1980s: As attention to advising grew, practitioners recognized the importance of scholarship focused on academic advising. NACADA, founded in 1979, facilitated opportunities to discuss important issues and build a literature base focused on academic advising.

The History of Higher Education and Academic Advising Hilleary Himes & Janet Schulenberg

Academic advising’s history affects both daily work with students and advising’s place within higher education. Those who wish to affect change in advising need an understanding of the

structures and roles that serve as obstacles and opportunities to innovation. This poster series highlights some areas with lasting ramifications for academic advising’s status and practice.

*See second poster for more detailed information on this period of advising history.

ca. 1776-1800: Following the American Revolution, the purposes of higher education shifted from intellectual and physical development of wealthy young men, to promoting a democratic government and an educated citizenry.

“A new rule has been established that each student shall choose from among the faculty some one who is to be his adviser and friend in all matters in which assistance is desired and is to be the medium of communication between the student and faculty.” Hayes, 1840

Throughout this era, academic advising was largely accomplished by faculty. Advising’s two articulated purposes – educational planning and student development – were often placed in opposition to each other because of the way they emerged as priorities. In many institutions, academic advising duties gravitated toward the clerical, rather than the intellectual.

1870-1970

Advising is a recognized but (largely) unexamined activity

1970-2003

Advising is more intentionally recognized and examined

2003-Present

Advising practitioners intentionally clarify and convey the role of advising within

higher education

This poster series depicts a brief history of academic advising and poses questions about the future of advising. You are encouraged to add your own perspectives, insights, and lived experience to the presentation.

“All social systems, no matter how grand or far-flung, both express and are expressed in the routines of the daily social life…” Giddens 1984, p. 36

“Study the past if you would define the future” Confucius

How have expectations around student-faculty relationships changed?

As advising grew as an important and distinct role in higher education, more attention was paid to the purposes, theories, and methods used in practice.

1970s: Burns Crookston and Terry O’Banioneach connected academic advising practice to theories of student development.

Both attempted to• Reconcile student personnel perspectives with

teaching• Call for advising practice to move toward a

common ideal• Normalize the kind of help students seek through

advising

When interpreted from the lens of the Student Personnel Point of View from the 1950’s, these works became cornerstones of the Developmental Advising paradigm, which, in some cases, further differentiated faculty advising from that done by primary-role advisors.

1650 1675 1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000 2015

College as preparation for the industrial era; social experience of college life

College as social mobility, vocational preparation

College as an individual investment

Early 2000s: Academic advising attracted practitioners from diverse educational backgrounds, who contributed new perspectives to the field. The primary paradigm of Developmental Advising was joined by new ways of examining advising theory and practice.

Several events focused attention on clarifying advising’s purposes and standards of practice.

What were the daily routines of advisors during different eras? How do they continue to

shape advising today?

What educational background do you bring to advising and how has that influenced your

practice?

#historyofacadv

2005: Advising is Teaching challenged the Developmental Advising paradigm

2006: NACADA’s Concept of Academic Advising highlighted the educational role of advising

2008: Advising is Advising challenged advisors to claim a clear educational purpose and to consume and contribute to scholarship

2010: Scholarly Inquiry in Academic Advising was published by NACADA to support the growing number of practitioner-scholars

2010: The Professionalization of Academic Advising highlighted the need for standard advisor credentials situated in a substantive knowledge base.

Prior to 1776: The nine colonial colleges enrolled very few students, predominantly from wealthy classes. These colleges were meant to socialize boys through strict intellectual and physical discipline, role modeled and enforced by faculty.

ca. 1800-1870: Institutional missions expanded to include emerging disciplines. The number of institutions increased dramatically. A wider range of individuals had access to higher education.

Faculty disciplinary specialization emerged and increased. Classical curricula loosened and became increasingly focused on “practical” disciplines like natural sciences and philosophy.

Faculty roles as in loco parentis disciplinarians continued. Institutions began naming advisors to be allies to students in mediating student-faculty relations and navigating college life generally.

Rutherford B. Hayes, Kenyon College(1838-1842)

During this long period in advising’s history (detailed in a separate poster), several trends continued and other key changes set a historical foundation that continues to shape academic advising today.

1) The social and professional roles higher education played for individuals expanded and complicated. Increased access to higher education, and changes in credentialing for the professions relate to an increase in curricular complexity and the enrollment of an expanding and increasingly diverse student body.

2) As academic disciplines emerged and the role of knowledge generation became important to the funding model for higher education institutions, faculty became increasingly specialized in their disciplines.

3) The growing field of educational psychology, and the emergence of the Student Personnel Point of View led to the emergence of a cadre of student personnel staff and programs to support student transition and development. In some places, this also contributed to an increased recognition of the need for specialization among those who advise.

World War II Veterans in a college classroom

1990s: Assessments of advising found that, although perceived as important, advising remained a weak point at many institutions. Importantly, they indicated a mismatch

between academic advising goals (student development), dominant practices (relaying information), and student perception (general dissatisfaction).

2013: Marc Lowenstein challenged the field to envision a future for advising focused on its central educational purposes.

Before 1870Advising is an unrecognized activity

College as preparing a learned gentry

Increase Mather, PresidentHarvard College (1685-1701)

This poster is a summary of a chapter in a forthcoming NACADA publication.Key references are on the associated handout.

Hilleary Himes & Janet Schulenberg

1870-1970: Advising is a recognized but (largely) unexamined activityThe mid 20th Century: A pivotal period in advising history

Moving Advising Forward…

In thinking about the future of advising, consider the following:

1. How do historical trends influence daily practice at your institution?

2. This history is based primarily on large, American research universities; how do the histories of other institutions contribute new insights to the story?

3. How is academic advising structured and personnel organized at your institution? Why is it that way?

4. This poster highlights particular aspects of academic advising’s history and omits other parts of the story. Why did the authors choose to highlight these aspects?

5. What research topics could be important to further delineate advising within higher education?

1940s: The Student Personnel Point of View

Notably during this time, psychological counseling, career counseling, and academic advising were often conflated under the terms “guidance” and “counseling,” which further blurred advising’s educational purpose. The underlying philosophy of the time:

How can advisors influence the future shape of the field?

As advisors envision the future, the history of academic advising and higher education is an important guide. Throughout the history of academic advising, social structures within and beyond higher education have influenced advising. In addition, the perspectives, roles, and language used by practitioners (as seen in the influence of the Student Personnel Point of View and increased creation and use of scholarship) have also influenced the development of academic advising. This history shows the critical role practitioners played and continue to play in facilitating change.

“before we can tackle the problem of advising and directing our students satisfactorily, we must develop

a philosophy on which to base our actions” (MacIntosh, 1948, p. 135).

1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

This poster series depicts a brief history of academic advising and poses questions about the future of advising. You are encouraged to add your own perspectives, insights, and lived experience to the presentation.

#historyofacadv

“…the future of the field will be dictated by advisors” (Lowenstein, 2013, p. 257)

Near the end of the nineteenth century, American higher education was viewed as a means of creating mature individuals who could contribute to society. Under this philosophy, students received greater freedom to choose how to focus their studies than before.

1885: At Harvard, the “New Education” allowed students to construct their own curriculum.

1886: At Johns Hopkins, students chose a broad topical area within which to focus their studies.

The 18th century role of faculty member as distant disciplinarian continued well into the 19th century. In response, both institutions established a formal role for an academic advisor to guide and approve student choice and to provide students a friendly advocate to help mediate the student-faculty relationship.

The ideal role of the advisor was to facilitate the development of maturity through student choice of educational focus. But in practice, advising was predominantly characterized by the approval of course and major selection, and not the relationship and conversation meant to underlie such approval.

“It is the distinctive merit of the elective system that it strips off disguises, … forces the student to become conscious of what he is doing, permits him to become a partaker in his own work, and makes him perceive the gains and losses that are immediately connected with a volitional attitude. When such a consciousness is aroused, every step in knowledge becomes a step toward maturity” Palmer, 1885, p. 398.

“If they are taught fidelity and accuracy; if they learn to appreciate the value of authority as well as the privileges of freedom; if their wills are trained to overcome difficulty; if their social, intellectual, and religious natures are developed; if their love of knowledge is quickened– then the college is a success. Manliness will be its product” Gilman, 1886, p. 576.

Charles W. Eliot , Pres.Harvard University(1869-1909)

“It is the adviser’s business to listen to difficulties which the student assigned to him may bring to his notice; to act as his representative if any collective action is necessary…; to see that every part of his course of studies has received the proper attention” Gilman, 1886, p. 575 (at Johns Hopkins).

“Sympathetic mentors… were the more needed in the era when personal liberty and free election bewildered many students… The Board of Freshman advisers was set up in 1889, but they did little except address the entering class en masse, approve study cards, and invite the advisee to a pallid luncheon in the Colonial Club” Morrison, 1936, p. 403.

“…every student …is referred to a member of the Faculty, who will act as his adviser in regard to all matters in which he may stand in need of counsel, … for instance, as a judicious …choice of courses of study, and the best use of his time and opportunities in college in view of his proposed aims in after-life, or as to his social, economical, and moral interests” Norton, 1890, p. 588 (at Harvard).

A lecture class, 1890s

The Student Personnel Point of View, formalized in 1937 by educators who were “deeply concerned about the welfare and needs of their students” (Schetlin, 1969, p. 63) – among whom was Hopkins – championed a focus on the “whole student” and a range of psychosocial needs, including mental, physical, social, spiritual, intellectual, and vocational aspects of individual development.

The emerging field of educational psychology suggested that students’ abilities and potential could be measured, and students could be guided toward course work that best fit their abilities.

Higher education institutions began to implement programs such as placement testing, orientation, psychological counseling, and vocational counseling, and hired specialists to direct such work.

Academic advising, however, remained a responsibility of the faculty. Because academic advising was not a specialist field, a body of literature about advising was not developed, nor were theories intentionally and consistently applied to practice.

The elaboration of a scientific view of education during the 1950’s along with a growing body of literature and practices stemming from the Student Personnel Point of View heavily influenced the trajectory of advising.

1924: Assessment of Advising

L.B. Hopkins (right), Pres. of Wabash College (1869-1909) and his brother, E.M. Hopkins, Pres. of Dartmouth College, Dec. 3,1926

A study of student personnel work conducted by Louis B. Hopkins (1926)at 14 prominent institutions found that successful advisors needed specific skills and knowledge that were not in alignment with those possessed by many who were asked to advise.Hopkins’ study revealed ambivalence toward advising among many faculty.

Hopkins emphasized that the work of academic advising is complex, requires specific attitudes, skills, and knowledge, and suggested that it might be best handled by specialists.

“A man risks his reputation, if nothing more, who wanders about an American college campus expressing the desire to peddle out personal service to the needy undergraduate” Hopkins, 1926, p. 24.

1) Implied students’ abilities were fixed, and

2) Emphasized vocational purposes of education (MacIntosh, 1948).

Parents attending orientation examine their student’s placement, career, and psychological testing results. Penn State, ca. 1958

1890s: Expansion of Curricular Choice

1950s: Dedicated Advisors & Advising UnitsThe first dedicated advising units were established in the 1950s in response to a greater awareness of student need, in many cases related to increased enrollments of World War II veterans.

The first primary-role advisors often came from counseling and psychology backgrounds, and applied their theoretical perspectives and methods to the practice of academic advising. The Student Personnel Point of View informed many of these practices, which were quite different than those applied by faculty who were more steeped in their own respective disciplines.

The mission of advising to assist students in making decisions about their academic-intellectual growth, which was already systematically unrealized, was further diffused by the emerging focus on student psycho-social development.

James H. Robertson, University of Michigan

1958: Assessment of AdvisingDespite the growing specialization of advisors, inconsistency in practice and purpose remained. A 1958 study of academic advising at 20 institutions conducted by James Robertson affirmed the generally-recognized importance of helping students navigate academic decisions.

However, it also revealed that advising was predominantly clerical in nature, and students’ needs were often trivialized. Of particular note, Robertson called for a clear, educationally-focused philosophy of advising which would guide practice and enable the evaluation of advising.

1940s: “Guidance” and “Counseling”

The History of Higher Education and Academic Advising Academic advising’s history affects both daily work with students and advising’s place within higher education. Those who wish to affect change in advising need an understanding of the

structures and roles that serve as obstacles and opportunities to innovation. This poster series highlights some areas with lasting ramifications for academic advising’s status and practice.

This poster is a summary of a chapter in a forthcoming NACADA publication.Key references are on the associated handout.