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Resource Guide: Best practices

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Office of Academic Advising

Advisor Best Practices

Advisor Best Practices

  • Best practice: Reach out to them and introduce yourself. You can set up an initial meeting, even if it is not during advisement month.
  • WHY: It is essential to begin building trust and rapport with your advisees. It is important for them to know you care about them and their success.
  • Best practice: Reach out to your advisees when you are ready to start advisement.
  • WHY: Students are unaware of when you are ready to start advising. Students who start in the Office of Academic Advising will be accustomed to being contacted by their advisor.
  • Best practice: Use Navigate to schedule your appointments.
  • WHY:
    • Students are familiar with this platform
    • Data tracking
    • Potential use of campaigns with scheduled automatic reminders
  • Best practice: Meet the students in person or via Microsoft Teams following the advisement checklist at the end of this guide.
  • WHY: Email advisements are impersonal and do not give the advisor/advisee adequate time to discuss concerns. The checklist goes through various topics, extending beyond course selection. This helps the advisor move from a transactional interaction to a more holistic one.
  • Best practice: Document all appointments. Document appointments through Navigate. More specifics on appointment summaries can be found in the following section.
  • WHY: Documentation helps you and the student remember important discussion points you covered during your appointment. Documentation helps other staff and faculty understand where the student is at and what their needs might be. Documentation helps build a web of connections for the student.
  • Best practice:
    • Remove advisement holds after your appointment concludes.
    • Do not remove advisement holds if
      • The student did not meet with you
      • You did not discuss classes for the following semester
      • The student plans to change their major and needs to speak with a different advisor
  • WHY: To ensure students are being advised to take classes that fit within their degree.
  • Best practice: Refer students to a specific person or office to get the information they need.
  • WHY: Providing students with contact information will help them not feel on their own.
  • Best practice:
    • Reach out to your advisees on probation and suspension after they are notified to let them know you are here to support them.
    • Refer the student to an academic coach and tutoring. Do not remove their advisement hold until after they meet with a coach.
  • WHY:
    • Students might feel defeated and alone once they are notified. Having their advisor reach out could make all the difference.
    • Students on probation or suspension must meet with an academic coach per our academic bulletin. Students on probation or suspension might need help developing their academic skills.