Faculty and Faculty Advisors
Importance of Good Advising
Students may create strong bonds with you as teachers and researchers, but only in advising will you be able to form and build relationships that last through a student's full career at West Chester. It has been shown that students' potential for success - doing well in classes, moving through their programs smoothly, graduating on time - is dramatically increased if they can form solid interpersonal relationships with mentors on campus. Thus, advising can make a huge difference, and faculty advisors must consider this important opportunity for positive impact from their first meeting with their advisees. Many faculty advisors report, too, that building close relationships with advisees is what they enjoy most about their faculty responsibilities.
NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising
The Global Community for Academic Advising promotes and supports quality academic advising in institutions of higher education to enhance the educational development of students. NACADA provides a forum for discussion, debate, and the exchange of ideas pertaining to academic advising through numerous activities and publications. NACADA also serves as an advocate for effective academic advising by providing a Consulting and Speaker Service and funding for Research related to academic advising.
NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising
Vision
Recognizing that effective academic advising is at the core of student success, NACADA aspires to be the premier global association for the development and dissemination of innovative theory, research, and practice of academic advising in higher education.
Mission
NACADA promotes student success by advancing the field of academic advising globally. We provide opportunities for professional development, networking, and leadership for our diverse membership.
Advising Technology
Ramportal
Ramportal is your system for all student records. Access schedules, grades, class registration, and more!
Navigate
Navigate offers a 360-view of student data to coordinate how best to support student success. Navigate is not intended to add complexity to your advising. Instead, it is intended to guide the prioritization of outreach to and interaction with your students.
Best Practices
Contact my advisees
Include templates (welcome email; scheduling an advising meeting; nudge; how to get a hold of me or another advisor during a break)
Keep track of meeting information
- Advisor notes on Degree Audit
- Update Navigate – report on appointment and include any attachments
Find help for my advisee
Ram Resources
Use Ram Resources to find university resources and support across campus.
Contact Information
Email cae@wcupa.edu if you do not know where to send a student or who to contact.
Legal responsibilities of an advisor
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
You may not release any student academic information to anyone outside the university without written permission by the student.
Mandatory Title IX Reporting
You must report to the Office of Equal Opportunity and Compliance any incident of sexual misconduct that is told to you by an advisee, and you must provide your advisee's name. Please make sure your advisees are aware that anything of this nature they tell you must be reported. If your advisee does not want his or her information reported under his/her name, s/he can speak to employees with confidential exemption:
Crisis Response and Resources
You may become aware of troubling persons or situations that cause serious anxiety, stress or fear. You should report such situations immediately to your chair and Public Safety. You will rarely encounter threatening situations at the university, and you are not expected to be experts in responding to such issues, but you do need to report anything of concern.
The CARE Team
The Campus Assessment Response and Education Team (CARE Team) is a campus-wide team that provides a caring approach of identification, consultation, and coordination of the University response to situations involving students who engage in concerning, disruptive and/or potentially harmful behavior. CARE Team serves as a resource to the campus community and centralizes communication. The team identifies risk and develops a collaborative outreach and support plan with campus and community resources.
Navigate Concerns/Alerts, Referrals, Cases, and Kudos
Throughout Navigate you will see alerts, referrals, kudos, and cases. Some will appear in an instructor's Progress Report while others are options available to you within Navigate.
General Education
It’s a best practice to check the updated course catalog each year.
The Academic Support & Advocacy Center (ASA)
The Academic Support & Advocacy Center (ASA) is intended to help support student persistence by centralizing student success professionals and incorporating differentiated and proactive care to students. The ASA provides holistic support for undergraduate students at WCU. Our Student Success Coordinators (SSCs) are dedicated and highly trained professionals who help students navigate the transition to college by prioritizing academic, cultural, emotional, financial, intellectual, and social needs. ASA works alongside faculty advisors to ensure students feel supported as they make the transition to college.