Academic advising improves

Registering for courses is a tedious and stressful process. There are questions of University requirements, core requirements, balance, and personal enjoyment. Sometimes, students feel lost and overwhelmed. And many times, contacting one's advisor to obtain the necessary course registration code is one more difficult task at an already dreadful time of year.

Is it any wonder that many Boston College students adopt a less than positive attitude toward the importance of advising?

Because of these numerous issues, BC established the Academic Advising Center two years ago in order to help students and the wider community "discern their academic and personal directions and to shape their lives as 'men and women for others,'" according to the Center's Web site. Since its inception, it has run many events that aim to help students with this process.

One event series is Professors and Pastries, which takes place at numerous times throughout the year.

Rory Browne, the associate director of the Academic Advising Center, said that the purpose of the these events is to gather students and faculty in an informal setting that will facilitate interaction and alleviate the stress that students may feel about approaching faculty members.

In addition to this series, the Academic Advising Center has also incorporated more formal events that address the issues of academic majors and course selection.

The Deciding Panels were initiated in the spring of last year and they focused on career and life choices beyond BC. Faculty members from across the University were invited to speak about their own academic experiences and how they were informed as they made difficult decisions.

"These Deciding Panels are really panels about making decisions," Dr. Browne said. The second series, Course Exploration Panels, were implemented this week.

Yesterday, "Exploring Courses in the Sciences and Mathematics and Exploring Courses in the Humanities and Arts convened, while the final panel, "Exploring Courses in History and the Social Sciences," is taking place today in Gasson 100 at 3:30 p.m.

Browne hopes that these events will give students ideas about courses in "a central place and in a comparative way."

Professors from different departments with similar focuses discuss their specific disciplines, career paths within those majors, introductory classes for particular fields, different core offerings, and strategies to follow if a student is interested in a specialized area of study.

Browne hopes that the interaction will not end at after the panels conclude, though. "We want to show that the faculty is available and that the panel will initiate a dialogue that will be ongoing," he said.

More generally, academic advising on a one-to-one level starts freshman year when incoming students are partnered with faculty members.

Francis Kilcoyne, assistant director and undergraduate director of the theology department and an academic adviser, said that the advising process is "an important and valuable opportunity for students to maximize their opportunities."

An adviser can act as an "advocate" and question students about goals and propose a path that may not have been previously considered. All of this, he said, is geared toward making all BC students "informed shoppers" and he believes that Browne has tried to facilitate this even further by "getting inside of the BC culture" and providing students with the advising panels.

No matter how important this process may be, many students do not share Kilcoyne's enthusiasm. Lindsey Avedisian, CSOM '10, liked her freshman adviser because she was able to establish an extracurricular "rapport," but she feels "skeptical" about the advising system on the whole. "Professors may know about things in their field, but when it comes to advising students which classes to take elsewhere, they may not know about it," she said.

Browne echoed this concern by saying that the constraints on professors are related to time issues, the fear of misadvising, and discouragement caused by the lack of student response.

The advising relationship, however, is not one-sided. "Students have to take an active role in their advisement process," Kilcoyne said. It is those students who seek advice and contact advisers that will be best served by the system.

If students is not receiving the attention that they want, they have the ability to switch advisers. Kilcoyne believes, though, that "advisement as a two-way relationship is often not taken seriously."

Professors and advisors should realize that they can provide the opportunities that may "jog the consciousness" of a student.

Although Browne noted that "student complaints are similar everywhere," he said that BC has put an especially important emphasis on student advising that begins "at the highest levels."

He said that a great amount of good will at BC comes from professors and administrators, and that this can be seen through the response to the Center's programs.

"Students want this advising," he said, and it is his hope that the Academic Advising Center will demonstrate to students that "the faculty are really there," and that they too are interested in sharing their knowledge with the students.

Ultimately, Browne hopes that this will be a process of "educating students on how to be advised," an education that they need and deserve.