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We all practice Appreciative Advising, but Intrusive Advising (also known as Proactive Advising) is another research-based modality of academic advising. For this month's AARDVARK we will explore the framework of IA and review how it may be suitable for some our students/situations.

Feel free to contribute and leave comments!

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Jennifer Varney, Chair-Elect, Distance Education Advising Commission

Five years ago, I wrote an article on Intrusive Advisingfor this publication (2007). In that article, I described the advising theory and gave some examples of how Intrusive Advising could be used, particularly with at risk students. At the time, I had no idea just how important Intrusive Advising would become in my work and how much the theory might evolve into a framework that can be successfully used with all students: traditional day, continuing education, adult learners, and even online students. Thanks to the work of some committed folks at NACADA, Intrusive Advising is now being called Proactive Advising, a name that does a better job indicating the nature of the model.

Proactive Advising began with the work of Robert Glennen in the mid 1970s. Glennen sought to blend advising and counseling into one discipline, and through the work of a group of voluntary faculty members, began the development of Proactive Advising (Glennen, 1975). The idea behind this new model was to provide students with information before they requested it, while also building a relationship with the student at the same time. Volunteer advisors were given training on advising and counseling, including pre-admission counseling, matriculation, and scheduling. They were also taught to scan new student files for signs of potential distress. Through the combination of focus on the interests, abilities, and goals of the students, the volunteer group was able to connect with students and raise the retention levels of the test group (Glennen, 1975).

Proactive Advising involves:

deliberate intervention to enhance student motivation,

using strategies to show interest and involvement with students,

intensive advising designed to increase the probability of student success,

working to educate students on all options, and

approaching students before situations develop.

Earl (1988) describes Proactive Advising as a deliberate, structured student intervention at the first indication of academic difficulty in order to motivate the student to seek help. Proactive Advising uses the good qualities of prescriptive advising (experience, awareness of student needs and structured programs) and of developmental advising (relationship to a student's total needs).
Proactive Advising and Retention
As I learned more about Proactive Advising, I found that I could apply it in all areas of advising: retention, at risk student advising, critical outreach points, and student communication and difficult situations.
Proactive Advising and At Risk Students
Di Maria (2006) observes that research has shown that the more actively engaged students are in all aspects of college life, the more likely they are to learn and stay in school. It sounds like one of the keys to retention is finding ways to engage and connect the students with the school. Proactive advising may be used to help students find these connection points, beginning with their connection to the advisor. Through the use of proactive outreach and a relationship-based approach to advising, students learn that their advisor can be their main connection to the school. Proactive advisors are able to help students determine what kind of obstacles they may be facing along the path to degree completion and help them create plans and short- and long-term goals directed toward overcoming these obstacles. Early alert systems and other methods of identifying students who are potential retention risks can be proactive ways to intervene with students before they ask for help, provide caring and thoughtful support, and give solution options for success.

Molina and Abelman (2000) suggest that approximately 40 percent of students who enroll at four-year institutions fail to earn a degree and nearly 57 percent of this group leave before the start of the second term. Are there at-risk students on all campuses? Absolutely! Proactive advisors are able to work with these students through:

early intervention at the first sign of any type of difficulty (risk factors can be identified in the admissions process);

introduction of rules, policies and procedures, along with clear explanations and expectations of students;

monitoring progress of students to determine how well they are using information provided; and

customizing intervention and targeting it specifically toward student needs.

Proactive Advising and Communication/Critical Outreach Points
In helping students to identify potential barriers early in their academic careers, proactive advisors are able to help students build solid academic and social foundations that will help the student flourish and progress toward goal attainment.

An easy way to use Proactive Advising with student communication is to build a communications strategy and plan in which all communications are scheduled around school policies and events, specific supports needed at certain times in the term, and any events on campus or in the local community that might be of interest to students. Developing a communications plan involves:
Proactive Advising and Anticipating Student Challenges

Designing the overall communication strategy

What are the goals? Ex: one significant student outreach activity per week

Frequency and mode of communication?

Student target population per communication?

Message topics?

Integrating a special communications strategy for new/entering students

Include pre-term start, welcome messaging from the advisors

Send support materials, webinar recordings

Include a series of communications specifically targeted toward these students, with interactions that keep them informed and connected before the term begins

Include messaging on change management, finding balance with school and work, etc

Creating specific plans for other target student audiences: transfer students, etc.

Through the use of proactive advising strategies, advisors may be able to anticipate student challenges and implement plans to keep these challenges from becoming insurmountable. Academic probation, for example, is a challenge that often is pre-empted with warning signs before it becomes a significant obstacle. By monitoring student grades and attendance and keeping in close contact with faculty, proactive advisors are able to work with students to design support systems and academic safety nets, of sorts, to keep students from falling too far into an academic hole from which they cannot recover.

Could fixing academic advising fix higher education? Not completely, but advising may be a good place to start. While advising itself cannot change the curriculum and co-curriculum, it can create a vital connection between students and their education, helping them to become more reflective and strategic about the choice they are making and the learning they are involved in (Hunter & White, 2004).

Through the use of 'whole student advising', or taking all of the student actions and behaviors into consideration (academics, social behaviors, level of engagement with the school, interaction with peers, family relations, etc.), proactive advisors are able to intervene early with students and build strong and lasting relationships with them. These relationships form the foundation of a support system that will sustain the student from entry point to goal attainment.
References
Jennifer Varney
Assistant Dean of Business
College of Online and Continuing Education
Southern New Hampshire University
J.Varney@snhu.edu

Abelman, R. & Molina, A. (2002, fall). Style over substance reconsidered: Intrusive advising and at risk students with disabilities. NACADA Journal, 22 (2).

DiMaria, F. (2006, October). Keeping our kids engaged, At-risk kids in college. Education Digest, 72 (2), 52-57. Retrieved February 28, 2007 from EBSCOhost database.

Earl, W.R. (1988). Intrusive advising of freshmen in academic difficulty. NACADA Journal, 8, 27-33.

Glennen, R.E. (1975). Intrusive college counseling. College Student Journal, 9 (1).

Hunter, M.S., & White, E.R. (2004, March-April).Could fixing academic advising fix higher education? About Campus, 20-25.

Varney, J. (2007, September). Intrusive advising. Academic Advising Today, 30 (3).

Cite this article using APA style as: Varney, J. (2012, September). Proactive (Intrusive) Advising! Academic Advising Today, 35(3). Retrieved from [insert url here]

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As I learned more about Proactive Advising, I found that I could apply it in all areas of advising: retention, at risk student advising, critical outreach points, and student communication and difficult situations.

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Walter Earl (1988) - Intrusive Advising of Freshmen in Academic Difficulty

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Foundational Journal Article (~10 minute read)

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Foundational Journal Article (~10 minute read)

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Earl (1988) is referenced in many, many IA research and readings.

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Optional: Collection of IA Journal Articles

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Optional: Collection of IA Journal Articles

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The term "intrusive advising" has been used since the 1980's to describe advising that involves personal contact, student responsibility for decision making, student recognition of causes of poor academic performance, and problem-solving for the future.

Intrusive advising requires outreach activities on the part of the advisior. It is sometimes called:

Related terms are:

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Has our team already been implementing IA techniques?

Do you have any success stories with executing an IA approach?

In what scenarios might you want to begin pivoting from AA to IA?

When might you be hesitant to engage in IA with students?

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Generation P is in reference to the now college-aged students that were largely influenced by the pandemic and its array of implications inside-and-outside of the educational setting.

Please read at least 2/3 of the articles for adequate preparation. Post any additional information if independent research is done :)

Overarching question: Is our First Year Advising team equipped to support the researched insights across Generation P?

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Generation Pandemic ("Gen P") are the cohort of students whose high school years were significantly influenced by COVID-19. Given the prolonged disruption they faced, it's unsurprising that their college-going behavior differs from that of their predecessors. My team has worked with an increasing number of institutions that are seeking to re-center their student success strategies around a more holistic definition of the student experience.

This summer, my friends on EAB's enrollment research team surveyed over 20,000 high school students to gather insight into recruiting Gen P. The results give us visibility into what institutions must do to both enroll and retain these students. Read on for five key insights and recommendations to ensure Gen P's success in higher education.
Read EAB's insight paper on how to tailor your recruitment strategy for Gen P
Gen P students are...

1. Focused on mental health

While student mental health concerns have been growing for years, they have been significantly exacerbated by the stressors of the pandemic. Mental health concerns now beat academic and financial concerns in drivers of why students are considering leaving college. According to our survey, 22% of high school students named "Not Mentally Ready" as their reason for opting out of college altogether-an 8% increase from pre-pandemic times. For those who do attend college, as many as three in four students are now saying that they considered leaving college at some point over the last six months due to emotional stress.

Student success technology, like EAB's Navigate360, helps schools connect students with the support resources already available on their campus.

Strategies for supporting Gen P

Hand Raise: The "Hand Raise" feature within Navigate360 can empower students to signal when they require assistance or are experiencing emotional distress. This simple but effective tool allows the institution to reach out discreetly, as only designated staff members are alerted when someone raises their hand-initiating a timely response from counseling or support services.

Coordinated Care: Streamlining the coordination of care between various support entities within the institution can significantly benefit students. Technology can facilitate seamless communication among academic advisors, counselors, and health professionals, ensuring that students receive comprehensive and holistic support.

Surveys and Polls: Leveraging technology to administer regular mental health surveys and polls can help identify students needing early on. These surveys can gauge students' emotional well-being and provide valuable data for tailoring support programs to their specific needs.

Automated Messaging: Send automated, timely reminders and encouraging messages to students who may be facing emotional stress. These messages can direct them to resources, offer coping strategies, or simply provide a reassuring presence during challenging times.

How schools are expanding student mental health support
2. Missing crucial academic preparation

The pandemic exacerbated an already downward trend of proficiency levels among students. Many students missed crucial classroom experiences or faced challenges with remote learning, creating gaps in their educational foundation. The NAEP's Long-Term Trend Assessment recorded a five-point drop in average assessment scores from 2020 to 2022- the largest drop ever recorded.

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Is your institution 'Gen P' ready? | EAB

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Read this blog for five key insights and recommendations for recruiting Gen P and ensuring Gen P's success in higher education.

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Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs

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Admissions officers and application readers at Emory University will gather at the Atlanta campus next week for their first training session of the admissions cycle. The training will cover a number of new topics, including how to build a diverse class while complying with the Supreme Court's ban on affirmative action and how to identify essays written by ChatGPT.

Another vexing challenge they face: how to assess the college readiness of applicants who started high school on Zoom during the pandemic, and whose education was disrupted to the point that it is hard to know how much they actually learned in secondary school.

"There isn't a simple answer to that problem," said John Latting, Emory's dean of admission and assistant vice provost for undergraduate enrollment. "We're just trying to get back to best practices on evaluating applicants, because it will be difficult."

The extent of that problem is just becoming clear. Last week the ACT released its national average score for the class of 2023: a 19.5 out of 36, the lowest it's been in over 30 years and the sixth consecutive year of decline. The most precipitous year-over-year ACT score decline came last year, when it fell from 20.3 to 19.8, dipping below 20 for the first time since 1991.

Ed Venit, managing director of EAB, the college marketing and enrollment service provider, said the ACT scores were "the first good data" he's seen on the college preparedness of the pandemic generation-and it's not reassuring.

"We've had data showing the learning loss among students age 13 and younger, and how much the pandemic set them back," he said. "But these ACT scores are confirmation that we've already got a problem; it's already here, and if these students aren't already on campus they will be very soon."

Even as test scores have plunged, the average high school grade point average has risen significantly, from 3.17 in 2010 to 3.39 in 2021-with the greatest inflation occurring between 2018 and 2021, according to a 2022 study from the ACT. That has made admissions offices less confident in the once-reliable metric of academic preparedness.

"We're not as trusting, frankly, of GPA these days," Latting said. "Students are trying their hardest ... but grades are definitely inflated and not as connected to true class performance as they used to be."

Yet they remain one of the few measures available to admissions officers; the vast majority of colleges that still required standardized tests in 2019 went test-optional during the pandemic. Standardized score submissions are way down at most institutions, leading to worries that assessing college readiness will be more difficult than ever this year.

Mark Schneider, director of the Institute of Education Sciences, an independent federal research center, describes a "perfect storm" of issues arising from the pandemic that complicates the task of identifying college-ready students.

"The academic and social skills of students applying to college have declined, that we know. We also don't have standardized tests anymore really, and inflation makes grades pretty useless as a screening tool, too," he said. "To use the technical term, it's a mess."

Staying Rigorous

For selective colleges and universities, ensuring applicants can handle academic rigor is a key part of the admissions process. Natasha Jankowski, the former executive director of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, said admissions offices at most, if not all, of these institutions will "have to make some changes" to their usual applicant assessment methods to account for the pandemic's effect on learning.

"The current tools are not going to have the same accuracy they once did to tell you, 'Yes, this student is ready,'" she said.

Latting said Emory's admissions office has retooled its rankings system for applicants, formally incorporating nontraditional measures such as creative output and educational opportunity for the first time this year. They're also weighing "external assessment" more heavily than GPA, with a particular focus on AP scores.

And with fewer applicants choosing to submit standardized test scores, colleges are experimenting with ways to ensure they aren't relying solely on GPA as a measure of aptitude.

Latting said there's been a "subtle but persistent" increase in applications without test scores since Emory went test-optional in 2020. While the lack of a score doesn't raise immediate alarm, he said, this year Emory admissions officers will be able to contact students who don't submit an SAT or ACT score and encourage them to submit some piece of classwork they feel is representative of their academic interest and competency.

"We're hoping that can give us more confidence to really lean into those applications and trust we're making a good choice," he said. "We just want to be able to fill in some blanks."

But in the short term, the biggest challenge for institutions will be in culling the ever-growing crop of applications they receive to a manageable number of contenders. Latting said Emory receives roughly 33,000 applications a year, meaning each reader handles nearly 1,500. While there is no minimum GPA or test score cutoff, those metrics often helped with "triage;" now they may be harder to use.

"Admissions offices' time-honored heuristics no longer apply," Venit said.

Jankowski favors a shift toward more holistic assessment methods, such as having students submit self-tailored portfolios of classwork and extracurricular projects. That approach has yet to catch on among admissions officers; less than a quarter of respondents to Inside Higher Ed's admissions survey this year said they'd favor student portfolios.

But Jankowski also said there are a "confluence of factors" that make innovating to solve the assessment problem difficult, not least of which is the Supreme Court ruling striking down race-conscious admissions. The less "objective" a measure appears to be, the more room there is for scrutinizers to point to it as a proxy for affirmative action, which was explicitly forbidden in Chief Justice John Roberts' majority opinion.

An Admissions Problem With Attainment Consequences

Venit said selective institutions aren't the ones that need to worry most; it's the nonselectives-those that accept 80 to 90 percent of applicants and already admit students who might struggle with college-level coursework. If the more selective institutions have to water down their expectations for incoming students, the process will have an even more pronounced effect "down the selectivity ladder," he said-especially for student success.

"The pandemic has broken a lot of our indicators, how we would normally assess how we're doing, particularly in the realm of student success, and it could lead to an expansion of the equity gap in terms of attainment if nothing is done," he said. "Students are going to be coming into college with Swiss-cheese-style holes in learning that need to be filled."

Wayne Fletcher, associate provost for academic services at California Baptist University, has seen this breakdown firsthand. Because of high school grade inflation during the pandemic, the admissions office, which is test-optional, hasn't been able to properly identify students who need extra support before they arrive on campus, he said.

Before the pandemic they would slot those students-typically between 100 and 200-into student success classes to augment their transition to college. Now, because "high school GPAs have a tendency to be inflated post-COVID," they catch far fewer on the way in, meaning more students fall behind in their first year. Fletcher said that last year only 15 students were identified for extra academic support.

"We know there are more there," he said. "We just don't know where they are."

Recent studies confirm that students themselves are aware they may have fallen behind, and that they're more hesitant to apply to selective colleges-or in some cases, any college-because of it.

An ACT survey released in June asked current high schoolers whether the pandemic had influenced their thinking about college applications. Many said their experience with remote learning left them insecure about both their college admission prospects and their ability to succeed. A similar report from EAB found that 22 percent of surveyed high school students who said they weren't likely to attend college were hesitant because they "are not mentally ready," up from 14 percent in a similar study from 2019.

"That's another problem, entirely different from academic preparedness; students have had social and emotional setbacks, too," Jankowski said. "There aren't a lot of admissions metrics to assess that kind of readiness right now."

Venit said these problems are only likely to get worse as college applicants turn from those who attended high school remotely to those whose more crucial, vulnerable elementary and middle school years were disrupted.

The data support his thesis. The average scores of 13-year-olds on the National Assessment of Educational Progress declined four points in reading and nine points in math since the 2019-20 school year. Compared to 2012-13, they dropped seven points in reading and 14 points in mathematics.

"Higher ed institutions can't just say OK, we'll have to deal with this for a few classes and then things will even out," Jankowski said. "That's not going to happen."

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Assessing college readiness for the pandemic generation

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This fall's applicant cohort will be the first to have entered high school during the pandemic. Assessing their college readiness will be a challenge for admissions offices. Admissions officers and application readers at Emory University will gather at the Atlanta campus next week for their first training session of the admissions cycle.

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NACADA Article on Advising Gen Z Post-Pandemic

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NACADA Article on Advising Gen Z Post-Pandemic

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Advising Gen Z Students in a Post-COVID Environment

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COVID shutdowns affected Gen Zers especially hard, with things like dating, making and sustaining friendships, and learning more difficult than in the past. Colleges and universities need to help Gen Z students assimilate back into campus life following the loss of a year or more of an important sta

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What are some pitfalls or assumptions we naturally encounter or are prone to come up against with Gen P?

What are some intentional conversations we can engage in during discovery appointments to recognize/support the researched insights across Generation P?

How do we meet Gen P "where they are at" / "adapt to their preferences" while at the same time we are being asked to best prepare them for a successful FYA to college advising transition? What does this bridge look like?

Are there any practices you/we have put in place that's been effective with Gen P? Are there any that have been regarded as ineffective?

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The Mentor - An Academic Advising Journal

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The Mentor - Division of Undergraduate Studies - The Pennsylvania State University

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The Mentor - An Academic Advising Journal

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The Mentor is a peer-reviewed academic advising journal devoted to introducing new and unsettling existing ideas relevant to advising in higher education. Originally known as The Mentor: An Academic Advising Journal, it was renamed The Mentor: Innovative Scholarship on Academic Advising in 2018 to reflect its rich history of publishing innovative ideas.

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The Mentor - An Academic Advising Journal

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Return to Article Details Utilizing Parents as a Resource: The Use of Appreciative Inquiry in Academic Advising

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The Mentor - Division of Undergraduate Studies - The Pennsylvania State University

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The Mentor - An Academic Advising Journal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Mentor is a peer-reviewed academic advising journal devoted to introducing new and unsettling existing ideas relevant to advising in higher education. Originally known as The Mentor: An Academic Advising Journal, it was renamed The Mentor: Innovative Scholarship on Academic Advising in 2018 to reflect its rich history of publishing innovative ideas.

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The Mentor - An Academic Advising Journal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
The Mentor - Division of Undergraduate Studies - The Pennsylvania State University

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Mentor - An Academic Advising Journal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Mentor is a peer-reviewed academic advising journal devoted to introducing new and unsettling existing ideas relevant to advising in higher education. Originally known as The Mentor: An Academic Advising Journal, it was renamed The Mentor: Innovative Scholarship on Academic Advising in 2018 to reflect its rich history of publishing innovative ideas.

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We often see parents/supporters in our world of academic advising. How do we feel and think about their inclusion? How does it impact the student? How does it impact our advisee-advisor relationship? What boundaries are at play or should be considered?

Thanks Allison for the articles!!!

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The first article articulates three guidelines:

1. Generally, parents should not join advising meetings.

2. Although not encouraged, parents may join up to one advising meeting.

3. Advisers should never meet with parents without the student present.

Are these guidelines a solid framework to follow? Why or why not?

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A quote from the second article: "Advisers might ask, “How can you assist your child to achieve their biggest dream? What role will you play?"

How comfortable do you feel asking a question like this during an appointment? Have you tried? Thoughts?