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Reviewed by:
  • Faculty Advising Examined: Enhancing the Potential of College Faculty as Advisors
  • Jennifer P. Hodges
Faculty Advising Examined: Enhancing the Potential of College Faculty as Advisors Gary L. Kramer (Ed.) Bolton, MA: Anker, 2003, 330 pages, $39.95 (softcover)

"Good advising may be the single most underestimated characteristic of a successful college experience" (Light, 2001, p. 81). Richard Light's powerful words are the catalyst for several chapters of Faculty Advising Examined: Enhancing the Potential of College Faculty as Advisors. In addition to exploring the impact of faculty advising on student success, this book presents ideas about the organization, delivery, and improvement of faculty advising. Its intended audience is those responsible for the administration of faculty advising such as directors of advising, deans, and department chairs.

The book includes both an update of the NACADA Monograph Reaffirming the Role of Faculty in Academic Advising (1995) and information from a variety of AAHE workshops on faculty advising roles. After a valuable preface in which he outlines the book's 12 chapters, Kramer provides the philosophical underpinnings of the book's approach to advising in chapter 1, "Advising as Teaching." He contends that quality advising is based on the same principles as quality teaching. He briefly describes the concept of developmental advising and provides a model for advising which parallels a framework for course syllabus development.

In chapter 2, "Faculty Advising: Practice [End Page 564] and Promise," Habley gives a brief history of faculty advising. He also shares data from ACT's Fifth National Survey of Academic Advising which included questions about: the delivery of advising; advisor load; training, evaluation, recognition and reward of faculty advising; and student opinions of faculty advisors. He concludes the chapter with thoughtful questions for administrators committed to fulfilling the potential of faculty advising.

Glennen begins chapter 3, "The Importance of Faculty Advising: A CEO and CAO Perspective," with a persuasive call for visible support of faculty advising from the highest ranking institutional officers. Many of the topics in the rest of this chapter are covered more comprehensively in further chapters.

Chapters 4 and 5 are the highlight of the book. In chapter 4, "Expectations and Training of Faculty Advisors," Vowell and Farren begin by outlining the expectations of advising from the perspective of various stakeholders. They then provide excellent examples of mission statements and concrete approaches to faculty training. Chapter 5, "The Role of Evaluation and Reward in Faculty Advising," emphasizes the importance of supporting the institution's mission through advising. McGillin uses theories of human change to explain how evaluation and reward can increase the potential of faculty advising. She organizes the chapter around nine recommendations and five stages for improving the quality of advising on campus. The authors of both chapters effectively tie the content to other chapters in the book and illustrate the use of theory in practice. These are the most comprehensive, well written, and immediately utilizable chapters in the book.

In chapter 6, "Organizational Models and Delivery Systems for Faculty Advising," King describes seven common models of advising delivery. She also discusses factors which influence how these various delivery models are applied at individual institutions. Her section on components of successful advising programs reiterates much of what was covered in chapters 4 and 5.

Goldenberg and Permuth explore the impact of leadership on advising in chapter 7, "Managing and Leading Faculty Advising to Promote Success." They comment on the impact of the changing demography, developmental advising, characteristics of effective faculty advising, and quality control in advising. They also include a section on organizing advising functions, which was more comprehensively covered in the previous chapter, and rewarding advising, which was covered in chapter 5.

In chapter 8, "Resources to Improve Faculty Advising on Campus," McCalla-Wriggins provides information about resources related to academic advising, career and life planning, and leadership such as the CAS Academic Advising Program Standards and Guidelines, and the programs and services of the National Academic Advising Association.

In chapter 9, "Outstanding Faculty Advising Programs: Strategies that Work," Wilbur reiterates much of what was said in previous chapters. This chapter almost reads like a summary chapter. A few new topics such as first-year programs and needs assessments...

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