The CTA has a number of events planned for Fall 2009; a brief summary is below:

The Advising Academy

Last year, the Center initiated a year-long program called the Advising Academy for New Advisors. The program is again being offered for new advisors, but this year we are also offering parallel sessions for experienced advisors. Each session addresses a particular issue related to advising, and the topics are designed to coincide with issues you and your advisees are likely to be facing at the time. Dates, times, and topics of the sessions for experienced advisors are shown below. Locations are being arranged and will be announced as the events get closer.

Wednesday, September 23, 3:00 – 4:30 pm, Location TBA: What is Advising?

The concept of academic advising has changed significantly over the past thirty years, and its goals and approaches are probably very different from what we experienced as students ourselves. This session will look briefly at those changes, and will focus on how advising is understood now, and how it fits within the broader educational goals of the university. 

Thursday, October 29, 2:30 – 4:00 pm, Location TBA: Academic Planning 101

Just in time to prepare you for the “registration rush” of advisee meetings, this session is designed to make your job as an advisor easier. We will cover some basics about academic requirements, but will also show you how to get your advisees to use the tools that are available to them (e.g., Zagweb, degree guides) to find their own information and make their own decisions.

Wednesday, November 18, 3:00 – 4:30 pm, Location TBA: Who are your advisees?

This session will address some characteristics of today’s college students in general (the “millennials”) and GU students in particular that have an impact on the advisor-advisee relationship. We will talk about expectations (reasonable and unreasonable), social and emotional growth that happens during college, and what those mean for the practice of advising.

Other Advising Seminars

The CTA and the office of Academic Services are offering a series of live, web-broadcast seminars on academic advising from NACADA, the National Academic Advising Association. A total of five seminars will be offered during the year—two during Fall Semester and two during the spring. The fall sessions are:

Thursday, September 17, 11:00 – 12:30, Foley Teleconference Room: The Role of Academic Advising in Student Persistence.

Research shows that the nature and quality of academic advising can make a significant difference in whether students stay at a campus and eventually graduate. Since retention and graduation rates are closely watched by administrators, advising should be a highly valued activity on most campuses. Often, it is not. This seminar will examine the connection between advising and retention, and will present strategies for conveying to administrators the vital role that advising plays.

Wednesday, November 18, 11:00 – 12:30, Foley Teleconference Room: Advising Undecided/Undeclared Students for Success.

Only about 15% of entering GU students think it is “very likely” that they will change their major. In reality, some 75% of them end up actually doing so. So in a very real sense, most of our advisees are “undecided” about their major at some point in their career. This session will present information on the needs and behaviors of undecided students, and will offer practical skills for helping them find their directions.

Other workshops

Thursday, October 15, 12:15 – 1:05 pm, Location TBA: Designing and Developing a Service-Learning Course

Service-learning courses are a large and growing part of the student experience at Gonzaga. In this workshop, members of the Service Learning Advisory Board will provide information on how to design service-learning experiences into a course, and how to take advantage of campus resources to establish community partnerships. Anyone wishing to develop a service-learning course in the near future should attend this workshop first.