For years, students have complained about Boston University’s woefully inadequate academic advising system only to find their grievances falling on deaf ears. Administrators undoubtedly bear the most responsibility for neglecting the system responsible for helping students plan their educations, yet students have also hindered reforms through their own disorganization; the university cannot reform its system based on scattered griping alone. This semester, the Student Union aims to change that by finally taking the right approach and presenting a unified list of grievances.
In the past, the Student Union has tried its hand at fixing student advising, yet has made little progress. This time, the Union promises to start at the source by providing the administration with information. It will start with a student survey and comparisons with other advising programs from similar colleges before putting the ball in the administration’s court — and not a moment to soon. BU undergraduates deserve better than the uninformed, disorganized and often hostile advising system they have now. If the Free Press’ editorial board were asked by the survey, we would point to a few glaring problems:
n Too many advisors offer no more advice than telling students which courses they need to fulfill their requirements. Undecided students as well as those confident with their majors need advisors with actual knowledge of each course a college offers and how it will help or hinder a student’s career goals. Too often, however, advisers lack the time or the training to help students at all. The administration needs to make professors make advising a higher priority, or else students will continue to find themselves wasting entire classes they took based upon uninformed choices.
n Advisors do a terrible job communicating with their peers at BU’s other schools and colleges. Almost every undergraduate registers for classes outside their own college, yet few College of Arts and Sciences professors know much about minor and concentration programs offered in the School of Management or the College of Communication. As the administrator in charge of coordinating BU’s many schools and colleges, the Office of the Provost has a responsibility to provide BU Collaborative Degree Program students the information they need to make informed course decisions. Students cannot split their course plans between two advisors, especially if both advisors only understand a single specialization. Like the students they are entrusted to help, advisors should be well-versed in all disciplines.
n Many schools and colleges expend great effort to make students show up to advising sessions yet offer little real help when they get there. Though university staff and faculty do not have time to sit down with every BU undergraduate indefinitely, students’ time is also valuable. We would like honest information about what upper-level courses will eventually demand of us and an opportunity to ask advisors questions when it is convenient for us.
These are just a few of the concerns the Union will likely encounter in its survey. It will also learn much by studying other universities that have the same kind of student populations and organizational problems. When it presents its findings to the administration, administrators will have no excuse for delay. Still, the Union must continue to pressure authorities to heed students’ concerns for as long as it takes to get results. Otherwise, all their fact-finding efforts will be in vain.