1.   Advisement at WCU includes academic, career, and personal components. Faculty and Professional Advisors must be experts in the academic component, including academic policies and support resources.  They must also be informed about career opportunities and resources in their own disciplines as well as related disciplines.  Advisors should make appropriate referrals when it is in the best interest of the student.

2.   Advisement is the responsibility of both faculty and professional advisors.

3.   Advisement is part of the normal professional load for faculty at Western, and adequate time should be set aside for quality advisement.   A reasonable full-time faculty advising load is between 20 and 33/1 (Advisor Load, N.D.; Habley, 2002).  When evaluating faculty as part of the Annual Faculty Evaluation and when considering promotion, tenure and merit pay, department heads should consider both the quantity of advisees per faculty member and the quality of advising.  Faculty with unusually heavy advising loads, greater than 33/1, should be given special consideration, compensation or course release time to ensure the quality of advising.

4.   Because advisement is a significant part of the academic mission at WCU, advisement will be evaluated for faculty as part of the Annual Faculty Evaluation.  Advisement will also be factored into promotion, tenure, and merit pay decisions as determined by department T.P.R. documents.  Professional advisors will be evaluated under the personnel rules and regulations applicable for SPA and/or EPA employees.

5.   An effective advisement system dictates that all who serve as advisors participate in on-going training.

Processes Supporting Undergraduate Advisement Model

1.   All new Cullowhee students (freshmen, transfers, and readmits) will have their initial contact with the Advising Center, Student Support Services, or Honors College.  Initial advisement will be carried out through a process, which includes, but is not limited to, phone, letter, web, and email contact with in-coming students prior to enrollment.  Initial enrollment will be finalized during freshman and transfer new student orientations. 

2.   Incoming students, freshmen, transfers, and readmits, are encouraged to declare a major as soon as possible.  Students with 45 hours or more are required to declare a major prior to enrollment.

3.   Students will be assigned to an advisor based on their academic interests.  Undeclared students will be advised to seek career counseling and testing services through Career Services, Advising Center, and Student Support Services.

4.   As soon as a major is declared, students will be assigned to a faculty advisor in that major.

5.   Advisement processes, as well as advisor training, will be coordinated and monitored by a University Advisement Coordinating Committee consisting of a faculty member from each college, a representative from the Advising Center, Student Support Services, and a representative from Student Affairs and Academic Affairs.  A training manual has been developed and will be regularly updated.  The University Advisement Coordinating Committee will coordinate all university-wide advisor training sessions.

6.   Advisement will have specific value in the tenure, promotion, reappointment, merit pay and annual faculty evaluation processes as defined by the department T.P.R. document.  All advisors, whether faculty or staff, will be evaluated on an annual basis according to the personnel policies and procedures pertaining to their respective classifications.  The University Advisement Coordinating Committee will develop and provide suggested tools for advisor evaluation including: student evaluations, narrative self-evaluations, file audits, etc. 

Definitions: 

Professional Advisor         An advisor, counselor, faculty or staff member assigned to either the Advising Center, Student Support Services, or Honors College.

Faculty Advisor                A fully qualified full-time faculty member whose responsibilities include advising students in the department with declared majors. 

Roles and Responsibilities 

Major Contact Person  

The department head will serve as or designate a major contact person for declared majors.  This person will have the following roles and responsibilities. 

·         Coordinate the scheduling of freshman orientation sessions during extended orientation.

·         Ensure that contact is made with each newly declared major in the program to welcome them to the  department.

·         Assign advisors in accordance with departmental protocol.

·         Ensure that the newly declared major and faculty advisor make initial contact.

·         Serve as liaison with the professional advisor assigned to the program.  The professional advisor will contact this major contact person when an undeclared student wants to talk with someone about the major or to declare a major in the department.

·         Remind instructors of 100- and 200-level courses in the department to report fifth week grades.

·         Remind faculty advisors of freshmen majors to be available to discuss reported fifth week grades with freshmen advisees who request help. 

Three groups of Professional Advisors:  Advising Center, Student Support Services, and Honors College 

Overview:  Professional advisors will continue to advise undeclared students and to encourage and support advisees in identifying an area of interest and declaring a major.  In addition, each professional advisor in the Advising Center and Student Support Services will be assigned to a College to work with some or all majors in the College (See list of Adviser Assignments below).  Assigned professional advisors will communicate regularly with the Faculty Major Contact Person for freshmen and transfer students in each major to facilitate the declaration of major process for students and to assist students and faculty as needed regarding academic advising.  

Responsibilities: 

New Freshmen

·                     Beginning each February for fall admits and October for spring admits, via phone, contact all new admits who have paid deposits.

·                     Establish a WebCT account for each new admit as soon as deposit is paid.

·                     Encourage Orientation Registration.

·                     As soon as contact is established assist new students with decision of major (1.  Using WebCT lead students through completion of interest inventories, abilities assessments, and values clarification instruments.  2.  Via phone conference discuss results of assessments.  3.  Encourage declaration of major.)

·                     Via WebCT administer the College Student Inventory (CSI) 

o        Via phone conference discuss results. 

o        Establish action plan for academic success.

·                     After completion of declaration of major discussion and CSI discussion, via phone conference advise students regarding fall class schedule.

·                     After thorough discussion of major interest and student needs, register new students for fall classes.

·                     Prepare new students for New Student Orientation.

·                                 During New Student Orientation, meet with parents and new students.  Foster and facilitate relationship building between students and department of declared major.

·                     During New Student Orientation, meet with undecided students,

o        Support decision making,

o        Bolster confidence in selection of major,

o        Assess the indecisive situation and make appropriate referrals and assign homework to be completed prior to fall semester that will further the decision making process.

·                     During New Student Orientation assist with schedule adjustments, declaration of major, and change of major.

·                     Fall semester, meet individually with all undeclared new students before completion of the third week of class.  Assess adjustment to university life and make referrals as appropriate.

·                     Each semester meet with undeclared students to discuss 5^th week grades, Establish action plans for all grades less than “C”. 

Transfer students

·                     Beginning in February for fall admits and October for spring admits, via phone, contact all new transfer admits who paid deposits.

·                     Discuss major interest, assign a professional advisor connected to the student’s major interest.

·                     Discuss transfer credits, degree requirements, course waivers, substitutions, and declaration of major.

·                     Advises for first semester courses.

·                     Ensures that student is registered for first semester courses.

·                     Ensures that a faculty advisor is assigned for students who declare.

·                     During Transfer and New Student Orientations meet with assigned advisees.  Fosters and facilitates relationship development with department of student’s major.

General responsibilities

·                     Each semester teach the Learning Contract class for first semester students whose GPA is below 2.00.

·                     Advise undeclared students for early registration.

·                     Provide Registration Access Numbers (RAN) for undeclared students to register via web registration. 

Faculty Advisor (Major advisor) 

Faculty advisors in each major will continue to provide comprehensive advising to declared advisees in the program.  Contacts that are expected to occur with freshmen and first semester transfer advisees include: 

·         Provide to and discuss with the advisee the major eight-semester plan

·         Discuss specific requirements and expectations for the major.

·         Discuss course sequencing, specifying what years and/or semesters various courses are offered.

·         Discuss careers and various career paths for graduates of the major.

·         Discuss reported fifth-week grades (with students who request advice).

·         Discuss scholarship opportunities (Rhodes, Truman, etc.)

·         Discuss intern/co-op opportunities

·         Encourage students to join student professional organizations and become involved in other student life organizations/activities.

·         Discuss adjustment to the university as it concerns academic progress.

·         Encourage advisees to use available support on campus as needed.

·         Advise for early registration and approve next semester’s course schedule.

·         Provide all advisees who have declared majors with their Registration Access Number (RAN) for web registration.  (Students with declared majors cannot get this number from the Registrar, Advising Center, Student Support Services or Honors College because these agents do not know whether or not the student has met with the faculty advisor.) 

Department Heads 

Department heads facilitate the designation of a Faculty Major Contact Person for each undergraduate major in the department and will communicate with the designated Contact Person to monitor and facilitate completion of the role responsibilities.  

Associate Deans 

Associate Deans meet with professional advisors assigned to respective colleges once each month throughout the academic year. 

Associate Deans are responsible for contacting freshman majors who have received one or more “Unsatisfactory” 5^th week grades. The following is the recommended course of action, at a minimum:

1.     First semester freshmen (<15 hours)

a)      who receive one “U” – send a letter explaining available university resources (such as study skills workshops and recommending the student take advantage of these resources.)

2.     Second semester freshmen (15-29 hours)

a)      who receive one “U” – send same letter as 1.a. directly above.

3.   Other students receiving unsatisfactory 5^th-week marks in 100- and 200-level courses should receive a letter as described in 1.a. above. 

Other action taken by the Associate Dean’s office could include calling students, recommending students discuss their grades with their faculty advisors and/or teachers, recommending additional workshops, etc. 

Academic Program Deans 

The dean of each undergraduate college supports and monitors the advisement model.  The dean also facilitates regular communication between the Faculty Major Contact Person for each major and the assigned advisors in the Advisement Center and Student Support Services. 

Advisor Training and Development 

An effective advisement system dictates that all who serve as advisors participate in on-going training.

Advisement processes, as well as advisor training, will be coordinated and monitored by a University Advisement Coordinating Committee consisting of a faculty member from each college, a representative from the Advising Center, a representative from Student Support Services, and a representative from academic affairs.  A training manual has been developed and will be regularly updated.  The University Advisement Coordinating Committee will coordinate all university-wide advisor training. 

Advising Program Evaluation 

The University Advisement Coordinating Committee will meet annually to review the First Year Student Advisement Model and to update the model as needed. 

Advisement will have specific value in the tenure, promotion, reappointment, merit pay and annual faculty evaluation processes as defined by the department T.P.R. document.  All advisors, whether faculty or staff, will be evaluated on an annual basis in accordance with their respective evaluation processes.  The University Advisement Coordinating Committee will develop and provide suggested tools for advisor evaluation including: student evaluations, narrative self-evaluations, file audits, etc.