Big changes are underway in the College of Letters & Science, which is launching a new advising initiative that aims to transform undergraduate advising; the initiative focuses on ‘early and repeated’ advisor conversations with students, and closer coordination between College and Departmental advisors. As the newly-named Associate Executive Dean for Advising in L&S, Bob Jacobsen is spearheading the initiative, and took some time to discuss what’s happening in L&S, and his passion for the field of advising.
Q: As a faculty member, how do you see the importance of professional staff advisors in relation to your work in the classroom?
College undergraduate education is more than what happens in the classroom. Students come here to be part of a community of scholars or learners. And advisors are the ones who help students get started on that path. The best advising breaks students out of a mindset of ‘I’m taking six courses in high school” and helps them see that they’re part of an intellectual enterprise, an adventure in learning.
Q: What are the top priorities for advising in L&S?
I want students to feel that advisors have helped them build an academic plan that helps them get everything they can out of their time at this institution. This is not in conflict with other goals involving campus advising, but it’s focused on the academic part, the classroom, department, library, research part. My second goal is, I want advisors to feel proud of what they’re doing. I don’t want to burn them out in service of students. I know they’re here for professional reasons; I want them to grow as professionals.
Q: What is it that you want new students to experience?
We’re going to start with incoming freshmen in fall 2014. We will change their experience over the whole time they’re here. I want them to feel prepared so that if they want to go on a research project their senior year, or if they’re choosing between three majors, they gather experiences needed to make that choice. The advisor is helping them from the very beginning, through CalSO, through Telebears, and so on, to make these choices. It’s not going to be about which requirements you fulfilled. It’s going to be a long arc, all the way from CalSO through graduation. You want to reduce the number of times that students come in with a problem that has to be resolved right now, but that could’ve been solved by a small thing the previous year.
Q: What do advisors need in order to offer this kind of advising within L&S?
College and department advisors work together already, of course, and have relationships that go back a long way. But some of this communication is still difficult, still on paper. Students have to carry a piece of paper from their College advisor to their Department advisor. One big change we’re making is that all the advisors (College and Department) will now have access to our notes system called eTriever. College advisors have used these for years; but for the first time, Departmental advisors will be able to use it too. They don’t have to change their own systems if they don’t want to, but they will at least be able to see the notes that a college advisor made. Maybe we’ll also find a way for the departmental and college advisors to get together in person to talk about their students. And I know we have to make the time available for advisors to collaborate like this – so I also want to make some policy and procedure changes to cut out some of the unnecessary work. Things like, instead of having to sign off a bunch of students individually, just sign them off by exception. Advisors are busy, busy people. If we could save them a few hours a week, we’d be making a big difference.
Q: What’s an example you’ve seen about how advisors make a difference for students?
I’ve seen departmental advisors bring in a transfer student from a weak community college and hook them up with the intellectual life of their department and turn them into professional scholars within a year. That is fantastic. I’ve seen college advisors take someone with family pressure to major in something, and then open up doors for them to explore other majors. I’ve seen advisors help a student in crisis by putting together a team that will help that student get back to school. I’ve seen those spontaneous teams make a huge, in some cases life-saving, difference in a student’s life. Those are just a few examples of the difference advisors can make.