Information for Advisors

UCDAccess is CU Denver’s electronic portal information system. It’s the system students use to complete academic, financial, and records transactions. However, the portal is also advisors’ gateway to the employee and business applications.​

The CU Student Information System (CU-SIS) is the electronic student information and record management system. CU-SIS is one of the primary tools academic advisors use in their day-to-day work with students.

Advisors access CU-SIS under the Business Tools tab in UCDAccess. These instructions include information about the navigation paths for screens in CU-SIS accessed more frequently by advisors. It may help to place these screens in the CU-SIS “Favorites” list.

Navigate is the online, walk-in, and student contact record system used by academic advising offices at CU Denver.

The CU Denver catalog is the source for academic and programmatic requirements for students. When a student is enrolled at CU Denver, they are required to fulfill the general education and graduation requirements specified in the catalog current at that time.​

The Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) is an electronic tool students use, in consultation with academic advisors, to track degree progress.

The Transfer Evaluation System (TES®) is an online database of course information from higher education institutions. Academic advisors use TES® to access transfer course descriptions and view or manage transfer course equivalencies.​

Academic advising is integral to fulfilling the teaching and learning mission of higher education. Through academic advising, students learn to become members of their higher education community, think critically about their roles and responsibilities as students, and prepare to be educated citizens.

Academic advising engages students beyond their own world views, while acknowledging their individual characteristics, values, and motivations as they move through the university.

Regardless of the diversity of our institutions, our students, our advisors, and our organizational structures, academic advising has three components:

• Curriculum (what advising deals with)
• Pedagogy (how advising does what it does)
• Student learning outcomes (the result of academic advising)

​Academic advising draws primarily from theories in the social sciences, humanities, and education. The curriculum of academic advising ranges from the ideals of higher education to the pragmatics of enrollment.

This curriculum includes the institution’s mission, culture and expectations, modes of thinking, learning, and decision-making, the selection of academic programs and courses, the development of goals, campus/community resources, and the transferability of skills and knowledge.​

Academic advising, as a teaching and learning process, requires a pedagogy that incorporates the preparation, facilitation, documentation, and assessment of advising interactions. Although the specific methods, strategies, and techniques may vary, the relationship between advisors and students is fundamental and is characterized by mutual respect, trust, and ethical behavior.​

The student learning outcomes of academic advising are guided by an institution’s mission, goals, curriculum, and co-curriculum. These outcomes articulate what students will demonstrate, know, value, and do as a result of participating in academic advising.

Each institution must develop its own set of student learning outcomes and the methods to assess them. The following is a representative sample.

Students will:

• Craft a coherent educational plan based on assessment of abilities, aspirations, interests, and values
• Use complex information to set goals, reach decisions, and achieve those goals
• Assume responsibility for meeting academic program requirements
• Articulate the meaning of higher education and the intent of the institution’s curriculum
• Cultivate the intellectual habits that lead to a lifetime of learning
• Behave as citizens who engage in the wider world around them

​Academic advising is a series of intentional interactions with a curriculum, a pedagogy, and a set of student learning outcomes. Academic advising synthesizes and contextualizes students’ educational experiences within the frameworks of their aspirations, abilities, and lives to extend learning beyond campus boundaries and time frames.

NACADA is comprised of advisors, administrators, students, and others with a primary interest in the practice of academic advising. NACADA members advise in a variety of settings and works to promote quality academic advising within their institutions. NACADA celebrates the contributions of professional, faculty, para-professional, and peer advisors to the advising profession. They acknowledge the complex nature of higher education institutions and the role academic advising plays within them.

NACADA provides a Statement of Core Values to affirm the importance of advising within the academy and acknowledge the impact that advising interactions can have on individuals, institutions and society.

The Statement of Core Values consists of three parts:

• Introduction
• Declaration
• Exposition, a descriptive section expanding on each of the Core Values.

The Statement of Core Values provides a framework to guide professional practice and reminds advisors of their responsibilities to students, colleagues, institutions, society, and themselves. Advisors are expected to reflect the values of the profession in their daily interactions at their institutions.

The Statement of Core Values does not attempt to dictate the manner in which academic advising takes place, nor does it advocate one particular advising philosophy or model over another. Instead, these Core Values are the reference points advisors use to consider their individual philosophies, strengths, and opportunities for professional growth.

Advisors will find some Core Values more applicable or valuable to their situations than others. Advisors should consider each Core Value with regard to their own values and those of their institutions.

Advising constituents, and especially students, deserve dependable, accurate, timely, respectful, and honest responses. Through this Statement of Core Values, NACADA communicates the expectations that others should hold for advisors in their advising roles. Advisors’ responsibilities to their many constituents form the foundation upon which the Core Values rest.​​

Advisors ​Are Responsible to the Individuals They Advise

Academic advisors work to strengthen the importance, dignity, potential, and unique nature of each individual within the academic setting. Advisors’ work is guided by their beliefs that students:

• Have diverse backgrounds and hold their own beliefs and opinions
• Are responsible for their own behaviors and the outcomes for those behaviors
• Can be successful based on their individual goals and efforts
• Have a desire to learn
• Have learning needs that vary based upon individual skills, goals, responsibilities, and experiences
• Use a variety of techniques and technologies to navigate their world

​In support of these beliefs, advisors should provide accurate and timely information, communicate in useful and efficient ways, maintain regular office hours, and offer varied contact modes.

Advising involves helping students develop a realistic self-perception and successfully transition to the post-secondary institution. Advisors encourage, respect, and assist students in establishing their goals and objectives. Advisors seek to gain the trust of their students and strive to honor students’ expectations of academic advising and its importance in their lives.

Advisors Are Responsible for Involving Others in the Advisi​ng Process

Effective advising requires a holistic approach. Advisors serve as mediators and facilitators who effectively use their specialized knowledge and experience for student benefit. Advisors recognize their limitations and make referrals to qualified persons when appropriate.

To connect academic advising to students’ lives, advisors actively seek resources and inform students of specialists who can further assess student needs and provide access to appropriate programs and services. Advisors help students integrate information so they can make well-informed academic decisions.

Advisors Are Responsible to Their Institutions

​Advisors nurture college relationships. They uphold the specific policies, procedures, and values of their departments and institutions. Advisors maintain clear lines of communication with those not directly involved in the advising process but who have responsibility and authority for decisions regarding academic advising at the institution. Advisors recognize their individual roles in the success of their institutions.

Advisors​ Are Responsible to Higher Education

Academic advisors honor academic freedom. They realize that academic advising is not limited to any one theoretical perspective and that practice is informed by a variety of theories from the fields of social sciences, the humanities, and education. They are free to base their work with students on the most relevant theories and on optimal models for the delivery of academic advising programs.

Advisors advocate for student educational achievement to the highest attainable standard, support student goals, and uphold the educational mission of the institution.

Advisors Are Responsible to Their Educational Community

Academic advisors interpret their institution’s mission, goals, and values. They convey institutional information and characteristics of student success to the local, state, regional, national, and global communities. Advisors are sensitive to the values and mores of the surrounding community.

They are familiar with community programs and services that may provide students with additional educational opportunities and resources. Advisors may become models for students by participating in community activities.

Advisors Are Responsible for Themselves and Their Professional Practices

Advisors participate in professional development opportunities, establish appropriate relationships and boundaries with advisees, and create environments that promote physical, emotional, and spiritual health.

Advisors maintain a healthy balance in their lives and articulate personal and professional needs when appropriate. They consider continued professional growth and development to be the responsibility of both themselves and their institutions.

Core Value 1: Advisors are responsible to the individuals they advise.

• As advisors enhance student learning and development, advisees have the opportunity to become participants in and contributors to their own education
• Regular student contact through in-person appointments, mail, telephone, or email helps advisors gain meaningful insights into students’ diverse academic, social, and personal experiences and needs. Advisors use these insights to assist students as they transition to new communities and create academic goals
• Advisors recognize and respect that students’ diverse backgrounds as well as their physical, learning, and psychological abilities. Advisors help students develop and reinforce realistic self-perceptions and help them use this information in mapping out their futures
• Advisors introduce and assist students with their transition by helping them see value in the learning process, gain perspective on the college experience, become more responsible and accountable, set priorities and evaluate their progress, and uphold honesty with themselves and others about their successes and limitations
• Advisors encourage self-reliance and support students as they make informed and responsible decisions, set realistic goals, and develop lifelong learning and self-management skills
• Advisors respect students’ rights to their individual beliefs and opinions
• Advisors guide and teach students to understand and apply classroom concepts to everyday life
• Advisors help students establish realistic goals and encourage them to be responsible for their own progress
• Advisors seek to modify barriers to student progress, identify ineffective and inefficient policies and procedures, and affect change. When the needs of students and the institution are in conflict, advisors seek a resolution that is in the best interest of both parties. In cases where the student finds the resolution unsatisfactory, they inform students regarding appropriate grievance procedures
• Advisors recognize the changing nature of the university environment and diversity within the student body. They are sensitive to the responsibilities and pressures placed on students to balance course loads, financial and family issues, and interpersonal demands
• Advisors are knowledgeable and sensitive regarding national, regional, local, and institutional policies and procedures, particularly those governing matters that address harassment, use of technology, personal relationships with students, privacy of student information, and equal opportunity 
• Advisors are encouraged to investigate all available avenues to help students explore academic opportunities
• Advisors respect student confidentiality rights regarding personal information. Advisors practice with an understanding of the institution’s interpretation of applicable laws such as the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• Advisors use student information only when the information is relevant to the advising process. Advisors enter or change information on students’ records only with appropriate institutional authorization to do so
• Advisors document advising contacts adequately to meet institutional disclosure guidelines and aid in subsequent advising interactions

Core Value 2: Advisors are responsible for involving others, when appropriate, in the advising process.

• Academic advisors must develop relationships with personnel critical to student success including those in such diverse areas as admissions, orientation, instruction, financial aid, housing, health services, athletics, academic departments, and the registrar’s office. They also must establish relationships with those who can attend to specific physical and educational needs of students, such as personnel in disability services, tutoring, psychological counseling, international study, and career development. Advisors must direct students to experts who specialize in credit transfers, co-curricular programs, and graduation clearance
• Advisors often develop a broad understanding of an institution and a detailed understanding of student needs and the resources available to help students meet those needs. Based upon this understanding:
  1. Advisors can have an interpretative role with students regarding their interactions with faculty, staff, administrators, and fellow students
  2. Advisors can help the institution’s administrators gain a greater understanding of students’ needs
  3. Students involved in the advising process must be adequately trained and supervised for adherence to the same policies and practices required of the professional and faculty advisors and other specially trained staff advising in the unit/institution

Core Value 3: Advisors are responsible to their institutions.

• Advisors work in many types of higher education institutions and abide by the specific policies, procedures, and values of the department and institution in which they work. When circumstances interfere with students’ learning and development, advisors advocate for change on the advisee’s behalf with the institution’s administration, faculty, and staff
• Advisors keep those not directly involved in the advising process informed and aware of the importance of academic advising in students’ lives
• Advisors increase their collective professional strength by constructively and respectfully sharing their advising philosophies and techniques with colleagues
• Advisors respect the opinions of their colleagues, remain neutral when students express opinions about other faculty or staff, are nonjudgmental about academic programs, and do not impose their personal agendas on students
• Advisors encourage the use of models for the optimal delivery of academic advising programs within their institutions
• Advisors recognize their individual roles in the success of their institutions and accept and participate in institutional commitments that can include, but are not limited to, administrative and committee service, teaching, research, and writing

Core Value 4: Advisors are responsible to higher education in general.

• Advisors accept that one goal of education is to introduce students to the world of ideas in an environment of academic freedom. Advisors demonstrate appreciation for academic freedom
• Advisors base their work with students on the most relevant theoretical perspectives and practices drawn from the fields of social sciences, the humanities, and education
• One goal of advising is to establish a partnership that will guide students through their academic programs. They help students understand that learning can be used in day-to-day application through exploration, trial and error, challenge, and decision making
• Advisors advocate for student educational achievement to the highest attainable standards and support student goals as they uphold the educational mission of the institution
• Advisors advocate for the creation, enhancement, and strengthening of programs and services that recognize and meet student academic needs.

Core Value 5: Advisors are responsible to their educational community.

• Advisors help students understand the relationship between the institution and local, regional, national, and international communities
• Advisors advocate for students who desire to include study abroad or community service learning into their co-curricular college experience, and they make appropriate referrals to enable students to achieve these goals
• Advisors understand the intricacies of transfer between institutions and make appropriate referrals to enable students to achieve their goals

Core Value 6: Advisors are responsible for their professional practices and for themselves personally.

• Advisors use the Statement of Core Values to guide their professional actions
• They identify appropriate workshops, classes, literature, research publications, and groups, both inside and outside the institution, that can keep their interest high, hone professional skills, and advance expertise within specific areas of interest
• Advisors seek cross cultural opportunities to interact with and learn more about, as well as understanding physical, learning, and psychological abilities and disabilities found among the general student population
• Advisors engage in research and publication related to advising as well as in areas allied with their training and disciplinary backgrounds. Advisors’ research agendas safeguard privacy and provide for the humane treatment of subjects
• Advisors are alert to the demands surrounding their work with students and the necessity of taking care of themselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually to best respond to high level demands. They learn how to maintain listen and provide sensitive, timely responses that teach students to accept their responsibilities