Along with MCC’s Integrated Advising Model has come a shift to advising by caseload. Currently, faculty advisor caseloads have been tentatively set at a minimum of 30 advisees. However, this number may be updated pending feedback regarding the correlation of caseload size and advising hours.

Although this system is very new, some best practices have emerged from faculty and other advisors to effectively manage advisee caseloads.

Advising Checklists

The Integrated Advising Board at MCC has developed checklists to aid in the structure of advisement appointments for both new and continuing students:

New, Transfer, and Returning Student Advising Checklist

Continuing Student Advising Checklist

Viewing Your Caseload

There are different places where a faculty advisor may view their caseload. Whichever area is most convenient for the advisor is just fine.

The first is in Banner self service, under the Faculty tab and Student Information menu. This display shows some student information and allows the advisor to send a mass email to all advisees, or email them each one at a time. The Advisor Dashboard (linked from the professional development tab in myMCC) shows a similar listing, but also includes information on your caseload limits and advising expertise.

Advisees can also be viewed within Starfish. By viewing their caseload in Starfish, Faculty can see more detailed information on each student, send emails from within the platform, and even filter students by parameters such as their registration status for the following term.

Setting Expectations

It is important for faculty advisors to set expectations with their advisees early on. Students are transitioned to faculty advisors after having met with advisors in the advisement center, and they may not fully understand that their new assigned advisor is teaching faculty with limited times available for advisement. Often, the best way to set expectations with a caseload of advisees is to send an email to all advisees after caseloads have been established and a few weeks before registration begins. Some areas where advisors may want to set expectations include:

• The types of help that the faculty advisor can offer. Very often, we tell students that they should seek advisement, however we don’t always fully explain what that means. Without specifics, it may be difficult for students to understand why they should seek advisement. Some areas that you may want to highlight include selecting courses for next semester; planning for graduation or transfer; academic strategies such as study skills or time management; assistance in connecting with campus resources like counseling, food or housing insecurity, or academic support services; discussions of careers in your field of expertise; and more.
• Important times for students to get in touch. This goes along with why students should seek advisement. Students don’t always realize how many high-demand courses fill up soon after opening, or that if they need academic support in some way that the end of the semester may not be the time to seek that assistance. Just a reminder of when priority registration opens and the best time to get advised in anticipation of that date is likely plenty.
• How you’d like to be addressed by your advisees. Transitioning from high school where teachers were called Mr. or Mrs. can be confusing for new college students. This can be confusing especially because certain individuals on campus may prefer first names, where others prefer Dr. or Professor. In the classroom, students are often told how their professor would like to be addressed. However, we sometimes forget this in advising relationships, especially by email. Just a quick note of “You can call me Dr. Smith” in an email may help students to feel less awkward in addressing their faculty advisor.
• How students should seek advisement from you. Different departments and individual faculty advisors across campus have very different preferences for how students should make an appointment or seek advisement. Do you prefer students use Starfish? Sign up on your door? Call the department secretary? Do you have walk-in advisement hours? Can busy students receive advisement via Zoom or over the phone? When students are transitioning from another advisor, whether it is from the advisement center, or from another faculty advisor due to a change of pathway, they may not realize that each advisor does things a little bit differently. (Note: Advisement can come in a variety of forms in addition to one-on-one in-person appointments. Advisors can offer advisement through e-mails, phone calls, web conference, group advisement sessions, and more.)
• How students should contact you for a quick question. The most common complaint that is heard from students is that they had difficulty getting in touch with their faculty advisor when they needed to ask a quick question. Undoubtedly, it turns out that the student had tried either just stopping by the faculty member’s office at a random time or calling their office phone. Students don’t always realize that faculty advisors also teach a full load of courses and are therefore not always available. Just a reminder for students that you may not always be available in your office, but that you answer emails during a certain time of the day may be sufficient to save some unnecessary frustration.

Important Dates

Some faculty advisors find it helpful to follow up with their advisees at various times during the semester. Some times that may be beneficial to contact advisees include:

• Once caseloads are assigned (generally with that “setting expectations” communication)
• When registration opens for the term, or shortly before (usually coincides with a mid-term check in on how classes are going)
• Before times when faculty will not be available: For example, students don’t always realize that their faculty advisor will not be available during July and August. Stragglers to get advised and registered can be encouraged by this knowledge.

Appointments

Although different faculty advisors have different individual preferences, the use of Starfish is recommended. There are may benefits to using Starfish, including:

• Students are already accustomed to using Starfish to set appointments with areas such as the Advising Center and Financial Aid
• Students can request an appointment for a time their advisor has indicated as available, with no need to email back and forth to find an agreeable time
• Students don’t need to wait for a response to see what times are available; they can access the system to schedule an appointment 24/7
• Ease of appointment scheduling for students being referred from other areas such as the Advisement Center.
• Easily connects with Outlook to facilitate scheduling around meetings, class schedules, etc.

With any questions on Starfish including receiving training, please visit the Starfish tab in myMCC or email starfish@monroecc.edu.

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