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SEAHO Features
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Problem-Solving and Skill Development for Next-Generation Leaders. Hersey, PA: IGI Global.
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Oxford University Press.
Glasker, W. (2002). Black students in the ivory tower: African American student activism at TheUniversity of
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Making the Most out of 30 minutes: Appreciative Advising
and Student Development through Residential Conduct
By Sean Sukys and Sherrelle Thorpe, Florida Gulf Coast University

What Is Appreciative Advising?
As professionals, we are trained ad-nauseum on how to confront a student in various situations and gain experience on this topic throughout our undergraduate and graduate careers. As soon as we arrive on campus as a new
professional, policies and procedures are among the first components of our onboarding and training. We feel
somewhat confident and prepared to deal with these situations as we enter our first duty week. Weeks go by and
a student arrives in a new professional's office for their conduct meeting, now what? So rarely do we discuss the
soft skills that support the policies and procedures of conduct case management. When thinking about conduct
I often refer to an advising session or a session with a counselor. You have a few distinct parts to the meeting that
you can plan and prepare for, a preparatory phase, a meeting phase, and a follow up phase. These phases can be
broken down even further using a model commonly found in academic advising called Appreciative Advising.
At its core, Appreciative Advising is a model for how to have a productive conversation with a student and help
them succeed. The phases of the Appreciative Advising model are Disarm, Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver and
Don't Settle. "Appreciative Advising is fully student centered and shows great promise in helping students from
a wide variety of backgrounds to achieve academic success" (Howell, 2010). At Florida Gulf Coast University,
we are moving towards training our professional staff on how to hear conduct cases utilizing this model. It has
proven useful to the hearing officers who are currently utilizing it and has provided new and growing professionals with a tangible framework for how to approach a conduct meeting, especially for those whom may not have
received formal conduct training in the past.
Phase I: Disarm
Preparing for a conduct meeting begins before a student ever sets foot in your office. The first phase of the Appreciative Advising centers around disarming the student by creating a safe and welcoming place. One phrase I
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SEAHO Report Spring 2017

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/08/college-gradutates-pay.html http://www.nces.ed.gov https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/insight/insight_2.pdf

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SEAHO Report - Spring 2017