Advising Appointments
Advising appointments can be more than just advising curriculum. Our students may need more support when it comes to personal things. You cannot be an expert on everything, nor does anyone expect you to be. However, knowing where to send students for things that may arise is important, see Red Folder Project.
To use as a reference point, EWU’s old College of Social Sciences provided the following descriptions of advising as “relational” and “transactional” in their Policies and Procedures:
“Academic advising in the College of Social Sciences (CSS) has two main aspects, both vital for our students’ success. The first is the ‘transactional’ or the guidance and associated tasks that support accurate and timely term-to-term registration and ongoing retention. For the advisor, this may include, but is not limited to, the use of all EWU advising tools, technology and resources used to provide informed support to the student.
The second aspect of academic advising in CSS is the ‘relational’ or the personal support, information, and connections offered to students leading to timely graduation and success post-college. For the advisor, this may include, but is not limited to, mentoring, connecting students to campus resources and guiding them through internships, research opportunities, networking and other circumstances that are rooted in the students’ chosen field of study that support the students’ next steps after they graduate from EWU.”
A good way to start any advising meeting is to ask an open-ended question. For example, asking “How can I help you” or “how are you doing today” can allow a student to bring up issues, other than academic issues, that may impact their grades. Direct students to appropriate resources if necessary. This process follows the Appreciative Advising model.
Once you get into course selection, you will want to make sure you have EWU’s audit system pulled up. There are a couple of different areas in which you will want to check:
1) General Education Requirements, 2) General Education Core Requirements, 3) Univeristy Graduation Requirements, 4) Major requirements and Minor/Certificate requirements.
Once you have identified what your advisee still needs, create a plan with them for the next quarter (and ideally for the next couple of quarters, if not their entire time at EWU). Students want and benefit from having a plan in place, Navigate Academic Planner is a good tool for this. See Academic Planner for Undeclared Students and Academic Planner for Declared Students.
For information about the different areas that you should be checking in the audit system, go to the following articles:
- General Education Requirements
- Credit Totals
- Cumulative 2.0 or higher GPA
- For all General Education Core Requirements
- For all University Graduation Requirements
- In major program, subject to departmental requirements
- In minor program, subject to departmental requirements
- General Education Core Requirements
- University Graduation Requirements
