Faculty Advisors: What Do They Really Want

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Faculty Advisors What Do They Really Want?

• Melissa Mentzer, M.Ed. Mark
  Rehfuss, Ph.D., PCC
• Ashland University Regent
  University
• mmentzer_at_ashland.edu
  mrehfuss_at_regent.edu
• NACADA National Conference
• October 18-21
• Indianapolis, Indiana

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Purpose and Rationale

• Retention concerns
• Faculty turnover
• Improve collaboration between a central advising
  office and faculty
• Identify the preferences, expectations, and
  comfort levels of faculty regarding their
  advising role

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Ashland University
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Ashland University

• Private, comprehensive University founded in 1878
• Historically related to the Brethren Church
• Fall 06 Undergraduate Enrollment 2,118
• Fall 06 Graduate Enrollment 2090
• 93 of students are from Ohio
• 70 undergraduate majors
• Graduate programs in Education and Business
• 4 off-campus centers
• 210 full-time faculty
• Student-Faculty Ratio of 16-to-1
• Freshman to Sophomore Retention 69

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Advising at Ashland

• Undergraduate Students
• Faculty-Advising Model
• Undecided Students
• Assignment of Advisors
• Graduate Students
• Doctoral students faculty
• advising
• Masters students-advised by
• program staff

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Regent and Advising

• Private Christian Graduate University founded in
  1978.
• Main Campus Virginia Beach, VA
• Branch Campus Alexandria, VA
• Online
• Undergraduate Enrollment 1000 started 2002
• Graduate Enrollment 4000
• 180 full-time faculty
• Graduate Students
• Doctoral students Faculty advisors
• Masters students- Faculty or a few program
  staff
• Undergraduate Students
• Professional Advisors

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Regent University

• 7 Graduate Schools
• Business Leadership Studies
• Communication the ArtsDivinityEducation
  GovernmentLawPsychology Counseling
• 7 Undergraduate Degree Areas
• CommunicationGlobal BusinessInterdisciplinary
  StudiesOrganizational LeadershipPolitical
  SciencePsychologyReligious Studies

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Method

• Exploratory study
• Sample-full-time faculty at Ashland Regent
  Universities
• E-mail invitation sent to all faculty asking for
  participation
• On-line survey
• Final Sample 95

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Sample

• n 95
• 55 male, 45 female
• 21 - age 40 or younger, 79 41 or older
• 71 from Ashland, 29 from Regent
• Faculty representing 41 disciplines/departments
• 20 with 1-5 years teaching experience, 28 with
  20 years
• 66 advise undergraduate students

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On average how much time do you spend advising
each of your students in an academic year?

• less than 15 minutes 1
• 15-30 minutes 16
• 30-45 minutes 20
• 1 hour 23
• 1-1 ½ hours 18
• more than 1 ½ hour 22

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I find it difficult to balance advising time
demands with my teaching and scholarship.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 28
• Neutral 20
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 52

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The time I devote to students for advising is
adequate.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 79
• Neutral 10
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 11

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I would be interested in doing small group
advising sessions.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 40
• Neutral 26
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 34

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I am confident in my ability to advise on major
requirements.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 89
• Neutral 7
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 4

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I am confident in my ability to advise on career
planning.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 78
• Neutral 14
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 8

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I am confident in my ability to advise on
graduate school/professional school opportunities.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 78
• Neutral 13
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 9

18
I am confident in my ability to advise on the
core curriculum.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 80
• Neutral 10
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 10

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I am confident in my ability to refer students to
various offices and resources on campus.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 83
• Neutral 10
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 7

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I view advising as teaching.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 72
• Neutral 11
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 17

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I view advising as service.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 80
• Neutral 12
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 8

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I received adequate preparation and training to
advise.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 34
• Neutral 22
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 44

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Advising is a responsibility of the faculty.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 84
• Neutral 8
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 8

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Advising is a responsibility of full-time advisors

• Strongly Agree/Agree 32
• Neutral 21
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 47

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My role as an advisor is being a helper.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 90
• Neutral 7
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 3

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My role as an advisor is being an educator.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 85
• Neutral 12
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 3

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My role as an advisor is being a mentor.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 90
• Neutral 7
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 1

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There is a relationship between advising and
student retention.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 85
• Neutral 8
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 7

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I would like to receive ongoing academic advising
training.

• Strongly Agree/Agree 48
• Neutral 31
• Disagree/Strongly Disagree 21

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Are your advising duties considered in tenure and
promotion decisions? If not, do you believe it
should be?

• Not to my knowledge. I do not think they should
  be.
• Not really how can you really quantify the time
  you spend
• They are not. I do think this should be part of
  the service requirements.
• I dont believe that they weigh heavily on PT
  decisions though I could be wrong.
• No and I dont think it should be.

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Are your advising duties considered in tenure and
promotion decisions? If not, do you believe it
should be?

• Advising is subsumed in service and gets little
  independent consideration. Advising should carry
  a little more weight.
• Yes, but there needs to be equity between
  colleges and departments.
• It is considered but not valued very highly.
  There are a lot of colleagues who have 5-10
  advisees. I have 40.
• Very minimally. Should carry more weight but
  would be hard to measure.

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Are students required to complete evaluations of
your advising? Yes, No, uncertain how have you
been rated?

• Only 5 respondents reported yes
• Yes, departmental senior exit survey of majors.
• No. If I have been rated it is anecdotal by
  students reporting informally to the Dean.
• No, I really have no feedback other than the
  thank-you notes I receive from graduates.
• Not in a formal way.
• No. Not sure how I rate with students. BUT, I
  have a boat load of advisees!

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Overall, I think advising is.

• very important and a great opportunity to
  connect with students. Student satisfaction and
  retention is in part due to good advising.
• good for faculty if they deal with the content
  of coursesbut I strongly encourage that there
  always be an administrative advisor on the staff
  to be sure that deadlines are met and paperwork
  details are done correctly.
• An integrated part of the learning process that
  cannot be separated from teaching.
• necessary and essential
• worthwhile and rewarding
• an excellent way of connecting with our
  students.

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Overall, I think advising is.

• the job of full-time advisors.
• a valuable and time-consuming task for which I am
  ill-prepared.
• difficult time-consuming problematic.
• A specialized function that should be performed
  by those with the specialized training. These
  people should also be recognized for this service
  contribution. Careful consideration should be
  given to assessing the competencies necessary for
  advising and the assumption that any and every
  faculty member should perform this function is a
  faulty one. I can go on-line and plan my
  vacation using Travelocity but I know that I
  would have a better vacation experience if I used
  a professional travel agent. So it is with
  advising I can do it but the students might be
  better off with someone who does it for a living.

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The Need for Training

• 2007 Information sessions for Faculty Advisors
• Foundations of Advising
• Student Development Advising Special
  Populations
• Policies and Procedures/Advising Tools
• Legal Ethical Issues
• Effective Referrals

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References and Resources

• Kramer, G. L (2003). Faculty advising examined
  Enhancing the potential of college faculty as
  advisors. Bolton, MA Anker Publishing.
• Kramer, G. L. (1995). Reaffirming the role of
  faulty in academic advising. National Academic
  Advising Association Monograph Series, no 1.
  National Academic Advising Association.
• McGillin, V. A. (2000). Current issues in
  advising research. In V. Gordon W. Habley
  (Eds.), Academic advising A comprehensive
  handbook (pp. 365-380). San Francisco
  Jossey-Bass
• Pardee, C. F. (2000). Organizational models for
  academic advising. In V. Gordon W. Habley
  (Eds.), Academic Advising A comprehensive
  handbook (pp. 192-209). San Francisco
  Jossey-Bass