Reforming advising

Editorial: Need-blind admissions

A Bowdoin education is priceless. Unfortunately, it is also pricey. This year's tuition and fees total $46,260. Last year, the median American household made $48,201, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Needless to say, in order to send their kids to Bowdoin, most families need assistance.

Editorial: Art Museum Renovation

When the College unveils the newly renovated art museum this weekend, it will mark the end of an era that was frustrating, limiting, interminable?and completely worth it. Several years ago, when it had become obvious that the aging Walker Art Building would need to be renovated in order for it to remain viable, Bowdoin officials were faced with a decision: They could touch up the place just enough to get it up to code, or they could aim for something more ambitious?they could create a completely new space that would set a new standard for college-owned art museums.

Editorial

This piece represents the opinion of The Bowdoin Orient editorial board.

September 28, 2007

Students have consistently given poor marks to academic advising at Bowdoin, and with last fall's reaccreditation report finally mirroring the sentiments of disappointed advisees, the College has taken steps toward reforming its academic advising program. With the appointment of advising czar Steven Cornish as the associate dean for curriculum, the administration is looking to replace a hit-or-miss system with one that could offer overwhelmed first years better guidance.

This change has been a long time coming.

As it stands now, first years are paired?and too often, stuck?with their assigned advisers from the first week of Orientation until they declare their major(s) up to two years later. While some students develop good relationships with their pre-major academic advisers and benefit from the insights they can offer on course selection, others find that they become little more than another name on a list and another course registration card to sign.

Almost any change to the academic advising program will be a vast improvement, and the College's preliminary brainstorms represent good forward thinking. The proposed peer advising system would complement the faculty program and add another level of support for new students. Increasing the frequency of student and adviser interactions would strengthen the advisor-advisee relationship, and a student information system would help professors put a face to each course card that passes over their desks.

We commend the College for making strides to revamp the presently weak academic advising system, though we regret that it took a formal reaccreditation report by eight outsiders to motivate Bowdoin officials to fix a system that has dissatisfied students here for years.

Cornish told the Orient he anticipates the College will name an official committee on advising by second semester, which will issue formal recommendations by the end of the academic year. We urge all parties to be thoughtful yet prompt in pushing this process along so that no members of the Class of 2012 slip through the cracks.

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