Student Recruitment,
Retention and Monitoring
Intrusive Advising as a Model for
Retention
By Sharon Holmes, Iowa State University
Rationale
Many student support programs are designed
based upon the assumption that students
will self-identity academic and developmental
needs and seek assistance. Some minority
students and entering first-year college
students have not established behavioral
patterns that would motivate them to
seek the assistance of these services.
The Intrusive Advising model is valuable
because it assumes that some students
will not take the initiative in resolving
their academic concerns, therefore,
assigned counselors operate intrusively.
Intrusive advising has been effective
in increasing the retention and overall
academic performance of a variety of
high-risk students. It also has been
shown to benefit traditional college
students as well.
Guiding Principles of Intrusive
Advising
- Academic and social integration
are the keys to freshman persistence
in college.
- Deficiencies in this necessary integration
are treatable: Students can be taught
orientation skills through intrusive
advising.
- Motivation is not the cause but
rather the result of intrusive intervention
activities.
- Earl, W. R. (1988). Intrusive advising
of freshmen in academic difficulty,
NACADA Journal, 8, 27-33.
Why Intrusive Advising Works
- Students who know that an academic
advisor will contact them are more
motivated to keep up with their work.
- Financial worries, which account
for a large percentage of student
attrition are of less concern to students
who are advised and helped to fill
out their applications.
- Intrusive advising provides the
necessary nexus to make connections
to the university retention services
- Referrals to needed student services,
along with the ongoing attention which
informs students that someone at the
University cares about them, are the
major contributions of intrusive advising.
Backhus, D. (1989). Centralized intrusive
advising and undergraduate retention,
NACADA Journal, 9, 39-45.
Earl, W. (1988). Intrusive advising
of freshmen in academic difficulty,
NACADA Journal, 8, 27-33.
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