A Fresh Look at Advising

The Freshman Dean's Office (FDO) is experiencing significant staff turnover in the next few months. D.E. Lorraine Sterritt and Sarah B. Drummond, both Associate Deans of Freshmen, will be leaving at the end of the semester. The need for new personnel presents the office with the opportunity to rethink its current structure and, by extension, its approach to first-year issues. In particular, the FDO should make first-year advising its first priority.

One of the expected vacancies has already been filled. Rory A.W. Browne, the Associate Secretary to the University in the Office of Governing Boards (who has also served as overseer and executive board member of Zoo New England), will replace Sterritt starting June 30. Browne's record of designing a first-year advising system at Yale, as well as his experience as a non-resident advisor and as an Allston Burr senior tutor in Quincy House, suggests that he will be receptive to first-years' advising concerns. Indeed, Browne has already expressed interest in increasing the advisor-student ratio.

Although Browne has correctly put a finger on the first step to improving first-year advising, increasing the ratio is just the first of several improvements the FDO should implement. Currently, the majority of first-years are advised by their proctors. These proctors do not often share the same academic interests as their proctees, but they do live in the same entryway as the students they advise.

The first-year advising system should make use of proctors' strengths and make up for their weaknesses: proctors in charge of more than 20 students could better serve as overseers of college life if they were not also individually-assigned resources for students' academic-related issues as well. Separating the roles of proctor and academic advisor and recruiting more non-resident academic advisors, particularly those with expertise in areas in which the students have expressed interest, are two ways the FDO can make a clear improvement to the quality of first-year academic life.

Students face tough choices during their first year: They must select courses, decide about advanced standing, pick a concentration, find a blocking group--all the while adjusting to the challenges and rigors of college life. The FDO should be a place to which first-years feel they can turn for help with these difficult choices.

This next year, the FDO is replacing half of their staff dedicated to helping introduce first-year students to college life. We hope that the FDO uses this period of transition to make significant improvements in first-year advising.