Advisor Requirements

There are currently more than 215 student organizations and approximately 200 UW-W employees recognized as serving as Faculty/Staff advisors as required by the UW-W Student Organization Policy.

Advisor Expectations

The expectations of this role are to:

Foster academic success of students involved outside the classroom
Clearly define the expectations of those serving as advisors and
Create a framework for faculty/staff to actively foster connections and relationships that will improve the overall experience, retention and success of our students and their organizations.

Key Points:

Those University employees serving as advisors are called Campus Advisors and their expectations are listed below. They focus on the academic support of those involved and the connection to the University.
Each University employee may serve as the Campus Advisor to a maximum of 3 groups.
For SUF funded organizations that have a Campus Advisor who serves in a voluntary capacity, the SAI staff will assume the responsibility in working directly with the student leaders to access and manage their SUF funded account.
Campus Advisor must confirm their service every academic year.

Eligibility

Any University employee can be a campus advisor, regardless of expertise or experience.
Must be under contract
Individuals on sabbatical are ineligible
If you are unable to fulfill your role as an advisor at any time, we ask that you let both your org and SAI know (email involvement@uww.edu)

Advising Role Defined

Meets Expectations

Annually commits to serve as advisor through organization recognition / renewal process
Works to facilitate learning among student participants
Assists and advises the organization in ways to improve student academic performance
Attends occasional general member meetings
Meets monthly with officers to discuss organization needs and issues
Assists and advises the organization in ways that align with the LEAP initiatives, to improve understanding of co-curricular value, application and individual learning

Exceeds Expectations

Attends organization recognition / renewal meeting
Assists and advises the organization in campus financial processes (unless a component of job description)
Creates programs/offers to assist group in goal setting, assessment and annual transition process
Attends majority of general member meetings

Advising Role Does Not Include:

Advising more than 3 groups (unless University or Departmentally Assigned)
Attending organization recognition/renewal and completing of process on behalf of organization
Making financial decisions and/or expenditures on behalf of organization, especially without member input
Scheduling and/or running general member meetings

Advisors should not:

Be someone students only seek out when they need a signature
Avoid holding students accountable for appropriate behavior as outlined by University policy
Assume the group handles everything and does not need you
Forget the skillset you have that made you a good fit for the organization in the first place
Cultivate exclusion
Tell the group what to do
Impose your own biases, ideas, and opinions
Be afraid to let the group try new things

Support for Advisors

Apart from this manual and the Involvement Office, advisors also have access to Connect, UCast and SAI

Connect

This is our universal tool for student orgs. It provides support in the follow categories: File storage, Organization/member management, Contact other organizations, Forms and Recruitment

eLearning resources found here

You can find videos covering topics such as Student Org Advising 101 and Advising Student Organizations.

Involvement Team staff can be reached at phone: (262) 472-6217 and email: involvement@uww.edu

They offer help with mediating and facilitating conversation, SUFAC and more!

Greek Specialized - Advising Role Defined

Provide linkage between the University and the Chapter
Meet with organizational leadership monthly to create and implement academic assistance efforts
Provide general guidance and advisement of students in their efforts
Are familiar with University policies, procedures, and resources
Empower students to organize and run their chapter and fosters academic progress and achievement

Advisor Change Processes

From the University’s perspective, a change in advisor takes place as follows:

If an advisor is choosing to step down:

Inform the group of your intention to step down.
If possible, help them to find a faculty or staff member to serve as an advisor. The advisor needs to be a faculty or staff member of the University.
If the advisor’s name was listed in the constitution (which we don’t advise but some groups do) then the constitution will have to be amended to reflect the change.
The President should email involvement@uww.edu with the change of advisor, indicating that the new person is a replacement rather than an additional advisor.
The new advisor will fill out the advisor confirmation form found here: https://uww.presence.io/form/org-rec-advisor-confirmation-of-service-23-24.

Once #4 and #5 are complete, our office will update records in Connect and in our paper files to reflect the change.

If an advisor is being asked to leave:

Inform the advisor they are no longer needed as an advisor.
Find a faculty or staff member to serve as an advisor. The advisor needs to be a faculty or staff member of the University.
If the former advisor’s name was listed in the constitution (which we don’t advise but some groups do) then the constitution will have to be amended to reflect the change.
The President should email involvement@uww.edu with the change of advisor, indicating that the new person is a replacement rather than an additional advisor.
The new advisor will fill out the advisor confirmation form found here: https://uww.presence.io/form/org-rec-advisor-confirmation-of-service-23-24.

Once #4 and #5 are complete, our office will update records in Connect and in our paper files to reflect the change.

If an advisor is being added, then just steps 4 (let us know this is an additional advisor rather than a replacement) and 5 (advisor signs confirmation form) need to be completed.