Proactive Advising

While building relationships with students, providing information is key to developmental advising. Students must then use the information to connect with appropriate resources, and they need to be proactive about utilizing the appropriate resources.

Proactive advising is an action-oriented process that involves motivating students to seek help when needed. Using the qualities of both perspective and developmental advising, proactive advising is a direct response to an identified academic issue with specific action steps. 

When you take an proactive approach to your advising, it can impact retention positively since students feel a sense of value and belonging to the university. 

Proactive Advising is best used when students are struggling, need assistance they may not realize they need, and when you anticipate roadblocks, issues, or concerns. Not all students need to be referred to the honors college and not all students can benefit from the math lab. A proactive advising approach uses information gleaned from advisees to make specific referrals to campus resources for which the student qualifies and can benefit.  

For this reason, it is essential that academic advisors be aware of all campus student services.  When making referrals, advisors should try to provide students with as much information on the resource as possible including a contact name, phone number and email address.  When practical, advisors should walk students to the referred campus destination and introduce them to a resource representative. 

Information adapted from: 

Cannon, J. (2013). Intrusive Advising 101: How to be Intrusive without Intruding. NACADA.  https://nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Academic-Advising-Today/View-Articles/Intrusive-Advising-101-How-to-be-Intrusive-Without-Intruding.aspx 

Williams, S. (2007). Applying Theory to Advising Practice. NACADA. https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Applying-Theory-to-Advising-Practice.aspx