Advising for less stress
Jaqueline Quillen
Issue date: 11/18/09 Section: News
Advising week is stressful for everyone - students, advisors, Registrar, department chairs, and the entire Mount faculty. When problems occur it's easy to point fingers and say "if my advisor told me this from the beginning I wouldn't have this problem." The value of advising is equally dependent on the advisor and the student.
An advisor's role is to guide students in pursuing their academic and career goals. Unlike some other larger universities that have professional advisors for students, the Mount depends on faculty advisors for a more personal advising experience. This can be good and bad for advisees.
On one hand, faculty advisors provide students with a more coherent sense of their field of study that the student is interested in because they teach it. Also, at a small campus like the Mount a faculty-student relationship allows for a more personal one-on-one advising experience. The negative side of having faculty advisors instead of a professional advisory team is that some faculty members treat advising as a mandatory evil.
One professor who does not fit this description is Dr. Frederick Portier, Department Chair of Mathematics. Portier uses a very efficient system that truly reflects the role of an advisor. In the first advising meeting Portier creates a spreadsheet outlining the student's 4-year course sequence. The spreadsheet is color-coded according to core requirements, major and minor requirements, and elective courses. Portier notes, "This takes a bit of time to accomplish on the first advising session but it makes all remaining advising sessions very quick."
Portier's impressive method of advising encourages students to organize and plan ahead from the beginning. Not all advisors make color-coded spreadsheets but students should definitely have some sort of organized list or outline of their intended course sequence including the core and major/minor requirements. Of course an outline created Freshman year is subject to change over time but having a rough draft with all requirements written out from the beginning can help make chosing courses easier for future semesters.
An advisor's role is to guide students in pursuing their academic and career goals. Unlike some other larger universities that have professional advisors for students, the Mount depends on faculty advisors for a more personal advising experience. This can be good and bad for advisees.
On one hand, faculty advisors provide students with a more coherent sense of their field of study that the student is interested in because they teach it. Also, at a small campus like the Mount a faculty-student relationship allows for a more personal one-on-one advising experience. The negative side of having faculty advisors instead of a professional advisory team is that some faculty members treat advising as a mandatory evil.
One professor who does not fit this description is Dr. Frederick Portier, Department Chair of Mathematics. Portier uses a very efficient system that truly reflects the role of an advisor. In the first advising meeting Portier creates a spreadsheet outlining the student's 4-year course sequence. The spreadsheet is color-coded according to core requirements, major and minor requirements, and elective courses. Portier notes, "This takes a bit of time to accomplish on the first advising session but it makes all remaining advising sessions very quick."
Portier's impressive method of advising encourages students to organize and plan ahead from the beginning. Not all advisors make color-coded spreadsheets but students should definitely have some sort of organized list or outline of their intended course sequence including the core and major/minor requirements. Of course an outline created Freshman year is subject to change over time but having a rough draft with all requirements written out from the beginning can help make chosing courses easier for future semesters.
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