Prof laud changes in advising

Applaud College dean Undergraduate chairpersons in the College of Arts and Sciences said they applaud the drastic changes being made to the College Academic Advising Program. And they said this week that they applaud College of Arts and Sciences Dean Matthew Santirocco's committment to changing the system for the better. Among the many changes slated for the next school year are a sophomore advising option, a four-tier advising program and an increase in communication at many different levels of the advising process, Santirocco said earlier this week. He also plans to offer next year's freshmen the option of choosing advisors who have the same academic interests as them. Alan Filreis, undergraduate chairperson of the English Department, commended the changes, which he says will offer students a better advising system. "All the proposals are great and I applaud Matthew [Santirocco] and the College Office for taking the subject of advising very seriously," he said. While many undergraduate chairs agreed with Filreis, the issue of faculty participation, or the lack of it, in the advising program serves as a source of contention. Santirocco said the current system has enough problems functioning effectively because of the small number of faculty who agree to participate in it. He added that, presently, all freshman do not even receive a faculty member as their "faculty advisor," but are given either an assistant dean for advising or assistant dean for residence. Over the summer, Santirocco asked each department to submit at least one-third of its faculty to the advising program, but many did not even come close, he said. "I think it is reprehensible that , somewhere along the line, the faculty don't think they are responsible for advising," Filreis said. Mark Trachtenberg, undergraduate chairperson of the History Department, shares Filreis' belief. "A lot of the faculty wonder why they should go out of their way to do more work," Trachtenberg said. "There is no reason why [faculty members] can't see students -- it's a part of their jobs." Santirocco attributed the lack of faculty participation to a lack of interest and time. Many, though, disagree with his claim. Astronomy and Astrophysics undergraduate chairperson Benjamin Shen said he believes that faculty members lose interest in advising because of a lack of interest from the student population. "I know many faculty members who would want to spend the time advising if they could make sure that students would come," Shen said. But both Shen and Undergraduate Mathematics Chairperson Dennis DeTurck said a number of faculty members do not want to be bothered with advising at all. Joseph Farrel, undergraduate chairperson of the Comparative Literature Department, has similar beliefs. "I think that some of the faculty felt that their role [as an advisor] was just not clear and [they] decided to put their efforts into other areas," Farrel said. "The College has to communicate to the faculty what exactly they would be doing as advisors." Many of the chairs said they feel the changes will positively effect the appeal of advising. Interest matching, for example, will help in increasing the number of faculty advisors, according to Ingrid Waldron, undergraduate chair of the Biology Department. "Matching of interests works a lot better for both students and faculty who are interested in the sciences," Waldron said. "We are delighted to be advisors when a student's interests are in our range of expertise." Waldron added, though, that the faculty in her department do not have a lot of extra time to advise freshmen because of the increase in Biology majors over the last two years. Above all, Filreis said, he believes something must be done to promote the idea of freshman advising to the faculty. "Another memo from the College office will not be effective," he said. "The individual departments need to do something about it."