Reflections on UF’s 6th Annual Advising Conference

by Kari Ward

I don’t know about you, but the 6^th Annual Advising Conference held at the end of January taught me a lot about the UF advising community.  At the gathering, advisors from UF and Santa Fe came together to share their ideas and accomplishments with others who share their profession.  On an individual level, we learned about the kinds of projects and issues UF advisors are working on and we also had a rare opportunity to listen to the thoughts and life experiences of one of our most beloved advisors.  Jill Lingard’s interview with Dr. Matheny was, by far, the highlight of my day—I so appreciated Dr. Matheny’s humor and candor and I feel privileged to have witnessed such an historical event.  Dana Myers’ “Walking the Line” panel, which focused on ethical decision-making, also gave me real insight into the individual thought processes advisors engage in, as well as the commonalities and differences in our advising philosophies. 

On a broader scale, the advising conference allowed me to compare administrative and advising practices among colleges.  I felt thrilled to finally get an answer to a long held question.  For years, I’ve wondered why UF is so decentralized.  Wouldn’t it be better, in terms of consistency for our students, if everyone had to follow the same rules?  But through various discussions at the conference, I realized that instead of creating dissonance the decentralized model recognizes that colleges, like students, have individual needs, interests, and backgrounds and that the “one rule fits all” model would actually disadvantage our students. From now on, I will look at colleges as “cultures!”

The medical petitions seminar exposed everyone to some of the amazing things that go on at the university level.  Learning about the Dean of Students “Culture of Care” philosophy, which was born out of their desire to show greater sensitivity to students in crisis, showed a measure of compassion that we don’t always see on large university campuses.  And Dr. DeSantis’ using his presentation as an opportunity to obtain advisors’ feedback on the medical petitions process also showed me how important and productive it can be for advisors to share their opinions and work collaboratively with offices that may or may not directly relate to advising.

On an even greater scale, academic advisors had the opportunity to learn about the state of our university and higher education from Drs. Glover and Mair.  I was surprised and proud to hear that other institutions look to our school as a model for advising, student retention, and graduation rates.  The administrators’ presence and message at the conference showed me that advisors’ efforts are, in fact, valued on this campus.  I savored every moment of the spontaneous Q&A session we had with Dr. Glover, grateful for the freedom we have to take part in such an open discussion and for the rare chance to hear my colleagues direct thoughtful and pertinent questions to a higher level administrator.

The coordinators of the conference—Maureen Cox (chair), Karen Bray, Erica Byrnes, Sarah Eberhardt , Glenn Kepic, Jaime Little, Deb Mayhew, and Dana Myers—did a fantastic job of organizing the event.  The time, thought, and energy they put into planning was fully evident to me--holding the conference in spring demonstrated their sensitivity to advisors’ schedules, the morning plenary session with Dr. Matheny showed their desire to engage and entertain us, and the sessions they featured wholly addressed our needs as advisors.  I will close by saying how proud and thankful I feel to be a part of the great advising community at the University of Florida.  I hope you feel that way, too!