Faculty Advising for Students (G/P)

Faculty Advising Goals:

1. Help students complete and transition effectively (to a job, a four-year college or university, or both).
2. Encourage, support, guide, and inspire students.
3. Build relationships across instruction and student services.
4. Develop learning communities around advising, students, and program interests.
5. Support engagement and connections around common intellectual or career interests.
6. Provide focused support to encourage student persistence, retention, and completion.

Faculty Advising: Selection, Compensation, Training

1. During the annual budget process department chairs, in consultation with their dean, will determine the number of advisors for each major based upon the caseload and LEH formulas below. Current data (active declared majors, number of credit hours earned) will be provided to support this annual determination.
2. Caseloads and compensation will be determined as follows.
   1. A full-time faculty member who receives one (1) lecture equivalent hour (LEH) of release time in the Fall or Spring semesters will be available for advising work three (3) hours each week. In the 11-week Summer semester, a full-time faculty member who receives one (1) LEH of release time will be available for advising work four (4) hours each week. Th caseload for one (1) LEH of release time will be approximately 50 students.
   2. In programs with fewer than 40 active declared majors, advising will be the responsibility of the department chair or assistant department chair.
   3. Full-time faculty may receive no more than three (3) LEH of release time to serve as a faculty advisor.
   4. Release time for faculty advising will be considered part of the full-time faculty member’s workload and will conform to faculty workload limits in AR 4.1000.03.
   5. An adjunct faculty member who receives a stipend equivalent to his/her pay for one (1) LEH will work two hours a week in the Fall, Spring, and/or Summer semesters. The caseload will be approximately 35 students per LEH up to three (3) LEH.
   6. An adjunct faculty member who is hired as an instructional associate (IA) to work 20 hours week as a faculty advisor will have a caseload of 330 students.
   7. Current faculty (department chairs, instructional associates, assistant department chairs, etc.) who receive compensation to advise students as part of their current duties will not receive additional compensation under this rule.
   8. Faculty advisors will hold weekly on-campus office hours as required relative to their designated release time or stipend.
   9. Full-time faculty advisors will advise for 17 weeks in the Fall and Spring semesters (including the week prior to the start of the semester) and 11 weeks in the summer semester.
   10. Adjunct faculty advisors will advise for 16 weeks in the Fall and Spring semesters and 11 weeks in the summer semester.
3. Department chairs, in consultation with their dean, will determine the appropriate method for selecting faculty who will serve as faculty advisors.
4. Faculty will advise at their home campus, unless otherwise required by departmental need, including, but not limited to, substituting for absent faculty advisors, attending trainings, meeting with student service advisors, and/or supporting group advising sessions or Area of Study information sessions.
5. All faculty advisors will be required to participate in training prior to assuming their duties. Additional and ongoing training will be required as practices change and as procedures or software change.
   1. Training may include shadowing of student services advisors in order to observe advising sessions.
   2. Training will be integrated with student services through the office of the Director of Academic & Career Advising and the Coordinator of Integrated Advising Training.
   3. Faculty advisors will participate in an information session for advising updates each semester.
   4. Training will include information about internal and external resources, advising technology, best practices in advising, tools for communicating with advisees, templates and timelines for communications, and other topics.
6. All faculty advisors will be evaluated annually through a process developed by the instructional dean and relevant department chair(s).
   1. Evaluation of faculty advisors will occur in the Spring semester each year as part of the annual faculty evaluation process.
   2. Evaluation considerations will include complying with required advising meetings and trainings, accuracy in advising and documentation, engagement with advisees, holding required office hours, results of point-of-service surveys, etc.
7. Supporting data will be provided by the office of the Associate Vice President of Student Success & Analytics or designee.

Faculty Advising: Assigning Students and Partnering with Student Services

1. First-Time-at-ACC (FTACC) students with fewer than 12 successful semester credit hours must attend an Area of Study information session, after which they are able to register for their first semester. All FTACC students will be assigned a student services advisor and a faculty advisor upon completion of an Area of Study information session.
   1. Students will be notified and provided the contact information for their assigned student services and faculty advisors.
2. Instruction and Student Services personnel (in particular, the office of the Associate Vice President of Student Success & Analytics) will work together to assign continuing students to a student services advisor and a faculty advisor. Advising assignments will be updated annually or as needed.
   1. Students will be notified and provided the contact information for their assigned student services and faculty advisors.
3. Each faculty advisor will be assigned a student services advising counterpart. Faculty and student services advisors will work together to support students’ progress toward, and success in achieving their academic goals.
4. Student services advisors will serve as the primary academic advisors for students with Texas Success Initiative (TSI) holds, for First-Time-in-College (FTIC) students, and for FTACC students who have completed fewer than 30 semester credit hours.
5. All instructional programs will shift primary advising duties to faculty advisors when students have successfully completed thirty (30) semester credit hours toward their declared major. If departments wish to advise students earlier in their academic careers, department chairs, in consultation with their dean, will determine the appropriate moment in the student’s college career when the faculty advisor becomes the primary advisor.
   1. Instructional programs may require that their faculty advisors take the lead in advising the program’s students at any earlier point they prefer.
6. Students who successfully complete 30 semester credit hours (SCH) in their declared major will be notified of the name, phone number, and email address of their assigned faculty advisor.
7. Students will be encouraged to contact their faculty advisor.
8. Faculty advisors will initiate a meeting (in person, via telephone, Skype, Google Hangout, email, etc.) with their advisees in the semester in which they are assigned and in the semester in which they successfully complete 30 SCH in their declared major.

Faculty Advising: Expectations and Duties

1. Student services advisors’ duties include, but are not limited to:
   1. Helping students navigate becoming a student (e.g., TSI status, college readiness, onboarding, registration).
   2. Helping students determine directions, interests, affinities, program major (that is, career advising).
   3. Helping students determine specific courses to take, prerequisites, sequencing. That is, helping students develop a course-taking plan.
   4. Helping students manage being a student (e.g., referrals to learning labs, financial aid, academic success, personal challenges, registration holds).
2. Faculty advisors’ duties include, but are not limited to:
   1. Helping students make decisions about transfer institutions.
   2. Helping students learn more about programs, career options, and professional pathways.
   3. Helping students make connections, find internships or other experiential learning opportunities, network, etc.
   4. Helping students manage being a student (e.g., faculty advisors support college processes around early alert, financial aid appeals, etc.).
   5. Providing referrals to support services where appropriate.
   6. Helping students with the nuances of degree programs and engaging in regular review of degree plan progress with students.
   7. Helping students by making connections with business and industry, faculty at other colleges and universities, etc.
   8. Helping students by sharing in the Area of Study work (e.g., information sessions, AoS student events).

Faculty Advising: Faculty Advising Work Group

1. A Faculty Advising work group will be formed and include instruction and student services. This work group will provide continuous support for faculty advising.
   1. Members will include workforce and academic department chairs and faculty advisors, student services advisors and deans, the Director of Academic & Career Advising, and the Coordinator of Integrated Advising Training.
   2. Members will be appointed by the instructional and student services Vice Presidents.
2. The Faculty Advising Work Group will regularly review, update, and support improvement in the Faculty Advising process and training. A review will be conducted at least once each year to identify concerns and implement improvements.
3. Departments with unique faculty advising needs may present alternative advising proposals that have been approved by their instructional dean for review by the Faculty Advising Work Group. The Faculty Advising Work Group will work with the department and dean to develop an appropriate advising system to meet those documented unique needs.