Advising overhaul takes effect

More is not always better. That is what the College of Arts and Sciences determined last fall in a a review of the advising system. Officials noted that assigning incoming freshmen to four advisors was confusing new students more than it was helping them. Incoming freshmen have traditionally be assigned to four advisors -- a faculty advisor, a peer advisor, a College House advisor and a College Office advisor -- leaving students in need of advice over who should advise them. Several recent changes to the system, however -- mainly assigning students to a primary advisor and improving relationships between advisors and advisees by integrating the advising system into the other resources on campus -- have been implemented to improve the often-criticized advising system. "Advising is too weak a word to describe what we are doing," College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Beeman said of the ongoing advising overhaul. These changes, which were planned over the past year after an intensive review of the advising system, will have the biggest impact on freshmen. The Class of 2004 had extra advising options during orientation, and there is now a dean of freshmen to oversee their Penn careers. This is in addition to the streamlining of the standard advising process. To avoid the ambiguity and confusion of the multiple advisors, incoming freshmen have all been assigned to one "primary" advisor as a main contact person. "We want every one of our students to establish a meaningful academic relationship with their academic advisor," Beeman said. College deans have been trained to serve as primary academic advisors to several freshmen in their college houses. By having College deans act as primary advisors, Beeman noted that there was an integration of academic and residential life in the advising component. Beeman added that the extension of New Student Orientation for the Class of 2004 also allowed students to meet their advisors one on one, but also to carefully plan out their academic lives at Penn by filling out academic surveys outlining their goals and expectations of their education. But freshmen now also have a key contact person who serves the interests of their whole class. "I love the one-on-one contact with freshmen," Dean of Freshmen Lorraine Sterritt said. Besides meeting with her own advisees, Sterritt said that she has plans to invite other members of the freshmen class to meet with her on an informal basis throughout the year. "I hope to be able to contribute to integrating the different resources to freshmen on campus," she added, noting that she would be working with the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life to make sure freshmen were aware of the tutoring and academic support services available on campus. But the advising system changes are not only affecting incoming freshmen. A new College Help Desk has also been devised to reduce traffic in the College Office of students with questions that do not require making an appointment with an advisor; it benefits all students who have questions that have quick answers. "Students come to me for things they don't need an opinion on," said Sandi Konta, who was hired this summer specifically to manage the help desk. The overhaul of College advising began over a year ago, when administrators from several universities were invited to evaluate the University's advising system and produced a scathing report that said Penn's advising components had not adequately been integrated into a cohesive system.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.