Advising Changes Yield Closer Relationships, Increased Access

Columbia's academic administration may have been ranked 17th by the Princeton Review's recent feature "Long Lines and Red Tape," but the student response to the recent changes in the First-Year Sophomore Academic Advising Center suggests quite the contrary.

After a full semester of operating under the substantial changes made in advising last year, both students and deans agree that the modifications have yielded positive results. The office is now more approachable, they say, and reorganizing the deans as individual advisors to students--as opposed to the groups of advisors that worked with each class last year--was a major factor in creating that accessibility. In addition, the formerly separate first-year and sophomore class centers merged and set up shop on the fourth floor of Lerner.

"The feedback that I've been getting from the staff and all the deans is that the new system is working very well. They are getting to know their students well and having the office in one location and being in the student center is extremely advantageous," said Sandra Johnson, associate dean of advising and residential programs.

Since they experienced a year of advising before the changes were effected as well as a semester under the modified system, the sophomores' feedback to advising is the most telling.
"I've been going to my adviser more often. You become more willing to utilize a system when you know there's a specific face or figure to go to," Hao Tran, CC '05, said.

"[Advising] has improved a lot. The changes have encouraged a lot of students who otherwise wouldn't have gone to see their advisors. They get personalized e-mails and reminders that I feel really make a difference," said Salwa Touma, CC '05 and a member of the FYSAAC advisory board.

First-years either met or heard from their advisers before arriving at Columbia in August, and some have already developed a close relationship with their advisers.

"I really like advising here. My adviser knows what he's doing and everyone at the FYSAAC office is really friendly. I've gotten to know my adviser pretty well already and we're even having lunch together," said John Jung, CC '06.

While some students have already formed relationships with their advisers and make frequent trips to the FYSAAC office, others opt to use the advising system sparingly.

First-years presumably have less to discuss in terms of the details of their major; still, they have been making the most of having an individual adviser with whom to work closely. "Advising is a need-based relationship. Right now I'm just working on the Core, so I usually have things pretty figured out. I usually just go for the 'A-OK' and the final word," said Beth Katz, CC '06.

Despite the strides of improvement in FYSAAC since last semester, academic advising at Columbia still has shortcomings that students feel need to be addressed.

At the fall Ivy Council Conference held at Cornell last semester, "discussion on academic advising at other Ivy League universities magnified Columbia's relative lack of personal advising and attention offered to students," said Jukay Hsu, CC '06, a delegate to the Ivy Council.

Some other students have mentioned their dissatisfaction with the weak grasp advisers seem to have on some of the courses and majors offered at Columbia. Advisers often have to take extra time to ask specific departments about what students feel are basic questions regarding a major or concentration.

"I'm a science major in CC and I feel like the deans for the College are more informed about humanities courses than the science ones. Many students in CC are pre-med or general science majors, and I feel like the advisers in the SEAS departments may be more helpful," Tran said.

According to Touma, the FYSAAC advisory board encountered some concern that each dean might be advising too many students.

From the deans' perspective, "there isn't an overload of students, but there are definitely peak periods in each semester. To counteract this anticipated increase in appointments, we did early outreach in October to encourage students to start thinking about their spring courses. Our hope is that it generates more people to come see us before the registration period, when we are able to give them defined appointments," Johnson said.

Some students have requested that the office provide more walk-in hours. Johnson indicated that walk-in hours are designed for five-minute questions only.

Many of FYSAAC's initial changes stemmed from the opinions of students, so the Center will continue to solicit feedback. Advisers are already looking at ways to improve the now semester-old system.

"The enrolled students' survey gave us a lot of feedback and data to make these changes, so we're doing another one this year to help us assess where we stand," Johnson said.

Although the advisers are "always looking for ways to improve," major changes in the near future are unlikely.

"We've had an excellent year so far, and we're committed to maintaining the current structure of advising for a period of time with ongoing assessment," Johnson said.