General
I am available to act as both a "pre-major" advisor for all students
and
a "major" advisor for students who have elected a sociology,
sociology/anthropology,
and certain college majors. Except for students assigned to me as
first year advisees, I require that you've taken a course with me
before
accepting you as an advisee.
My "Advising Philosophy"
I firmly believe that the purpose of education is to change us. I
also believe that the best educations are "custom made" rather than
"off
the shelf." The advisor-advisee relationship, when it works best,
facilitates education as a change process and helps the student to
craft
an education that is uniquely her own. I do not see my role as
indoctrinating
or forcing a particular version of the liberal arts on you, but I will
be
quite persistent in pushing you to educate yourself both broadly and
deeply,
to try things you don't think you will like or you don't think you can
do.
I'll suggest course to you because I think highly of the teacher, that
s/he
will be "good for you" or "is someone you should experience."
I'll
have ideas about where your education or your career interests seem to
be
heading and I'll probably mention these ideas to you.
Audacity and Credibility
Nothing is sacred. Rules are meant to be broken. The only
thing that matters in the end is that we get out of the way of the
student
who really wants to learn. I believe those things. I also
believe
that exceptions and leeway are earned through the establishment and
maintenance
of credibility. Education is made of attempts, successes
and
failures, victories and defeats. These things do not harm
credibility. Bamboozling, bullshitting, excuse making, and such
do. I will encourage
and support your audacity in a similar measure to how you maintain your
credibility.
Learning Contract
As a condition of having me as advisor, all of my advisees are STRONGLY
advised to complete a "learning contract" (PDF
| DOC)
each semester. This is an "unofficial" document between me and
you
about how the coming semester fits into your education. It
consists
of four parts.
In the first part you articulate your long and short term
goals
as they stand at this point in time. This provides the
opportunity
for you to re-think what you are tyring to get out of your Mills
education
overall and to think about what, in terms of your personal and
intellectual
developmental trajectory, you hope to put into and get out of this
semester.
In the second part you list the activities that you will be
undertaking
for transcript credit. This includes all courses, independent
studies,
etc.
In the third part you describe what other activities you
have
on the agenda for the semester. What things are competing with
school
work for your time? What sorts of things are you doing to stay
healthy
and sane? What are you doing to make sure that college is fun and
exciting as well as intellectually challenging?
Finally, you get to specify criteria that you and I can
agree
on as to what would constitute a satisfactory semester for you.
It
might just be a particular GPA or it might be specific grades in
specific
courses. Or maybe you'll call it successful if you come out of it
with a decision about your major or a successful proposal for your
senior
thesis or getting the committee on academic standing to accept your
college
major petition.
The point of the contract is to encourage pre-reflection on
your
part and discussion about your aspirations between us as the semester
begins.
It is an opportunity for you to articulate your current statement of
"why
am I here at Mills" and a chance for me to push you to higher levels,
encourage
you to reach your targets or, perhaps, warn you about some potential
bumps
in the road on the path you've laid out. After the semester is
over,
the contract gives us a guide for looking back over the semester's work
and asking what we've learned and how your education is unfolding and
where
you want to go next.
Download here in PDF or
RTF (if you want
to get in Word so you can type rather than handwrite).
Staying in Touch
The fastest way to trash a semester is to lose touch with your teachers
and advisor. I will keep an eye out for you over the semester but
it is ultimately your responsibility to keep in contact with me.
Send
me updates; let me know how things are going (both when they are going
well
and when they are not); come talk to me when your first
think
of dropping course X rather than after you ignored it for three weeks
and
have no choice but to drop it. Don't worry about disappointing me
when academic things don't work out as planned. You are talking
to
the all time champion of extensions, incompletes, re-takings, and
renegotiations
as an undergrad. It took me ten years to finish my PhD and six to
finish my BA (and that was without stopping!). If we can talk
about
it, there is a solution. Email
danryan@mills.edu.
Phone 510-430-3242. And you see me biking around campus all the
time
-- flag me down.