THERE'S been a lot of grumbling around here lately. There's always a lot of grumbling, and confusion, when course selection season roles around, and the faculty advising system bears the brunt of these complaints.
Each student is assigned a faculty adviser based on their first-year dorm association, and, in most cases, keeps that adviser until he declares a major and is assigned a major adviser. This leads to a lot of odd pairings. Aspiring novelists are being guided by physics professors, first years dead set on the pre-med route are assigned to religious studies advisers. The result is a lot of complaining about the University's advising system, and there is always someone calling for reform. What should be realized though, is that it is our responsibility as students to chart our own academic course and seek out the guidance we need.
One of the biggest problems with the advising system is that, for the most part, students view the required bi-annual advising meetings as nothing more than a time to pick up advising cards. Sure, your adviser may not be in a department you're interested in, and he may not even be in a building you've heard of, but that doesn't mean he's useless.
At a bare minimum, advisers are familiar with area and competence requirements and can help students figure out how to fulfill them in a way that suits their interests. Beyond that, advisers probably have more insight than most students realize.
If a student absolutely refuses to believe that an adviser in the biology department can't offer advice on how to get into the Commerce School, there are other options. Every student is assigned to an association dean. According to the Undergraduate Record, deans, along with an association's Graduate Adviser, "have general responsibility for the intellectual life of the association." Deans can serve as an additional source of academic information.
There also are resources available to students beyond their assigned faculty. Using these resources requires more initiative on the student's part, but is far from unreasonable. What makes college so different from high school is the options students have in following their interests. With this freedom comes the responsibility to formulate a plan of study that fulfills the University's requirements as well as one's own academic goals.
By the time students are in their second year, chances are they've taken a class in an area they're interested in majoring in - a lot of majors require this by setting major prerequisites. Professors are a valuable resource. Office hours are more than just a time to complain about exam grades. Students can use office hours as a time to ask for advice on the major, talk about course selection or discuss career options in the major. If one doesn't know a professor in a major he or she wishes to explore, it isn't hard to find one to talk to. The Course Offering Directory provides a list of department chairs for students to contact. These are also the people responsible for matching declared undergraduates with advisers.
There are several other means for finding information about what courses are interesting or important. Most schools offer a majors fair at some point during the year, and many of the more popular majors, economics for one, hold events designed to allow undergraduates to meet and talk to faculty about the major. Several organizations, including The Cavalier Daily and Echols Council, also provide student course evaluations. This is a great way to learn about classes, because it publicizes what other students think about classes, not just what the course description says.
There are so many means beyond the advising system for finding information about classes and majors. The problem is not that the University does not provide these opportunities, nor is it that faculty are unwilling to talk to undergraduates. The problem is that students often are not willing to go out of their way to use these resources.
It is not the University's responsibility to hand deliver advice to students. Given the large number of students, particularly undeclared students, the University is amazingly efficient in assigning advisers and making sure students at least see them. Beyond that, it is up to students to seek out the available resources to formulate a plan of study and carry it out.
(Megan Moyer's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at mmoyer@cavalierdaily.com.)
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