Academic advising for students in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder is becoming more personalized and comprehensive as the college creates a new advising system first recommended by a campus task force three years ago.
Improvements will continue to be phased in over time as an initial wave of hiring is completed this fall, according to Elizabeth Guertin, director of advising and assistant dean of the college. Funding will then be sought to add more advisers over the next year or two.
"By the end of the semester we will have primary advisers in all departments," she said. "But in some of the departments caseloads will be heavier than we want them to be, so then we will begin working to add more support in those overloaded areas." This year six new advisers are being added, which will bring the total to 43.
The new system of primary advisers takes "both a more holistic approach and a developmental approach to helping students understand the implications of all of their options, not just the course work, to make sure we tailor their academic careers to the needs of each student," said Guertin.
All students are assigned a primary adviser to help make course and related decisions when they enter the university. But students also have access to faculty members who serve as preceptors to undergraduate students.
An expanded team of primary advisers is working with students as they begin their academic careers at CU-Boulder, offering advice, guidance and information about the academic and non-academic opportunities available on campus. Besides identifying courses to fulfill requirements, their advice may include referring students to undergraduate research programs, to study abroad programs, the Honors program or to career services.
"The adviser can even help by intervening if a student is having trouble with a course," Guertin said. "The adviser can give students study skills advice or refer students for tutoring and study skills assistance to help them get through tough classes."
In short, the new advising system means students have someone who works with them closely, gets to know them and is able to design the best program for their particular needs, she said.
The revamped system calls for primary advisers in each of the college's 34 departments, including about six advisers for open option, or undeclared, majors. Currently the college has 38 primary advisers plus three transfer-credit advisers for a total of 41. In addition, two half-time faculty advisers work with the college's pre-professional advising center -- one for pre-law and one for pre-health students -- to advise undergraduates contemplating careers in those fields.
By the end of the fall semester, additional primary advisers will be on board, Guertin said, two for the communication department and one to be shared by several departments that have small student enrollments.
Advising demand varies greatly across the college depending on the department's enrollment. Psychology, with about 1,300 majors, has three full-time advisers while small enrollment departments might share an adviser.
The new advising system follows the recommendations of a task force that analyzed advising programs campus-wide about three years ago. One of the main recommendations was that the college reach a ratio of at least one adviser for every 400 students. The arts and sciences college will be close to accomplishing that goal in the next one to two years, Guertin said.
College enrollment this fall is about 14,200.
The National Academic Advising Association recommends a ratio of 300 students to one adviser, which may ultimately become the goal of the college, according to Guertin. "I would like to someday achieve that goal so that we can provide students with greater access to their advisers," she said.
Each of the other colleges on campus – engineering and applied science, business and administration, architecture and planning, and music, plus the schools of education and journalism – have advising programs tailored to the specific needs of their students.