive to a student's motivation for success
created by the crisis situation.
The
difficulty with most advising-student contacts is that they take
place precisely at the most frantic time for both advisors and
students - the registration period. By being intrusive at the
beginning of a semester advisors can counsel students during a
low advising work cycle rather than just at "advising time."
The
theoretical framework of intrusive advising is based
on three postulates from advising research. First, professional
academic counselors can be trained to identify freshmen students
who need orientation assistance. For example, those students identified
as "on probation" can be identified as needing specific help.
Other examples of "ripe" times for identifying students who respond
to intrusive interventions are drop-add requests, required "academic
programming" for Greek and other organizations, dorm roommate
change periods, first grading cycle and the end of the drop-permitted
period.
The
second postulate is that students DO respond to direct contact
in which the potential problem in their academic life is identified
and a resource of help offered. These are different students from
those who generally self-refer for help. When offered specific
help, a student's "yes" or "no" is an act of conscious decision
caused by the intrusive intervention.
Third,
deficiencies in the necessary "fit" of a student to his/her academic
environment are treatable. Students can be taught to be successful
students and they can learn orientation skills. This has been
clearly demonstrated by the successes of orientation curriculum
such as the University 101 classes.
There
are some distinct advantages
of an intrusive mode of advising. First, a direct contact is established
with an advisor who deals candidly with the student's academic
situation when the student has maximum motivation to accept assistance.
Second,
the student is intrusively placed in a position where he/she must
do academic planning within the parameters of self-motivation.
Even a "no" response is at least a conscious decision about the
academic situation.
Third,
structured advising programs are enhanced by a student's involvement
in contract modules. Work load of an advisor becomes related to
the academic processes in a student's life rather than just the
registration process. Frequently, group advising is the last session
of an intrusive help workshop.
Intrusive
advising has been shown to improve the effectiveness of advising,
enhance student academic skills and increase retention.
