 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Funding for Faculty Development
|
|
Working Groups and Projects Strengthening Academic Advising A working group to make
recommendations on strengthening the academic advising system, particularly
for students in the sophomore year. Charge to the Committee: While many faculty spend hours every week in formal and informal advising sessions with students, we receive little formal training from the College in this important aspect of our professional lives. Not surprisingly then, students advising means different things to different people. Certainly some aspects of advising are about helping majors step through the College and departmental/programmatic requirements to get the degree. On another level, academic advisors play a significant role in helping students decide which courses to take both inside and outside the major. Many, if not most professors at Macalester function at the next level, which includes helping students "find their way" academically and professionally. We try to listen to students as their identities emerge, and try to provide realistic feedback about performance, course and major options, and career paths. In addition to these more traditional advising functions, most of us help students deal with problems of a more personal nature, especially when they interfere with academic performance. For the most part, we provide attention, tissues and suggestions about College resources that may be helpful. For colleges such as Macalester, the quality of academic advising is crucial. Students and their parents expect the faculty here to know students personally and take an active interest in their academic success. The first year course program helps us deliver on this promise for first year students. Likewise, opportunities to enroll in smaller classes and seminars, independent studies and capstone experiences help juniors and seniors navigate the more advanced stages of their work here. In the sophomore year, however, when most students choose a major and many switch advisors, students can become disconnected from the college, and make decisions that diminish their ability to make the most of their college experience. In response to this problem the Student Affairs staff began working on the development of a co-curricular sophomore-year program to support students as they begin to think about their life's work, choosing their major, finding ways to develop intellectual and life skills through their extra- and co-curricular activities, learning how to better use the resources of the Career Development Center and the Internship Office, and devising a coherent plan for their college experience in the final two years. While the Student Affairs staff has made significant progress in this work, we now need to turn our attention toward the academic advising component of a sophomore program. This component is likely to include the development of better support for the process of choosing a major and of helping students develop an integrated and comprehensive plan for the final two years of study. Such a plan might include a well-conceived course sequence in the major, selection of courses outside the major that support, intersect and integrate well into the student's overall objectives, a plan for experiential, independent or collaborative learning opportunities that expand classroom knowledge and deepen understanding, a thoughtful plan for engagement in civic learning or study abroad that maximizes intellectual and personal growth, and a plan for the strategic use of co-curricular activities to enrich and strengthen academic success. We are currently looking for faculty and staff who are interested in working on this project. The working group's major charge is to determine how our academic advising system should be strengthened, particularly for sophomores, without placing an undo burden on faculty time, and to devise effective, practical strategies that will move us in that direction. The group will meet 10-12 times and make final recommendations for changes in the academic advising system by the end of the year. Participants receive a small FTR stipend ($150-200, depending on the number of participants) plus the group will have a modest budget for materials, consultants, and/or travel to other colleges. If a pilot project emerges from this work, money will be available to support this effort. Adrienne Christiansen has agreed to chair this committee. If you are interested in participating in this important project, please contact Jan Serie.
|
|
|
|