The Education Committee of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate is looking to create a Web site to facilitate the advising process and create a resource that students can use to learn more about prospective faculty advisors.
The Web site would offer extensive information on the specialties and research initiatives of the advisors within each department on campus, according to TCU Senator Nunu Luo, a sophomore and chair of the Education Committee.
"The process is too all over the place now," Luo said. "We're trying to consolidate this information. The Web site would be an advising center for Tufts students."
Luo said that the advising process currently caters to students looking for advisors in Tufts' largest and most popular departments, including international relations (IR) and history, for which information on professors is readily available on department Web sites, according to Luo.
"The history department Web site was redesigned so that the faculty members each have a biography, awards and major publications section," history professor Jeanne Penvenne said. "We have worked towards making sure that what's on the Web site is current and good."
Members of the Education Committee expressed concern that this sort of information is not made available to students seeking advisors in Tufts' smaller departments. "Tufts is completely departmentalized," Luo said. "Big departments do have good advising stuff on their Web site, but smaller departments don't have a lot of resources."
Luo explained that she was encouraged to pursue the project after witnessing sophomore classmates who have been overwhelmed by the stress of the advising process.
"It was conversations like, ‘I don't know how to find an advisor. What should I do? Who should I ask?'" Luo said. "This Web site would provide the means for students to learn more about the process, learn more about professors and narrow down their choices."
The Web site is designed not only to alleviate stress for students but also to broaden the number of professors students will seek out. Professors who teach courses geared toward underclassmen often have a disproportionate amount of advisees, Luo said.
"I've heard professors talk about how there is an unequal distribution because the teachers who teach intro courses get all of the students, as a student is more likely to go to a teacher they've had," Luo said. "It's hard for a professor to direct a student they don't know well."
The advising Web site will aim to improve student-faculty interaction by providing students with the resources to choose the advisor that is the best fit for them.
"If you build a strong foundation with the professor that you want to be an advisor, the rest of your undergraduate experience at Tufts will be better," Luo explained. "You'll always have a mentor figure to look up to."
The possibility of a consolidated advising resource has been long considered by the administration, according to Jeanne Dillon, an associate dean of undergraduate education. "We have been thinking about this very thing a lot and would like to have it done."
While in support of the Senate's proposal, Dillon emphasizes the importance of assuring the Web site's upkeep.
"It would have to be solid, current information," Dillon said. "The database would have to be monitored weekly and monthly."
Penvenne warned against a complete reconstruction project when many of the facts already exist on department Web sites. Rather than restate information, she suggested that this new resource provide direct links to existing department pages dedicated to advising.
"We should think about how we can best respond to this perceived need without reinventing the need," said Penvenne. "We should take advantage of what's already out there, then try to direct some resources towards those departments that seem under-resourced."
There is no definite deadline for when the project will be completed, according to Luo. The Education Committee is in the process of promoting the initiative to faculty and administrators and has experienced positive feedback thus far. The committee plans to e-mail advisors once the project has been established to solicit their information.
"We've spoken to a variety of department heads, including [those in] engineering, IR and English," Luo said. "The faculty members definitely support it."
Penvenne supported the initiative as a helpful aid for students.
"I think that anything that students would find helpful, we should certainly move ahead on," she said. "I have always trusted student initiatives."
"The student-advisor relationships should endure beyond Tufts," Luo said. "An advisor that fits the word ‘mentor'— that is what I want advising at Tufts to be."
