Editor's note: This is the sixth in a series of articles written by students enrolled in Jennifer Bloom's graduate seminar on academic advising at the University of South Carolina for the 2007 fall semester. As part of her course syllabus, Dr. Bloom required each student in her class to submit an article to The Mentor or other publications for consideration.
Summer orientation. For many institutions, this is one of the busiest times of the year. It is the time to promote and introduce the institution to incoming first-year and transfer students and their families. To assist with this intense process each year, an exceptional group of orientation leaders is selected to serve as mentors and guides for incoming students. They are diverse and outgoing leaders who dedicate their summers to assist incoming students and their families with the transition into the institution. Not only do they help students feel comfortable during this transition, but they also share information about scheduling, classes, and advising.
Chickering (1994) suggests that the role of an academic adviser is “to help students become effective agents for their own lifelong learning and personal development ... and aim to increase their capacity to take charge of their own existence” (p. 50). Encouraging students to “take charge” of their educations is one of the key roles that advisers play during orientation. Academic advisers are often the first institutional representatives with whom incoming students interact, and research suggests students prefer more contact with advisers, faculty, and adults on campus (Light, 2001). Advisers are an integral part of student orientations, as they present key information on the curricula they advise, get to know each student and his or her individual hopes and dreams, and direct the scheduling and registration process. This process can sometimes be stressful if students do not get the classes they want, parents want to be more involved in the process, and incoming students do not fully understand or appreciate the advice from their advisers. Because orientation leaders develop relationships with incoming students and their family members throughout the entire orientation process, new students may feel more comfortable turning to them for advice. Therefore, orientation leaders can be important members of the advising team.
As new students are welcomed to the institution, it can be a challenge to understand them on both individual and collective levels. In order to understand and provide services to suit their needs during orientation, it is important to have peers available who can help translate issues that may arise with incoming students (Harper, Keup, & Brewer, 2007). If orientation leaders are on your advising teams, they can do more than just assist with the scheduling and advising process. Ideally these students can play an integral role as the liaison between the adviser and student. It is an optimal way to prevent first-year students from feeling intimidated by their advisers, faculty, and/or staff. If incoming students see that their orientation leaders connect with advisers, they are likely to regard advisers as approachable and use advising services more often throughout their academic careers.
So how do advisers collaborate with orientation leaders to make sure both groups understand their respective roles and responsibilities during orientation? The answer is a simple one. Advisers should proactively team up with the orientation department and set aside two days during orientation training to have intentional conversations with orientation leaders. By collaborating with orientation services, advisers and orientation leaders can work together to develop the curriculum for the training session. Together, advisers and orientation professionals can figure out what offices and resources are most important for incoming students. Orientation leaders can be paired with academic advisers to form teams that work together throughout the summer. Consistency throughout orientation keeps everyone on the same page and allows orientation leaders to develop meaningful relationships with the advisers in their group.
The planned training periods can help in multiples ways. Not only can these training sessions help distinguish roles and responsibilities of the advisers and the orientation leaders, but, more importantly, they allow both groups to become comfortable working together. They can work together to figure out how they want to run the advising sessions. The orientation leaders will develop a strong working relationship with their advising teams, which will increase the confidence levels of both the advisers and the orientation leaders. During training, it would benefit orientation leaders and advisers to sit with one another during presentations. This allows time in between training sessions for advisers and orientation leaders to discuss what they have learned. At the University of Central Florida, advising teams sit together during presentations, enjoy conversations over lunch, and, after each campus presentation, participate in a trivia competition among advising teams. This allows both orientation leaders and advisers to begin working together in a relaxed environment.
The most important part of training is setting expectations. Advisers and orientation leaders need to understand one another's roles. Academic advisers have specific duties that they must fulfill. For example, the adviser should take the lead when counseling students on career and life goals. Students may feel more comfortable talking to their orientation leader than to an authority figure, but the orientation leaders must encourage incoming students to discuss problems with the appropriate campus professionals (Bertrand, 1999).
While the advisers can handle larger issues, orientation leaders can serve as experts on other topics. For example, orientation leaders know how to handle the procedural steps of the advising process: how to register, how to drop and add courses, and when to declare a major (Goldberg, 1981, p. 42). They can offer the advice from a student's perspective, which helps put incoming students at ease.
In conclusion, there are many benefits associated with academic advisers proactively collaborating with student orientation leaders. These benefits include building relationships between advisers and the student orientation leaders, giving incoming students opportunities to meet and learn from the orientation student leaders, and sending a clear message to incoming students that orientation leaders value and trust the academic advisers. It is also possible that some of the orientation leaders might develop a career interest in the field of academic advising. Working with orientation leaders can make a difference in the lives of incoming students and current student leaders. Make a difference today by contacting your orientation office to begin discussing how academic advisers and the orientation office can truly collaborate to ensure that students' first experiences as members of the university community are positive ones.