Statement of Core Values of Academic Advising
The National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) is an organization of professional advisors, faculty, administrators, students and others from a variety of settings who do academic advising or other-wise work to promote quality academic advising on college and university campuses. As members of this organization, the profession of academic advising, and others who advise or provide related programs and services to students, we must recognize our responsibility not only to students and the institutions in which the advising is done, but to society, to colleagues, and to ourselves.
All providers of academic advising should be expected to perform in a professional manner. The Core Values identified and discussed here---values that provide a framework against which those who do academic advising can measure their own performance---are intended to provide a perspective for advising professionals and others.
The Power of Academic Advising
Few experiences in students' post-secondary career have as much potential for influencing their development as does academic advising.
Through regular contact with students, whether face-to-face, through the mail, on the telephone, or through computer mediated systems, advisors gain meaningful insights into students' academic, social, and personal experiences and needs.
Advisors use these insights to help students feel a part of the academic community, develop sound academic and career goals, and ultimately be successful learners.
Because of the nature of academic advising, advisors often develop a broad vision of the institution. Advisors can therefore play an important interpretive role with administrators, faculty, and staff, helping them further understand students' academic and personal development needs. Advisors can teach others to identify students who, with additional attention from academic support staff, may achieve their goals to succeed academically and personally.
Students place a great deal of trust in their advisors. That trust warrants quality programs and services. It is through our Core Values that students' expectations of academic advising are honored.
Beliefs About Students
Like other educators, academic advisors endeavor to strengthen the importance, dignity, potential, and unique nature of each individual served within the academic setting. Our work as advisors is guided by our beliefs that:
- students hold their own beliefs and opinions
- learning needs vary according to individual skills, goals, and experiences
- students are responsible for their own behavior
- students have a desire to learn
- students can be successful based upon their individual goals and efforts
The Core Values
Out of these beliefs grow our Core Values. Regardless of our professional preparation and experience, each of us in the field of academic advising is ultimately guided in our work by what we perceive as important, what we value, and what we believe about those we sere---primarily students, but also others in the institutions within which we work, and even the institutions themselves.
We recognize the complex nature of academic advising, the wide variety of settings and responsibilities for which academic advisors are responsible, and the diverse backgrounds and experiences of academic advisors. Yet while values and beliefs are by their very nature individual, there are many that are subscribed to by those who advise students. Through this Statement of Core Values we communicate to others what they can expect from us. these core Values may be used to validate our conduct in our diverse roles and our relationships within the academic community.
Why Our Core Values are Important
Students deserve dependable, accurate, respectful, honest, friendly, and professional service. In order to serve students well, academic advisors understand that they are responsible to many constituents who comprise our academic communities. This is the foundation upon which the following Core Values rest.
Advisors are responsible to the students and individuals they serve. Quality programs and services are delivered to students through the cooperative efforts of all those who do academic advising. This includes, but is not limited to, giving accurate and timely information, maintaining regular office hours, and keeping appointments. Advisors help students develop a perception of themselves and their relationship to the future. Advisors introduce students in a nurturing way to the world they are entering---teaching them to value the learning process, put the college experience into perspective, become more responsible, set priorities and evaluate sequences of events, and be honest with themselves.
Advisors encourage self-reliance by helping students make informed and responsible decisions, set realistic goals, and develop thinking, learning, and life management skills to meet present and future needs. Advisors work with students to help them accomplish the goals and objectives they have established for themselves. Advisors encourage students to be responsible for their own success and progress. They respect students' rights to their individual beliefs and opinions but are not dictated to by them.
Advisors work to modify barriers to student progress; identify burdensome, ineffective, and inefficient policies and procedures; and work to effect change. When the needs of students and the institution are in conflict, advisors seek a resolution that is in the best interest of both parties. Advisors inform students about appropriate grievance procedures in cases where students find the resolution unsatisfactory.
Advisors recognize the changing nature of the college and university environment and student body. They support students in appropriate ways (e.g. advocate at the administrative level for recognition of these changes; offer varied office hours; acknowledge the special needs of all students and the pressures on them to juggle study with work, family, and other interpersonal demands).
Advisors are knowledgeable about and sensitive to federal, state, and their own institution's policies and procedures, especially those governing such matters as sexual harassment, personal relationships with students, privacy of student information, equal treatment, equal access, and equal opportunity.
Advisors respect the rights of students to have information about themselves kept confidential. Advisors share information with others about students and their programs only when both advisor and student believe that information is relevant and will result in increased information or assistance, assessment, and provision of appropriate services to the student.
Advisors gain access to and use computerized information about students only when that information is relevant to the advising which they are doing with that particular student. Advisors enter or change information on students' records only when legitimately authorized to do so.
Advisors need to adequately document advising contacts to facilitate subsequent advising interactions.
Advisors are responsible for involving others, where appropriate, in the advising process. Effective advising requires a broad-based, or holistic, approach to working with students. Crucial are the ties which academic advisors develop with others who assist students in diverse areas such as: admissions, orientation, financial aid, housing, health services, athletics, course selection and satisfaction of academic requirements, special physical and educational needs (e.g. disabilities, study skills, psychological counseling), foreign study, career development, co-curricular programs, and graduation clearance.
Advisors are facilitators and mediators. Responsible academic advisors recognize their limitations and effectively use their specialized knowledge.
Therefore, to make connections between academic advising and other aspects of students' lives, advisors seek out resources provided by others. Referrals to these resources provide students with further assessments of their needs and access to appropriate programs and services.
Advisors are responsible to the college or university in which they work. Advisors respect the opinions of their colleagues, remain neutral when students present them with comments, questions, or opinions about other faculty or staff, and are non-judgmental about academic programs.
Advisors increase their collective professional strength by sharing their philosophies and techniques with colleagues.
Advisors keep administrators who are not involved directly in the advising process informed and aware of the importance of academic advising in students' lives, and the need for administrative support of advising and related activities.
Advisors abide by the specific policies, procedures, and values promulgated by the department and institution for which they work. Where injustices occur which might interfere with students' learning, advisors advocate for change on behalf of students with the institution's administration, faculty, and staff.
Advisors are responsible to higher education generally. Academic advisors honor (and are protected by) the concept of academic freedom as practiced on our campuses. In this spirit, advisors hold a variety of points of view. Academic advisors are free to base their communications with students on theories of college student development and models of delivery for academic advising programs and services which they find enrich their practice and enable students to reach their goals in an advising relationship.
Advisors accept that one of the goals of education is to introduce students to the world of ideas. One goal of academic advising is to establish a partnership between student and advisor to guide students through their academic programs so they may attain the knowledge gained and offered by faculty.
Academic advisors believe that it is ultimately the responsibility of students to apply what is learned to everyday situations. Advisors assist students in understanding this process.
Advisors advocate for students' educational achievement at the highest attainable standard and support student goals, as well as the educational mission of the institution.
Advisors advocate the creation of strengthening of programs and services that are compatible with students' academic needs.
Advisors are responsible to the community (including the local, state, and region in which the institution is located). Academic advisors interpret the institution's mission, standards, goals, and values to its community, including public and private schools from which the college or university draws its student body. Advisors are sensitive to the values and mores of the surrounding community, sharing these with and interpreting them to students. Advisors are aware of community programs and services and may become models for students by participating in community activities themselves.
Advisors are responsible to their professional role as advisors and to themselves personally. To keep advising skills hones and interest high, advisors are encouraged to seek opportunities for professional development through classes, workshops, conferences, reading, consultation with others, and interaction in formal groups with other advisors (e.g., professional organizations like NACADA). Advisors, as professionals, are expected to engage in professional development activities to maintain skills and promote professional growth.
Advisors understand the personal demands which accompany the human services aspects of advising. Advisors develop skills for taking care of themselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually. They learn how to distance themselves from students' problems while maintaining a keen listening ear and providing sensitive response. They establish and maintain appropriate boundaries. They need to be nurtured by others within the profession and they need to nurture their colleagues. They seek support for themselves within and outside the institution.
Academic advising lends itself well to research. Advisors may engage in research related to advising. Advisors are encouraged to engage in research related to their own particular training and disciplinary backgrounds. Each research agenda must honor the institution's safeguards for privacy and humane treatment of subjects.
Academic advisors frequently seek guidance regarding ethical decisions and behaviors in their work with students. This statement is provided as a guide for appropriate conduct. the Core Values would be reviewed periodically, adding relevant material and rewording existing language to bring the statement in line with current professional practices and thinking. The National Academic principles, and to support the work of those who do academic Advising Association encourages institutions to adopt this Statement of Core Values, to embrace its advising.
This Statement of Core Values of Academic Advising has been prepared by Catherine Simon Frank at the University of Minnesota, 909 Social Science Building, 267 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 and Stuart L. Rubner at the University of Texas at San Antonio, John Peace Library, San Antonio, Texas, 78285.