The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate at its meeting on March 24 unanimously passed a resolution urging the administration to review certain criteria in the undergraduate advising process.
The resolution was created and submitted by TCU President Wyatt Cadley, TCU Vice President Meredith Goldberg and Allocations Board Council Chair Darien Headen. Headen said that the resolution was in part inspired by a university initiative to review the advising process.
According to Headen, a sophomore, the resolution mainly serves as a reminder to the administration that advising needs to be at the forefront of the changes that are going to be made to Tufts in the next couple of years, because advising sets the foundation for many students.
Specifically, the resolution calls for better policies for matching students with advisors who have similar interests, the training process for advisors to be reviewed and perhaps expanded and additional information on how to change pre?major advisors to be offered, Headen said. The resolution also suggested improving the ratio of advisors to students by letting part?time professors, department administrators and professors on leave to serve as advisors for students with undeclared majors.
I think some of the most important pieces are just looking at the way advisors are selected, looking at how training is done ... looking at the structures of training to be an advisor, looking at who can and cant be an advisor, the implications of that, and also just making sure that students are paired with advisors that fit them, he explained.
Reviewing the process may help improve the quality of academic life for students and also keep advisors informed about academics at Tufts, according to Headen. He added that hopefully the resolution will be implemented next fall.
When students come into Tufts, theyre coming from all different walks of life, all different places and all different backgrounds and levels of high school education and preparedness, he said. Its important that we have advisors who can really give the most to all students and can really adapt to all students and can serve the needs for students.
The resolution was developed in response to the administrations review of the advising process, Goldberg, a senior, said.
There are a lot of changes...that are going to happen with advising long?term over the next five to 10 years, she said. We just wanted to look at what small changes can be done over the next few years to make especially pre?major advising for first and second years stronger and better and just more comprehensive and fill in any holes that we could find.
Goldberg said that she saw a lot of student interest in reviewing the advising process.
Ive now been on Senate for four years, and every year one of the complaints we get ... is people talking about how they wish their pre?major advisor was more knowledgeable or they wish that it was more focused on their academic interests, she said.
Goldberg said that she, Cadley and Headen have been working all year on this resolution.
The authors me, Wyatt and Meredith all bring different pieces to the table, Headen said. Im looking at it through my position on the Presidents Council on Diversity ... and advising has been something weve been talking about since the summer, since last year, and its actually going to be a piece of some of the recommendations that we come out with.
TCU Historian Andrew N??ez proposed an amendment to the resolution once it was proposed, explaining that initially the resolution only called for one hour of training for advisors. However, he said he was not sure of what exactly the current process calls for, so no specific limits were listed.
We like to leave language pretty vague so that the administration can do what they think is best to correct the situation, N??ez, a sophomore, said.
N??ez added that he had a difficult experience his freshman year, as his advisor was not entirely knowledgeable about academic requirements and courses that he had to take.
Personally, it was a big detriment my freshman year having my advisor, he said.
Goldberg explained that there will be additional meetings from now on, and they will need to review the precise logistics of the changes.
We have a couple meetings with different administrators to talk about how to make some of the things put into action, she said.
