Live teleconference Thursday focuses on academic advising affairs

CMU staff and faculty listened to academic advising issues Thursday during a live teleconference.
The conference, titled "Academic Advising: Campus Collaboration to Foster Retention," aired between 1 and 3 p.m. in Pierpont Auditorium in the Applied Business Studies Complex, presented by PBS.
The conference featured a panel of members of the National Academic Advising Association, including Wesley Habley, director for the Center for the Enhancement of Educational Practice; Catherine Joseph, director of Academic Advising of Earl Warren College at the University of California, San Diego; Nancy King, vice president of Students Success and Enrollment Services and English professor at Kennesaw State University; and Manuel Ramos, higher education consultant of IBM Education and Consulting Services. The group was moderated by Linda Benzel, television news reporter and anchor.
The first half of the conference touched on research, organizational models and the similarity of advising to teaching. It also largely focused on the importance of academic advising.
Habley said academic advising is a positive influence on students.
"Students who leave college are less likely to have quality interaction with faculty," he said.
According to data presented by Habley, 7 percent of all students enrolled in college are undecided about their majors, 12 percent will change their majors during their time at college, and 40 percent will never complete a degree.
Habley used this data to support the importance of academic advising to students.
Joseph said there are seven different types of models that can be used to organize academic advising programs.
According to data presented by Joseph, the most popular of these models from 1987 to 1997 are the faculty-only model, the split model and the supplementary model.
Academic advising has expanded beyond the role of simply helping students schedule their classes, King said.
She said it is important to learn developmental academic advising, which is the "integration of the three lives of students," their personal, educational and career life.
She also said teachers and advisers play very similar roles. "It seems to me that (advising) really is to teach," King said.
The second half of the program concentrated on improving academic advising through training, evaluations and rewards.
"Training is critical to the success of a quality academic advising program," Joseph said.
She said she recommends a seven-step plan to improve academic-advising training. She also said technology and diversity training can be a benefit to both the adviser and the student.
Evaluations can improve the efficiency of academic advising programs, Ramos said.
He outlined two different types of evaluations.
"There is no perfect evaluation process," he said. "You'll learn from experience."
King said she thought a recognition program is important to the success of an academic advising program.
"Those things that are rewarded, get done," she said.
She said there are two different types of reward programs, the intrinsic and the extrinsic.
The conference was viewed by many CMU faculty and staff.
"I was interested in the services provided to students and how we can improve them in our own college," said Pam Stanberski, executive secretary of Master of Business Administration. "It will help me to direct students to advisers for specific disciplines."
Linda Schleede, adviser of Undergraduate Business Studies also said the conference was beneficial.
"I think it gave me some ideas on assessment of our program," she said. "We're going to be changing our office structure somewhat."
Arlene Dunham, assistant director of Academic Services in charge of Undergraduate Audits, said she found some key points in the conference.
"I think there are some key points as far as recognition, rewards, training and student evaluations go," she said. "I think it's very important"