Academic Advising Teams Give Presentations at National Academic Advising Association Conference

Four teams of academic advisors from UMass Amherst gave presentations at the recent National Academic Advising Association’s (NACADA) Region 1 Conference, held Feb. 20-22, in Providence, Rhode Island.

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Torin Moore, assistant dean for academic success and career planning in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences (SPHHS) and fellow UMass advising staff LizAnette Perez LeBoeuf (director of advising, Commonwealth Honors College), Eshwar Shanker (academic advisor, College of Humanities and Fine Arts), and Ben Rodriguez (academic and career advisor, College of Education), hosted a roundtable discussion titled “Unpacking the Experience of Advisors of Color in a Predominantly White Institution (PWI).” They provided support to Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) academic advisors in navigating their experiences working at PWIs, offering solidarity in their experiences and ways in which they can thrive in their work. This space provided collective insights and an opportunity to network with other advisors of color to share strategies, taking meaningful steps towards a more inclusive and equitable academic advising landscape within PWIs. 

In a another session, SPHHS academic advisors Katherine Hanson (speech, language, and hearing sciences), Brigid Williams and Jesse Hunsicker (public health sciences) and Karin Cooley-Sanieski (exploratory track and student success) presented a talk titled “Leveraging ChatGPT to Support Academic Advising.” In their talk, the SPHHS advising team discussed the growing popularity of language-based-model chatbot ChatGPT and held a conversation regarding its ethical and practical use on college campuses.

“We take the stance that AI and new technologies like ChatGPT will be part of the fabric of everyday life,” the team noted in the summary of their talk, “and would like to initiate dialogue among colleagues on how to harness these tools to support academic advising. This talk will provide its participants with an overview of ChatGPT, its potential and limitations for academic advising in its current state, and tips on how to effectively use it in everyday practice.”

They noted that “for academic advisors, ChatGPT can be an effective time-saving tool, for example, by creating administrative efficiencies with tasks such as course selection, career advising, writing letters of recommendation, designing administrative templates, and even event planning to name a few.”

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The talk featured an interactive component where they conduct live demonstrations on how to use ChatGPT with prepared sample questions and on-demand questions from the audience.

Also presenting at the event were Cody Olson and Nancy Chomitz of Commonwealth Honors College, who discussed “Rethinking Achievement: Honors Students and Meaningful Advising,” and Pamela Stawasz of the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences and AJ LeBlanc of the International Programs Office, who presented “Tell Your Students to Go Away: Proven Partnerships for STEM Study Abroad.”

NACADA, the global community for academic advising, is the premier professional association for student success through academic advising in higher education. Thirty total UMass Amherst advisors and advising administrators from schools, colleges and units across campus attended the Region 1 conference, where those in advising-related roles at institutions throughout the Northeast come together to share theory, research, and best practices to support student success and persistence through academic advising.