CUE Calls for Voluntary Advisers Among Top Profs

Members of the Committee on Undergraduate Education yesterday urged the executive steering committee of the Faculty to adopt a voluntary program that would raise the number of faculty academic advisers.

Committee members said that the proposal would alleviate many of the current deficiencies in the advising process since faculty members can provide students with more expert advice and greater continuity than house and department tutors currently do.

"Anything along the lines where more students would be able to hook up with faculty members would be a real gain for students," said Evan J. Mandery '89, chairman of the Undergraduate Council's academics committee. Under the current system faculty "are not as accessible as they should be," he said.

"It's a way of enriching the advising process," said Steven Ozment, associate dean for Undergraduate Education. "It would bring continuity to the advising system where it does not now exist."

Under the current system, the extent of faculty involvement in advising undergraduates varies by department, Ozment said.

"The sciences tend to be very good in assigning students to faculty," Ozment said. "I think most of the problem is in the humanities and social sciences. I think they're content to have student participation simply through the tutorial offices."

Most advisers are currently house or department tutors. The proposal would encourage professors to advise concentrators in their departments.

Committee members stressed the voluntary nature of the proposed program.

"The faculty are going to perceive of this as a burdensome rule," said Brian C. Offutt '87, former chairman of the Undergraduate Council. "It may not be possible to do it on a voluntary basis, but I think it would be better than if you mandate it."

Ozment said that while voluntary, the program would attract more professors than now serve as advisers.

But faculty members on the committee said that students would still have to take the initiative in approaching faculty, which they have been reluctant to do in the past.

"I'd be interested as to whether [new advisees] were students who wouldn't otherwise come to the faculty," said Jeffrey Wolcowitz, a lecturer in the economics department and senior tutor of Dunster House.

"The concern was to encourage undergraduates to overcome their shyness," Ozment said. "If this system were set up, this would make it easier for students to approach faculty."