College extends advising to sophomores

Academic advising services for the College of Arts and Sciences will drastically change in the upcoming school year, College Dean Matthew Santirocco said this week. Changes include a sophomore advising option, an advisor/advisee interest match, the introduction of a four-tier advising system and an increase in efficient communication with incoming freshmen, Santirocco said. But, he stressed, the only way for his plans to work is if more faculty advisors participate in advising. One new aspect of the advising program is an attempt to bridge the "sophomore gap" -- the fact that no formal sophomore advising program currently exists. While many students choose a major by their second year, there are those who remain undecided and without formal advising, Santirocco said. The new program encourages students in need of advising to return to their freshman advisor. "It is my notion that students were being turned away as sophomores," said Director of Advising Services Diane Frey. "We asked faculty whether they would be willing [to advise sophomores] and most said they would." Out of the 63 faculty advisors who returned a questionnaire circulated by the advising office, 45 said they would advise sophomores on top of the 10 freshmen they receive each year. To compensate for the increase in students, though, the advising office will decrease the number of freshman advisees to nine. "We need more faculty advisors," Santirocco repeated. "We want to keep the number of students to faculty low." Meeting with an advisor as a sophomore will not be mandatory and it will not be enforced with a hold on registration, as is done for freshmen, Santirocco said. Another change, Santirocco said, will match freshmen with faculty advisors who share the same general interests. And since not all faculty agree with the matching system, only those who want to will take part in the program. "Sharing something in common will allow for improved human contact," Santirocco said. He said the means by which the College obtains a student's academic interests will also be updated. Currently, this information is only known by way of the University application. According to Santirocco, though, students interests may change between the time they apply and the time they enroll. To account for this discrepancy, he said the Advising Office will enclose an interest questionnaire along with the housing forms sent to matriculants in April. The questionnaire will ask whether students want to be matched with faculty advisors who share their interests. "Matching the students will be very complicated, but we will try our hardest," Santirocco said. Freshmen, under the new system, will also have more advisors. Presently, incoming freshman receive only two advisors -- peer and faculty -- but with a new four-tier system, each student will also receive a designated assistant dean for advising and an assistant dean for residence as secondary sources. "All four levels presently exist, but not formally," Santirocco said. "[With the four-tier system] the advisors will be coordinated better, and better trained." The list of the four assigned advisors will be sent to all incoming freshmen and their parents during the summer. Currently, because there are not enough faculty advisors, students may have assistant deans for advising or assistant deans for residence as primary advisors. But Santirocco hopes to change that. "I want every student to get a faculty advisor," Santirocco said. Efforts to accomplish this have so far been unsuccessful. Last summer, Santirocco asked College departments to offer at least a third of their faculty to the advising program. Many, however, did not even come close to filling that number, he said. "Advising is to talk to people," he said. "The purpose is to encourage students to reflect on their education." Other improvements to be made are "radical" changes to the College handbook in order to give students a better sense of their future and electronic advising to enhance one-on-one interaction.