Taking care of our students: advising, retention, mentoring
February 1st, 2009 at 11:59 pm
As I’m sure many (most? all?) colleges are right now, my employer and alma mater has been talking a lot about the “current economic crisis” and how it will impact the institution. Before all this drama hit we were also in the midst of a college-wide strategic planning process started by our still relatively new President. Well, these discussions have had many interesting and sometimes frustrating facets, but at one of these meetings the issue of retention came up. That is, once we admit the students, how do we make sure they’re happy enough to stay here?
The meeting attendees threw out ideas: Do we have tutoring for struggling students? What warning signs does the Dean of Studies office pick up and how do they act on them? How does general campus morale (including mood of the staff who interact with students) make an impact? What is the role of the adviser?
It is the last of these questions that sort of struck me. At this institution, we have a strong tradition of close relationships between adviser and advisee. As I’ve talked to students, both when I was one and since then, I noticed that they convey a range of very different relationships between themselves and their advisers.
The experience I (and I’m sure many others) had is a very close one with the adviser. In conversations – which are often more frequent than once per semester – academic planning, extracurricular activities, work and internships are discussed. Often the meetings are warm and personal – the adviser asking about the student’s classes and general health/happiness. I enjoyed this kind of advising very much, and even more important, it gave me the care and guidance I needed especially in my first couple of uncertain semesters at college.
In contrast, some say they don’t connect with the adviser. He/she is there to sign off on the student’s academic program each semester and that’s all. It seems that program planning seldom enters the conversation, much less personal well-being, longer term career goals, or graduate school plans. I think that if a student is fairly independent, driven, and has few issues (of any type – academic, health, happiness) there is nothing wrong with this relationship.
However, when the student is perhaps a retention risk, the latter style can be “deadly” to the college career. If the student doesn’t open up to the adviser and the adviser doesn’t ask, academic, personal, or health problems and their potential solutions never come to the surface. This is when things can go from bad to worse for the student, and he or she may feel that they have nowhere to turn. Does that mean I’m saying the former, closer relationship should always be cultivated? Maybe.
What are the obstacles to having that closer connection?
- The adviser: Perhaps the adviser views the student/faculty relationship as more formal. He/she may view asking more about a student as prying. Even laziness could be to blame – if you don’t ask about a student, they may be less likely to take up your time with issues. Mainly I prefer to believe it’s not the lazy option, that it’s purely a stylistic choice in most cases.
- The student: It is obvious that some students don’t want to open up to an adviser, for various reasons – they don’t view the relationship that way, scared the adviser will judge them or get them in trouble (especially in cases where problems revolve around something illegal, like drugs), or shyness.
- A combination of the two: I’ve definitely heard of students even switching advisers because they don’t have the right “chemistry” with them. There may also not be much common ground if the student decides to take an academic path different from the subject area of the adviser, therefore limiting some conversation.
I’d like to also now extend the adviser/student relationship into a manager/student worker one, of which I am now on the manager side. While I only see my students a handful of hours per week, I do try to mentor them as much as I can. I know my campus job (more than my courses, probably) influenced my current career greatly, and I would hope my students have the same meaningful experience. So I do try to be like the open, caring, example of an adviser, as much as I can be.
However, I definitely have come across students who don’t seem to want to talk about what’s going on in their lives. Some are reluctant to discuss even something as simple as what classes they’re taking that may relate to the work they do for me or whether they’ve thought of what to do post-graduation. At that point, do I say, it’s not my business? Do I assume they’re hesitant to share because they have it all figured out, because I’m not faculty, because they’re shy? Am I viewed as too close to their age, too much like a peer to give advice? What if there were a problem that I could have known about had I only pressed them?
I’d like to come full circle with the college’s financial discussions. In these meetings we were told that we should counsel any student who is thinking about leaving the school for financial reasons to visit the financial aid office first, they may be able to get help. I want to know my students well enough that the school doesn’t lose them for this or another solvable problem. But at the same time I don’t want to pry, I just want them to know I’m there.
I started this entry knowing it would be more full of rambling and questions than a provable thesis and answers. In fact, I’m even uncertain of a title for this still! I think the underlying points here are: How can an adviser, teacher, staff member, etc. have an influence to keep a student at the college and doing well? Is a very open and involved dialogue between adviser and advisee the only way to ensure success? And if so, how can both parties make this happen? Lastly, I wanted to draw the comparison between an academic adviser and a work study job manager/boss, mainly their similarities in the role of guiding students. This is very open ended, so I’d love to hear thoughts.
Tags: college, higher education, work
Word count: 1,041