Word of Advice

Singled out in the faculty report on General Education as due for some changes, the present advisory system has remained largely undisturbed by both the General Education Committee and its untutored advisees. Particularly in the social sciences, the advisor is not an indispensable man. Students seeking his wisdom have all too frequently found their questions better answered by table-talk acquaintances. This does not imply that some advisors have not helped their charges, for many have; nonetheless, the advisor-student relationship suffers from many inadequacies. Lack of confidence is enhanced by the advisor's frank inability to help the student on many problems, especially in the selection of courses which fall outside the advisor's own special field of concentration. And many an advisor is only himself a recent graduate, whose experience and ability in the technique of advising is necessarily limited. The single function which the system performs consistently is the careful signing of study cards once a term.

When the purse pinches tightly enough to choke a struggling tutorial program, the extravagance of an expendable advisory system should not be allowed. Granting that functions such as study help, course guidance, and even aid in personal problems should be provided by the University, the advisory system has shown itself by popular consensus to be relatively unsuited to this sort of work. Yet the average lowest paid advisor makes four hundred dollars a year for his task--based on a flat rate of twenty dollars per student. If this money were diverted to extend tutorial, admittedly invaluable in the social sciences, it might well find better use. The functions now argued as in the advisory province are already performed by the Bureau of Supervisors in matters of study help, and by upperclassmen, graduate students, and faculty acquaintances in matters of course selection; while any valuable help in personal problems generally emanates from the Dean's or Veterans' Counsellor's Office.

Standing alone as the function of the system is the signing of study cards. It requires little imagination to conceive of a less expensive and more efficient way of handling this matter of administration. When finances are one of the primary objections to more tutorial for worthy students, it is regrettable that appropriations should fall to an advisory system which is at best inadequate. It can only be adequate when there is available a supply of advisors with the ability and the time to offer a reasonable tutorial substitute for the masses.