The Advising, Career and Exploratory Studies Center (ACES) is pushing for a centralized advising system to replace the current system, which consists of students being advised through their faculty members. The University of Wyoming will likely have the new model established for the fall 2018 semester and plans to begin implementing it this summer with the upcoming freshmen.
Under the current system of advising, there is little consistency across the university. Some colleges may already have a centralized system (like the College of Business), while some have advising through department faculty members. Jo Chytka, the Director of ACES, said, “We kind of have a hodge podge depending on your major and your college.”
The new advising model will introduce eight new goals: Embrace and promote a culture of student readiness and success that overcomes barriers; First-year student and first-semester transfer student advising that is consistent, available and student centered; Training and certification for all advisers to ensure consistency and accuracy; Clear governance and accountability for advising system; Use advising technology and communications that promote student success; Promoting engaged academic and career planning; Establishment of Exploratory studies tracks; Assessment and continuous improvement of advising system.
The new advising model is very focused on consistency and availability to students. Chytka mentioned “advising deserts” when faculty are unavailable to their advisees due to outside circumstances.
“I’ve known a lot of students whose advisers were professors who had a lot of other stuff going on,” graduate student, Lucus Hansen, said. “They were teaching other classes, they’re working on publications, they’re working on research. I know those students didn’t have the best advising sessions.”
The new system would remedy this by providing professional advisers available to students at all times, both benefiting the student and freeing time up for faculty members.
Professor Piccorelli, an adviser in the Political Science Department, said, “I have a lot of advisees, and it’s hard to fit them all into a week or so.”
General advising and the assigning of PERC numbers would be done by the professional advisers under the centralized system; faculty members would have more time to address students’ more personal inquiries outside of advising.
Concerns of centralized advisers not being educated enough in academic programs or individual courses are met with the intensive training that professionals will be required to go through.
The new model would focus heavily on first-year students who haven’t been immersed in a program and are mainly taking general courses.
Trained advisers may be better qualified to direct students through that period of their academic career than department faculty members who don’t have as much exposure to courses outside of their field, said Piccorelli.
Centralized adviser’s generalized training will allow them to be both encouraging and realistic for their advisees.
Chytka assured that hired advisers will be immersed in each of the colleges and have access to faculty to find answers to program-specific questions. They will be available to students at all times to provide advice on academic questions, career or internship inquiries and general academic goals.
“I’m really excited,” Chytka said. “We know that advising is just critical to students’ success and having people start to think about ‘What do I want to do? Why am I choosing this’ is really exciting.”
