2015 Annual NACADA Conference overview

A number of fortunate Advisors from the U of M attended the NACADA 2015 annual conference October 4 - 7, 2015. Once again NACADA did not disappoint. In attendance were approximately 4300 Advisors (the highest attendance ever!), with most attendees from across Canada and the U.S. (and 17 countries represented in total).   

The conference opened with two fantastic keynote addresses by

Dr. Gary Sandefur, the Provost and Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Oklahoma State University and Casey Self, Executive Director, University College and School of Letters & Sciences Academic Services, Arizona State University.  Each keynote related back to the day to day interactions that Advisors have with students and the impact that we, as individuals, have on students’ persistence and retention.  Listening to the keynote addresses provided an opportunity to recharge our ‘advising batteries’ and help prepare us to learn over the next 3 days.

With over 400 concurrent sessions offered, we attended many different sessions covering various advising topics.   We thought it would be of interest to the members of the Advisor Exchange to see the different presentations that some of us attended at the conference. If anyone would like any more information on any of these presentations, or about NACADA in general, please feel free to contact one of us directly.

Michelle Paragg (Faculty of Arts)

• Managing Mental Health Situations in the Advising Office  
• Managing Conflict
• Breaking Bad News: A Step-by-step Method for Breaking Bad News to Student Advisees
• Practice, Reflect, Repeat: Getting Back to Basics to Teach At-Risk Students the Essential Elements of Persistence
• Apparently Failure WAS an Option: Managing Responsibility for Poor Performance in Talking to Students
• Re-Defining Global Citizenship: A Guide for Advising International Students & Fostering Global Engagement on Your Campus
• Just Tell Me What I Should Do: How to Deliver Developmental Advising to Students in an On-Demand World
• Linking Passions to Major Choice: Strategies for Advising Humanities Majors
• Tools for Integrating Academic & Career Advising
• Exploring Students: How to Fill their Backpack

Kristin Suffield (Faculty of Science)

• Hold 'em, Don't Fold 'em:  Retaining First Year Students
• It's Showtime, Advisors!  How to Maximize First-Year Student Success
• Developing a parallel Path for the First Year Student
• Tools for Integrating Academic & Career Advising
• Bridges to Success:  Motivating Students to Follow Through on Campus Referrals
• Little Fish, Big Pond:  How to Survive and Thrive as a Large University Advisor
• Getting Them To Say It:  Encouraging Pre-Health Students to Develop Realistic Expectations
• I Remember That From Summer Orientation!:  Improving Retention of Information Through Active Engagement
• First Year Special Interest Group
• What Happens in First Year, Stays in First Year...or Does it?
• FERPA, FIPPA, Technology & You

Greg Sobie (Faculty of Arts)

• Click HERE to view sessions. 

Christine Adams (Faculty of Science)

• Giving Your Transfer Students A First Year Experience 
•  Stacking the Deck in Everyone’s Favor: Best Practices for Advising Students with Depression
• Which Major? Efforts Implemented at a Large Institution to Assist Sophomores with Major Exploration
• Developing a “Plan A” for the Mid-range GPA Pre-Health Student
• Region 6 Meeting
• Right to Fail and Student Success: Working with Students Facing Academic Difficulties
• Integrating Academic Advising with Front-line Student Services: A Sure Bet
• Best practices for handling student complaints
• Apparently Failure WAS an Option: Managing Responsibility for Poor Performance in Talking to Students
• Breaking Bad News: a Step-by-step Method for Breaking Bad News to Student Advisees
• Campus-Wide Assessment of Advising Outcomes
• Student Success: Advising Interventions that Lead to Persistence
• FERPA, FIPPA, Technology & You

Yvonne Halden (Faculty of Architecture)

• Click HERE to view.

Jason Jorgenson (Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth & Resources)

• Academic Advising Administration and Leadership Seminar
• The Career Option Obsession: Getting Over the Destination Expectation
• Say What? Building a Digital Communication Strategy
• Notes from the Advising Trenches: Strategies to Combat Compassion Fatigue
• Using Technology to Increase Your Effectiveness as an Advisor
• Don't Gamble on Credits: Creating Sure Bets with Articulation Agreements 
• Beyond the Bulletin: Creating an In-House Guide for Advisors
• What Happens Online Stays (with Students): A Multi-media Approach to On-boarding New Students 
• 50 Shades of Gray: Ethics in Advising
• Helping Students Connect through Sophomore Step Up 
• From Helicopters to Parachutes: Parents' Benevolent Relevance in Academic Advising
• The "Wow" Factor: Applying the Ritz-Carlton Customer Service Model to Academic Advising 
• FERPA, FIPPA, Technology & You 

 

Patti Dickieson (Faculty of Kinesiology & Recreation Management)

• Managing Mental Health Situations in the Advising Office
• Walk the (Time) Line:  Transfer Student Transitions
• Developing a Parallel Plan for the First Year Student
• Developing a 'Plan A' for Mid-Range GPA Pre-Health Students
• Well Check Advising:  An Ounce of Prevention Equals a Pound of Retention
• Just Tell Me What I Should Do:  How to Deliver Developmental Advising to  Students in an On-demand World
• Rock On Course:  Using Classic Rock to Trigger Student Success
• Shades of Gray:  Ethics in Advising
• What Happens in Advising Stays with Students & Their Families 
• Advising Introverts:  Tips & Tricks for Advising the Quiet Ones
• The "Wow" Factor:  Applying the Ritz-Carlton Customer Service Model to Academic Advising
• The Psychology of Academic Advising