A new initiative by the Educational Policy Committee (EPC) will take effect in the fall of 2007, intended to improve the quality of academic advising by reducing the number of first-year students assigned to each faculty advisor.
Under the current system, an advisor counsels 10 students for two years, takes a year off from advising, and then resumes advising first-year students. However, faculty members normally take sabbaticals every six semesters, meaning that faculty often advise for two years and then take two years off.
In the forthcoming arrangement, each advisor will have five or six pre-major freshman students during the first year of the cycle. During the second year, advisors will keep this original group, now sophomores, as well as taking on an additional five or six freshmen.
Once the students declare their majors during the spring of their second year, they will switch to their major advisors. Similarly, during the third year of the cycle, the second group of advisees will keep their original advisor until declaring their majors. Professors will not take on a new group of incoming freshmen during the third year.
During the fourth and final year of the cycle, professors will not advise pre-majors, but will counsel juniors and seniors majoring within their departments.
The system does not account faculty members who take early or late sabbaticals.
The two-tier aspect of the current system, that of pre-major advising (freshmen and sophomores) and major advising (juniors and seniors) will continue under the new scheme. So even when faculty are no longer advising pre-major students, they will still have a host of declared students under their advisory wings.
The general mission of the EPC is to regulate all educational policy issues for undergraduates and graduates. Headed by German Studies Chair Krishna Winston, the committee draws support from five other faculty members and two students. Its responsibilities include reviewing curricula and course offerings, as well as advising the president on the University budget and matters of educational policy.
The upcoming change is only the first step in improving the advisory system, according to Winston.
“The Educational Policy Committee is also working on several fronts to provide essential information extending over four years to advisees in a comprehensive, easy-to-access form,” Winston wrote in an e-mail.
Winston also said that the Committee is working on training faculty advisors more thoroughly, as well as clarifying what advisors and advisees can expect of one another.
Many students have had up-and-down relationships with their advisors. Benz Phichaphop ’08, who has had three advisors, noted the volatility involved in the system.
“My current advisor is really good,” Phichaphop said. “He’s really helped me pick the right courses, and when I wanted to take six classes he stopped me.”
The EPC hopes that if both advisors and advisees have a more lucid understanding of the system, there will be less chance of students having experiences such as Phichaphop’s.
“My first advisor was really bad,” Phicaphop said. “My second one was also bad because he was on sabbatical.”
Students will have to wait until the fall to see whether the EPC’s adjustment will enrich the advising process for both students and professors.
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