Effects of academic advisor attire on community college student satisfaction with academic advising

The major purpose of this study was to determine if the attire of academic advisors would significantly affect students' satisfaction with their academic advisors. Academic advisors wore three types of attire: professional, casual, and a special uniform. The major concern was to determine if the student's first impression, as influenced by attire, of the academic advisor was significant in terms of satisfaction with the advising process. Data collected from 363 community college students were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Based upon the statistical analyses, the researcher failed to reject all the null hypotheses. The attire of the academic advisors did not significantly affect the students' rating of satisfaction as measured by the sum of scores on the Student Evaluation of Counselor/Academic Advisor Form. There were no significant interactions between attire and age, attire and gender, and attire and race/ethnic origin. The major conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that student satisfaction with academic advisors is not significantly affected by the academic advisor's attire. Neither age, gender nor race/ethnic origin of the community college student had any impact or interaction with attire on satisfaction with the academic advisor. The literature review made a compelling statement that academic advisors do make a difference in retention of students. Future research could determine how the attire (casual, professional or uniform) of the academic advisor impacts the productivity of the institution, student satisfaction and how the dress of the academic advisor impacts the academic advisors' view of their competence, comfort and rapport with the student. Use of a semantic differential survey instrument could be employed. Perception of academic advisor's attire may be more complex than previously thought. The information obtained from this study may be more useful as stimuli to encourage further investigation.