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Washington State University
Washington State University Office of the Provost

Advisors take turn in the spotlight

The transformative student experience that we aim to provide every Washington State University student requires a team effort from faculty, staff, and the WSU community. And some of the MVPs on our team are our academic advisors.

President Schulz and I had the pleasure of honoring our academic advisors in Pullman last week at the Year of the Advisor reception. It was a chance to shine a spotlight on the excellent work our advisors are doing, and celebrate the challenges they’re overcoming in guiding our students.

Advisors’ jobs have changed dramatically over the past few years. They’ve embraced SSC Campus, our online advising platform. Despite the learning curve, the SSC Campus platform is beginning to positively impact our students. For example, the vast majority of our students can now book appointments with their advisors online, and enhancements are on the way that will enable advisors to refer students to tutoring and other student services, all online. By meeting our students in this online space, advisors are providing excellent service, and they’re doing it efficiently.

We established the University Academic Advising Executive Council in 2015, and it is making major strides in establishing standards and organization for our advising community. A great number of advisors are engaged in leading their peers through training, putting in place new advising roles and guidelines, and organizing professional development events.

While we largely employ a decentralized advising model, with students being advised within the department or college of their major, it is absolutely critical that our advisors’ primary objective is the retention and success of the student at WSU. Therefore, our advisors (and all of us) must work as a team, assuring that students are successful, regardless of academic major or field of study.

Advisors are a big part of helping students transition to WSU. They’re playing a major role in advancing our goals of increasing our freshman retention rates, and ultimately, our graduation rates – the foremost indicators when it comes to the transformative student experience.

Our advisors are more efficient, more technologically savvy, and more data-informed than they’ve ever been. Please join me in offering kudos to our academic advisors, who serve as linchpins to student success at WSU.

If you have comments or questions about this post, or any other matter relating to the Office of the Provost, please email to provost.social@wsu.edu.