College slowly alters advising program

Although the Undergraduate Assembly submitted a comprehensive report last January critiquing the current state of advising in the College of Arts and Sciences, the school's Advising Committee has been slow to implement any major changes to the system. The UA report, submitted to Provost Stanley Chodorow, recommended creating a strong residential base for advising by combining the roles of residential and peer advisors, in addition to improving the overall peer advising system and matching advisors and students with similar academic interests. In response to the report and previous survey results highlighting problems with advisor commitment and insufficient training, the Advising Committee decided to improve the peer training program for the fall. Just prior to the freshman move-in to the Quadrangle last month, approximately 170 peer advisors volunteered for a five-hour training session -- engaging in role-playing activities, listening to a number of speakers affiliated with the University community and contemplating solutions for common freshman complaints. "We changed the training from 'here's your folder, now go talk to freshmen,' to 'here's your folder, but now let's discuss the information,' peer advising head and College junior Rachel Goldfarb said. But despite progress in the training program, she admitted that the system is far from perfect. While Goldfarb received more than a few negative evaluations of peer advisors last year, she dismissed only one advisor out of the 60 in her sub-group. Mid-year adviser replacement disrupts the foundation of the advisor-advisee relationship, she explained. Since each advisor is assigned five to nine students, it is often difficult to maintain contact with everyone in the group, she noted. Yet the influx of peer advising applications forced the committee to establish a waiting list last spring, according to Director of Advising Diane Frey. While peer advisors are technically released from their duties by the end of the year, Goldfarb said she encourages her advisors to "establish a consistent rapport" with their freshman advisees, but that it is both the responsibility of the advisor and the student. Yet some students believe that matching academic interests is the only way to ensure a long and prosperous relationship with a peer advisor. College senior Ari Silverman said seven members of the Philosophy Department attempted to set up their own peer advising program to assist prospective majors during advance registration. During the summer, when the group asked Frey for contact information, she responded that President Judith Rodin and Chodorow "were dead-set against additional mailings being sent to freshmen," College and Engineering senior Ben Goldberger said. Consequently, the seven volunteers were unable to offer their services. "We had already selected the advisors at that point, and we didn't want to confuse students with additional names," Frye said. And Goldfarb added that "pairing up in majors limits students," leaving them at a disadvantage in the long run. Despite recent advances in the peer advising program, "it's probably not enough," College junior and former UA member Dave Futer said. The UA would like to see a program implemented where residential advisors would replace peer advisors, so that students would have the advantage of living in close proximity to their academic and residential peer advisor, Futer added. But Goldfarb said she has faith in the current system. "People graduate every year, so we must be doing something right," she said. Peer advising constitutes only one tier of College advising's four-tiered approach: faculty advising, peer advising, assistant deans for residence and assistant deans for advising.