Advising

While formally considered to be part of a professor's service load, advising is closely aligned with teaching and is an important part of the work of the Knox faculty. Our advising system has its own learning goals and numerous resources to help you and your students through the advising process.

Learning Goals

Through advising, students will:

1. Identify College resources, including their academic advisors, and external resources for expanding the variety of their college experiences and addressing problems that invariably arise;
2. Develop basic familiarity with College graduation requirements so that they can contrast various academic pathways open to them and chart an academic agenda from both short and long term perspectives;
3. Analyze their academic interests and motives, scholarly strengths and weaknesses, and lifelong ambitions with the aim of selecting courses, majors and minors, and other special opportunities to enhance their educations;
4. Engage in intentional planning and reflection to construct an individualized educational plan that articulates personal and scholastic goals and analyzes how their academic choices can help them achieve these goals;
5. Formulate strategies for navigating life after graduation with autonomy and purpose.

Advising Resources

• Graduation Requirements (you can also find a useful checklist for yourself and your advisees here)
• Advising Handbook
• Advisee Information sheet (as a Google Doc and as a SAMPLE Form for you to copy and use)
• Four-Year Advising Calendar (what you should be discussing with your advisees at each meeting)
• Docushare, a Quick Guide

Off-Campus Study

The Stellyes Center maintains information on all aspects of Off-Campus study. A couple that are of particular relevance for advisors include:

• Off-Campus Study Preparation and Planning Timeline
• Tips for Making Off-Campus Study Affordable
• Advisor Information Sheet

Career Services

You and your advisees should regularly consult with the Bastian Family Center for Career Success. They have wonderful resources to support advisors and students at all stages of a students' career, not just their final term on campus!

• Career Planning Resources for Advisors
• Career Resources Advisors Should Know About

Advising Workshops

Every year, the office of Faculty Affairs organizing a workshop for new and continuing advisors. It operates as a bootcamp for those new to advising at Knox and as a refresher for those who have advised previously. You can find the agenda for the 2023 advising workshop here.

Summer 2025 Advising

This year, we are excited to move away from the old CX system and to the new Jenzabar One (J1) system. This move requries some significant changes in the advising methods at least for the upcoming summer. The plan we are taking is to have a select group of advisors for the summer to handle all incoming students and shepherd them through their transition period from high school to Knox. Then, in the Autumn Term, the advisees would be assigned to their new pre-major advisors. 

Other Notes

- The single Learning Management System (LMS) will be decided up on by the Faculty Experience Committee (FEC) by the end of January 2025. Currently, we are looking at four: Blackboard, Canvas, D2L, and Moodle. 

- The faculty interface for registering advisees for classes should be done some time in Winter Term.