Get to Know Your Advisor

Expectations

You can expect your advisor to listen and respond to your interests and concerns, to accept you as a unique person, to be reasonably accessible, to know policies and procedures and where to find information, and to be a personal resource for your academic, career and life goals. In turn, you are expected to initiate and maintain contact with your advisor; to discuss information that may affect your academic performance (such as work and family commitments); to learn basic University, college and departmental requirements, and to recognize your responsibility for meeting them; and to seek assistance when you need it. A good academic advising relationship promotes achievement of your educational goals.

Advisor Assignment

Go to your major department to be assigned a faculty advisor. If you are undecided about a major, you will receive advising from the Office of Advising and Orientation, Student Services Center 120.

DON'T

• Avoid academic advisement as long as possible, or rely on friends and neighbors to tell you what you need to do.
• Wait until registration periods to see your advisor.
• Mislead or withhold information from your advisor.
• Assume your advisor has all of your records.
• Assume your advisor will tell you automatically everything you need to know.
• Assume your advisor will remember what you talked about from one appointment to the next.
• Limp along with an advisor if the two of you don't communicate satisfactorily with each other.
• Assume that it is only your advisor who should be familiar with the university rules and regulations.

DO

• Take advantage of the opportunity to talk with an expert even though you've talked with friends.
• Make appointments when your advisor has more time for you, generally after the second week of classes and before the last four weeks of the semester.
• Share information about educational and career goals; report any learning problems; tell about important success or failure experiences. Your advisor needs this information to help you.
• Keep your own personal records and bring them with you when you see your advisor: GE evaluations, degree audits, transcripts from schools other than Chico, letters you have received from the University, etc.
• Be assertive. Ask questions. It's a good idea to write down some questions and bring them to your advising appointment.
• Keep your own notes. Remind your advisor of what you talked about at your last meeting.
• Request another advisor if you are not getting the assistance you need.
• Take responsibility for reading about those rules and requirements which affect you. Most of them are published in The University Catalog.