A study of exemplary co-curricular advising by college and university faculty

Abstract

Significant value is placed on meaningful interaction between faculty and students outside the classroom as a quality indicator for higher education institutions, yet there is limited research pertaining to the experiences of faculty members who engage students in co-curricular activities as faculty advisors to student organizations. Moreover, the existing literature on student organization advising is prescriptive and anecdotal in nature. This study explored the complexities of co-curricular advising by investigating how exemplary faculty advisors to undergraduate student organizations described their roles, their approaches and their experiences engaging students in a co-curricular setting. A theoretical framework comprised of student involvement theory and a conceptual framework of student engagement guided this hermeneutic phenomenological study. Literature on the role expectations and realities of college faculty in higher education, the complexities of student organization advising, associated outcomes of student organization involvement and faculty interaction, and resource and relationship dynamics impacting key stakeholders informed the researcher's inquiry. The participants for this study were nominated by campus activities colleagues on their campus who identified them as "exemplary" faculty advisors to student organizations. Seven faculty advisors participated from various colleges and universities within the northeast region of the United States. This study's findings demonstrated how the exemplary faculty advisors primarily learned to advise student organizations by trial-and-error and approached co-curricular advising as a blend of teaching and service. The exemplary advisors believed that informal relationships with student leaders were paramount to meaningful student engagement and described multiple role behaviors that were contingent upon their assessment of group contexts. The findings suggest that co-curricular advising is undervalued within faculty culture as a means to meet expectations of institutional service and promote student engagement outside of the classroom. This study draws attention to high-quality co-curricular advising by college and university faculty as a high impact educational practice for meaningful student engagement. Recommendations are presented for new directions in research and practice for campus activities professionals, college and university faculty members and higher education institutions in the final chapter.