Academic Advising Council Retreat
“Sea of Change”
Attendees: Kris McKinlay, Brad Kyker, Rachel Henry, Matt Carlton, Kristi Weddige, Charity Romano, Ellen Notermann, Wendy Spradlin, Bonnie McKim, Stacey Breitenbach, Susan Sparling, Lorraine Donegan, Cynthia Moyer, David Conn, Bill Durgin, Amie Hammond, Tammy Martin, Katie Tool
Changes and Congratulations
- Charity is the new advisor in College of Business.
- Stacey has been promoted to Assistant Dean in the College of Engineering.
- GE office is moving.
- Various parts of SAS are moving.
- Welcome to Amie Hammond, new OAR liaison.
- Welcome to Cynthia Moyer, new faculty rep.
Ideas for Professional Development
- Faculty Advisors: 1) PeopleSoft and Technical Training 2) Counseling/Advising Practices
- Relating to Parents & New Students—1) Millennial Generation 2) Empathy
- Personal Awareness
- Humanistic Approach
- Positive Collaboration—with GE & between departments
- Help Students see the “big picture” by encouraging them to see 6-9 quarters into the future—give them planning tools
- Connecting students to services—campus networking and collegiality
David Conn
- Communications
- E-mail is limited in that it can polarize large groups quickly.
- Face-to-face or over the phone is often helpful and should be used.
- CMS
- Unofficial transcripts issue—keep giving input.
- The faculty learning curve will influence advising. Matt recommended a PS point person in each department because faculty listen to other faculty.
- Promote CMS training to faculty.
- Bonnie pointed out that because it takes more time to do certain tasks in PS than it did before, advisors will not be able to see as many students, which will change the role of advisors and/or require hiring more advisors.
- Decentralized advising on campus has its pros and cons. Two potential drawbacks are the uneven allocation of resources and the lack of a senior administrator for advisors to report to.
- The Advising Council reports directly to the Provost. his provides an opportunity for the AAC to influence events on campus. I t also means that the AAC has to abide by the Provost’s decision.
- Timely Graduation
- The longer a current student stays, the more resources s/he uses that can’t be used for incoming students.
- David would like to see a change in the culture to one in which students plan on graduating in four years or four years and an another quarter or two.
- Possible barriers to graduation raised in response to David’s point: permissions, dropped classes, waitlisting.
- David wants students to be advised on entry that 16 units is a full load, and that is Cal Poly’s policy. He is concerned that students begin with 12 units, establish that pattern, and continue to take 12 units.
- People wondered where the policy was written. David said he was quoting Bob Detweiler.
- Drawbacks to advising students to take 16 units:
- Some students have to work.
- Different majors have different demands.
- Advising is done on the basis of individual student needs.
- Advisors don’t have the tools they need to help students get 16 credits.
- David would like to see the general message and perception changed to 16 units because advisors don’t see all the students.
- Retention—work on retaining underrepresented students.
- Repeat Units
Four Big Issues
- Collaboration/Communication
- AAC is the “Voice of Advising” and can make recommendations directly to the Provost. As a follow-up to that, AAC needs to accept the decisions that the Provost makes after receiving AAC’s input.
- Streamlined dynamic communication method: one person (probably Kris) will be point person for communication with OAR and PeopleSoft. Everyone will funnel their communication to this person.
- Consensus building within AAC.
- Each department should have a faculty member who is a point person for PeopleSoft and one who is a point person for advising. This may or may not be the same person.
- Professional Development
- Professional development activities need to be funded, valued, endorsed, and implemented.
- Use AdviseNet for “In-services.”
- Post-conference debriefing forum.
- Opportunities for discussion.
- Partnerships: 1) Between Student Affairs & Academic Affairs 2) Between colleges
- Personal and professional self-care, i.e. taking personal care can make one a better professional.
- Student Success
- Repeat policy—1) Tracking students affected by change in policy 2) Voice concern to Provost.
- Graduating “on time”—Advertising to change culture to “less time is better.”
- Relationship between Evaluations and advisors—1) Getting information to advisors 2) Move toward more timely audits.
- Awareness/Outreach—1) Advising folders for students 2) Notebook for faculty
- Bring back printed Class Schedule.
- Faculty Outreach—1) Make the Provost aware that service is considered last on the list of RPT items 2) Communicate the need for more faculty advisors to Dean’s Council who will communicate to Dept. Chairs.
- PeopleSoft
- Consultants with PS team.
- Faculty PS representative for every department
- Formatting of information—summary screens with necessary information so not so many screens to slog through.
- Timely reports.
- Additional academic advisors needed.
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