Abstract

Although the advising literature has emphasized the importance of good academic advising, there has been little emphasis on ethical issues. NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising provides Core Values to guide ethical behavior. This study used an experimental design to examine perspectives of ethical behavior among faculty, staff, and students. All groups could differentiate between ethical and unethical extremes, but students had difficulty differentiating between ethical and neutral behavior. All groups hesitated to rate advisors as highly ethical or unethical. Even when behavior was seen as less ethical, students and faculty/staff perceived limited opportunity for students to do something about that behavior, such as change advisors. Suggestions are offered to increase the likelihood of more ethical behavior within advisement.