Academic advising will now be mandatory, starting this fall for freshmen and extending to all students by the next school year.
The new program, designed by the U Office of Undergraduate Studies, requires students to meet with an academic adviser at four checkpoints throughout their college experiences: the “beginning point” for new freshmen, the “declare point” for undeclared students with 60 or more credits, the “departmental checkpoint” for students with 45 or more credits and the “graduation checkpoint” for students with 95 credits or more to prepare for graduation. Aside from the beginning checkpoint, students must have completed two semesters at the U before meeting with an adviser.
If students do not meet with an adviser at the appropriate time, a hold will be put on their registration, keeping them from signing up for classes until they make an appointment.
“We want everyone to identify a major and move into that major in a timely manner,” said Sharon Aiken-Wisniewski, associate dean of University College and director of advising.
The beginning point for freshmen has already been implemented for Fall Semester and the declare point, requiring students to meet with an adviser to select a major and chart a course of study, will be implemented in the spring. Both the departmental and graduation checkpoints will be put into place for the 2008-2009 academic year, and plans for these points are still being developed.
Some students are skeptical of this plan, criticizing the quality of advising at the U.
“They need to get better advisers if they’re going to do it,” said Maggie Wulf, a junior in sociology. “They need to make sure they know the major inside and out.”
Taylor Allred, a senior in organizational communication, said her experiences with advisers had not been helpful.
“Everything they did they got from the catalog,” Allred said. “Advisers should cater to (whom) they’re talking to, but they don’t. It’s a numbers game.”
Allred said she likes the option of being advised, but doesn’t think it should be required.
Mandatory advising isn’t unusual, Aiken-Wisniewski said, and occurs at peer institutions such as the University of California-Irvine, University of Cincinnati, University of Iowa, University of Pittsburgh, University of Illinois-Chicago, University of New Mexico and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Previously at the U, freshmen had the option of meeting with an adviser so they could register early for lower-level classes, but now it will be mandatory. Freshmen also have the option of participating in the LEAP program instead of meeting with an adviser. “We’re going from encouraging them to do it to saying this is something they have to do — that it’s important,” Aiken-Wisniewski said.
Similarly, students had been required to see an adviser before applying for graduation to sign necessary forms, usually coming in about two semesters before graduation, but now they are required to come in at 95 credits.
At the 45- and 95-credit checkpoints, students will also be able to discuss internships, study abroad programs, majors and minors that might compliment their degrees, discuss career paths with counselors from Career Services and discuss plans to apply to graduate school.
David Gowens, a student at Salt Lake Community College who will be attending the U next year, said he hopes advisers tailor their services to students depending on where they are in school.
“You should handle it differently for a freshman than a senior,” he said. “I would be frustrated if I was treated like a freshman.”
Students will be required to meet with an adviser once a year. This decision was made to give students time to make decisions about their majors without continually having holds on registration, Aiken-Wisniewski said. If students meet with an adviser in spring 2008, and they still are undeclared in spring 2009, they will be called in again.
Aiken-Wisniewski said the departmental checkpoints are also in place to allow transfer students to enter the U without having holds put on them immediately, since transfer students might have a lot of credits but not many toward a certain major.
The yearly advising limit is also partially due to limited resources, Aiken-Wisniewski said. Although funding for advising programs comes from departmental budgets and the central administration budget, she didn’t think they had the money to require advising every semester. Some colleges, such as the College of Business, have their own student services fee that is used in part for advising.
Right now, the University College has the resources to bring in one new adviser for freshmen.
Aiken-Wisniewski said it is hard to determine how many advisers are needed because so many students are undeclared.
According to national advising statistics from ACT, Inc., which the U will try to follow, the ratio of professional advisers to students should be about 300-to-one, with advising being their only job responsibility. The ratio for faculty advisers, which includes faculty members who are also teaching, should be 20-to-one.
The advising program will also utilize the peer-advising program, which uses upper-division students trained to understand academic policies and help students. Peer advisers will be used with professional advisers, not in place of them.
To implement the program, Aiken-Wisniewski said the University College will work closely with departments.
In the College of Engineering, administrators will address all engineering students in their first-semester classes so they can set up advising appointments before registering for second-semester classes.
Dianne Leonard, who coordinates administrative programs for the College of Engineering, said it is designing an advising syllabus to outline at what point in the students’ education they should go over certain information, such as career choices.
Already in the College of Engineering, students have advising in conjunction with their seminar classes and meet with advisers at regular intervals. All freshmen going into civil engineering and materials science and engineering are required to take engineering LEAP classes. Leonard said the number of pre-engineering students participating in LEAP will probably increase.
Although mandatory advising will increase workloads, Leonard thinks the change will be a positive one.
“We’re trying to be very proactive,” she said. “It will be a very positive thing to connect with students and talk with them about how things are going.”