Undergrad advising undergoes U. review

For students, academic advising can be a friend or foe. For the advisers themselves, it can be a frustrating process, made easier with the right tools and organization.

These issues were examined during the first University Council meeting of the year, held at the end of September. At the meeting, David Brownlee, an Art History professor and chairman of the Committee on the Quality of Student Life, presented a final report based on last year's findings.

The report addressed certain problems with advising at Penn and mentioned suggestions for improving the system.

Among them was the issue of elevated expectations among students. According to Brownlee, this type of thinking is unrealistic and impractical.

"Penn is a big and complicated place -- advising can't erase this," said Brownlee, who defines the role of an adviser as more counselor than planner. "You have to take responsibility for yourself."

Many students don't mind this set-up.

"I love [my adviser]. ... She knows everything and gives such good suggestions," College junior Amp Vajrabhaya said. "Not that I go to her often, but when I do, I really enjoy ... chatting with her."

Others, however, cite adviser inaccessibility as a problem that forces them to seek help elsewhere.

"I almost always got my advising from someone other than my adviser, because my advisers have never been very accessible -- and that's putting it politely," Engineering senior James Aslaksen said.

Brownlee's committee mentioned other trouble spots with advising, including the areas of dual and joint degrees, transfer students and study-abroad participants. According to Brownlee, all of these groups "tend to fall through the cracks."

For example, Chen Xue, a junior in Wharton and the College, does not have an adviser.

"The only time I went to advising was to declare my major," Xue said. "And that took like five minutes."

Brownlee's committee cited high academic demands and potential conflicts as related to a weaker advising system for these particular groups.

Joseph Sun, director of Academic Affairs for the School of Engineering and Applied Science -- which is affiliated with a number of dual-degree programs -- disagrees that advising is the problem.

"Dual-degree students have multiple advisers because they are students in both schools and therefore have access to the advising structures in both schools," Sun said. He also mentioned that Engineering students are assigned a faculty adviser and have access to peer advising groups, as well.

The committee's report also suggested improving online advising tools, including merging online course databases and improving the electronic worksheets students use to measure their progress toward a major.

"The electronic tools used with advising are effective for some things," Brownlee said, "but not all," most notably for students who are in more than one school.

Despite the fact that the University Council functions as more of an ideas forum than a task force, Brownlee said that he believes that improving students' electronic advising tools would be a feasible goal with a relatively short timetable for the University.

"It's something you could do for a few tens of thousands of dollars," Brownlee said.

According to Anita Gelburd, assistant to the deputy provost, this idea has been under consideration.

"It's something that has come up, and people generally think it's a good idea," Gelburd said. "It is very concrete. Unfortunately, it's not as easy to do in practice or as inexpensive as we would like it to be."

Still, Gelburd said that there are "all kinds of plans under development to improve the online tools we use to help student advising."

The interpersonal aspects of student advising, Gelburd said, are the most important "and can really enhance a student's experience at the University." In line with this, the committee's report advocates that advisers must be thoroughly trained so as best to assist the students they serve.

According to Brownlee, there should be "programs for training, keeping the adviser up to date and some sort of feedback loop" from students. "Some students never connect with their advisers or don't like them. There should be another way to get an adviser or change advisers."

As for freshmen, there are additional gripes.

"I think one problem happens during the summer before students come in as freshmen, because often their adviser is not physically on campus," said Diane Frey, the director of academic services for the College. "Often, the best [advisers] can do [is] telephone or e-mail advising. ... I think sometimes the students are uneasy."

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