The Life of a First Year Adviser:

Plaid vs. StripesLindsay Dobucki

Presentation Overview

• Brief Overview of Academic Advising at Miami

• Adviser Roles and Responsibilities• Surviving and Thriving during Advising

Season• Planning your Schedule• Activity• Questions

Overview of Advising

• All first-year students receive academic advising through the Office of Residence Life and New Student Programs (you!)–FYA, AFYA, Commuter, Practicum

• Very unique system

Positions in Detail

• FYA = First Year Adviser– Full-time, live-in, Masters-level professional

staff member, serves as both resident director and academic adviser for the residents in his/her hall

• AFYA = Assistant First Year Adviser– Graduate student, live-in, works together

with First Year Advisers in larger buildings, is supervised by the full-time FYA

Positions in Detail

• Commuter Student Adviser– Graduate student, live-off, is responsible for the

overall administration of the Commuter Center and serves as the academic adviser to first-year commuter students and the Evans Scholars

• Practicum Students– Graduate students, some with ORLNSP,

others are not, for-credit experience, # of advisees is based on # of credits, reports to FYA

Roles & Responsibilities

• All Positions– Provide quality developmental academic

advising to all first-year students at Miami University taking a holistic approach to help students integrate all pieces of their college experience

Roles & Responsibilities

• Live-In Staff–Living Learning Community, Judicial,

Counseling, Advising, Supervise Staff, Advise Hall Council, Build Community

• Live-Off Staff–Advising, Counseling, Living Learning

Community, Help with Community Building during all interactions

Plaid vs. Stripes

• Different positions = Different roles & responsibilities– But we are all operating under the same

overarching philosophy

• Although we can list the different pieces of our positions (our stripes), we can’t separate them out in practice. Everything is integrated (think plaid!).

Surviving and Thriving during

Academic Advising Season

Surviving is important.

Thriving is elegant.

-Maya Angelou

What is “Advising Season?”

• Returning Staff– September 12 – November 8– 8 weeks

• New Staff– September 19 – November 8– 7 weeks

• Why the difference? – New staff will be observing returning

advisers the week of Sept. 12-16

Surviving and Thriving

• Rule # 1: Be Prepared– Read through the Advising Manual

• Rule # 2: Stay Organized– Use your binder!– Start creating files

• Rule # 3: Share the Load– Utilize your Hall Assistant– Collaborate with other advisers

• Rule # 4: Take Care of Yourself

Scheduling your Time

• Utilize MeetingMaker

• Appointment Length–Based on personal preference–To be truly developmental, no less than

45 minutes

• Office Hours

• Scheduling time for YOU

Scheduling your Time

• Let’s look at some examples…1. FYA (me) during Week 2 of Advising

Season

2. AFYA (Audrey) during Week 3 of Advising Season

3. FYA (me) during First Year Registration in November

Activity Time

• Let’s pretend that we just entered Week 3 of Advising Season. Take the blank MeetingMaker schedule and plan your week.

The End