Positive advising and mentoring of graduate and professional students fosters mutually beneficial relationships, leading to success for individual students and enhanced reputations for the graduate and professional programs.
Recommendations to Advise Graduate Students Remotely
Balance Expectations with Understanding
Questions? Contact Char Voight, Director of Faculty Initiatives: cvoight@umn.edu
- Be proactive in communicating with students and ask what support they need
- Explore tips for creating new routines during isolation
- Identify where there are unnecessary levels of stress
- Address the pressure and challenges of productivity
- Read why empathy is crucial to leading through crisis
- Graduate Schools FAQs: Update students on admissions, academic, and employment policy updates
- Advising international students virtually
- COVID-19 FAQs for international students
- COVID-19 resources from the Office of Equity and Diversity
- Safe Campus updates
- Inform students about Boynton's clinic and service updates
- Relay Boynton resources to help students locate their local health and nutrition options
- Schedule a Stress Check In via Zoom
- Inform UMD students about Telehealth Counseling Services
- Use the Red Folder to indicate and respond to signs of distress
- Explore wellbeing resources from the Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing
- Address and eliminate as many unknowns as possible
- Rethink the Annual Progress Review to articulate academic goals moving forward
- Consider updating your own Advising Statement to include changes for advising remotely
- Encourage students to begin an Individual Development Plan (IDP) to address short and long-term goals
- Find resources to keep teaching
- COVID-19 guidance for the UMN research community
- Accessiblity and accomodations for alternative learning formats
Additional Resources for Advisors
The RED Folder
Developed by the Office for Student Affairs, Boynton Health and the Provost's Council on Student Mental Health, the RED Folder contains resources to help you recognize indicators of student distress and how to respond and refer the student appropriately.
The Dignity Project
Developed by the Student Conflict Resolution Center, The Dignity Project offers resources that foster academic excellence by promoting civil and respectful relationships through effective prevention of and response to hostile, offensive or intimidating behavior.