Long Wait for GS Advising

Though the School of General Studies lost two of its deans this past spring, it has only recently filled the void. This delay has left many seniors without a long-term dean for the entirety of the fall semester, a crucial period preceding graduation. While in the future the University should make speedier hiring decisions, for now, it should ensure that all GS students can easily access advising resources before the new deans arrive.

The departures of former Dean of Students Mary McGee and Assistant Dean of Students Sandra Medina-Kopytek last spring left the already understaffed GS Dean of Students office scrambling to provide advising for its students. During the summer, Dean McGee's position was taken over by Assistant Dean Scott Halvorson, who became Acting Dean of Students. While Medina-Kopytek's students found it simple to pick up advising hours with other GS deans during the relatively quiet summer months, they have faced difficulties finding open appointments during the school year. The burdens of working in an understaffed office have stressed the loads of remaining academic deans, giving them less time to serve students. With graduation looming and important decisions regarding graduate school, final registration requirements, and even graduation paperwork to be made, it is unacceptable that some seniors should struggle to find academic guidance.

In the future the administration should operate on a tighter timeline when replacing deans. No dean should have to cut down advising hours because of too many responsibilities, yet this has been the case over the last few months. Students without a dean should not be shuffled around from adviser to adviser. The helpfulness of advising sharply diminishes when deans simply review students' files five minutes prior to their meeting, with no intention of establishing a long-standing student-dean relationship. Finally, the University should ensure that students currently without permanent advisers have better access to advising until the day the new deans arrive. While the new hires will be a welcome addition at the beginning of next semester, they will arrive too late to help some seniors make decisions about graduate school and graduation.

The Dean of Students office should do all that it can to integrate its new staff into the GS community as soon as possible. While their assistance may already come too late, new deans should help outgoing seniors leave the Columbia community confident that they have utilized their undergraduate experiences to the fullest.