Arushi Sharma | Relationship advice from the UA

When it comes to academics, I used to feel embarrassed asking for help. But since transferring to Penn, academic resources have become incredibly important course-planning tools.

Coming from a foreign university, the web of requirements was a nasty shock. It's one thing to be a freshman with four years to figure everything out. It's quite another to be clueless about how much of my pre-Penn slogging would be "recognized."

I spent many a night poring over Penn's handbooks and Penn InTouch. I used the tricks of the transfer credit trade given to me by my College, major and transfer advisors .

The system worked well for me, but my success story is an anomaly, according to the pre-major College advising-reform agenda in the Undergraduate Assembly's Mid-Year Report.

The plan responds to student opinions expressed in surveys regarding academic-advising. In both surveys, students - predominantly from the College - expressed dissatisfaction with their advisors' knowledge of curriculum, effort level and accessibility.

Student Council on Undergraduate Education Chair Elizabeth Slavitt said big complaints in the 2006 survey weren't about faults in the information system. "We can always give them more information, but what they also want is a relationship with their advisor," she noted.

UA freshman representative and Daily Pennsylvanian staff member Chi-Chi Achebe authored the UA's most recent proposal for pre-major advising reform. She stressed the importance of arming freshmen with information so they can build relationships early and use the advising system to their advantage throughout their academic careers.

Advisors want this relationship, too.

Assistant Dean for Academic Advising in the College, Srilata Gangulee, noted advising is a partnership that builds over time from mutual trust. She felt the chances for this partnership would improve if a student was with her all four years and she could put herself "in the student's shoes" and get to know her student better over the time period.

Without this relationship, she added, a student won't use advising until "there is an acute problem which could have been avoided."

As for student-advisor mismatches that preclude such relationships, the system is incredibly flexible - students can switch advisors at any point as their interests change.

A personal bond makes all the difference. Tanya Pavri, one of fifty-three freshmen in the Huntsman Program - which awards a joint degree between Wharton and the College - describes such a relationship with her advisor: "I go to her for anything I want; I'd say she's like our mom here."

College senior Angelica Krut developed a similar bond with a professor and hasn't seen her College advisor since sophomore year.

The UA's agenda focuses on fostering these kinds of relationships so students can "take advantage of advising services at each stage."

But College Dean of Freshmen and Director of Academic Advising Janet Tighe handed me a pile of materials on established programs that made me feel as though we're being spoiled with further reforms. Programs like the Weingarten Learning Resources Center, Career Services, Office of International Programs and the College's student blog, to name just a few, present innumerable opportunities .

Tighe agrees that the system is comprehensive: "Several other universities, one of which is in Boston, are just amazed by the amount of faculty active in our pre-major advising program, anywhere between 60 and 80-those numbers are incredible to them."

Upperclassmen also benefit from this enthusiasm. For example, they complained about "surprise" requirement overload in their last semesters -the College listened and instituted a mass summer audit for rising seniors.

Reforms are necessary to bridge student-advisor gaps, but they can only change so much in the estalished process. To establish effective advising relationships students need to actively search for the right people, bring up their problems and ask for assistance.

So to all those who fear, hate or ignore College advising, wake up. Not only does Penn have many academic resources, there's a movement underway to make them more accessible.

Gangulee cheerily assesses the situation: "Sometimes I wonder if we're holding hands too long. But, then I think, 'Well, when they go to work they'll all straighten out.'"

Arushi Sharma is an College junior from Rockville, Md. Her e-mail address is sharma@dailypennsylvanian.com. A Case of the Mondays appears on Mondays.

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