Statement of Purpose

Academic Advising is a crucial component of the teaching mission of Gettysburg College. Our students are responsible for reflecting, planning, and making choices consonant with their goals, purposes, and values as they shape their programs at Gettysburg. The decisions they make will require them to consider a host of issues ranging from the philosophical, e.g., articulating their own understanding of a liberal arts education, to the most immediate and practical, e.g., negotiating study hours with a roommate. The College will award students a degree when they meet the requirements; but it is our students' personal task to give meaning to the degree by connecting what they do here and why they do it to the goals and aspirations that will fill the rest of their lives. As advisors, we are charged with fostering the reflection of our students and advisees by engaging them in ongoing conversations about their goals, choices, interests, and the habits of mind and heart that will move them to achievement.

Fundamental to this purpose is the relationship between advisor and advisee. Certainly our individual differences require both advisors and students to be flexible and to reflect on and monitor the success of the advising relationship itself in order for it to flourish. But for any advising relationship to work well, students must recognize and accept that the ultimate responsibility and accountability is their own for acquiring information necessary for the successful completion of their program and for the choices they make; and advisors must take responsibility for being knowledgeable themselves about the programs, policies, and procedures of the College, for being reliable when they make referrals, and for manifesting genuine care and support for their advisees. Together advisor and advisee build and sustain a collaborative relationship based on mutual trust and respect.

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