Advisors changing approach

BY LINDA EVANS
Editor, RichmondNow

Many students and their faculty advisors have thought of academic advising as a “checklist”—that is, the advisor serves as someone who occasionally looks over a student’s checklist of required courses and confirms that the student is meeting requirements for graduation.

That approach is changing at the University of Richmond. A new office, the Academic Advising Resource Center, opened this year in Richmond Hall with Scott Johnson, associate dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, as director. The new office will centralize advising for all three undergraduate schools and provide resources, training and support for advisors, who are encouraged to establish relationships with their advisees to help them make the most of their educations.

“Students typically come to college unaware of the myriad opportunities on and around campus, unclear about the content of academic programs and absent the ability to create a well-considered liberal arts education,” said Johnson. “An advisor has the opportunity to sit down one-to-one with an advisee and talk through course choices, helping the advisee consider linkages in general education and major-minor courses, pursue relevant resources like pre-law advising, the CDC or a particular club or organization, attend speakers or art exhibitions, consider studying abroad or take courses that stretch beyond the comfort zone.”

An advisor also can identify problems students are having and refer them to such resources as the counseling center, the academic skills center, the deans’ offices or the wellness program, said Johnson.

“Rather than simply serving to oversee checklists of courses, an advisor-advisee relationship has the potential to become one of the most significant parts of a student’s education, helping shape every facet of that education and even influencing choices beyond graduation,” said Johnson.

The advising resource center resulted from a recommendation of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education (TFUGE) that urged a move to “developmental advising,” which at Richmond includes both the development of a relationship between a faculty member and student over time and the development of the student throughout the years he/she is here.

The center will reach out to advisors through workshops, work with faculty to create advising-assessment instruments, meet with departments in the business school, leadership school and arts and sciences to discuss developmental advising, create a peer-advising program and consolidate the logistics of advising that have been shared by several offices.

The first workshop was held for undeclared-student advisors in August. Others will be scheduled throughout the year. To get more information on the advising program, contact Johnson (287-6698 or sjohnson@richmond.edu) or Lindsey Love, program coordinator, (287-6574 or llove23@richmond.edu.)