Your Personal Support Network: Integrating Academic Advising into the Classroom at SAIC

When Academic Advising at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) hired full-time staff advisors, there were many great ideas for what these professionals could do to boost student satisfaction and persistence.  Advisors spent time getting to know their advisees before they arrived on campus, reviewing admissions files and portfolios to gain greater insight into where they came from and their goals for the future, and scheduling welcome calls with every first year student.   Advisors worked more proactively, pre-scheduling multiple appointments over the term to complement a new student’s experience, providing transitional support, guidance in future curricular planning, and an opportunity to reflect on the many different types of learning that occur during one’s first semester.  These efforts were fruitful and live on in our model today, but it was our partnership with the faculty that provided the transformative moment in our effort to re-define advising.

At SAIC, first year students are linked to their assigned academic advisor via one of their required first year courses, Research Studio I. Welcomed in to the classroom by our faculty, academic advisors participate in group critiques of student work, listen to students give artist talks on their own practice or those that have influenced them, and even attend museum visits, galleries, and other filed trips to inspiring locations across Chicago.

Allowed into the heart of the curriculum, students see their advisors not as administrative staff, but relatable individuals with creative interests who appreciate the work—their work—going on in the classroom.  These interactions outside of the “office” had had a powerful effect on the relationship and dialogue between students and their advisors.  For faculty, having an advisor in the classroom affords them a partner who truly knows the students in their class and who provides them an invaluable second perspective on how to best engage and support their students.  

Working in collaboration with faculty in the classroom has provided academic advisors unparalleled insight into who our students are as artists, learners, and individuals.  In class, advisors see who raises their hand first with questions, and who never speaks at all.  Advisors notice when a student who has been excited all semester seems down as the term draws to a close.   Advisors see when a student’s eyes light up discussing their passion for an artist or medium and bring that back around when it’s time to select future courses.  Advising appointments can be ended in the most satisfying way: “I’ll see you in class next week.”

Integrated Advising is now a reality for all incoming first-year students, and has been welcomed by all constituencies.   As one student put it: “My advisor is always helpful and sincerely cares about my life and my education.  …He is familiar with how to ‘deal’ with me as a person.”  

By developing relationships in Research Studio classrooms, advisors and faculty demonstrate to students that their college is at its heart a group of people who know them and care about them.  One of our core values states that “We are Artists and Scholars,” and by linking students, faculty, and staff, Integrated Advising shows students what this means, and why it matters.