Advising and the Liberal Arts: It Takes a College

At the College of the Holy Cross, as at many other schools, all students are advised by full-time members of the faculty. This is as it should be. Good advising is about what good faculty do best-engaging students in the life of the mind, supporting their intellectual development and raising questions that help them think critically and reflectively. It is about ensuring that they meet requirements, but also about enlightening them to the ways that a liberal education can be liberating. But advising at Holy Cross is not the purview of the faculty alone. This too is how it should be. Students are assigned a faculty adviser when they enter the college and they remain with that adviser until the spring of their second year. Most of our students come to college without knowing what major they would like to pursue, or they enroll in a major that they eventually change. Thus in their first three semesters, this adviser is assisting them as they explore the breadth of the curriculum, complete distribution requirements and identify their major area of study. As we enter the enrollment period for the fall of their third year, students have identified a major and will be preparing to pursue advanced work in this area. At this point, they will be assigned a faculty adviser in their major area of study who can help them navigate this curriculum and serve as a resource as they imagine life after college. ADVISING: MONITORING AND MENTORING There are two primary dimensions to advising at Holy Cross. The first is monitoring. Faculty advisers monitor the academic progress of their students toward successful degree completion. Are they completing their common requirements? Have they identified a major? Will they complete all of their requirements in four years? Are they struggling in their courses? Would they benefit from a workshop on study skills or time management? Have they used the writer's workshop to get help on writing or the calculus workshop to get assistance for their mathematics course? Generally this monitoring is done during the mandatory advising meeting that takes place each semester. In preparation for this meeting, advisers review transcripts online. Our automated degree audit gives advisers and students information about which requirements have been completed and which are outstanding. The college's common requirements are specified in terms of areas of study, or modes of inquiry, not specific courses. The discussion of which courses students should take often leads to a conversation about areas of student interest and their potential majors. This discussion also presents an opportunity for conversation about why it is important for students to engage in coursework in the arts and the sciences, in literature, philosophy, and language in order to be liberally educated. Faculty complete midsemester reports on students in their classes which are sent to advisers to flag students who are having trouble and need particular attention. Advisers then meet with these students to discuss strategies, to suggest options, to make referrals, to identify resources-or just to listen to the student s frustration. All of these interactions send the message to the student that academic progress is not just about checking off the correct boxes. It is about personal and intellectual development, and we can grow as much from our struggles and failures as we do from our successes. It is these moments that move advisers from monitoring to mentoring, the second dimension of advising. Mentoring our advisees -that is, connecting them more fully to the liberal arts program-seems to be more challenging each year. Our students have been admitted to this school by completing all requirements, participating in all appropriate cocurricular experiences and building a set of credentials. They have been told what to do and they have done it well. The challenge is to move them beyond that. What do you want to explore here? Who do you want to become? …