PART TWO

GOALS AND PROCEDURES OF ACADEMIC ADVISING AT PMU

Goals of Academic Advising at PMU

The descriptive, academic advising model that PMU promotes sees the academic advisor as a role model, a mentor—someone to challenge, inspire, and guide the student throughout his/her college career. As a mentor, the advisor has several goals such as

• developing a rapport with his/her—new freshmen students who may feel intimated and confused about their first meeting with a university faculty member; it is the mentor’s role to develop a rapport with the student that puts him/her at ease,
• helping the student gain independence,
• knowing the student’s major courses,
• providing practical information based on his/her own knowledge as a student and as a faculty member—each mentor’s own experience is invaluable to the role of advisor,
• asking the right questions—often students will arrive at PMU with an undeclared major and a variety of questions; while some questions may be easy to answer, others will require a more in-depth knowledge of the student’s intentions while attending PMU,
• helping the students form boundaries—a new full-time PMU student is advised to take between 12-15 credits during his/her first semester which is usually 4-5 courses. A full-time student is defined as enrolled in more than 12 credits; a 12-15 credit schedule for a new student is advisable as he/she is adapting to the university environment,