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Student Involvement in UW System - Standing Committees

UW System Task Force on Academic and Career Advising

Description of Task Force and Recent Activities

The UW System Task Force on Academic and Career Advising was created in 2003 and is comprised of representatives from each UW campus.  Task Force membership includes senior administrators, professional advisors, faculty, and students (please see attached list).  Its charge is to “develop and coordinate efforts to assist institutions in reviewing, enhancing and assessing their academic and career advising programs.  This might include, among other initiatives, examining advising models and practices in other states, developing systemwide workshops, seeking external funding support, and creating a systemwide advising website.”

The Task Force is currently focusing its work on several issues:  assessment of advising, enhancement of career advising, training and preparation of advisors, and planning for the annual UW System conference on academic and career advising.  Work on these four areas is done by subcommittees.  Each Task Force member serves on at least one of these subcommittees.  Below are examples of activities of these subcommittees over the past several years:

  • Assessment of Advising. 
    This subcommittee hosted three regional assessment workshops in 2005-06 at which a national assessment expert presented information on assessment models, and campus teams worked on assessment plans for their institutions.  An additional assessment workshop was held in Madison in the fall of 2006.  The subcommittee has also gathered information for the Task Force website on advising mission statements from UW institutions and advising assessment instruments.
  • Advisor Training and Preparation. 
    This subcommittee has prepared extensive web materials regarding training of advisors.  The materials are designed to “train trainers” to train advisors.
  • Career Development. 
    This subcommittee, comprised of several Task Force members and a number of UW institution career development advisors who are not Task Force members, has just begun its work and is formulating its agenda.
  • WACADA Preconference Planning Committee. 
    This subcommittee plans the annual half-day UW System Preconference that precedes the WACADA meeting each September. 

WACADA is the Wisconsin Academic Advising Association.  The WACADA website notes that the organization “provides opportunities for networking and professional development; encourages members to participate in professional development activities; supports and promotes professional standards of academic advising; fosters recognition of academic advising as a profession; and, as an affiliate of the National Academic Advising Association, supports NACADA goals and programs.”

Time Commitment for Task Force Members

The Task Force meets once each semester.  The fall meeting is in September.  The meeting precedes the UW System WACADA Preconference and the WACADA conference.  Attendance at the preconference and the conference is optional.  The Task Force meeting is held near the preconference/conference location.

The spring meeting is held in March or April.  In the past, this meeting has been a teleconference.  The spring, 2007 meeting will be a face-to-face meeting in Madison to enable subcommittees to meet in the morning and the full Task Force to meet in the afternoon.

The amount of time subcommittees meet varies quite a bit.  Most of those meetings are held by phone.

Who Pays for Student Participation in These Meetings?

Your institution would pay your travel expenses.  For face-to-face meetings, System Administration covers the cost of lunch.  Since there is a Task Force member from every institution, it is likely you could get a ride to the meetings.

What is the Impact of Student Participation?

The Task Force focuses on making advising more effective for students.  Task Force members have many questions about students’ impressions of advising and their ideas of how advising could be improved.  From a UW System and UW institution perspective, student input on the Advising Task Force is critical to making academic advising effective.

Student members of the Task Force have an opportunity to influence Task Force recommendations relating to advising and to help set Task Force priorities, which in turn can impact UW System budget requests and priorities of the Board of Regents.

Web Site

The Advising Task Force web site is at:
http://www.uwsa.edu/acss/advising/

Contact

Brinsen Wynn, Program Associate, Office of Equity, Diveristy, and Inclusion, bwynn@uwsa.edu or 608-262-3767.