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 Whenever we post an advising position, we receive a substantial number of applications from males. Four of our nine advisers in University College are male. We attempt to have a representative group in our hiring process so that, in as much as possible, students have choices with which they are comfortable.~ Diane Mayes, University of Oklahoma, January 4, 2007 Academic advisers are considered a support service and the salary is generally on the low side. It is certainly not a primary-wage vocation. It is a very good second-income job.Good thing I married a nurse. ~ Jody Patrick, Youngstown State University, January 5, 2007 Similar to advising, males in counseling education and social work tend to be underrepresented. If so, should we be doing more to recruit males into these specific professions? Although, it's the person not just a gender that builds positive relationships with our students.~ Jose E. Coll, Saint Leo University, January 5, 2007 We have certainly noticed the trend in Academic Counseling and Advising at SIUE. Of our staff of 13 advisers, we have only one male. When we advertise a position, female applicants outnumber males by a two-to-one margin. Sometimes it's even more lopsided in favor of female applicants. And that's only part of the issue. The other factor that we have observed recently is that the female applicants are typically better qualified than the male applicants. We want very much to increase our proportion of male advisers, but we also want to hire the best qualified candidates. We have a significant problem because, beyond our diversity concerns, we think it is important to have a variety of perspectives in academic advising. And it is our belief that the advisers in our office should be at least somewhat representative (in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, etc.) of the student population they serve. Of course we also know that the proportion of males attending universities across the country has also been declining relative to the number of females, and at SIUE the proportion in the undergraduate population is 55% females to 45% males. For graduate students the proportion is 62% females to 38% males.~ William G. Hendey, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, January 5, 2007
I think it is vital to have diversity in every sense within the
advising staff. In regard to gender, it is even more important
in fields where there is a disproportionate enrollment of
males or females. The demographic of your advising center
sends a message to students as to who their role models are
in the field. For an area like Education, an advising staff of all
females is counterproductive to the shortage of male
Education students, as the few men who are interested have
nobody to relate with. The opposite would be the case in an
area such as Engineering. Research shows that for students
of color, seeing someone in an authoritative position that
looks like them has significant impact on their retention. It
would be unlikely that gender is any different from that.
Lastly, gender diversity within the advising staff helps to bring
varying views to discussions, and it is important that we are
constantly evaluating the progress of our academic advising.~ Derek Furukawa, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, January 8, 2007 Being a male in this field, it is sad to see so few doing what I do. This is a field that requires many skills, that more specific to being sensitive to the needs of others; and we all know that this is not typical of most men. Yes, the pay is also low for most of us without a Ph.D.; and I know that this has an affect on this circumstance. I think there need to be more men involved in this profession. I know that our perspective is very different and is beneficial to the school, the office, and to the student we interact with.~ Thomas McGraw, University of California, Riverside, January 19, 2007 I have to agree that we can make attempts to recruit more men into academic advising, but until our pay scale improves, it will be a tough sell. Full-time instructors in our school are required under contract to be on campus for twenty-four hours a week and make the same salary as an adviser who works forty to fifty hours a week. No contest.~ Claire Hilgeman, The Art Institutes International Minnesota, January 23, 2007 Why are men underrepresented in kindergarten classrooms? Why are men underrepresented in nursing? Social work? Need I go on? The helping professions have always attracted more women than men, and in spite of our efforts for equality, women still go into helping professions in much higher numbers than men. How many more female students do you have majoring in elementary education than in physics?From talking with colleagues at NACADA and other conferences, it's clear that for academic advisers at many colleges and universities, the pay is low, the hours can be unpredictable, the stress is high, the expectations are unreasonable, and the status is low. Advising takes an unbelievable level of creativity, and mistakes can be costly. Highly qualified women often find themselves in university towns because of a spouse's job, and academic advising offices benefit from the lack of jobs available to these women. I agree that there should be more men in advising, but I do not see it happening any time soon. ~ Phyllis Mendenhall, Miami University, January 23, 2007 I am a male academic adviser who finds himself at OSU in the minority of academic advisers when it comes to gender. But for me it was a good alternative to pursuing a Ph.D. in English and then, due to the glut of English Ph.D.s, likely working for even lower wages and getting even less respect as an adjunct. At least with my present position, I do get a full-time salary (low as it is), health benefits, a presence in academia, library privileges, and most importantly satisfaction that I am helping students get a degree. My suggestion is that humanities departments should encourage males who are thinking about a Ph.D. to take a look at student services.As to why they are underrepresented, I would add that faculty members don't likely promote it to males and that the present low numbers of male advisers likely increases the outlook among males that men do not do this type of work. ~ Kevin Seymore, Oklahoma State University, January 25, 2007 The advising office for the College of Business and Technology at Western Illinois University has six professional advisers and one director. I am the director and I am male. The six professional advisers are all female. The hiring process is designed to find the best person for the job without regard to race, gender, and so on. It seems to work, as all of the advising staff are excellent advisers. As a side note, not only are all the advisers female, all are also Caucasian.~ Keith W. Branham, Ed.D., Western Illinois University, February 8, 2007 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 | |
