Advising Services Making Steady Progress Campus-Wide

The hundreds of professionals involved in academic and career advising at UW–Madison have a shared mission and a full agenda for improvement through the three-year-old Council on Academic Advising (CAA).

The council, which has more than two dozen members from across the university, released an annual report that takes stock of many of the improvements introduced during the last two years. They include better campus-wide communication through the creation of an electronic list-serv, a better integration of academic and career advising, and new training opportunities for advisors.

The report also lists some of the top priorities for the council in coming years. Those include planning for the new “Four Years To Degree” pilot program that begins next fall, a Board of Regents initiative for students seeking assurance they can graduate in four years. It will prepare advisors for the new PeopleSoft student information system, and assess how advisors are meeting student needs in the new general education requirements that began last fall.

According to the annual report, the long-range priorities of the council include:

• Increasing professional development opportunities for advisors. In spring 1996, the council hosted a daylong workshop on assessing effective strategies in advising that attracted about 100 people. The council plans to organize similar opportunities each year.
• Placing more emphasis on faculty advising. Through programs such as the L&S Advising Service, the council will look to increase opportunities for students to make connections with faculty on academic and career advice.
• Improving communication among the more than 400 professional advisors on campus. The council plans to develop a clearinghouse of information that will complement the new “Advisor-Link” list-serve and library.

For more information about the council’s work, contact Murray at 262-3003 or Hanneman at 262-6435.