5 Strategies to Support Academic Advisors (2024)

Key points

• Advisors need robust professional development and clear career paths to maintain consistency.
• Policies, processes, and technologies should be simplified to give advisors more time to advise students.
• Messaging around advising should emphasize its value to students beyond choosing classes.

Earlier this month, I had the honor to serve on a panel about advising best practices at a gathering of the Detroit Drives Degrees Community College Collaborative (D3C3) at Schoolcraft College. Jamie Storey, director of higher education innovation at the Michigan College Access Network (MCAN), opened by asking each panelist why academic advising is core to a college’s mission. We each expressed how students will never have a transformative educational experience or gain invaluable career training without the skilled work of college advisors to help students navigate our institutions.

Insights from my fellow panelists, along with the ensuing conversations with community college advisors from across southeast Michigan, unearthed five key recommendations for supporting and strengthening advising.

1. Everyone is an advisor. Leticia Wilson, director of advising initiatives at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, TX, spoke about how anyone and everyone on campus who helps a student is an advisor. Advising can be as great as mapping a student’s graduation plan or as small as pointing that student to the library, but all advising is pivotal to that student’s success. All staff and faculty must feel ownership over advising and empowered with the knowledge (or, at least, know who has the knowledge) to help students succeed.
2. Simplify policy. Erica Orians, vice president and executive director for the Michigan Center for Student Success, discussed the importance of simplifying policies and processes. For example, she advocated for abolishing graduation applications, instead placing the onus on colleges (and, more importantly, their student information systems) to inform students when they’re eligible to graduate. Removing hassle factors will allow students and advisors to have more meaningful conversations unburdened by having to check boxes. New policies should also be reviewed by advisors who will be responsible for implementation and best understand how those policies may inadvertently harm students and threaten equity.
3. Support advisors. Darryl Gardner, vice provost for student success, support, and engagement at Wayne State, shared the robust professional development they provide for their advisors’ continual growth. Likewise, both Gardner and Wilson highlighted the need for defined career trajectories for advisors, so they see future opportunities at their institution. Room for advancement will bolster employee retention, which benefits students by providing continuity to their advising relationships.
4. Proactively connect students to advising. I discussed how behavioral science strategies can reshape students’ mindsets around advising. First, colleges need to make clear the value of advising beyond choosing classes; most students don’t realize how awesome their advisors are! Messages that connect advising to a student’s values and prosocial goals, not just the proximal task of registering for the next term, may resonate. Moreover, many colleges only require advising at intake, but changing norms to (at least) biannual advising could make such behavior a habit.
5. Keep technology student- and advisor-friendly. Finally, many advisors voiced concerns that too much advising time is spent either troubleshooting student-facing technology or navigating clunky advising tools. CRMs, LMSs, SISs, and so forth are meant to increase efficiency, but before adopting any tool, first understand what advisors and students need, and whether technology will help or hinder their goals. Advisors also expressed the need for proactive training and robust support when new technology is introduced.

Many of these insights resonated with my own work. For several years, I’ve led professional development workshops for advisors (as well as faculty and other staff) to teach behavioral science strategies for student success. Advisors are always so engaged with learning best practices for better supporting their students. And I’ve written extensively on how to connect students to resources, like advising, including in a recent partnership with Lumina Foundation.

It was a pleasure to share my expertise with these community college advisors, but even better to learn from them. If you’re reading this and you’re an advisor, my humble appreciation goes to you for your challenging and important work. And if you’re in another role in academia, thank an advisor for all that they do for students!