Register NOW for these NACADA professional development events.  The Sheraton Gunter Hotel is located one block from the famous San Antonio River Walk.  We look forward to seeing you in January 2007 at this wonderful location.

• Data-driven Decision Making Seminar - Join us January 25-26 on the River Walk to take advantage of this opportunity to meet other colleagues who are facing the same challenges as you. Come away from the Seminar with strategies for effectively collecting data on your campus, analyzing your data for decision making purposes, and utilizing your data analysis results. Click here for details.

• 5th Annual Academic Advising Administrators' Institute - The Administrators' Institute will be held January 28-30 in San Antonio, TX.  Institute Learning Communities and Faculty will provide an environment for participants to:
  • Find guidance in the development of an implementation plan for improvement or change on your campus
  • Respond to the latest issues appearing on campuses and facilitate a process through which you may better understand the issues, skills, and knowledge
  • Address issues within your academic advising programs
  • Uutilize the resources and expertise available to you
  • Help develop a clearer sense of your academic advising programs, how to effectively administer them, and how your programs should fit within your own institution
  • Network and learn from administrators from a variety of institutional types and sizes

We are looking forward to the fifth Administrators' Institute and to providing an opportunity for participants to enjoy the River Walk this winter!  Click here to find last minute information on the plenary sessions, concurrent sessions, schedule, and Action Plans!

• 3rd Annual Assessment of Academic Advising Institute - The Assessment Institute will be held January 31 - February 2 in San Antonio, TX. The Institute is set up on three different levels to meet your needs. Visit the updated website for information on the levels of assessment being offered at the Institute, and to see a tentative schedule. The Assessment of Academic Advising Institute provides a foundation for participants regarding assessment's critical elements, purposes, and processes. Through presentations and small group discussion/working sessions, participants explore strategies for the assessment of academic advising programs-including establishing clear goals and outcomes and developing assessment measures for these goals and outcomes. The Institute provides participants with an understanding of the cyclical and ongoing nature of assessment. Most importantly, the Institute offers participants the opportunity to work with colleagues from similar institutional types and with other professionals and experts in the fields of advising and assessment to develop comprehensive assessment plans for their respective campuses. Join other colleagues as they work through the process of making Assessment a success. Bring a team from your institution to get your Assessment program up and running!

Presentation Proposal submission deadline for many Regional Conferences is December 1!  Don't miss out on this opportunity to submit your presentation proposal through our on-line submission site.  Then get ready to take advanage of a great professional development activity in your Region!  All Regions are now accepting presentation proposals.  (If your deadline is January 15 - think about how great it would be to get this application finished before the holiday break!) 

It's not too late to apply to the NACADA / Kansas State University Online Graduate Certificate Program in Academic Advising and register for Spring online courses:

EDCEP 829  Learning Principles - Instructor: Fred Newton

EDCEP 851  Multicultural Academic Advising - Instructor: Ata Karim

The Certificate Program, which is a collaborative effort between NACADA and the K-State department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, received the Association for Continuing Higher Education's 2006 Exceptional Program Award for Region 8. Program learners gain knowledge of advising and advising-related areas such as student development theory, counseling skill development, and career development.

Students enrolling in the Program must be admitted to the K-State Graduate School. You can find out how to begin the application process here. Students desiring to only take one or two courses may be enrolled as a "special student" and transfer the credits to another institution.

Online classes meet from January 11, 2007 through May 11, 2007.

For more information, visit this webpage.

The slate of candidates for the 2007 NACADA Leadership elections is available on the NACADA website.  Each candidate's platform statement will soon be linked to her/his name on this list for your review. Additional details on the 2007 elections and online voting procedures will be sent to members and will also be available soon on the election webpage.

NOTE: Only those individuals whose NACADA memberships are current and paid in full as of Friday, January 26, 2007 will be eligible to vote in the 2007 elections. If you know of individuals whose memberships expired on September 1, 2006 and have not yet been renewed, please encourage them to complete this renewal immediately to secure their voting privileges for NACADA's future leadership.

We are taking orders now for two soon-to-be-released monographs.  You may order your copy here. 

	Academic Advising: New Insights for Teaching and Learning in the First Year Mary Stuart Hunter, Betsy McCalla-Wriggins, & Eric R. White, Editors A joint publication of the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition and the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) This new monograph challenges readers to embrace the tremendous potential that academic advising has for educating today's college students and adds significantly to the engaging dialogue on advising as teaching. Chapter authors explore the advising as teaching and learning paradigm, examine current student demographics, and address learning patterns, self-assessment, and technology as key components of advising. Chapters also explore academic advising before enrollment and beyond the advising office, as well as the critical issue of advising assessment. The needs of diverse populations of first-year students are also addressed. Coming Soon!
	New Advisor Guidebook:  Mastering the Art of Academic Advising through the First Year & Beyond New academic advisors note that watching a skilled veteran advisor with students is like watching an artist at work. Their conferences are "jam-packed" with information, yet have the ease and fluidity of a conversation. Until now becoming an excellent advisor has been entirely an experiential journey. Now there is a guidebook that can help new professionals master the art of academic advising. Insightful contributions from more than 30 academic advising professionals provide new advisors with the essentials needed to help students grow and make the most out of their college experiences. A professional growth chart helps new professionals not just survive but thrive, during their first year and beyond. Exemplary Practices from across the country highlight what colleges and universities can do to help new advisors succeed. "Voices from the Field" commentaries offer reflections from new and experienced advisors on what it takes to move from new hire to successful advising professional. Coming Soon!

Watch for the December edition of NACADA's quarterly e-Publication, Academic Advising Today, which will arrive in your email boxes very soon.  Some of the articles you can expect are:

• Get Back on Track: The Philosophy and Implementation of Richland College's Suspension-to-Probation Program by Tara D. Thompson, Richland College
• Creating an Academic Advising Guide for Families of New Students by Alison K. Hoff, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
• QEP, NACADA and LEEP: How a Plethora of Acronyms Led One Institution to a New Model of Academic Advising by Amy Copley Tilly, Craven Community College

The fall 2006 issue of the NACADA Journal is in the mail!  Watch for your member copy before the holiday break.  

Dreaming of Winter Break? Catching up on your professional reading? Consider requesting a book for review in the NACADA Journal.  Completed reviews for books selected now will be due in mid-March. Find a listing of currently available books on the Web.

Michael M. Crow, president of Arizona State University, has authored Advisers Help in Arizona, an article in the November 3, 2006 Forum section of The Chronicle of Higher Education.   (Note: you may need your institution's password to access The Chronicle site).  In his article Crow discusses how advisors help rural students overcome common obstacles. 

Also in The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 1, 2006 edition - the 2006 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (known by its acronym, Cessie) reveals that 2-Year-College Students Rarely Use Advisers.  The 2006 CCSSE  is also discussed in the November 28, 2006 edition of Inside Higher Ed, which points out The Full Time Advantage - "the academic experience of full-time students is substantially more interactive than that of their part-time peers."

The 2007 Awards Call for Nominations, including nomination/application criteria, deadlines and forms, is available online.  All information and forms can be accessed on the NACADA Annual Awards Program website. The deadline for the receipt of nomination materials for most award categories is March 5, 2007.

Please closely review the applicable information in the 2007 Awards Call before submitting your final nomination materials, as there have been changes in the criteria for certain awards. Refer to the 2007 Call for Nominations on the Awards website for more detailed information about all award categories and applicable eligibility criteria and submission procedures.

A great way to network with your colleagues is to join a NACADA Commission or Interest Group (IG). Members can choose any combination of Commissions and IGs - up to a total of four (4) selections - in which they would like to have official membership. This official affiliation primarily identifies those Commissions and/or IGs for which you would have voting privileges, receive periodic electronic newsletters and updates, and be eligible to hold an elected or appointed position within, such as serving on a committee or serving as chair. Please note that you can be informally involved with as many other Commissions or IGs as you like, such as joining list serves, attending meetings, etc. We encourage you to review the available Commissions and Interest Groups, and join those of interest to you.

If you wish to change your preferred Commission and/or IG choices, you can easily do so by completing the online form. If you previously made your selections but do not recall which Commissions or IGs were designated, you can simply indicate your current preferences via this form and previous choices will be replaced. Please be sure to include the requested identification information so the appropriate member record is updated. 

NOTE: Your official Commission designations will determine the Commission Chair elections in which you will be eligible to vote in the 2007 elections.

"Components of a Successful Faculty Advising Program:

Institutional Commitment, Professional Development, Incentives, and Recognition"

WEBINAR

presented by

Jayne K. Drake

Associate Professor of English
Associate Dean for Graduate Affairs
Temple University

Effectively Engaging Faculty in Academic Advising Seminar

Burlington, VT

June 21-22, 2007

Faculty members have an essential and vital role in the academic advising experiences of students on most campuses.   Data in the NACADA 2004 publication, The Status of Academic Advising, indicates that over 80% of 4-year institutions, almost 50% of public 2-year colleges and 80% of private 2 year institutions utilize models which rely on faculty involvement in academic advising.

Since faculty play such an integral role in academic advising, it is imperative that faculty and administrators work together to ensure that faculty have the information, tools and resources to effectively engage in the advising process.  This two-day seminar will provide participants with the opportunity to enhance faculty advising and programs as well as gain essential insights on ways to foster collaboration between faculty and administrators responsible for advising.

Click here to learn more.

Members having March 1, 2007 membership expiration dates should look for their renewal forms in January.  Please complete the form and return it with payment to the Executive Office before your membership expires.  Thank you for your continuing support of NACADA as we work to promote the value of effective advising in Higher Ed and provide resources to assist advisors!

Let Me Learn Goes to College: Solving the Learning Problem Conference, sponsored by Rowan University's Center for the Advancement of Learning and Let Me Learn, Inc, will take place in Philadephia, PA on January 7-9, 2007.

Let Me Learn, a system developed by Rowan University's Christine Johnston, provides students with information about their learning patterns, how to decode assignments, and then how to develop strategies to be more successful in the classroom. Concurrent sessions at the conference will explain applications in the classroom, academic and career advising, tutoring and learning centers, and retention initiatives.

For more information, visit the conference website or contact Betsy McCalla-Wriggins (wriggins@rowan.edu).

Don't miss your opportunity to register for the 5th Annual Institute for the Study of Transfer Students!  The conference will be held Sunday, January 28 - Tuesday, January 30, 2007 in Fort Worth, Texas.  The Institute is a national forum that addresses the needs of transfer students from both 2-year and 4-year perspectives.  The deadline for the $295 early bird registration is Friday, January 5, 2007.  Regular registration fee is $350.  For additional registration information and registration forms, please visit the Institute website.

The Institute will issue two Grants for research into transfer student issues at the Conference.  The deadline for submission of a Request for Grant Funding is Friday, December 8, 2006. The Call for Program Proposals deadline is also Friday, December 8, 2006.

The Transfer Institute is co-sponsored by the National Orientation Directors Association (NODA), the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA), The National Resource Center for the First-year Experience (NRCFYE),and the University of North Texas Division of Student Development with additional support from Tau Sigma, the national honorary society for transfer students.

In accordance with the Kansas State University holiday schedule, the NACADA Executive Office will close on Friday, December 22, 2006 and will reopen on Tuesday, January 2, 2007.