Running head: ADVISING PATHWAY 1

A True Academic Advising Pathway

Melanie R. Baker

The Pennsylvania State University

ADVISING PATHWAY 2

As a student seeking advice in higher education, many different individuals can fit the

description of an advisor: the institutions front desk secretary, the financial aid office, fellow

students, parents, friends, professors or an academic program director. Students tend to discuss

academics with anyone who is willing to listen. While conversation and discussion isnt

necessarily a bad thing, a student may not want to make crucial decisions related to their

academic program choices from poorly given advice that a fellow friend or student may have

discussed.

In my humble opinion, advising should be constant, and not just a present semester

activity. A student set goal should be in mind: is this goal graduation in a 1 or 2 year program

which leads to graduation, is the goal to transfer to a four year institution with a 2+2 articulation

agreement, is the goal to successful complete a few courses for job training? It is important to

define these goals early on and for both the student and the advisor to understand and agree on

the roadmap to succeed in meeting that goal.

As previously described during nearly every lesson of this semester, I do not have any

formal academic advising experience which leads me to look at my own higher education

institution for current issues or topics surrounding academic advising. I do work very closely

with those who are actively and directly working with students on advising by providing data

and reporting on surveys results. This has allowed me the capability of seeing a few issues from

the sidelines.

Anyone who can speak can advise, right? Wrong! This is where students are finding

themselves in a pickle. Just because a parent thinks the course is a good selection or the Math

Professor said COMP 105 is able to be tested out of, does not mean that a student should take

that answer as gold. At West Virginia Northern Community College we have a different type of
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students than some other colleges may experience. We are an open enrollment institution. We

do not turn anyone away per our public state guidelines for a community college. Our students

are just different in more ways than one. They are needier and they need more assistance. While

I am against the thought of hand-holding our students, sometimes their first year the hand-

holding must occur in order to transition them from previous high school hand-holding.

The current process: Too many hands are in this pot! At this time some Division Chairs advise,

some Program Directions advise, the Academic Support Center is advising as well as front desk

staff. Currently every student who comes in the door is assigned an advisor. Our students are

not permitted to select undecided and therefore will be assigned to the Program Director in the

program of their choice. Each student attends an Orientation course in which they usually

register for some of their core courses, all without even meeting their Program Director. Each

advisor is expected to run a report in our reporting system which will give them a list of their

advisees for the last 5 years and are to reach out to their students. In addition, there are a few

academic support center individuals who conduct the Orientation sessions who are permitted to

assist students to register and override particular courses. Again, this is all occurring before the

student meets their intended Program Director.

Positives and Negatives of current process: As you can see from the description above, there

arent many positives to the current process. Communication is poor, inconsistencies are present

throughout the process and there isnt a set plan for a student to gain access to an advising person

at the college. Students have had to postpone graduation because of poor advising or they have

missed a testing deadline. Training is another issue currentlya staff member advised a student

to sign up for a Computer major because she has previous felonious charge against her and she

was worried that she wouldnt get a job with a criminal record. The student should be graduating
ADVISING PATHWAY 4

this year however she is nowhere near graduation because she does not know the first thing about

computers and her program selection has been very difficult for her.

The new plan: The VPAA office will oversee all advising activities and has set this plan in

motion. All new students will be assigned to a general advisor. This will not be a faculty advisor

because this general advisor will help the student in discussing their academic options, learning

the student portal, talking about financial aid and possible paperwork/holds and get them over

their initial hurdles. Once the initial hurdles are jumped, the student will be handed off to their

Program Advisor. The time frame on this hand off is going to be set by the Program Advisor.

Each Program Advisor has specified when in the semester that they want to meet with new or

prospective students. For programs such as Nursing, this hand off may be after 1 year of

academics because most students who take the Nursing program must first complete a set of core

courses prior to being registered into any actual Nursing Program courses. On the other hand,

this hand off could be as quick as immediately once the student is read to register for a course

because a program such as Welding does not require any course courses to be completed and the

Program Advisor will need to speak with the students prior to initial registration.

Positives and Negatives of the new plan: The general advisors will be trained to address all of

the same hurdles with each student which ensures positive communication and cuts down on the

inconsistencies. Each student will be walked through our processes so that they are aware of

how to communicate with college staff/faculty using the student portal, how to locate our online

tutoring, how to log into the student portal, how to complete a financial aid application and

discuss work study options. This is the initial step where some hand-holding will take place

however it is crucial to ensure all students are introduced to the college processes effectively.
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Education: While hand-holding is occurring in the first few steps, the general advisors are

instructed to provide an educational environment for our students. Students must learn the

processes and expectations. Students must complete paperwork and understand the importance

of deadlines. We must ensure we are providing students with the knowledge that they can use to

succeed as a student at our institution and beyond.

Communication: Communicating up front with our students about the advising process early and

frequent is extremely important. Likewise communication internally between college offices is

just as crucial. Students will be informed of the new process and they will know what is

expected of them. We will begin the process of posting notes to the self service student

Banner system so that each office can keep advising type notes on the students.

Training: Training of advisors (faculty and staff), or lack their of, has been a consistent issue in

the current advising process. Each general advisor (staff) and program advisor (faculty) will be

required to attend training during the same sessions to ensure that communication is consistent.

In addition, small group trainings will be mandatory for each advising individual for a more one

on one session with VPAA and VPSS.

There are many different ways and suggestions to successful advising as we have learned

this semester. Sometimes using a hybrid version proves to be the most effective. This type of

advising that Ive described above is a hybrid version which I hope will bring more

understanding, knowledge and positive delivery.