The NACADA Region 9 Conference: A Participant's Perspective

This article is a report of my personal experiences from the NACADA (National Academic Advising Association) Region9 conference held in April 2005 in Emeryville near San Francisco. I will start out with presenting my expectations of the conference before attending, as a presenter as well as a participant; continue with the lessons I learned during this conference; and end with my experiences in applying the lessons from this conference in my work environment. It is my intention that, through this article, attendees at other academic advising conferences will also be encouraged to share their findings.

Introduction

In a lighthearted atmosphere and on a location near the beautiful, free-spirited city of San Francisco, NACADA executed its 2005 Region 9 conference titled “Navigating the Course: Advisers Helping to Chart the Way.” Among the multiple hundreds of attendants were advisers from a variety of schools: private and public; small, mid-sized, and large; and multi-disciplinary colleges and universities.

It was obvious that almost everyone present was, like me, excited about this extraordinary opportunity to network with other individuals in similar disciplines, yet operating in such a diversity of educational settings.

“Learning” and “enjoying” were the two main points on my agenda, and I am convinced that I was not the only one with those goals. As one individual and presenter of two topics, I was, of course, unable to attend all the possible sessions that were scheduled simultaneously during this annual event. However, the workshops I could attend were all of decent quality and contained multiple, valuable learning points, in my opinion.

In this report I will present my expectations about the NACADA Region 9 conference before attending; share the lessons I learned during this conference; and explain my reflections on and applications of these lessons learned, in hopes that my perspectives will encourage other attendees to also share their experiences during future academic advising conferences.

Expectations Prior to the Conference

After receiving the acceptance of my proposals for two workshops from the coordinators of the NACADA Region 9 conference, I started to make plans. My first and most consistent intention was to make the most of this experience in two regards:

1. As a participant, I would attend as many sessions as possible, in order to learn as much as possible from others in the field of academic advising, so that I would be able to benchmark their practices to those in my own work environment.
2. As a presenter, I would make sure that the experiences I had formulated would be presented as interestingly, clearly, and interactively as possible. Here I was, an adult adviser, who was eager to apply the basics of adult education: maximal participation and reciprocal learning.

Because this conference would be the first NACADA event I would attend, I did not have much more to fuel my excitement than the enlivening stories from colleagues who had attended before and the positive approach from the conference coordinator.

Lessons Learned at the Conference

The “Administrator's” lesson. On the pre-conference day, there was an administrator's session in which some interesting and valuable learning topics were reviewed, such as:

• The need for an updated, easy-to-follow mission statement in each advising department.
• The importance for advising departments to identify campus allies, in order to stand tall in times of challenges and to get strategic plans rapidly implemented.
• The communication factor, which is of immense importance in successful performance.
• The use of appropriately advanced technology through responsible benchmarking.

The “Advising from the Heart” lesson. The presenters of this session reiterated to the audience of academic advisers that failure is a part of learning and stressed the importance for every adviser to relate to students' prevailing emotions in the educational environment: the fear of performing poorly, the horror of being laughed at, and the anxiety that maybe they just are not college material.

The “Keynote” lessons. The keynote speech was presented by Dr. Philip Friedman, president of Golden Gate University, who emphasized the increasing trend of adult education, explaining that today, 60% of all jobs require skills that only 20% of the workforce possesses. According to Dr. Friedman, there are a growing number of adults enrolling in official educational programs because they are increasingly becoming aware of the value of investing in education, compared to the return to be expected on this investment, because companies keep demanding higher levels of education for new hires.

Friedman called for enhanced empathy toward adult learners in our society, because this group of people juggles many factors at the same time: work and family; costs; the need to alter or adapt one's skill set; the fact that school was previously never seen as a good fit, but has become a must now; and the fear of failure or poor performance.

The “Writing for NACADA” lesson. In this session, the various types of contributions possible to the NACADA Journal were explained by Eric White, current president of the organization. White eloquently stated the eight questions one should ask when engaging in a study:

1. Why do it?
2. What research approach should be used?
3. What kind of administrative support will be needed?
4. Will human subject approval be required?
5. What method of collecting and analyzing the data should be used?
6. How long will the project take to complete?
7. Should I consider a presentation before publishing the article?
8. What positive feelings will result from being a published scholar?

Applying the Lessons Learned

In our daily practices at Woodbury University, the lessons learned at the above reviewed conference sessions have turned out to be mainly eye openers on actions already taken, yet not always consciously applied.

• The administrator's lesson proved to me that we were on the right track on our campus in unifying all academic support services and producing a conscious mission statement, which was co-formulated by all people involved in the academic support services departments. As a team, we took it even one step further: we also formulated a set of preferred work behaviors, currently consisting of six points, to be reviewed again on its applicability and currency after three months. The unification of the academic support services at Woodbury University also ties into the identification of campus allies, as was suggested in the administrator's session of the conference. It further epitomizes the implementation of productive communication, student-centeredness, team player skills, and a better understanding of the campus culture, as well as a strengthening in the position of the department in the institutional network, as mentioned in the conference.
• The “Advising from the Heart” session deeply impacted my associate and me and encouraged us to reflect, even more than before, on our own experiences as adult learners in order to support other adult learners. We feel much more confident now about doing the right thing through empathizing and understanding and about using our personal stories toward student advancement.
• The keynote was an extremely encouraging session to us, members of the small crowd of adult advisers present at this conference. The remarks made by Dr. Philip Friedman and the numbers provided toward proving the increasing importance of adult advising gave us the courage to reinforce our voice as advocates for adult learners at our institution. We are fortunate to detect that the accommodation of adult learners is now being considered more seriously than before. One of the remarkable changes we made after this conference was negotiating toward extended open hours for the campus bookstore and the cafeteria, in order to better facilitate adults during Weekend College.

Conclusion

The NACADA Region 9 conference was, in my humble opinion, a great success. Since “success” is a personal judgment, based on one's perceived level of rewards earned from an experience, I can only speak for myself. Yet I am fairly convinced that those who attended their share of sessions during this fruitful event will concur that there were many learning opportunities, but that the application of the lessons learned will be up to each and every one of us individually. Nevertheless, I think NACADA should be proud of this wonderful event and may note this gathering in its annals as a highly valuable one and a great long-term investment for all stakeholders in higher education: advisers, students, other institutional constituencies, and, ultimately, the communities in which these institutions operate.