Helicopter advisor?
Had a useful introduction to the incoming 5033 class taught by Dr. Lester and Dr. Snead this afternoon. Dr. Lester asked the faculty to talk about their own “advising style” and I remarked that I was trying to overcome my tendency to be a “helicopterish advisor.” The good thing is that students can ignore the advice of a helicopter advisor without feeling guilty— unlike ignoring the advice of a helicopter parent! And certainly people are free to ignore my advice all the time, with no hard feelings, which is congruent with the “core values” of advising from the OU Provost’s Advisory Committee on Academic Advising (PACAA) as quoted below:
“Students can be responsible for their own behavior.
Students can be successful as a result of their individual goals and efforts.
Students have a desire to learn.
Learning needs vary according to individual skills, goals and experiences.
Students hold their own beliefs and opinions.
Advisors are responsible to the students and individuals they serve.
Advisors are responsible for involving others, where appropriate, in the advising process.
Advisors are responsible to the college or university in which they work.
Advisors are responsible to higher education generally.
Advisors are responsible to the community (including the local community, state, and region in which the institution is located).
Advisors are responsible to their professional role as advisors and to themselves personally.”
So, I’ll continue to work on keeping my helicopter in an appropriate airspace to allow students to earn their own wings!
Also had a revelation about managing my own digital identity a bit better (something that I preach about constantly in KM/LIS 5433, by the way!), as Dr. Lester had the incoming students “research” their newly assigned advisors’ educational, publication, and service history from publicly-available information on the web. Though there’s probably much more information about me in this blog than anyone would want to know, I don’t have a posted vita on my OU faculty webpage. I’d better take my own advice about that!
