A little advice

For most new students, this first semester has been a whirlwind of events, people, emotions, and memories. Yet during this time, when first-years like myself have been constantly bombarded with the elements of a new environment, guidance along the way has often been lacking. With everything going on at the start of the semester, a rushed 15-minute appointment with an adviser to discuss academic plans is simply an inadequate transition to college life. The only alternative is a summer advising session in select cities detailing the Core and other requirements that students are probably already aware of if they attend Columbia. A new feature needs to be added to enhance first-year counseling, one that allows for communication during the months leading up to college and casual correspondence throughout the year—no appointment necessary. It’s time to introduce the missing piece in Columbia’s student advising system—peer advisers.

Among Ivy League institutions, Columbia and Dartmouth are the only schools that lack some system by which upperclassmen can advise incoming students. The closest model that we have is groups with an orientation leader during NSOP week, when first-years have the chance to talk to their OLs about their own experiences at Columbia. However, this opportunity comes at a time when new students are less focused on college planning, instead channeling their energy into meeting one another and enjoying all that NSOP has to offer. Moreover, orientation leaders might not be prepared to answer questions about a new student’s specific area of interest or know much about the activities that an incoming first-year wants to get involved in. A system of peer advising needs to be instituted that allows first-years to communicate one-on-one with an upperclassman who is either pursuing a degree in the new student’s intended field, or participating in an activity or club that the new student wants to join. This interest can easily be gauged from a student’s application for admission, which is already used to match us with our professional advisers.

Some of the best blueprints for peer advising are, fittingly enough, at our peer institutions. At the beginning of summer, the University of Pennsylvania pairs each incoming college student with an upperclassman adviser pursuing a similar academic track. This allows for correspondence when the new student chooses a first-semester schedule and prepares for college life, before the year actually begins. In addition to its Curricular Resource Center and Departmental Undergraduate Groups, Brown sponsors the Meiklejohn program, which pairs 300 upperclassmen with incoming first-years making the transition to a new college environment. Princeton features academic peer advising programs for the first two years of study, housed at each student’s residential college.

It is commonplace on this campus for students to grumble about the Center for Student Advising. However, Dean Rinere and her staff have made a laudable effort to ameliorate CSA’s problems, working tirelessly to expand the advisers’ presence on campus and implement changes based on student input. They have also made it clear time and time again that if students are unhappy with their advising situations, they are free to select another adviser who might be a better match for them. Ultimately, the problems with CSA stem more from inherent flaws in a system of “professional advising” than from issues with the advisers themselves. While it is certainly important to discuss academic plans with a trained expert, sometimes a student just feels more comfortable talking to someone who is more of a friend, especially about issues that are not academic in nature. Moreover, advisers are fundamentally detached from the true Columbia undergraduate experience. They may know which courses are supposed to be of high quality and which will fulfill graduation requirements, but no one can give a student better advice about schedule selection than someone who has actually sat in the classroom. Peer advisers would also be better equipped in dealing with problems outside of the academic sphere that professional advisers can only remember from their own college days.

Dean Rinere is no stranger to this idea. During her days as associate dean of advising programs at Harvard, she oversaw the implementation of the advising fellows program. It is not far-fetched to ask her to apply this system to Columbia as well.

As Columbia works to strengthen its sense of community, the time is right for Student Affairs to grant the Center for Student Advising the go-ahead to now bring this system to Morningside Heights. After all, a little advice goes a long way.

Jared Odessky is a first-year in Columbia College. Worm in the Big Apple runs alternate Tuesdays.