Students meet with advisers to nail out their schedules
By Julius Calasicas
The relationship between advisers and advisees can range from meeting only twice a year to discussing personal problems over coffee at The Cove.
As students register for classes next semester, interaction with their academic advisers is unavoidable. Students must meet with their advisers in order to receive the required signatures and alternate PINs.
Students with two or more majors usually rendezvous with their primary major's adviser, while honors students have a separate mentor outside of their majors in addition to their regular advisers.
Br. Donald Stabrowski, C.S.C., UP's provost, emphasizes that advising is different for every student in terms of majors and year.
"Freshmen need advising for basic things," Stabrowski said. "When students come as freshmen, they need adult help during their first days on campus. Students then learn to do things on their own and gain different experiences by their junior year."
According to Stabrowski, advising builds a relationship between faculty members and students that matures as students do. The help and assistance a freshman receives is different from the guidance a junior would get.
When it comes to keeping track of students, faculty advisers sometimes face difficulty. Arranging meeting times with students is also complicated. Getting in contact can prove to be a difficult feat, especially when professors are overburdened with advisees.
Maren Andres, a sophomore social work and Spanish major, has social work professor Joseph Gallegos and Spanish professor Maria Echenique to help her with her classes.
Andres uses Gallegos as a resource tool much more than Echenique.
"Echenique told me to e-mail her for my PIN," Andres said. "Gallegos wanted to meet." Andres prefers Gallegos when it comes to advisers because Gallegos can sit down and talk with her to schedule the right classes in order to graduate.
"Gallegos is helpful and had a lot to offer," Andres said. "He gave me suggestions on courses that would be best and he was willing to sit down with me and make my schedule."
Echenique has 34 Spanish majors under her belt, about half of which have double majors.
"Our Spanish major is very clear in general," Echenique said. "Students can easily decide schedules." It is a general rule that double majors should meet with both advisers at some point.
Andres usually goes to visit only one of her professors. She preplans her schedule before meeting with her adviser and thinks that the registration process is pretty self-explanatory.
"I'm not close at all with Echenique," Andres said. "I'm more comfortable with Gallegos. I think the intention of the advising system is good and different advisers have different outlooks on scheduling."
Elsa Vang, a junior biology and Spanish major, can choose to see either biology professor Christopher Kodadek or Spanish professor Matthew Warshawsky.
"I don't see my Spanish adviser because I know what I have to do to graduate," Vang said. "I see my biology adviser more because classes are harder to plan out."
Vang thinks that some advisers can be useful and should give more pointers to which classes students should take.
Warshawsky has 27 Spanish major students that he is advising and two honors students - engineering and German majors - that he is mentoring. As a mentor, Warshawsky has met over coffee at The Cove but tends to keep his relationship with his advisees on an academic level.
Many Spanish majors have a second major, which can contribute to why students take advice from certain professors when it comes to registering. Finding time to meet with students is not a problem with Warshawsky.
"I think it's good to have a face to face check-in with students to remind them to take care of their core requirements," Warshawsky said. "The toughest thing about advising is telling students to take a certain course to meet the university's requirements."
GaoNa Yang, a freshman communication and business major, has only communication professor Renee Heath as an adviser.
Yang said she found more help from Gwyn Klobes in the business school than from her adviser.
"(Heath) wasn't very inviting," Yang said. "As a freshman, I need guidance to adjust, and her approach to my questions was distant. I think advisers should be more open and build a relationship with advisees."
Heath has 15 advisees to oversee. Timing and limited office hours make the registration process more difficult for Heath, especially when advisees wait until late in the registration process to arrange meetings.
According to Heath, her method of advising is a form of tough love and experience is the best way to learn how to advise students.
"It's important, but advising takes a tremendous amount of time," Heath said.
Elayne Shapiro, chair of the Communication Studies Department, also believes that a relationship grows over time between students and advisers.
"It's not something that can happen in one year," said Shapiro, who advises between 45 and 50 students, handling transfer students in her department.
Shapiro loves to work with her advisees to create programs within majors that meet the needs, goals and wishes of the student and instructor. One of the hardest parts of advising is denying students from entering a closed class, she said.
"For example, CST 301 (Media and Society) closed early," Shapiro said. "Many of our upper-division classes are very writing intensive, so we have to hold our caps. It hurts me not to let students into classes."
The Department of Communication Studies has since added a second section of Media and Society to help deal with the overflow
On a lighter note, Shapiro said there's a creative aspect of advising as well.
"I just saw a student with two required courses closed but she hadn't noticed Fine Arts 351 (Art Masterpieces II)," Shapiro said. "She loves art. Now she will have a richer experience every time she goes to a museum."
