 |
|
|
| 
|
 “In the early '90's, I had over 1200 majors to advise in Communication at Arizona State University. It was way too many students. When the adviser is booked weeks in advance, and more students show up for walk-ins than can be seen, you have too many advisees! In my case, I enlisted support to cut my work down to 40 hours per week, stop taking files home, and made the case for another staff adviser to assist me plus gained support staff and help from the department office pool. We also started a peer advising program at that time.”~ Marian Paul, University of Texas at San Antonio, April 3 “As an administrator who also teaches freshmen seminar and advises conditional admits, I have an advising load of approximately 90 students a semester. I love advising students, but it is difficult (time consuming) to be proactive (although I am) in contacting my advisees to see how they are doing academically, to remind them of important add/drop/scheduling dates, etc. I work for a small public university (3,000 students); many of us employed by the university wear multiple hats. However, in order to maintain my full-time position as an administrator (supervising, reporting, grant-writing, assessing, training, etc.), I am finding it increasingly difficult to try to fit my responsibilities into a 45-50 hour work week. I would recommend that an administrator who also advises be limited to 25 students per semester – to ensure quality time with students as well as quality work for the 'regular position.' ”~ Heather Ferguson, Lake Superior State University, April 3 “The Student Academic Adviser position at my college (Ontario College of Art and Design) is a newly created position. Here, the problem is not too many advisees but, rather, a plethora of advisers all with different backgrounds (teaching, administrative, advisement) and, consequently, differing opinions. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It can be, however, somewhat confusing for the student. I view one of my major tasks here, in the short run, to coordinate and streamline these various junctures at which a student has access to information ranging from degree fulfillment to homestay for international students with a long-range goal in mind to build a one-stop, advisee-friendly information center.To address the question directly, I would suggest that there is no such thing as too many advisees. That question suggests the concerns of advisers more than the needs of advisees. Each and every individual in your student population must have his or her questions responded too and needs met. In the short run, the advisers can only attempt to time manage as best they can. That means developing informational mediums (like FAQs) and so on, to free up time to work on value-added services that the students really need. In the long run, you continue to work on and fight for reasonable student-adviser ratios.” ~ Thomas G. Fairbairn, Ontario College of Art and Design, April 3 “This is a tough issue because it depends so much on size of institution, funding, mission and commitment! I can safely say that a 1:1000 ratio is too many! We at UTSA have made a three year commitment of funding to reduce our high ratios to a 1:350 level. This first year we've taken it down to 1:500 (on average). It took the collective voices of professional staff advisers, faculty, deans and students through many committees and surveys over a four-year period to advocate for more advisers. But ultimately the President embraced this as an integral part of retention and student services. He committed the funding! My advice is brief, 'persistence' pays off.”~ Linda Chalmers, University of Texas at San Antonio, April 12 The Mentor is published by Penn State's Division of Undergraduate Studies Available online at www.psu.edu/dus/mentor/ Privacy and Legal Statements | Copyright | © The Pennsylvania State University | All rights reserved | |
