Adviser Bill of Rights

The APAC Advocacy Chair

The APAC Advocacy Chair coordinates advocacy-related activities on behalf of the APAC board. These activities may include, but are not limited to:

Organizing meetings of the Adviser Advocacy Group (consisting of representatives from APAC, the Adviser Education Program (AEP), and the Graduate and Professional Advisors Association (GPAA), but also open to other advisers with an interest in adviser advocacy) and serving as a contact person for the group
Creating and maintaining the Adviser Advocacy Resources page on the APAC website; curating resources related to advocacy in advising and work settings and drafting/updating the Adviser Bill of Rights, with input from the Adviser Advocacy Group; sharing these resources, particularly the Adviser Bill of Rights, with hiring managers who have announced that they are hiring for advising positions; coordinating with GPAA and AEP to ensure that these resources are shared with newly hired advisers
Advocating for adviser representation in university decision-making and consulting/corresponding with campus leaders responsible for those decisions; for example, if a committee has been charged with making recommendations that will impact UW students and our advising practices but does not include representation of any academic advising staff, the APAC Advocacy Chair may reach out to those committees to discuss their processes to date and to make a recommendation on behalf of APAC for how to better incorporate advisers’ voices into their processes
Along with the Adviser Advocacy Group, organizing and coordinating the APAC and Adviser Advocacy Group response in situations where university leadership may not have adequately understood the role of advising or the impacts on students and student services personnel of proposed changes in policies, procedures, staffing, or other areas that fall within the realm of academic advising; for example, working with the Adviser Advocacy Group to draft public responses to university leadership.

While one function of APAC and the Adviser Advocacy Group is to advocate for advisers and advising as a profession (as outlined above, and in alignment with the Adviser Bill of Rights), it is important to note that the University of Washington has a decentralized advising model and the APAC board does not have jurisdiction over the employment of advisers or the authority to take legal action on behalf of advising staff. Like all APAC board positions, the Adviser Advocacy Chair is an elected position and a volunteer role. As such, the availability of the Advocacy Chair will likely vary depending upon the constraints of their paid position.

We encourage advisers to contact the APAC board with their concerns so that we can discuss how APAC can support them. For more direct assistance with workplace grievances and individual employment concerns, we recommend that advisers consult with HR, the Ombuds Office, or a lawyer.

The Adviser Bill of Rights

The Adviser Bill of Rights, like many other Bill of Rights documents, is not a contract or university policy. The Adviser Bill of Rights is a statement of ethical principles and reasonable workplace expectations for the advising community, written by the Adviser Advocacy Group and approved by a vote of the UW Association of Professional Advisers and Counselors (APAC) executive board. The rights articulated here draw on the definitions of academic advising articulated by the National Academic Advising Association and are informed by the input of advisers with decades of higher education experience and a wealth of knowledge regarding the barriers many advisers face in our efforts to do our jobs well.

The Adviser Bill of Rights is also intended as a useful reference for departments and supervisors when considering the following questions: What is appropriate work for academic advisers? How does the work of advising differ from the work of other university staff? Does our department make a sincere effort to treat advisers as respected colleagues and experts in their field? Do we have adequate protections in place for our advising staff, given the role they play as liaisons between students and faculty? While the Adviser Bill of Rights may not answer these questions directly, the degree to which a workplace adheres to the Adviser Bills of Rights can function as one way of assessing whether a workplace treats advisers fairly and equitably.

You have the right to a working environment free from violence, intimidation, harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.
You have the right to a safe and healthy workplace.
You have the right to be addressed and referred to using the correct name, title, and pronouns.
You have the right to expect that diversity, equity, and inclusion work should be the work of all university employees, rather than solely the work of academic advisers.
You have the right to be respected as an advising professional and expert within the field of advising and to offer input into your unit’s method and philosophy of advising.
You have the right to expect that the work you perform will be related to student affairs and student support and to request updates to your job description if the work you are expected to perform no longer aligns with your official job description. Work assignments which fall outside the scope of student affairs or your job description should be discussed as a part of your regular performance evaluation and professional development plan.
You have the right to regular performance evaluation and to negotiate for salary increases, work schedule changes, and position reclasses as appropriate for your position and work duties.
You have the right to maintain the work schedule that you have agreed upon with your supervisor and to be notified in advance of proposed schedule changes.
You have the right to receive adequate training from your unit to perform your role as part of your onboarding into a new position and to be offered additional training through other campus entities.
You have the right to pursue professional development, both in terms of time away from the office and in negotiations of financial support, and to expect that the departmental support for staff professional development should be as readily available as departmental support for faculty and students. Examples of financial support for professional development might include membership fees for joining professional organizations (e.g., APAC, GPAA, NACADA), costs associated with attending on-campus trainings (e.g., Undergraduate Advising Basics, POD classes), and conference registration, travel, and per diem costs associated with conference attendance (e.g., NACADA, NCORE).
You have the right to take meal and rest breaks.
You have the right to be kept informed of major departmental changes that may impact you or your students (for example, curriculum, procedural, policy, or staffing changes).
You have the right to offer input into departmental and university processes and give constructive feedback on how to improve those processes, particularly where those processes may impact you or your students (for example, department-internal processes for handling student awards or grievances).
You have the right to refuse to share information about your students that would represent an invasion of student privacy or a violation of state or federal laws (for example, FERPA).
You have the right to advocate for yourself, your community, your students, and your colleagues, and to expect that doing so should not come at the risk of losing your job.

Winter 2021 Update

On Feb 21^st 2021, the APAC advocacy co-chairs facilitated a conversation focused on the Advisor Bill of Rights. The invitation encouraged advisors to look over and discuss the Advisor Bill of Rights; and think about what resonated with them, and also what was missing/what else should be included. The plan was to use these questions as discussion points and have break-out groups if needed.

How can we make this Advisor Bill of Rights relevant/useful for advisors across all three campuses?
How can we incorporate anti-racist advising and improve ally ship within our community?
How can we advocate and negotiate professional advising terms and agreements in our current and future positions?

The conversation continued in one large group. Several attendees had not known about the Bill of Rights, and many were surprised that the common sense type statements needed to be written down. Can the Advisor Bill of Rights have more power if it was connected to a law? What happens if there is violation of advisor rights? Is there a consequence? Do advisors have any resources?

Participants discussed ways to introduce the rights in their various workspaces, so that it can become consistent or common practice. Advisors fall under so many different job descriptions, with a variety of duties and working titles. Additionally advisors are siloed on their campuses, yet this is an opportunity to unite as professionals advocate for ourselves. The discussion veered towards the challenges with the hiring process, and the salary inequities across the UW professional advising community.

Advisors are often expected to engage in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work, often by volunteer efforts outside of work hours without compensation. This point was made in multiple ways, and needs to be addressed more thoroughly in the Bill of Rights. Who else needs to be involved to increase the visibility of the Advisor Bill of Rights, and how can these Rights be operationalized?

Next steps:

On-going conversation, as we identified more questions than answers
Who can we collaborate within HR to operationalize the Bill of Rights?
Incorporate more DEI practices and resources for professional DEI training into the Bill of Rights
Join the “Removing colonial elements from advising: Developing culturally responsive advising practice” on April 28^th, 2021
Join the de-brief/conversation on May 12^th (Final APAC Advocacy event for 20-21)

Additional Resources

Open letter in response to UW Humanities advising restructure