In response to negative assessments of its academic advising program, Bowdoin officials are aiming to make advisers more than just signatories on students' course registration forms.
"The student response in the vast majority is 'advising sucks,'" said Associate Dean for Curriculum Steven Cornish, who previously worked to reform advising at Brown University, and before that, oversaw Dartmouth College's peer advising system.
A reaccreditation team identified Bowdoin's academic advising program as a weak spot last fall.
Cornish, along with Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Dean of First-Year Students Mary Pat McMahon, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) President Dustin Brooks '08 and BSG Vice President for Academic Affairs Samuel Dinning '09, is developing a plan to comprehensively improve the system of pre-major academic advising at the College.
Certain reforms, such as the implementation of a peer advising system, may occur in time for November's course registration phase, Cornish said.
Broader changes will probably take longer. Cornish said he expects the College to name an official committee on advising reform by second semester, which would likely make formal recommendations by the end of the academic year.
The current pre-major academic advising system at Bowdoin pairs first-year students with their pre-major academic advisers during Orientation. Theoretically, each student is paired with a professor that teaches a subject the student is interested in, but due to the disproportionate ratio of students and faculty members, some students end up with an adviser whose academic passions are quite different from theirs.
Once students declare their intended major at the end of sophomore year, they select a major adviser?a professor in that department.
"The focus is on pre-major advising since juniors and seniors can pick [and change] their own advisers," said Dinning. "[Improving] pre-major academic advising is one of our priorities for this year."
Many students only meet with their pre-major advisers a total of four times in two years?once during each course registration period, since it is mandatory for the pre-major advisor to sign their students' registration form.
Johanna Fowle '10 said she has not seen her adviser at all this year. She sent the professor an e-mail and then left her course registration form in her adviser's mailbox to sign.
Michael Rothschild '10 also reported limited interaction with his adviser. "Basically, I just go to my adviser to sign my sheet," he said.
"Academic advising is flawed at almost any college," said Dinning. "But here, there's at least some level of discomfort between advisers and students. There aren't direct criticisms with the system, but there are overall inconsistencies."
Cornish, McMahon, Brooks and Dinning have already had one meeting to discuss pre-major academic advising. "We want to it to go further than just one meeting because the ideas have been great and productive so far," said Dinning.
Peer advising, frequent meetings, and a student information system that would provide advisers more details about their advisees are some of the changes in the academic advising system that Cornish and Dinning want to implement.
"First years and sophomores can get some assistance from students who have a broader perspective and are capable of advising them," Cornish said.
First year Adit Basheer said he likes the idea of peer advising. "If I have a quick question, I always go to my proctor anyway," he added.
"Peer advising and faculty advising can work as a partnership," said Cornish. "When one piece fails to provide the answer, you've got another one to go to."
Meanwhile, a student information system would strengthen faculty advising by providing advisers access to all the current information about their advisees, Cornish said.
The system might include photographs of a professor's advisees, the professor's notes from previous meetings with each advisee, links to certain departmental or study abroad programs in which his advisees have expressed interest, and more efficient ways to contact each advisee.
"Another way to address this issue is to provide better preparation for faculty advisers," Cornish said. "We also want to educate students from the start, at Orientation, about how to approach faculty."
However, Cornish emphasized that the reform process is still in an information-gathering phase.
"We are still learning about what the student experience is like," he said.