Nov 26-30

This week at DGS I wrote a blog post for the Illinois Admissions page. Recently, DGS was asked to provide blog posts for the Admissions webpage. I brainstormed some ideas this week and one of my topics was approved. I wrote my post and sent it in for edits. I also attempted to shadow an academic advisor but all of her students did not show up for her appointments. I think that no-shows are one downfall to an advising office that only does appointments. I know other offices only do drop-ins. When DGS has busy times (right before registration, around midterms, around the add deadline), they will do drop ins but when they are busy but don't have drop-ins then it makes the advisors more frustrated when students do not show up for their appointment. One of the main reasons why it is frustrating is because the no-show took the appointment slot that another student could have had. During busy periods, students are having to make appointments that are three weeks away while other students are not showing up to their appointments. On another day, I was able to shadow another advisor.

I also talked with the supervisor of the CARE Committee to ask if there were any upcoming plans. She asked that I brainstorm some ideas for a one hour retreat someday in December. I brainstormed ideas for that. The goal of the retreat is to provide a relaxing atmosphere for the advisors.

I also reviewed two student petitions this week and determined my vote to deny or approve those petitions. I think that these petitions can become very subjective, so it is hard to remain objective. I went through different academic programs and their requirements.

This week, I read "Academic Advising as a Multisystem, Collaborative Enterprise"by Tukey (1996). This article focused on academic advising as a system that is open to other units on campus and that is open to the  institutional mission of the college or university. For example, students may look at academic advising as a system because of the various ways that they get information like from financial aid offices, the registrar's office, faculty, their peers, parents, orientations, and more. Tukey claims that advising must be collaborative, it must be supported campus wide by faculty, staff, students, upper level administration, and it must be open to outside influences. This article seems very idealistic. While all of these suggestions are great, I have realized that at the UIUC, communication and collaboration across a large campus can be difficult. On the other hand, I have also realized that DGS must work with others, with admissions, with orientation staff, with financial aid, with other academic departments, so that we can appropriately advise our students. However, I still feel like I do not have all of the information necessary. I still send students over to the financial aid office because I don't know how many credit hours students must maintain to keep their financial aid. Also, some departments do not want to meet with DGS students because they are so focused on their own students. This makes our job more difficult. I can see why upper administration and faculty would need to help push this collaboration to help with these difficulties.

Tukey, D. D. (1996). Academic advising as a multisystem, collaborative enterprise. NACADA Journal, 16(1), 6-13. 

I also read "The Advanced Undecided College Student: A Qualitative Study" by Hagstrom, Skovholt, and Rovers (1997). This article gave great insight into the minds of undecided students and the feelings that being undecided elicits. The researchers found that students felt frustrated, anxious, hopeless, were fearful of commitment, were fearful of being judged, they had low self-esteem and self-doubt, they felt lost without goals, they felt pressure from family, they were hesitant to meet with their academic advisor, and they wanted a meaningful relationship with their advisor whereby the advisor truly understood what the student was going through. These characteristics of undecided students does not surprise me. I think these feelings are very real for students. Once this semester, an advisor told me that they had recently seen students who cried in their office because they just felt lost and could not pick a major. Thus far this semester, I cannot recall a time that I met with a student who openly expressed these feelings other than pressure from family. Many of the students I met with had a good idea of what they wanted to major in. However, I think because the students I met with this semester were freshman, they may not have been as concerned with being undecided as students who are sophomores or juniors, the population of students in this study.

Hagstrom, S. J., Skovholt, T. M., Rivers, D. A. (1997). The advanced undecided college students: A qualitative study. NACADA Journal, 17(2), 23-30.

In total, I spent 1.5 hours reading and blogging
3 hours brainstorming about blogs and writing the blog for the admissions page
45 minutes brainstorming for the CARE Committee
45 minutes at a staff meeting
45 minutes reviewing student petitions and providing my vote
15 minutes shadowing an advisor during their appointment
1 hour reviewing academic programs