The University’s academic advising system is in the midst of its busiest time of the semester, as thousands of undergraduate students prepare to sign up for spring 2014 courses.
The current system poses challenges for both faculty and students involved. From the faculty perspective, Paul Jones, a religious studies professor and current faculty advisor, said advisors face the challenge of having advisees with extremely rigid mindsets about what field they would like to go into.
“I think the challenge that is most pressing right now is getting people to understand that the undergraduate degree shouldn’t be a pre-professional path,” Jones said. “A solid foundation in the liberal arts and a broad grounding of classes is going to be just fine.”
But students also have concerns. Fourth-year College student Matthew Safarik said it was not ideal for entering students to have advisors who are unfamiliar in the students’ subject interests.
“The biggest problem, at least in starting out at U.Va., is the lack in specification with advisors,” Safarik said. “That, and just an advisor presence overall is not as high as I think it could be.”
Students in the College are put into an association and paired with a faculty advisor upon arriving on Grounds during their first year. Associations are groups of students based on first-year housing locations and are headed by an association dean who is usually available at daily office hours.
Randomly assigned faculty advisors, who remain with a student for their first two years or until they declare a major, meet with students at least once a semester to advise them on course selection, fulfilling school requirements and completing prerequisites for major declaration. Daily walk-in advising in Monroe Hall is available as well.
First-year students also have an opportunity to take College Advising Seminars (COLA) which place a large emphasis on advising. Finally, once students declare a major, they are placed with an advisor in that respective department.
English Prof. David Vander Meulen, who was also the faculty advisor granted the Edward L. Ayers Advising Fellowship in 2013, said an additional difficulty comes with advising students who are already completely focused on a certain major.
“So many come to U.Va. thinking they have their life figured out when they arrive,” he said. “It is a challenge for me to get them to realize that the world might be larger than they thought it was when they left high school and to make a more informed decision about the course of their life from then on.”
The Edward L. Ayers Fellowship was established in 2007 to recognize a faculty member who expresses dedication to guidance of undergraduate students at the University and enhances student-faculty interactions.
But problems also emerge when students have no idea what direction to head.
“I usually do first-year advising and that’s sometimes challenging because some students at that point don’t have a certain idea [of] what they want to do so you have to have a general outlook,” Chemistry Prof. Richard Sundberg said.
Third-year Engineering student Brianna Kim, who transferred out of the College her first year, said she also sees areas in which the advising program could be improved.
“Even if they didn’t know the answer to a specific question they could be more helpful in directing you to other services like Career Services,” she said. “I feel like they’re just not very good at directing people to get certain resources or contacts.”
But faculty and students said the advising system does have numerous benefits to both the students and faculty involved.
Meulen said being an advisor to first-year students is highly rewarding. “It’s a chance to help people get the greatest benefit from their new environment by opening them up to new opportunities that they haven’t seen before,” he said. “It’s a joy to see them come in and mature and grow over time.”
And third-year College student Kelsey Gehr has found the advising system beneficial.
“I feel like it’s pretty straightforward,” she said. “If I have a real problem my advisor is pretty helpful,” she said.
But there remains much room for improvement.
“It has to be a two-way street,” Jones said. “The student has to take initiative to seek out his/her advisor, at the same time faculty advisors have to be responsible. If we don’t do our part, students can’t get anywhere. If either the student or the faculty member doesn’t step up then it will be less successful.”
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