This is the first Canadian study to determine current procedures and practice in for undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts English-speaking Canadian public universities. and to determine Arts advisors' perceptions of the impact of academic advising on student development and retention. A questionnaire was mailed to 82 academic advisors at 41 English public universities across Canada. Responses received represented 73% of eligible universities. Personal interviews followed with nine volunteers. Results showed that academic advising practice is not guided by formal policy that links the service to university and faculty goals. Instead, advising is evolving in response to the call for university accountability. Advising practices appear to be changing to meet the expectations and demands from students that their undergraduate experience facilitates the achievement of academic goals in association with career goals and other personal goals. Despite the lack of guiding policy on Arts academic advising, there is considerable amount of consistency in current practice across Canada. Advising is primarily a Faculty responsibility and the responsibility for delivering general academic advice has largely shifted from professors to professional advisors. Advisors have a broad range of responsibilities and extensive decision-making authority, especially in the areas of program planning with students, and in interpreting and applying policies and procedures. The hours that students can gain access to advising differs among Arts advising units. However, the methods of delivering advice are similar. In all advising units the student to advisor ratio is extremely high. Most units are responsible for providing the service to thousand of students. Arts advisors are also extensively involved a variety of outreach and liaison activities directed at potential and current students and the broader university community and the public. Arts academic advisors believe that advising improves student persistence to degree completion and hence also improves university retention rates. At the same time, some advisors perceive that central administration does not recognize the importance of the service and that this lack of recognition combined with heavy advising loads, complex policy and program regulations, and shrinking resources affects the quality of academic advising. Despite the difficulties mentioned by advisors, many advising units have initiatives in place to expand their academic advising service through joint strategies with other student services that will link students' short-term and long-term academic, career and life plans. The study concludes with recommendations on developing academic policy and programs, as well providing suggestions for further research.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-114).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1998. / Title from title page screen, viewed July 11, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Rodney P. Riegle (chair), J. Christopher Eisele, Jerry R. Moskus, Lemuel W. Watson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-155) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1995. / Title from title page screen, viewed May 10, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Larry Kennedy (chair), John Godbold, John Goeldi, William Tolone. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-123) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Texas Christian University, 2007. / Title from dissertation title page (viewed Aug. 8, 2007). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This is the first Canadian study to determine current procedures and practice in for undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts English-speaking Canadian public universities. and to determine Arts advisors' perceptions of the impact of academic advising on student development and retention. A questionnaire was mailed to 82 academic advisors at 41 English public universities across Canada. Responses received represented 73% of eligible universities. Personal interviews followed with nine volunteers. Results showed that academic advising practice is not guided by formal policy that links the service to university and faculty goals. Instead, advising is evolving in response to the call for university accountability. Advising practices appear to be changing to meet the expectations and demands from students that their undergraduate experience facilitates the achievement of academic goals in association with career goals and other personal goals. Despite the lack of guiding policy on Arts academic advising, there is considerable amount of consistency in current practice across Canada. Advising is primarily a Faculty responsibility and the responsibility for delivering general academic advice has largely shifted from professors to professional advisors. Advisors have a broad range of responsibilities and extensive decision-making authority, especially in the areas of program planning with students, and in interpreting and applying policies and procedures. The hours that students can gain access to advising differs among Arts advising units. However, the methods of delivering advice are similar. In all advising units the student to advisor ratio is extremely high. Most units are responsible for providing the service to thousand of students. Arts advisors are also extensively involved a variety of outreach and liaison activities directed at potential and current students and the broader university community and the public. Arts academic advisors believe that advising improves student persistence to degree completion and hence also improves university retention rates. At the same time, some advisors perceive that central administration does not recognize the importance of the service and that this lack of recognition combined with heavy advising loads, complex policy and program regulations, and shrinking resources affects the quality of academic advising. Despite the difficulties mentioned by advisors, many advising units have initiatives in place to expand their academic advising service through joint strategies with other student services that will link students' short-term and long-term academic, career and life plans. The study concludes with recommendations on developing academic policy and programs, as well providing suggestions for further research. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

This study sought to challenge Maslow’s (1954, 1968, 1971) proposition that altruism develops within individuals as they move toward self-actualization. Involvement was the operational definition of altruism used in the study. A national sample of 369 community college faculty and counselors completed the Personal Orientation Inventory and the Community College Involvement Survey (CCIS). The dependent variable involvement was regressed on seventeen personal, psychological, and institutional independent variables using a stepwise regression procedure. Spontaneity, number of years employed, degree status, and race positively influenced involvement, whereas, the discipline areas of math/science and health/allied health had overall negative effects on involvement. Maslow’s proposition obtained minimal support as just one of twelve constructs used to measure self-actualization (spontaneity), was found to predict altruism. A factor analysis procedure conducted on the responses of the CCIS identified ten discrete factors. Each factor revealed an individual pattern of involvement that two-year college faculty and counselors display on campus and within the community. These include: National Activists, Reclusive Colleagues, Faculty Leaders, Student Advocates, Campus Innovators, Campus Excellers, Local Activists, Professional Affiliates, Scholarly Achievers, and Service Volunteers. A second stepwise regression procedure identified ten independent variables as Significant predictors for eight of these factors. Age, gender, race, discipline, number of dependents, years employed, degree, collective bargaining, and job satisfaction, were all useful in explaining variance for individual factors. The findings are useful for understanding work patterns of community college faculty and counselors and subsequent benefits to the institution. / Ed. D.

This study was conducted to determine the current state of athletic academic advising in college athletics and to see what changes have occurred since 1981. All NCAA Division I institutions which participate in basketball and/or football were surveyed. With slightly over 68% of surveys returned, it was found that athletic academic advising had improved a great deal since 1981 but still had room for improvement. More universities have programs which offer a greater number of services with better trained counselors. Most programs however, still need additional full time staff and need to offer more services. This can only occur with the moral and financial support of the academic community. The sacrifices athletes make and the benefits they bring, both financially and in terms of publicity, should be compensated through academic support. Ideally, every university should have an athletic academic support program with enough full time staff to adequately support all athletes with a wide range of support programs. This study shows NCAA athletic academic advising programs in Division I are not yet at this. point. They are considerably closer however, than they were in 1981. / Master of Science

Despite the fact that over one-third of all colleges and universities have an advising center staffed by non-faculty, current research does not include systematic investigations of the impact of routine interventions of advising centers. The purpose of this study was to assess such an impact on freshman academic achievement, involvement in the university, and certain developmental outcomes. From a population of 628 freshman business students, 300 were randomly selected and assigned to three groups. Each group was randomly assigned to one of three treatments: a traditional advising center, an additional three interventions during the first term, or an additional six interventions during the first two terms. Academic persistence, progress and grade point averages were collected for each student. From the 260 students still enrolled at the beginning of the third term, 175 (67.3%) usable responses to the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ) and the Advising Survey Form (ASF) were analyzed. Analysis of variance yielded no significant differences among the three groups in the three areas of academic achievement, involvement in the university, and developmental outcomes. However, the group receiving interventions for one term had the highest scores on five of the six ASF advising outcomes scales. Orthogonal contrasts between the no- intervention group and the two intervention groups yielded one unanticipated significant difference: the no-intervention group was more persistent than the two receiving interventions. Further orthogonal contrasts between just the two intervention groups yielded no significant differences. The number of student-initiated visits to the advisor did not appear to be a contributor to the impact; such visits had significant negative correlations with only academic progress and grade point average. A loglinear logit model used to compare the responses to the six interventions yielded a significant difference among the interventions on perceived caring from the advisor and effectiveness of the intervention. Although all interventions elicited high levels of perceived caring, the first intervention, an introductory call, elicited less than expected. Also, although all the interventions were largely perceived as effective, the second, a registration meeting, was found even more effective than the others. Perceived caring increased across the two terms, and second-term interventions were more effective than first-term interventions. Analysis of variance indicated that the follow-up calls made to obtain these evaluations did not have a significant effect on the impact on academic achievement, involvement in the university, and certain developmental outcomes. / Ph. D.