Policy Number: D9.0

Policy Name: POLICIES ON ACADEMIC ADVISING

A. Each college or major school has responsibility for a core academic advising system consisting of a director of academic advising and selected faculty advisors. (Students may provide supervised advising services or function as an advisory council on advising programs and procedures to the director and the dean.)

B. A director of academic advising is appointed by the college dean and delegated responsibility and authority for the quality of academic advising available to students in that college or school. Each director of academic advising develops an academic advising handbook for the college or school.

C. During student orientation periods, each director of academic advising is responsible for at least one meeting each with freshmen and new transfers. By this time every RIT undergraduate student should have been given the name and location of an academic advisor.

D. Every faculty member is obligated, though not necessarily assigned, to advise competently as a condition of employment. Academic advising, where assigned, is considered part of a faculty member's normal responsibilities.

E. The monitoring of student academic progress during an academic quarter is the responsibility of the academic advisor. A student is required to secure the department approval for official withdrawal from classes (see Policy D5.0, section B., W-grade, for the complete class withdrawal procedure) or from RIT (see Policy D6.0).

F. Academic advisors have access to the departmental files on their student advisees. Final grade reports are distributed to academic advisors for later placement in departmental files.

G. A student should be able to confer with the academic advisor on a regular basis as needed, and be required to do so at least once per quarter. During weekly office hours students should be able to obtain general academic information upon request through a secretarial referral to a departmental representative if their own advisor is not readily available.

H. Students are free to change academic advisors by simple request to their college or school director of academic advising, though not necessarily able to secure their first choice as a replacement.

I. The university coordinator of academic advising is jointly appointed by the president and the vice president for Student Affairs. The coordinator has responsibilities for chairing the Academic Advising Coordinating Committee (members include all the college and school directors of academic advising); disseminating academic information from the provost's office pertaining to new curriculum developments, policy and procedure changes; assisting individual directors of academic advising to plan and to implement their academic advising programs; and compiling general reports on university advising programs.

Responsible Office:

Effective Date: Approved 1975

Policy History:
Edited August 2010