Advising

Over the past three weeks I have requested that all of our professional and departmental advisors, approximately 35 people, take on two monumental tasks within this very short time frame. First, was to move all advising activities and recently designed advising and registration initiatives, to set those aside, and transition all of those plans into a fully remote format. And secondly, to transition all of our student communication and support into a completely proactive approach. As of yesterday, every single campus advisor has been assigned a specific caseload of students, and we are developing a plan to engage each one of them on a one-by-one, personalized basis in the coming days as fall registration opens.

While I have been so impressed that our campus advising community has successfully wrapped their mind around both of these massive changes, for me, this is not the most meaningful part. What has been most meaningful is that they have wrapped their hearts around these changes. Every single advisor has taken on these two tasks and I have received zero negative feedback. In fact, I have received several positive remarks and thoughtful emails of appreciation. They have communicated repeatedly how excited they are to finally have the opportunity to work together as an advising community, and do their best to make a difference in the educational experience and academic success of every student.

While these two weeks have been exhausting for all of us, I can’t express how encouraging it has been for me to watch people that have approached their profession one way for decades, and then willingly and even gratefully embrace a new way. While there is still training and much work to be done in the coming months, our advisors have taken our current and difficult situation and turned it into an amazing opportunity to grow and change for the better. I have always known that we have amazing advisors at ISU, but the past two weeks have confirmed this reality in every possible way.