Everyone expects that teaching, scholarship, and service will be
the three components of an academic position. However, while it is typically
regarded as part of the service component, the role of an undergraduate
academic advisor can effectively take on the scope of a fourth part of
the picture of being a professor. Being an effective advisor takes a lot
of time and effort, but this role has some great rewards, too. Your students
and your employer have great expectations of you as an advisor, well beyond
your ability to advise students on topics related to mathematics. As a
matter of fact, it is quite common that most of the students you advise
will not be interested in mathematics in the least. We will discuss the
range of advising duties one can encounter, peppering our abstract considerations
with concrete examples.
Tom Kimber teaches at a 2-year school, Hillyer College, that is part of the University of Hartford. The mission of Hillyer College is to accept underprepared and at-risk students and attempt to bring them "up to speed" academically. Students come to Hillyer College with a lot of fears and misconceptions about college life and in this environment, academic advising is a big part of Tom's job.
John Meier teaches at Lafayette College (usually!) a small, private college in Pennsylvania. Like most small schools, Lafayette prides itself on the quality of its academic and career advising, and every member of the faculty is actively involved in a variety of advising duties.
John and Tom will each talk about their experiences as undergraduate
academic advisors and then open up the forum for questions.