Advising Structure FAQ
Following are the answers to most frequently asked questions about Advising teams (SSUs), types, roles, groups, and assignments.
SSUs
Do we need SSUs? Seems complex.
Higher education is complex, and SSUs can actually make it simpler and safer. Defining SSUs (Student Success Units) is the primary tool for separating groups, primarily for data security and reporting. You might need separate SSUs for many reasons:
- Your advising happens within colleges, and they do not share Advising notes externally.
- Some groups handle sensitive student data (Financial Aid), which must be access-controlled.
- You serve subpopulations with dedicated units and services (Athletics, Disability Services).
Where do SSUs fit in?
SSUs (up to 6, typically) fit within the context of a single institution, even if it’s part of a larger university system. Units let you control data visibility; for example, an SSU for Career Services should be blocked from seeing students’ financial data, and an SSU for Athletics should be blocked from seeing data for students not in the program.
Within your unit (such as SSU1), staff are assigned roles, types, and permissions that are needed for this unit specifically.
Do we really need a separate SSU?
Yes, if you need segmentation and control. Here are the essential questions:
| Advising Note Privacy | Should advising notes not be seen outside of this office/area? |
| Student Data Privacy | Should this type of student data not be seen outside of this office/area? |
| Subpopulation | Should this office/area only see certain students? (Honors, Athletes) Does this office/area only do outreach?Does it need separate reporting on advising notes or events? |
Advising Roles
Roles are the key to what each user experiences: your role controls what dashboard you see, what actions you can do, and which students you can see.
Do roles give the permissions?
Yes, a baseline of common permissions. Users start with a role and then are optionally granted individual permissions needed for their job, such as a Provost being granted Institution Director permissions, so that they can manage all of the units at their institution.
Why so many roles?
Because it’s far easier to maintain permission sets for known groups, versus individual users. These are typical job titles for each and the essential differences among them:
| Institution Director | IT Director Vice Provost | Granted by permission individuallyCan see and do everything across all SSUs |
| Director | Associate DeanDirector of Student Affairs | Can see and do everything within their SSU |
| Advisor+ | Team lead Unassigned advisor | Can see all students in their SSU, create student groups, send announcements, manage library |
| Advisor | Assigned advisor | Can only see assigned students; library and announcements are read-only |
| Admin Asst. | Department assistants | Can manage calendars for assigned advisors, send announcements, manage library |
| Faculty | Instructor Teaching assistant | Can only view rosters of students in their sections, message with students, raise alerts |
What if we don’t assign caseloads?
If your institution does not assign caseloads, give all your advisors the Advisor+ role, so that they can see all of the students in the SSU.
What does it mean to “see” students?
It’s clearest when looking at Filters, the Students section. Notice how, at this same institution, the Institution Director has over 20,000 (all SSUs), the Advisor+ has almost 6,000 (the entire SSU), and the regular Advisor has an active student count of fewer that 1,600 students:
Advisor Types
What are Advisor Types for?
Organization and workflow control. Each SSU implements its own Types as categories it’d find useful (such as Academic, Major, Minor, Primary, First Year, Career, Tutor). You can assign someone in an advisor role to one or more Type, or to none. Advisor Types offer multiple benefits:
- Directory grouping – Have advisors who work in the same area appear in a group
- Caseload management – Assign advisors to sets of students by Type
- Student visibility – Students see only their assigned advisors and Type
Why not just use Student Groups?
Because they’re not student-facing, and they offer none of the benefits above. Groups exist so you can target subsets of students for announcements, messages, appointments, events, and library resources. All groups are created and managed in the UI, so no decisions need to be made during implementation. Groups can be either:
- Static (hand-built, such as a list of program participants)
- Dynamic (searched, based on criteria such as demographics)
Do students have more than one Advisor Type?
Frequently, yes, and these may or may not be assigned. For example, an athlete may have both an Athletic Advisor and a Coach appearing under their Advisors on their Profile. For example, an undergraduate may have an Academic Advisor, a Faculty Advisor, a Tutor, and a Career Advisor, across SSUs.
Do we assign students to Advisor Types instead of advisors?
Yes, you can use this workflow. In your SSU, your Types will be defined and your advisors will be set to the Types. Then you can assign students directly to the correct Advisor Type. It’s like going to a regional medical website and making an appointment to see an internist: the website will show you the available internists (Advisor Type) at your selected facility (SSU).
Advisor Assignments
Advisor Assignments link advisors to one or more Advisor Types.
How are advisors assigned?
Advisors are auto-assigned by the data feed, as it is configured with student criteria matching (major, GPA, etc.). Although it’s possible to do all assignments manually in the application, that does not scale and is not the best practice.
Do we have to make Advisor Assignments?
No, it’s optional, but doing so has many benefits:
| Benefit | Where to use it |
|---|---|
| Students see and interact with their assigned advisors | Connect > Contact My Advisors |
| Advisors can contact students’ assigned advisors | Student Profile > Advising, Message All |
| Advisors of that type can be assigned to a student | Student Management, Advisors |
| Advisors can share notes with assigned advisors | Advising Note, Note Privacy, Shared |
| Advisor Type columns can be added to searches, groups, filters |  |
| Advanced Search can add and filter by type |  |
| Directors can monitor caseload counts | Student Management, Advisors |
| Multi-type advisors can filter their caseloads by type |  |
Alerts by Role
Who can see and manage Advising Alerts and Course Alerts depends on your configuration choices, which change behavior based on role (Director, Advisor+, Advisor, Faculty) and permissions.
Alerts for advising (advisor-raised) and courses (faculty-raised) are highly configurable. You manage them by type (High, Medium, Commendation) and have email and in-app notifications to ensure that alerts are resolved expediently. Role determines where alerts are seen and handled.
How do students see alerts?
Students never see their alerts through the application. However, if your institution enables alert notifications to go to students by email, that applies globally for all alert types. Ideally, students only learn about course alerts and commendations when their advisor reaches out to them about it personally.
How do faculty see alerts?
Faculty members raise course alerts for their students. Through Alerts, they first see student rosters for their current term’s sections, where they can add alerts, reply to notes, and see the resolution status. Faculty only locate students through their current section rosters.
To see all of the alerts they raised across sections, they use the Current Academic Year Alerts tab.
What do advisors see?
Advising staff (including faculty who also work as advisors) handle both course alerts and advising alerts for their students. Through Alerts, staff can add, work, and resolve advising alerts, and they can work and resolve course alerts from faculty.
Staff members access alerts throughout Advising:
- Alerts (all viewable students)
- Student Profile > Alerts (individual student)
- Student List > Advanced Search > Academic Alerts (filtering)
Advising staff will be one of the following roles, which control what they can see and do:
- Director (all students and information)
- Committee Member (if configured, only students in their SSU)
- Advisor+ (their team’s students)
- Advisor (their own students)
Do we need an Alert Committee?
An Early Alert Committee is a select group from offices across the institution who are responsible for handling alerts and targeting outreach for students. Many offices outside of Advising may be represented, such as Admissions, Athletics, Dean of Students, Residential Life, Financial Aid, and Counseling.
If your institution has such a Committee, the role is created by granting a set of individuals the Director, Advisor+, and Advisor role permissions, which lets them see the alerts for their students of concern. Remember that the Committee Member role can see alerts that happen within their SSU only.