When students arrive on WCU’s campus, they are assigned academic advisors who are usually faculty members in students’ areas of interest. Advisors can help students understand their major programs, choose classes, navigate WCU’s institutional structures, discuss careers, and overcome difficulties.
However, the advising relationship is a mutual one: both the advisor and the advisee have responsibilities in order to make sure students make the most of their time at our university.
The first thing students need to know about their advisors is that they are different from high school guidance counselors. In high school, someone else will tell you what you need to do. However, in college, you are responsible for your own academic success and for finding help when you need it.
Academic advisors will, for example, make recommendations for class selection, but you must register yourself in those classes and know why you are doing so – what requirements of general education or of your major do those classes fulfill? Study your advising materials so that you know what is required!
Before you can schedule your classes using MyWCU, advisors must lift an “advisor hold” on your online record. So, when your MyWCU home page indicates (usually in September) that you can register for classes on a certain date, you must contact your academic advisor for a meeting to make sure you have this hold lifted and you will be ready to schedule classes at the earliest possible time.
Advisors are faculty members with many other responsibilities – teaching, working on committees, participating in university governance, and doing their own independent research – so they expect you to reach out to them.*
WCU has adopted a definition of “good advising” to guide what both students and faculty should expect in an advising relationship. It begins with this statement:
Academic advising is an educational partnership between a faculty member and a student whose goal is the student’s academic, personal, and professional success. Advisors and advisees collaborate to help students achieve their aims. Advisors explain policies, identify resources, and give advice; however, students are ultimately responsible for making the decisions that will keep them on track. The advising relationship thus mirrors other teaching relationships at West Chester University.
As you can see, this is very general, so we added this list of attributes:
At WCU, advisors and advisees:
1. treat each other with respect
2. understand their advising duties
3. work to clarify students’ professional and life goals
4. contribute to realistic academic and career plans
5. educate themselves about institutional policies, procedures, and opportunities
6. contribute to making good class choices
7. address challenges through knowledge and use of campus resources
8. use available technological tools
The emphasis on mutuality is key: students know that they need accurate and timely information from advisors to be successful, but advisors can’t do their job well without student preparedness.
Each list item is further defined for both students and faculty. For example, “respect” is defined as courteous and civil communication, making sure that both parties make themselves available, and both parties returning emails or calls within two working days.
Under “make good class choices,” students are requested to devise an initial plan for their course schedule to bring to their advising meetings, and advisors should assist students in accurately choosing courses that satisfy academic requirements to help them meet their career goals, as well as help students find options if classes are not available. The list includes a lot of helpful detail.
Incoming students should learn about all of the resources available to them (as in #7, above), and their advisors can point them in the right directions to get information.
The Twardowski Career Center, for example, guides students in identifying career possibilities, internships, and jobs, and it also helps students build skills such as resume writing and interviewing.
The Learning Assistance Resource Center and the Writing Center provide valuable tutoring help for students who want to make sure they are doing their best work in their classes.
The Counseling Center can help students going through personal difficulty.
And the Center for International Programs can help students identify study abroad programs that are right for them. Advisors can put you in touch with services like these.
Students and advisors should work as a team to ensure that students experience all WCU has to offer as well as to succeed in moving through their major programs. But teams need all players to participate, so we hope that all students coming to WCU make the most of their advising relationship.
(*Some of this has been adapted from materials developed by several other universities, including Southern Methodist University, Ball State University, State University of New York at New Paltz, Macalester College, Northern Kentucky University, and the University of Wisconsin.) at Madison.
Professor Cheryl Wanko is a professor in the English department. She can be reached at cwanko@wcupa.edu.