Departments Beef Up Advising in Wake of Report

Last year's Committee on Advising and Counseling issued by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences report has inspired some departments to make changes and start discussions, or in some cases, to do nothing.

Departments that drew student criticism on the 1997 and 1998 senior surveys have made changes to their systems, and other departments are in the process of evaluating their advising.

However, some departments that received bad ratings have decided to make no changes.

The Committee on Advising and Counseling, chaired by Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 released their report last January. The report made several recommendations for the improvement of advising within the concentrations.

The recommendations included calls for more tenured Faculty members as head tutors, undergraduate input into the programs and increasing Faculty familiarity with departmental and college requirements.

Following a poor showing on both the 1997 and 1998 senior surveys, the Department of English and American Literature and Language has changed its advising system significantly. On the 1997 survey, the department received a rating of 1.94 out of five possible points when students were asked to rate their satisfaction with overall concentration advising. The average satisfaction rating was 2.85.

Until this year, the English department's advising system left many students with a different adviser every year, often a graduate student.

This year, the department has assigned each concentrator a permanent faculty adviser. The adviser will not offer specific requirement advice, but will serve more as a mentor. The change follows several of the recommendations in the advising report that Faculty members be more involved in the advising system.

"The English department was influenced by the general malaise about advising, but the department is also perennially involved in efforts to improve its teaching, including advising," says Professor of English and Folklore Joseph C. Harris, director of undergraduate studies.

Harris says the department considered not only the results from the report and survey, but also the input of the students on the department's Undergraduate Steering Committee.

Harris says the committee members "had more effect in actually shaping the reform efforts" than the results of the report.

Harris says he thinks this change will improve student satisfaction with the advising system.

The Department of Government has not made any major changes to its advising structure yet, but the department faculty members say they plan to review the system.

According to Williams Professor of History and Political Science Roderick MacFarquhar, chair of the Department of Government, the department has formed a committee to look at the undergraduate and graduate programs, including the advising systems. The department faculty will discuss the advising system at the first department meeting.

This follows one of the recommendations of the advising report that each departmental faculty meetings include a yearly discussion of the advising system.

The government department received a 2.49 out of 5 for overall satisfaction with advising on the 1997 and 1998 senior surveys.

The only change that the Economics department made small changes that effect not economics concentrators but applied math concentrators who use the economics advising resources. Overall, the department, which received a rating of 2.45 out of 5 for satisfaction with advising has made no major changes to the structure of its advising system.

According to Assistant Professor of Economics Christopher L. Foote, the department's head tutor, has expanded the tutorial office staff to make it easier for applied math concentrators to find advice.

Economics concentrators still rely on the tutorial office as their primary source for advice.

"Students can go to the tutorial office at anytime during the day and get their advice," says Foote.

Foote says the department does take the report's recommendations seriously, but the high number of economic concentrators makes it impossible for every student to have a faculty adviser.

"I take it very seriously when students aren't happy with their advising," he says. "We certainly want to work with the University and students whenever we can."

While faculty members may not serve as formal advisers, Foote says they are always available to consult with and mentor undergraduates.

"I think students want mentoring more than they really want a faculty member to sign their study cards," he says. "And that is something that the economics department takes very seriously."

The college repeated the advising survey with the class of 1999. After being reviewed by the departments, the results of the survey will be released. Lewis expects the report to be ready for release later this fall.