SHSU Is First In Texas To Certify Academic Advisers

Sam Houston State University has become the first school in Texas, and only the second nationally, for students who are pursuing a career in academic advising.

With the “blessing” of the National Academic Advising Association, SHSU is offering a post-bacalaureate, 15-hour certification program.

NACADA, housed at Kansas State University, is a professional organization to which all academic advisers around the country belong. KSU is the only other university to offer the certification at this time.

“There’s a growing demand (in the field),” said Anthony Harris, associate professor in the educational leadership and counseling department and coordinator of the certification program. “There are tens of thousands of academic advisers around the country.”

SHSU’s online program will be comprised of five courses, which do not have to be taken in sequential order, that give students a more theoretical basis of academic advising, Harris said. To receive certification, a student must simply take and pass all five courses; there is no certification exam.

“There are things that are common to all students, and this certification program sort of standardizes it,” he said. “It’s almost like we’re reading off the same page because even though each institution is going to be unique, there’s a standard there.

“The objective of all of this is to give the adviser a better understanding of who the student is that they are advising.”

In addition, SHSU’s certification program will add an internship component for students in the Huntsville area who don’t have advising experience to work for the university’s SAM Center, which has been used as a model for other universities.

“We think it’s important, and I think NACADA agrees, that having some real-world experience will help them become better academic advisers,” Harris said.

While a certification isn’t required to work in academic advising, NACADA is encouraging their members to get the certificate, according to Harris.

“It enhances the profession,” he said. “It just elevates their stature, it elevates their professionalism and their professional standards also.”

While many of SHSU’s advisers in the Student Advising and Mentoring Center teach as well as advise, this is not the case at other universities.

“There are lots of other schools like Sam where there are faculty who teach but they get time released from their teaching duties to do advising. That’s one model,” Harris said. “At community colleges and some senior colleges, their advisers are full-time, professional people. They don’t teach; they don’t do anything but advise students.”

Another “attractive and exciting thing” about the program is that the academic advising coursework can be used as part of the educational leadership and counseling department’s master’s degree in instructional leadership, which is also completely online.

“What we are promoting and encouraging for students who do not have a master’s and are seeking the certification, those 15 hours they get from the certification will apply to the 30-hour master’s degree program,” Harris said. “So once they finish the certification program, they complete five more courses and they can have a master’s degree.”

The Foundations of Academic Advising course will be offered in the spring and will be taught by SAM Center director Bill Fleming, who is “known around the world in the academic advising community” and was instrumental in bringing the program to SHSU, Harris said. Courses will also be offered during the summer.

Any student interested in the certification can apply to the program through the Graduate Studies Office as a non-degree-seeking student.

For more information, contact Harris at 936.294.1155 or edu_ajh@shsu.edu.

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SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
Sept. 21, 2007
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