Our best resources are each other!

As an interest group, one of our goals is to share with each other our best practices and what we have learned through our experiences advising at large universities. So if you have any best practices you'd like to share or know of any particular resources — research articles, professional organizations, web sites — that you find useful, please send them to Leah Panganiban, LUIG Chair, at lpanga@u.washington.edu and they will be posted on this web site.

Below is an example of best practices submitted by Deborah Hull, Director of Advising Training and Professional Development at Arizona State University:

One way that we have found to make our large university seem much smaller is through a fairly new group called the "New Advisor Network".  This group is open to anyone who identifies with the term "new advisor" (which is loosely defined as someone with three years or less of experience in academic advising at Arizona State University). The NAN (AKA "Naners" with an unofficial logo of a bunch of bananas :-) ) comes together monthly to learn about various university policies, procedures, and practices as well as networking and sharing information about the majors in their colleges. We also have social get-togethers (a spring ice cream social on one afternoon in lieu of a meeting and a happy hour at a local brew pub once a semester after work hours). We started with a group of about 30 at our first meeting in fall 2006 and have since settled in with a recurring group of about 10 from all four of our campuses in the greater Phoenix area. Leadership is provided by three volunteers who have been advising at ASU for two to three years and I provide staff support and snacks at the regular meetings.

For additional information on advising issues and resources, visit the NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources.

On this web site, like topics are grouped into categories and each topic contains at least one of the following elements:

• Resource links to Web sites applicable to the topic
• Overview of topic written by a NACADA member knowledgeable in issue addressed
• Annotated bibliography of articles and/or books where advisors can "read more about" the topic
• Answers to frequently asked questions regarding the topic