Responsibilities of Chapter Advisors
The chapter advisor is the link between the national organization of 
and the student members, and between the chapter and its home institution. All communications from the National Office go to the advisor; he or she is responsible for seeing that the chapter's student officers and others connected to the chapter's activities get the information they need. The advisor is key to the success of the chapter and the level of benefit students are able to derive from membership in it. While the more active chapters will require of their advisors, it is also true that the most successful chapters give a great deal of administrative responsibility to their student officers, leaving the advisor with mostly only oversight duties and, of course, final authority in chapter matters.
Sometimes the department chair is the chapter advisor; sometimes a junior faculty member is asked to take on the job. In any case it is important that the advisor be a member of the faculty who is dedicated to the needs of students, has good rapport with undergraduates, and is willing to perform the duties of advisor when and as they come up.
Following is a list of areas for which the chapter advisor is ultimately responsible; how much time he or she needs to spend on each will vary with the chapter's activity level, the requirements of the home institution, and how the tasks are shared between the advisor and the student officers.
- Communication. The advisor needs to share communications from the National Office with the student officers, department secretary, and any others involved with the chapter, and to take responsibility for communications between the chapter and the home institution when necessary. He or she should be sure that students are made aware of PSA (the student information cards help with this) and its programs and opportunities (Chapter Activity Grants competition, student paper awards, scholarships, etc.) and their deadlines, as well as administrative information bearing on the chapter such as the initiation fee, national office procedures, the availability of new merchandise, etc. For early and automatic notification of all National Office programs, deadlines, and other important information, Chapter Advisors should make sure they are signed on to the Chapter Advisor's E-mail Network. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to the National office with your full name, institution, and email address, and a request to be added to the Network.
- Credentials, Authorizations, etc. The advisor is ultimately responsible for verifying the eligibility of candidates and for signing the Membership Certificate Request Forms which are the official notification to the National Office of the names of new chapter members. (See PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY, below.) The advisor should also be sure the chapter submits an Annual Report to the National Office.
- Grants and Awards. The advisor must sign the cover letter for any proposal a chapter submits to the Chapter Activity Grants competition, and should advise student officers on the content of the proposal and its budget. The advisor is responsible for the conduct of the grants, the stewardship of the grant funds, and the final accounting and report to the national office on the grant activity.
- The advisor is also responsible for nominating a student for the Graduate Scholarship, and for the Best Undergraduate Class Paper and Best Undergraduate Honors Thesis Awards.
- Finances. The chapter advisor has ultimate fiduciary responsibility for the chapter. If there is a chapter checking account the advisor should have the check signing authority and look over its records frequently. If the chapter needs a check requisitioned from the university accounting department the advisor should take care to shepherd the request through the system in a timely way. (See MONEY, below, and also, Handling Chapter Finances.)
- Meetings and speakers. In most situations student members, no matter how energetic and ambitious, will need some help in setting up speakers or other special events for meetings. The advisor should be available to do whatever is needed to help students carry out good plans, for instance by suggesting other faculty or local luminaries who might be good speakers for a meeting, signing letters of invitation to these people, advising students on meeting arrangements and advertising, and generally giving them the benefit of his or her experience and position to see that their programs come off well.
- Guidance. The chapter advisor should be involved with the student officers as they write their chapter's bylaws, decide on a meeting schedule and set up business meetings, and make other plans for chapter activities.
- Archiving. The advisor should also provide a home for chapter records, even if this involves only labeling a shelf or file drawer "PSA" and making sure the materials are always there and available for whoever needs them. The National Office can always provide chapters with records of their membership.
New Information: Some Legal Issues of Importance to Chapter Advisors! All advisors should be aware of the legal issues they may face in the following areas:
LIABILITY: Be aware of, and abide by, your university’s policies on student participation in extracurricular activities, especially if travel is involved, and take whatever precautionary measures are necessary to protect against liability in the case of accidental injury. Don’t let students engage in obviously risky activities under chapter auspices. Remember: The National Office of Pi Sigma Alpha does not provide insurance for students engaged in Chapter Activity Grant activities or any other Pi Sigma Alpha programs or projects.
MONEY: Don’t give students responsibility for handling other students’ money. If your chapter has a checking account YOU (and possibly another faculty member) should have check-signing authority, never students. You have a fiduciary responsibility to safeguard the money students pay to the chapter for Pi Sigma Alpha memberships and merchandise, and that includes sending initiation fees to the National Office in a timely manner. For maximum protection, take advantage of your institution’s student activities or club account to handle initiation fees and other chapter money. Avoid using your personal checking account for Pi Sigma Alpha business. Give receipts to students for whatever money they give you. If your chapter has receipts of $5,000 or more per year (!), be aware of the IRS regulations governing non-profits. You MAY be required to incorporate and file an annual Form 990.
PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY: Be aware of Family Educational Right to Privacy Act (FERPA, also known as the Buckley Amendment) requirements with respect to student academic records. Do not allow students to review other students’ transcripts for purposes of determining membership eligibility.
CHAPTER BYLAWS: Make sure your chapter has them, and that they conform to the national constitution of Pi Sigma Alpha. A good set of Bylaws will protect you and the chapter against challenges by individual students with respect to their eligibility for membership in the honor society, and much more. Models of good chapter bylaws are on the Pi Sigma Alpha web site.
USE OF PI SIGMA ALPHA NAME AND LOGO: "Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society" is a trademarked name. The National Office policy with respect to chapters' use of the name and/or logo are spelled out in this document. Chapter Advisors are responsible for seeing that their members abide by these policies.
CAS STANDARDS: Be aware of the CAS (Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education) Standards and Guidelines for College Honor Societies and try to follow them. These standards are meant for honor society chapter advisors, and the Association of College Honor Societies is a member of CAS.
UNIVERSITY AUSPICES: Get your chapter registered as an official student organization on campus so that you’ll be able to use the banking system available for student organizations.
Benefits of serving as a Pi Sigma Alpha Chapter Advisor:
- Biennial Business Meeting. The chapter advisors represent the membership of PSA at its biennial business meeting where the new officers and Council members are elected. The Business Meeting is held in even-numbered years in conjunction with the APSA convention. Advisors are notified of the details in plenty of time so that, if they are attending the APSA Convention, they can plan to come to the PSA Business Meeting. Refreshments are served at the Business Meeting and PSA a travel stipend of $100 to advisors who attend it. The notice of the meeting includes information about the stipend.
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Chapter Advisor Recognition Awards. Because the work of Pi Sigma Alpha's many dedicated chapter advisors is sometimes unrecognized by the department or university, the National Office makes occasional awards to Chapter Advisors who have served for a very long time in that capacity. These awards are announced during the summer.
Beyond these tangible benefits are the more subtle but even richer rewards inherent in mentoring students of special distinction. The Chapter Advisor has the opportunity to relate in an extraordinary way to the brightest, most motivated political science students, guiding them in the development of organizational skills not covered in their academic courses, exposing them to a wide range of speakers from outside the university community, providing them with the recognition they deserve for high academic achievement and perhaps the incentive to pursue further study in political science.
