PERSONAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE HISTORY OF ACADEMIC ADVISING

With Volume 7, Number 2, the JOURNAL presents the first in a series of interviews focusing on the development of academic advising in higher education. The first installment of an interview with Dr. Harvey Wall, who began his career in clinical psychology in the early 1950s, introduces the series. In March 1986, Dr. Wall retired from his position as director of the Division of Undergraduate Studies (DUS), an advising unit at Penn State University that enrolls freshmen and sophomores exploring a variety of majors and advanced students needing advising assistance with changes in their academic plans. Dr. Wall was the first director of DUS, which started in 1973 with 800 students. It now enrolls 4,000. In many ways Dr. Wall's professional experiences parallel the development of academic advising nationwide. For those new to advising, Dr. Wall's remembrances of things past, although personal and local, should provide powerful insights into the present status and procedures of advising, regardless of location or type of institution.