Effective Faculty Advisors Will:

The following are baseline expectations for all full-time faculty (tenured, tenure track, affiliate, and visiting) in their interactions with students, whether or not the faculty member has an assigned Faculty Mentor role:  

• Understanding of the CLAS advising structure, in which students are assigned both a professional advisor and a Faculty Mentor. 
• Creation of an open, welcoming atmosphere that honors the unique nature and diverse backgrounds and interests of each student. 
• Comprehension of how assigned courses contribute to the curriculum of the Unit, the Voyage, and the General Education program, and knowledge of where to refer students for more detailed information about these topics. In addition, tenure-stream and affiliate faculty should also maintain awareness of curricular changes to their academic programs, utilizing Sail when necessary to determine the status of curriculum updates  
• Awareness of student success resources such as the CLAS Academic Advising Center, the Registrar’s Office, the Counseling Center, the Tutoring and Reading Center, the Knowledge Market, Student Accessibility Resources, etc.   
• Knowledge of the designated personnel in the faculty member’s unit responsible for liaising with the Advising Center.  
• Articulation of the purpose of General Education requirements in an undergraduate Liberal Arts education.  
• Understanding of and adherence to FERPA guidelines as they pertain to student advising records, restricted student information, and letters of recommendation requests.   

  

The following are responsibilities for all full-time faculty with assigned Faculty Mentor roles:  

Note: Advising and mentorship, done well, are time-intensive processes and numbers of assigned students vary widely from unit to unit. While each unit is free to set internal baseline expectations for engagement with assigned students, the CLAS Dean’s Office does not expect full-time faculty with advising responsibilities to meet with every student assigned to them. However, faculty are expected to be responsive to students who reach out for assistance. 

 

Actively Connect with Students 

• Know who their assigned mentees are (information currently available in Navigate and Banner). 
• Communicate with assigned mentees at least once at the beginning of each academic year, and ideally prior to registration each winter semester, in addition to any individualized communication the faculty member wants to send.  
• Be available to mentees as part of their regular office hours.  
• Answer emails from mentees in a timely manner.   
• Be able to identify a student’s assigned professional advisor or advisors in Navigate or Banner and collaborate with this person as needed.  

  

Maintain knowledge of current degree requirements:  

• Record notes in Navigate for mentoring meetings that relate to course substitutions and/or degree/graduation requirements.   
• Provide guidance on choosing elective courses within their academic programs that are appropriate to the student’s interests, abilities, and post-graduation plans.  
• Be able to explain how courses within the major or program overlap with General Education requirements.  
• Have general knowledge of the CLAS Voyage, high-impact experiences, and complementary courses related to their assigned mentees’ majors and areas of study.  
• Utilize designated Records software (currently MyPath) to accurately assess students’ progress towards completion of the academic programs in which they teach.   
• Understand how to complete a graduation audit for a mentee if requested by Records.  

  

Foster Student Success:  

• Maintain knowledge of student success resources, such as the CLAS Academic Advising Center, the Registrar’s Office, the Counseling Center, the Tutoring and Reading Center, the Knowledge Market, Student Accessibility Resources, etc.  
• Encourage students to take an active role in planning and achieving their educational and career goals.  
• Understand the purpose of required first-year advising meetings and the documentation faculty must provide for professional advisors to be able to release the first-year advising hold.  

 

Engage in Advising and Mentorship Related to Careers and Graduate Study:  

• Assist students in understanding the career options available to people in their field via the Career Guides by Major, and provide referrals to the Career Center as appropriate.  
• Assist students in choosing courses and high-impact experiences (including internship and undergraduate research options) to prepare them for their desired career or graduate work.  
• Assist students in identifying appropriate graduate programs to prepare them for their desired career.  
• Mentor students on effective strategies for graduate school admissions and/or employment within the faculty member’s area of expertise.  

  

Commit to Ongoing Professional Development:  

• Complete Faculty Mentor training provided by the college prior to the semester mentoring responsibilities begin.  
• Collaborate with CLAS Academic Advising Center liaisons as well as the Associate Dean for Academic Support when presented with advising challenges.  
• Ideally, engage in ongoing professional development as provided by the College.  

 

Collaboration with and Referrals to Professional Advisors  

Faculty should be able to identify the Advising Center Liaison who is assigned to the faculty member’s unit and collaborate as necessary on issues relating to academic policies, curriculum, and student support. Faculty are welcome to engage with mentees on any of these topics, but should feel free to refer to professional advisors if they are not confident about answering student questions related to the following:  

• First-year registration hold meetings and plans. (Note: While faculty mentors are very welcome to have these meetings and create full plans with students, it is not an expectation that they do so. If a faculty mentor chooses to participate in these meetings, they will need to document an academic plan through to graduation, provide the plan to the student’s professional advisor, and refer the student to the Advising Center to have the registration hold lifted.)  
• Schedule-building. 
• Course selection outside the major.  
• Graduation requirements beyond the scope of the major or degree program, including degree requirements and credit policies.  
• Parallel planning for students whose academic performance prevents them from pursuing their degree program.  
• Transfer policies and course equivalencies between GVSU and other institutions. 
• Elements of Gen Ed that do not overlap with the major/program.  
• Academic policies and procedures with which the faculty member is unfamiliar.  
• Conversations about students’ academic standing (probation or jeopardy of dismissal). 

 

Responsibilities for Unit Heads and/or, where applicable, faculty designated as liaisons to the Academic Advising Center: 

• Serve as a first resource for faculty with questions about academic policies and other advising-related issues. 
• Maintain open lines of communication with the professional advisors who support the unit. 
• Communicate curricular changes to the Advising Center. 
• Alert advising liaisons to significant changes in the annual course schedule. 
• Review and approve Curriculum Guides on an annual basis, finalizing (absent pending curricular changes) these guides prior to the start of New Student Orientation. 
• Provide major-specific guidance to faculty new to the Faculty Mentor role. 
• Ensure that Faculty Mentors are aware of graduation audits and how to complete them. 
• Ensure that contingent faculty in the unit are aware of the correct contacts within the unit and within the Advising Center for questions regarding advising.