Subject:  The following four "hot topics" are dedicated to the new advising administrator professionals who attended the 2005 NACADA pre-conference Administrator's Seminar at the national conference in Las Vegas. These issues  were among a list of 15 hot topics listed at the opening of the seminar. Our seasoned administrators are invited to offer their wisdom on how to handle these particular challenges as an advising administrator. (November 2005)

• Issue 1: Leading a multigenerational workforce to stay focused on the same page to achieve the goal of advising students toward pursuit of degree and/or educational goals.
• Issue 2: Responding to the "hover" of the Helicopter Parents (Spouses and/or Significant Others) in a way that allows advisors to work effectively with their advisees.
• Issue 3: Keeping faculty advisors interested, focused and motivated about advising students when the reward system is contradictory.
• Issue 4: Moving from "crisis management" to strategy and planning.

Please e-mail your responses to Linda Chalmers at Linda.Chalmers@utsa.edu, and be sure to indicate the applicable Issue number(s) in the e-mail subject line. Thanks!

Tips for Issue 1:

• Temple (University) offers a professional development training that brings to light the differences between generations.  The primary source used for this book is from (Howe and Strauss).  They (Howe and Strauss) do a good job of identifying generational characteristics and societal events that have shaped each generation.  After this professional development seminar, employees have a better understanding of how to communicate with each other.  This (e.g. effective communication and understanding of each other), in theory, will make it easier for everyone to work toward the same goal.  I have taken the seminar and I feel it would be extremely useful to staff, faculty, and administration. 

  Contributor: Jermaine Williams, Temple University, williaj3@temple.edu

• One "tip" for issues 1, 3 & 4 is to employ the home institution's mission and vision statement for guidance.  Every institution of higher education has them, and they serve as a philosophical template for the school's approach to students and educational priorities.  In most cases, they can serve to guide and motivate an advising staff.

  Contributor: Bob Abelman, Cleveland State University, r.abelman@adelphia.net

• Make sure that seasoned advisors are very involved in training new advisors, faculty and staff around campus.  Teaching helps keep things fresh for those who have been around for a long time.  It also rewards/values their experience.  Some would say experience is the only virtue of aging, so you might as well take advantage of it.  Also, new advisors and staff should always have a formal "mentor" among veteran advisors and staff, respectively.  Annual or semi-annual office retreats offer renewal, too.  Make sure they are away from campus and that they mix fun and food with discussions of office policy and professional development.

  Contributor: Albert R. Matheny, University of Florida, matheny@polisci.ufl.edu

• At this point we still have a very traditionally-aged student population, although I think that will shift a little over the next 20 years. Our biggest area of diversity challenge comes from Admissions focusing our recruiting toward socio-economically disadvantaged first-generation students. Our President made the decision to do that rather than use ethnicity. Our Financial Aid Office set aside a pool of financial aid from a significant tuition hike a few years ago, and there are 600 (first-gen/low-income) out of about 6,800 freshmen each year who become our Regents Scholars. My advisors had always been familiar with the hurdles these students face. The rest of the advising offices around campus quickly became much more sensitive to these hurdles. The President, himself a first-generation college student, mobilized a university-wide effort to provide extra support for these students. For a little background, I am in charge of about 3,600-4,000 General Studies majors and three freshman programs, and have been in this position for quite a while. Because of the nature of our admission process and the university structure, I have the full range of talent among my students. However, I have an over-representation of students who appear to be less competitive when they arrive as freshmen and continuing students who are experiencing academic difficulties.

  Contributor: Kriss Boyd, Texas A&M University, kriss@gap.tamu.edu

Tips for Issue 2:

• We (Temple University) are probably doing most the same things as other Institutions.  We have parent orientation.  Also, one of our primary initiatives is excellent customer service, which definitely helps when speaking with parents.  Once again, I would say a better understanding of this generation (e.g. millennial students and their Baby Boomer parents) helps advisors when working with today's students and parents.   

  Contributor: Jermaine Williams, Temple University, williaj3@temple.edu

• When confronted with overbearing parents, I always try to get them to channel their "energy" through their children, i.e., "make sure your son e-mails me with his request."  FERPA becomes your friend in these cases.  It's important to communicate to the parent and the student that the latter's accepting responsibility is a big part of the educational experience in college.  If the issue is one where there is a failure of communication between the parent and the student (e.g., the student is lying to the parent), I always try to suggest a meeting with all in the same room or a conference call.  This tends to inspire truth-telling or I never hear from either of them again.  Finally, you must keep good records, so that when the student says he/she was "misadvised," you can respond, "actually, we told you exactly what you needed to do on 7/15/05 , and I have records to prove it."

  Contributor: Albert R. Matheny, University of Florida, matheny@polisci.ufl.edu

• I have coached my staff to explain FERPA, listen to the parent's concerns, explain FERPA again then give general information that helps the parent understand the situation without revealing private details.  Advising is teaching.  In the case of the parent, they need guidance in navigating the rules and regulations as much as the student does.  In most cases, once the parent knows where to gather information about a program and how to interpret it, they are able to fill in the blanks.  Most parents are very appreciative of the information that we provide and understand that we cannot legally give out certain information.  For the parent who wants more, my staff offers to refer them to me, as director of the center.   I ask my staff to give me a summary of the discussion so we are all on the same page.  In cases where the parent wishes to go "higher", I refer them to the appropriate Department Chair or Associate Dean.  I send a "heads up" to that person so that they know what ground has already been covered. (Get to know your "chain of command".)  Finally, I enjoy and value the input from many of the parents.  We tend to focus on the "exceptional" parents-the ones that take so much of our time and energy.  Parents are, for the most part, GREAT!

  Contributor: Ellen Deters, East Carolina University, deterse@mail.ecu.edu

 

P.S. I am a parent of two 14 year olds.  I am afraid that I have the potential to be the "parent from _ell". If either of my children attends your institution, I apologize in advance.  Tell me to sit down, shut up and let you do your job.

• I agree with Albert Matheny. FERPA, parent-student meetings, and good records become your friends. TAMU has a family-oriented culture, so we want parents involved --- at an appropriate level. At each of our two-day New Student Conferences, I have about 100-120 students and 130-150 parents.

  Contributor: Kriss Boyd, Texas A&M University, kriss@gap.tamu.edu

Tips for Issue 3:

• In order to keep our Advisors motivated for Fall Pre-Registrations held in the summer, we offer them a half day personal leave for each Pre-Registration they attend.  Also, for those who advise at all three summer sessions, we give them a free 10-punch lunch ticket in the cafeteria.

  Contributor: Marilyn Cotant, Eastern Wyoming College, mcotant@ewc.wy.edu

   

• This issue contains its own resolution.  You have to make it worth the faculty's while, and this means changing the calculus of promotion, tenure, and raises to include effective advising along with effective teaching and research and service.  It is an easier battle if you can demonstrate to the administration how much effective advising saves the college in terms of retention and graduation.  It's a hard sell at first; but there's plenty of research to support it (Light, Tinto).  If that doesn't work, then make sure that you are a great supporter of the undergraduate coordinators in all your majors.  Meet with them frequently, serve refreshments, help them get summer money for their efforts, and always offer training in student records.  We get our faculty involved in freshman orientation, and we pay them a stipend for doing it during the summer.  They never forget the experience and are much better advisors for it.

  Contributor: Albert R. Matheny, University of Florida, matheny@polisci.ufl.edu

• At East Carolina University (ECU), we follow a professional advising model.  I am director of the Advising Center in the College of Human Ecology (CHE).  The directors of the ECU centers meet bi-monthly with the Associate Vice Chancellor and the heads of student service agencies such as Registrar, Financial Aid, Cashier and Student Life.  We put out fires, problem solve, set policies and in general try to assure an environment on campus that is conducive to advising and of course, learning.   There are many opportunities for advisors to become involved in areas that interest them.  For example teaching freshman seminars, recruiting and retention, outreach to community colleges, etc. The CHE advisors meet formally once a week.  We start each meeting with personal news (including birthday recognition) and move on to business.  I give updates from the Directors meetings and meetings with my supervisor (Associate Dean).  We discuss and clarify information from the campus advisor meetings and issues that have come in via e-mail.  Some meetings are devoted to "hot topics" such as FERPA, academic difficulty strategies, "problem students/parents", web development, etc.  I have set aside funds so that each advisor in my center is a member of NACADA and for all of us to attend the NACADA Summer '06 Institute.  In closing, I feel as supervisor for a dynamic team, it is important that my team have opportunities to grow professionally and to follow their passions. 

  Contributor: Ellen Deters, East Carolina University, deterse@mail.ecu.edu

• I did receive a response to this issue from a frustrated faculty member who recognizes the importance of advising but the administrators do not. The "silos" of mentalities about the academic side vs. the student affairs side exist in many institutions. As long as a "we" vs. "them" attitude exists, the gap between the divisions will continue to exist and students will fall through it. He wrote, "In my opinion, these services should all in some way merge their efforts into a number of solid faculty-based (academic entity) student support plans and focus their efforts pro-actively . around risk groups. How, I don't know. We are dealing with an age old paradigm. As soon as you start to address this, you are blamed for meddling in others' affairs." Can we as advising administrators build the bridges between the two divisions? I hope so because who better to advocate for both sides and the student, too.

  On behalf of the Contributor: Linda Chalmers, Advising Administration Commission Chair, Linda.chalmers@utsa.edu

• Keeping faculty involved is a challenge, particularly at a large, research university. It only happens when the Department Head supports it or when you make it very easy for the faculty to become involved. We tend to get some help from some senior faculty and lecturers, and a few of the senior faculty have taken leadership roles. We don't want to derail junior faculty who are student-friendly from what has to be their top priority - research.

  Contributor: Kriss Boyd, Texas A&M University, kriss@gap.tamu.edu

Tips for Issue 4:

• In the advising office I was in, we tried our best to be proactive.  By encouraging professional development (i.e. NACADA conferences) we are able to see what difficulties other institutions are facing and what might be on the horizon.  Also, ensuring all members of the team are aware of their specific goals; this assists with program management and completion.  The intention of this model would be that one program or activity will never create a crisis and several programs should be manageable.

  Contributor: Jermaine Williams, Temple University, williaj3@temple.edu

   

• Personally, I think this is pie in the sky.  I've been in continuous crisis management since I took this job in 1998.  The ONLY time I get to reflect on anything is at NACADA, and at the NACADA Institutes (Summer Institute and Administrators Institute).  That's why NACADA is so important.  Emergencies expand to fill the time set aside to plan.  It never fails.  Sooner or later, you realize this and accept it.  You'll have plenty of time to plan after you retire.  My motto is "Nothing succeeds as planned" (from Joseph Heller).  Think about it the next time you do a search, and tell me I'm wrong.

  Contributor: Albert R. Matheny, University of Florida, matheny@polisci.ufl.edu

• Much of what I put in my "hot topic 3" response can roll unto this topic.  Just a quick recap — I am director of the Advising Center in the College of Human Ecology at East Carolina University .  ECU follows a professional advising model.  While each unit is independent, we work together to create a friendly environment for students.  (We try to put out certain fires so that students don't have to.) We are in a slight lull before the next advising storm.  Spring semester is under way and we have a few weeks to regroup before we begin advising for summer and fall.  In addition to looking ahead to our next round, it is important to plan for the future.  Right now, life is good.  We have a fantastic team, administrative support and the faculty and students love us.  I want to build on this and assure that the only change is GOOD change.  This morning I set the date and tentative agenda with a consultant to do some strategic planning for the CHE Advising Center .  The plan is to 1. Define what we are here for (our value to the College), 2. Assessment/accountability, 3. Identify obstacles that are in our way. This session will be a starting point.  The consultant will do a follow-up with us later in the semester.  

  Contributor: Ellen Deters, East Carolina University, deterse@mail.ecu.edu

• I have come to believe after 15 years in this field that higher education is in a constant state of crisis management because our legislators or boards of directors must respond to the whims and grins of their constituencies. This puts great stress on us administrators to be both "plan-ful" and flexible. I do believe in an adage that says "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail". Get to know your institution's process for goal-setting. Create your unit's goals with the input of your advising staff to align with the college's goals and/or institution's goals. Vision and mission are important, too. These can be created for an advising unit and then every time you must make a fairly quick decision the mission becomes the "yardstick" for the outcome. I have for a long time professionally lived by the motto, "Shift Happens". You must embrace it and plan until the next "Shift Happens". It's the only way to survive with your sanity in tact.

  Contributor: Linda Chalmers, University of Texas at San Antonio, Linda.chalmers@utsa.edu

• My world sounds similar to Albert's -- Crisis Management 'R Us . When we ramped up the number of our Learning Communities on very short notice three years ago it was good change, but not without some serious pain. There were some unanticipated consequences and there have been some shifts in the original game plan. I don't think we could have done it without significant administrative and budget support. It was an effort that brought all corners of and multiple cultures within the university together. We now are waiting for implementation goals being generated from a major Task Force on the Undergraduate Experience that may bring more change our way. I was pleased after the last round to see that the change generated by that process still left my staff's vision and mission statements intact. We are here to serve students, faculty, the administration, parents, former students and the state. However, my staff likes to keep service to the students in the spotlight. Advising is teaching.

  Contributor: Kriss Boyd, Texas A&M University, kriss@gap.tamu.edu