A little advice

Each year around this time, as seniors panic that they won’t graduate and wide-eyed first-years flounder in an ocean of class choices, we realize the inadequacy of one office that could actually play a helpful role in our lives: advising.

Take a look at the vision as posted on the Center for Student Advising website. It reads, “We will be a trusted and indispensable source of knowledge and support for all students and a widely emulated model of advising excellence across the nation and around the globe.” Columbia advising may sound warm and invaluable from this description, but for the average Columbian, it lands wide of the mark. Advisors are meant to inform students of their options and provide experience and knowledge in answer to the questions that students bring. Yet all too often advisors understand little more than the student does about a department, and they end up searching Google for answers—something we know well how to do—while their advisees wait in front of their desks.

Many advisors are not available when students need them, which sometimes forces students to wait a month before a session, and others aren’t responsive to emails. Moreover, some students are forced to change advisors at an alarming rate, causing some undergraduates to have a handful of different counselors in only a four-year span. These scenarios make it virtually impossible for a student to build a relationship with his advisor. How is this the kind of support that the Center for Student Advising promises to give?

Across the board, Columbia students are paying too much money to receive the kind of counsel that they currently do. And while Columbia depicts itself as a small enough school to allow students to interact with professors and not be lost amid the crowd, the reality is that students are left to fend for themselves when it comes to selecting their schedules and thinking about the trajectory of their education.

There are of course exceptions, and students at Columbia who have had a positive experience with advising. Some advisors have proven to be accommodating and helpful—sources of knowledge for their students. And we are grateful for them. For the advisors who aren’t ideal, much of the problem is outside of their control as they have busy schedules and dozens of students to assist, meaning it’s the administration that must bear the burden of improving the Center for Student Advising.

One school at Columbia that benefits from its small student population and an all-around better advising system is Barnard College. Barnard students are required to see their advisors four times a year, and in general they receive guidance from professors who are actually knowledgeable about their departments. This accountability keeps students on track to complete their required courses, as well as provides an extra layer of care to keep students from feeling lost and neglected. Columbia would do well to learn from the liberal arts school across the street, adjusting its system to ensure that its advisors are also accessible and informative.

As a result of the lack of advising that they receive, undergraduates have learned to survive college on their own or seek help from professors or peers. And maybe it isn’t a horrible thing for students to have to navigate college on their own. After all, as adults we won’t have anyone to hold our hand and guide us in our every decision. But why have a costly program if it’s rarely doing any good? If Columbia decided to abolish the program tomorrow it’s unlikely it would have an impact on the lives of most students. It is high time for Columbia to realize that it should either make a real difference in the advising of its students, or stop giving out empty promises and end the program altogether.