Overview of Total Intake Model (TIM) of Advising            Roles/Responsibilities of Advisors, Students, Institution

Academic Advising Timeline for Campus beginning 2000                    Reflections on Advising for Reaccreditation

Faculty Pathway, a Handbook for Faculty & Instructional Academic Staff Advisors

Guiding Your Program Through the Advising Transition                       Sample Advising Transition Report

Wondering what it's all about?  START HERE:

1. Advising impacts accreditation, retention, student satisfaction, and institution reputation. 

2. Students, accreditation bodies, and higher administration want improvements in advising at UW Oshkosh.  

3. Expert consultants have repeatedly made the same recommendations, tailored to UW Oshkosh, so it is not difficult to understand the improvements that need to be made.  For a detailed history, see link to "Academic Advising Timeline for Campus" above.

4. In addition to UARC advisors, Faculty and Instructional Academic Staff (F/IAS) advisors are key to developmental advising success because (a) they are the most expert on specific paths of academic development and (b) they have the biggest impact on retention. Moreover, developmental advising is already an explicit teaching activity of F/IAS at UW Oshkosh (see Chapter One, "Faculty Role and Responsibility", of the Faculty/Staff Handbook).

5. The Total Intake Model of Developmental Advising was adopted at UW Oshkosh starting September 2005.  ALL STUDENTS who have fulfilled a given Dept/Program's criteria for a Faculty/Instructional Academic Staff advisor have become the responsibility of Depts/Programs on September 1, 2005. Depts/Programs themselves decided what those criteria are. This model helps Faculty, Academic Staff, and UARC ("Dempsey") advisors play to their strengths. Its implementation requires new ways for those advisor groups to communicate so that they act synergistically for the students' benefit.  Faculty educate the UARC, and vice versa.

6. Departments/Programs/Colleges were instructed to first document those aspects of Total Intake advising that are already occurring. In some cases on our campus, the only work that needs to be done is to formally report on what advising was already being done. One of our biggest mistakes has been lack of recognition of F/IAS advising that is already occurring. Next, units were instructed to study the Total Intake Model and decide on the criteria by which their respective F/IAS advisors would take on the responsibility of advising. Finally, units were instructed to create paper and electronic documents describing their advising policies.

7. All the advising research shows that only those F/IAS who wish to advise, should do so. 

8. The roles and responsibilities of F/IAS in the advising process are finite and have been articulated. There is a strong emphasis on referral of students to the appropriate campus experts.

9. F/IAS advisors are being offered appropriate development opportunities (i.e. training for the advising task) now and in the future. 

10. F/IAS have had the right, and the opportunity, to ask questions and offer feedback all along this process of improvement.  Groups of people have been working since Fall 2004 to facilitate the needed advising improvements in a shared governance format. It is not too late to join the action or offer opinions, either to your Department/Program or indeed to the Advisory Council itself.

MISSION: The ACCAA is a shared-governance body consisting of student, staff, and faculty members from all UW Oshkosh colleges.  It was convened by the Provost in May 2003 with the following charge: "The Council's primary purpose is to provide guidance and support to the Director of Academic Advising and to provide the University community information and guidance around issues of academic advising". Since the Director of Advising is ex officio on this Council and attends all the meetings, in practice this Council often reports to the Provost for the purpose of making recommendations for the optimization of academic advising practices at UW Oshkosh.  

HISTORY: The Council was appointed by Provost Keith Miller in the Spring of 2003 and was first convened, by Dr. Miller, on May 9, 2003.  It is composed of students, faculty, and staff.  It meets monthly for 90 minutes, during Fall and Spring semesters. Days and times rotate each semester due to changes in class schedules of Council members. Meetings are open. The Council's first task was to educate itself with consultant reports and other advising "best practices" documents in order to structure recommendations appropriate for UW Oshkosh. For a detailed history, see link to "Academic Advising Timeline for Campus" above.

MEMBERSHIP:

KEY BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT THE MISSION:

1. January 2002 Consultant's report on the state of advising at UW Oshkosh from Dr. Wes Habley; copy available upon request. Summarizes consistent criticisms of multiple reports in the past, suggests Total Intake Model for our campus based on its characteristics.
2. Academic Advising: A comprehensive handbook, published by the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA); Polk Library has a copy (Main Collection, call no. LB2343 .A29 2000). 
3. Dana Vaughan's summary from the 2003 NACADA Summer Institute. 
4. Visual representation of the Total Intake Model. 
5. UW Oshkosh Faculty Handbook re: advising ("advisement"); see esp. pp. 208-209.

MEETING MINUTES, most recent first (note: minutes will appear online only after they have been approved as distributed, which occurs a minimum of one meeting later).

• March 2007 meeting
• February 2007 meeting (cancelled, so no minutes)
• December 2006 meeting pending approval in March
• November 2006 (no quorum so no minutes, but we had a good discussion anyway)
• October 2006 (meeting cancelled, so no minutes)
• September 2006 pending approval in December
• May 2006
• April 2006
• March 2006: in lieu of our regular meeting, we attended a presentation on student readiness for college work by the American College Testing program.
• February 2006
• December 2005
• November 2005
• October 2005
• September 2005
• May 2005
• April 2005
• March 2005
• February 2005
• December 2004
• November 2004
• October 2004   
• September 2004
• May 2004
• April 2004
• (no March 2004 meeting; failed to get a quorum)
• February 2004
• December 2003
• November 2003
• October 2003
• September 2003 
• May 2003

ACTIONS TAKEN, most recent first (note: all memos are pre-approved by a quorum of current ACCAA members before they are forwarded to anyone in the University community):

1. Memo to Provost recommending formal recognition of faculty and instructional academic staff advising activities.
2. Reports to NCA Reaccreditation Team in December 2005: a timeline and specifics regarding accreditation criteria.
3. Memo to Interim Dean Fiedler (representing all Deans) dated November 3, 2004 regarding ACCAA support for a Faculty Advising Development program proposal, to be addressed by the new UARC-Faculty Training Workgroup.
4. Memo stemming from the September 2004 meeting (see minutes) and dated September 28, 2004 to Provost Earns with a recommendation to give faculty advising development initiatives a high priority during AY 2004-5 (reiterates statements in May 27 2004 memo; unanimous approval of ACCAA quorum). 
5. Memo stemming from the May 2004 meeting (see minutes) and dated May 27, 2004 to Provost Miller; accompanied by broad recommendations for a definition of advising and role statements of advising partcipants (unanimous approval of ACCAA quorum). Both Provost Miller and Earns responded in their own memo dated June 18, 2004.
6. Faculty College "Advising as Teaching" PowerPoint and discussion to COEHS (by special invitation) February 2004. 
7. Faculty College "Advising as Teaching" PowerPoint and discussion offered campuswide January 2004. 
8. Memo stemming from the October 2003 meeting (see minutes) and dated October 16, 2003 to Provost Miller regarding the impact of the new online Timetable on advisors and students (unanimous approval of ACCAA quorum). Instructional Technology responded quickly, within days providing an easily printed Timetable substitute online.

Last updated: 03/02/07                   Webmaster: Dana Vaughan