
			STAR Upcoming Events Using PeopleSoft for Advising Tuesday, 2/26 LRC 734 Presented by Tammy McCracken & Charlene Eastridge Understanding FERPA (Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act) Thursday, 3/20 ISC 220, 2:00 p.m. Presented by Rita Woltz, VCCS Council The NEW Early Alert System Tuesday, 4/29 ISC 220, 2:00 p.m. Presented by Tammy McCracken and Kim Morton Archives February 18, 2008
	Establish a comfortable setting Student advisees respond to advising sessions in a more positive manner if they are comfortable. Individuals, student advisee or otherwise, are simply more receptive to conversing in an agreeable environment. When the student feels comfortable disclosing pertinent information, the advising session becomes easier to manage. This kind of conversation between adviser and advisee must occur in order to establish rapport. One area over which an adviser has a great deal of control is the office where advising occurs. A desk that is positioned to separate an adviser from the student is not inviting. Instead, position the desk in a manner where the advisee can speak without feeling such a large degree of separation. A desk that faces a wall or a corner works much better. If the desk unit is large and cannot be positioned in this suggested manner, the adviser should position his or her chair next to the student. This repositioning eliminates the barrier that a desk creates between student and adviser. Displaying pictures or art in the office is another tactic that faculty advisers can use. A faculty member with pictures of family and friends in his or her office can appear to be more “human” to students. Photographs and artwork help to create a warm office environment and can ease students' apprehension when they visit. These items may spark a conversation and promote additional interaction between adviser and student. (The Mentor, 10/3/07)

	I find it helpful to keep a notebook of advising contacts. Since my memory isn't as good as it used to be (some say it's old age, but I like to think of it as information overload), I forget some of the details about my advisees if I don't see them very often. I started using the list of advisees that Tammy generated for us to take notes about each student's situation. If I have time, I try to follow-up with the student via email to thank them for coming to see me and to summarize my advice to them. I can just print the email and add it to the notebook or keep it in a special advising folder on Outlook. This way, when they come see me next semester, I can look at the email or my notes and see what unique scheduling or academic problems we might have been dealing with last time. Debbie Rasnick Do you have a Tip to share? Email it to the Student Success Center!

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