No abstract

This chapter focuses on institution‐wide administration of advising and student success initiatives that address the complexity of higher education. The authors stress the importance of “staying the course” set by campus leadership (or setting a visionary agenda) while being responsible to stakeholders.

Academic advising has been touted as a key to student success and retention.Today's academic advising delivery models vary considerably and little is known about the efficiency and effectiveness of these models. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between how academic advising is delivered to firstyear students at a four-year public, high research activity university located on the west coast and the students' satisfaction with advising, advising learning outcomes, and retention. In the study, responses of 628 first-year students to a survey which asked them about their attitudes toward and experiences with academic advising were examined. Results indicated statistically significant relationships between student satisfaction ratings and advising learning outcomes and how advising is delivered, specifically, who advises students, where students are advised, how frequently students are required to see an advisor, how frequently students choose to see an advisor, and how "mandatory" advising is implemented. Furthermore results showed that student retention was related to who advises students and how "mandatory" advising is implemented with peer-led advising processes showing higher student attrition rates than other processes.The overall advising delivery variable effect size was small. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.