1. What to do when students complain about their advisor: Best practices for handling student complaints
2015 NACADA Annual Conference
Session: 206 Room: Octavius 17-19
Tuesday, Oct. 6, 11:15 am – 12:15 pm

2. Introductions
Presenters:
Dawn Fettig & Megan Stephenson

3. Goals for this session Recognize and deal with stress response
Approaches for delivering bad news/managing conflict
Develop strategies
Best practices to individual interactions in a complaint scenario

4. Secondary Trauma (Compassion Fatigue)
Who is at risk for secondary
trauma?
What are some common
symptoms of secondary trauma?
What are some prevention
strategies?

5. Setting the Stage

6. Appreciative Advising Techniques
Disarm
Discover
Dream
Design
Deliver
Don’t settle
Don't Settle
Disarm
Deliver
Design
Dream
Discover

7. Mediation techniques Effective mediators strive to
Recognize and honor diversity
Be open-minded
Be caring

8. Real life scenarios Get in small groups and discuss given scenarios.
You will have 5 minutes to determine
best practices.
You will report back to larger group, so
be prepared!!

9. Guiding Questions What would your first step be?
Would you follow up with the Student?
Why or why not?
Would you follow up with the Advisor?
Why or why not? 
What are some other things to
consider?

10. Scenario #1: A student has a complaint about their advisor (from reactive survey)
Anna Visor was wonderful but she left. Mya is very nice but she’s new and inexperienced.

11. Scenario #2: A parent has a complaint about their student’s advisor (e-mail)
Their son wants to change majors from Jurassic Studies and his Advisor will not talk about other majors. 

12. Scenario #3: A campus level administrator sends a student complaint to the advising administrator (phone message)
The Dean of Students Office calls to relay a concern. The advisor had a satanic emblem prominently displayed.

13. Scenario #4: An advisor reports a student complaint to the advising administrator (in conversation)
Student tells Advisor A that they feel unsafe meeting with Advisor B.

14. Things to consider How you hear about it Student centered service
FERPA
Significance and patterns

16. Resources
"Chapter 6: Appreciative Advising." Academic Advising Approaches. Strategies That Teach Students to Make the Most of College. Ed. Jayne K. Drake, Peggy Jordan, and Marsha A. Miller. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Print.
Roundy, Jack. "Tips on Making Effective Referrals in Academic Advising." Academic Advising News, Vol. XIV No 2, April 1992, 2, 10.
“Secondary Trauma - What is it?” Retrieved December 5, 2014, from
Simpson, L. R., & Starkey, D. S. (2006). “Secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and counselor spirituality: Implications for counselors working with trauma”. Retrieved November 20, 2014, from