This week at DGS I was lucky enough to have some new experience. I was one of the interviewers for the new advisor position. It was interesting seeing how the candidate came to wanting to apply to DGS. It also was nice hearing the questions that we asked. That way, I know the types of questions that will be asked when I interview for jobs. I also reviewed many student petitions this week. These petitions are mostly for withdrawal from a class. A student fills out a petition and gathers information for it before they turn in the completed petition. The purpose of the petition is to give student's the opportunity to explain why they want to drop a class after the drop deadline. Usually, petitions are completed in the semester after the student took the class. In the petitions there are narratives about students' extenuating circumstances, doctor's notes, psychologist notes, obituaries, syllabi, grades, messages from the instructor and anything else that is pertinent to the student's story. Once the petition is complete, there are petition committees made up of advisors who decide if they accept, accept with advising agreement, accept as one-time-only or deny. Then, either the director of DGS or the executive director of the whole office makes the final decision. A student can appeal the decision. I read through many petitions to try to develop my skills and ability to hold the petition process to what it is meant for. I also had to learn to comprehend a lot of information to put it together to form a timeline and picture of events. I also was able to read what each advisor's decision was and what the final decision was. It was a subject process but I could tell the advisors try to make it objective.
Finally, I read a lot about the probation program at DGS. The program is called PASS and I read through the PASS manual and the activities that advisors use in the program. I also read the student handbook on probation rules.
Working with Undecided Students: A Hands-on Strategy discusses a three step process to helping students discover a major that would work for that student. In step one, the students complete personal profiles to brainstorm what the students are good at and they develop a sense of what different skills they want to have and what concepts they want to know. In step 2, the advisor and student create a list of courses the student could take related to the outcomes of step 1 and they make a list of extra things they could do related to their interests, like volunteering somewhere. Finally, in step 3, the student chooses a major related to step one and two. I think this is a good strategy that advisors in DGS do take, it just is not as deliberate as this strategy. For example, they talk with students about interests, abilities, skills, and concepts but for the most part, they do not write them down. They also talk with students about exploring different majors by taking classes in different areas and getting out-of-class experience but again they do no create a list with the student. For the most part, the advisors also do not necessarily do step 1 during the first meeting and step 2 during a second meeting with the student. However, the advisors are more deliberate when they work with PASS students. With pass students, advisors have worksheets that they fill out with students about goals. I think deliberately going through the process suggested in the article would give the student a tangible piece of paper to reflect on and refer to.
Unfortunately, I currently have food poisening so I had to cut my hours at DGS down this week. I spent about 1 hours in the advisor interview, 2 hours and 45 minutes reviewing student petitions and 1 hour and 15 minutes reading about PASS. I spent 1 hour reading and blogging.
Schein, H. K.. & Laff, N.S. (1997). Working with undecided students: A hands-on strategy. NACADA Journal, 17(1), 42-48.
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