The Role of the Faculty Advisor and Academic Mentor
Each June, the Office of Academic Advising (OAA) launches the “Summer Advising” initiative
with the help of over 40 faculty and staff. Summer Advisors welcome incoming students
to our community, introduce them to Skidmore’s curriculum and degree requirements,
and help them to craft a fall-semester schedule that promotes exploration and achievement.
Our goal is to mentor students from the earliest days of their Skidmore education.
We believe that new students arrive on campus in the fall better prepared for academic
life because of these efforts.
Summer Advisors provide records of their contacts with students for your information.
These notes often describe the students’ degree of preparation and the academic interests
that have guided their selection of courses. The notes are available to you through
the Advising Portal.
During the summer, members of the Class of 2019 were asked to write their first “Reflection
and Projection” (RAP) essay. In the RAP, students reflect on their decision to attend
a liberal arts college while addressing their own goals and aspirations. We encourage
you to read your advisees’ RAPs before meeting them during Orientation and to use
the RAP as a basis for your introductory meeting with each student. RAPs are available
through the Advising Portal.
As you prepare for your first meeting with your advisees, recognize that their expectations
for the advising relationship with a faculty member may or may not be appropriate.
For example, your advisees may equate you with their high school guidance counselor,
or, more likely, they will not know what to expect. An early discussion about expectations
for the advising relationship is an important first step.
We hope that you will find the following expectations reasonable:
- Advising as an extension of teaching and learning
Good advising is both information-based and reflective and philosophical. The faculty advisor can help the student comprehend issues of intellectual and personal growth and discover a wide variety of academic, cocurricular, and career-related opportunities beyond the student’s immediate experience. A faculty advisor can encourage the student to raise new questions about her academic life, help her clarify intellectual and personal aspirations, and help her appreciate the relationships between liberal learning and life after Skidmore. - Reliability and credibility
Establish early on your credibility and reliability as a faculty advisor. Students need to know that you are an academic resource for them, that the advice and information you offer is accurate, and that you are familiar with and know how to direct them to other campus resources when there are questions you cannot answer or situations you cannot handle. Give your advisees your office hours, phone number, and email address (and tell them how you prefer they contact you).
- Planning the academic program
Helping your advisee plan an academic program that is consistent with her abilities, needs, and interests is a basic function of the advising relationship. You should also help your advisee monitor her academic standing and progress, especially with respect to all-college, major, and minor requirements. Please teach your students how to access and read their degree audits. If you have questions about how to do this, please contact our office for help.
- Fostering qualities of independence and responsibility
An essential goal of the advising relationship is to foster the qualities of independence and responsibility in your advisees. While you will probably need to adopt a more hands-on approach with your first-year advisees, a realistic goal for juniors and seniors is self-reliance. In the end, it is the student’s responsibility to understand and fulfill degree requirements in a timely fashion.
- Encouraging involvement outside the classroom
We hope you will consider the importance of your advisees’ personal development and encourage them to become involved, even minimally, in some cocurricular activity. Such engagement can make the difference between feelings of inclusion and disaffection. This good advice comes from Harvard education professor Richard Light, author of Making the Most of College (2001). He also counsels us to encourage our advisees to form meaningful relationships with their faculty—getting to know even one faculty member per term or per year can greatly enhance a student’s college experience.
- Accessibility and availability
Accessibility and availability are key to the advising relationship, especially for the new student. We have no prescription for how often you should meet one-on-one with advisees, but we suggest that you schedule individual appointments with your first-year advisees at least three times during the fall semester: (1) once before the end of the add-drop period to check on your advisees’ final course schedule and adjustment to college, (2) before midterms to assess academic progress and further adjustment to college, and (3) prior to registration. We encourage you to meet a fourth time—in early December—to offer advice and assurance to advisees who will be encountering their first final exams and term papers. Please direct your advisees to campus resources as necessary: the Office of the First Year Experience, the Office of Academic Advising, Student Academic Services, the Writing Center, and the Counseling Center all work to promote success and achievement. Remember that not all first-year advisees will respond to your invitations.
- Crises and academic problems
Skidmore does not expect you to act as clinician or counselor to your advisees or to be able to handle all academic crises. When you discover an advisee in academic distress, either through your own observations or through notices of unsatisfactory work from colleagues, you should respond immediately. This can be done most effectively through one-on-one conversations with the advisee. Once you have identified the factors that have contributed to the student’s difficulty, you can discuss what steps the student might take to resolve the issue(s).
In the event that you have serious concerns about the emotional or physical well-being of an advisee, we urge you to take action. Consult with the staff of the Counseling Center or Health Center—both welcome your contact—or call the Office of the First Year Experience (8111) or the Office of Academic Advising (5720). Alternatively, if your advisee is able, help him or her make an appointment with the appropriate campus resource while he or she is with you in your office so that you are certain a plan of action is in place. If you are uncertain about the effectiveness of the steps you have taken or if you continue to have concerns about your student, call the Office of Academic Advising.
- Entertainment Fund and Dining Hall Program
Scribner Seminar faculty cover entertainment funds through discretionary budgets provided by the First-Year Experience. The Office of Academic Advising also has entertainment funds available for group activities involving other advisees. The opportunities students have to meet socially with classroom faculty and advisors are occasions that they remember for years and value a great deal. Some suggestions for get-togethers include attending an on-campus evening activity and having coffee together afterward; having your advisees to your home for dinner; having a pre-registration pizza dinner meeting on campus with your advisees to discuss basic principles of planning a schedule and to answer questions about academic and cocurricular engagement. Faculty are asked to keep all receipts and submit them to the Office of Academic Advising. We suggest about $75 per advisor, but please contact us if you would like to propose an activity that exceeds this amount. In addition to the entertainment fund, we invite advisors to share meals occasionally in the dining hall with their advisees, individually or in small groups. To take advantage of this opportunity, you will need a meal ticket that the Office of Academic Advising can provide if you give us advance notice.
- Where do advisors get information and support?
In addition to this handbook, faculty advisors should consult the Catalog, department and program websites, and the Master Schedule on the Registrar’s website. The Office of Academic Advising and Registrar’s Office are available to answer your questions and to refer you to other information sources and campus support resources as needed.