On Monday evening, Barnard's entire dean of studies office hung around campus for dinner.
They dined with Barnard’s Student Government Association at the SGA-sponsored Town Hall meeting on academic support, where students and faculty discussed the effectiveness of College assistance and advising. Groups broke up into six tables for 45 minutes of discussion, with a mixture deans and students at each table. Afterwards, everyone regrouped to review what each table discussed.
As Zeest Haider, BC ’10, put it, the point of the Town Hall was “to foster discussion” between students and the administration. As a native of Kuwait, Haider said she recognized the difficulties some international students face coming to Barnard. “I think Barnard is getting a greater number of internationals students coming over the years,” she said. “I know that Barnard sort of recognizes the IB system and gives credit for it.” But Haider tested at the A-levels, which is the United Kingdom version of the International Baccalaureate system, and had trouble transferring these credits to Barnard. Gretchen Young, Dean for Study Abroad Advising, and Christina Kuan Tsu, sophomore class dean and Dean for International Student Advising, both agreed that the issue must be addressed.
Students also expressed their gripes about beginning Barnard under the guidance of advisers outside their academic interests. Haider noted that the questionnaire she filled out prior to coming to Barnard asked her prospective major. Haider, who is now an economics major, was placed with a first-year adviser from the psychology department. While some students remembered that they were unsure of their majors coming to Barnard, others expressed the desire to have had advisers in their intended majors during their first years. “Sometimes there are just not enough faculty members in that discipline to mach up with your interest,” said Kuan Tsu, who added that deans are assigned to first-years as advisers based on the deans’ own backgrounds. “That adviser might not be in your area of interest, but might be a good first-year-sophomore adviser.”
The upperclassmen agreed that effective advising during the first and second years is integral to a student’s success as she adjusts to life on a college campus. Virginia Burger, BC ’10, lauded her first-year adviser. “She didn’t always know, but she was always really willing to help.” Other students found that difficulties arose when their advisers went on leave or sabbatical. They often learned about their advisers’ leave of absence a semester before the advisers left, but found switching an adviser to be difficult, Sarah Besnoff, SGA president and BC ’09, noted. Haider, though, learned of her adviser’s absence after the professor had already gone on leave. “I believe, if the faculty is on leave, they should tell the student,” she said.
Other innovations were recommended, including an “upperclassmen buddy system.” Amy Chen, SGA Vice President of Finance and BC '10, noted that according to this system, upperclassmen at Barnard would advise first-years on scheduling and other potentially confusing matters. Incentives would be offered, she said, noting that “it was hard to institute a buddy system only through volunteering” in past years. Adviser evaluations are also being considered for the coming year. Dean of Studies Karen Blank, noted that sophomores are required to fill one out after declaring their majors, but student participants agreed that completing these surveys sooner would provide more immediate and helpful feedback to the administration. “It helps to clarify how much our advisers can actually advise us,” said Katie Palillo, Vice President of Communications for SGA and BC '10.