While a majority of students report academic advising to be effective and helpful, results of the Student Advising Survey conducted in April indicate a disparity between what advice students receive and what they actually want.
Peggy Bloom, vice provost for undergraduate programs and teaching, presented the results at Thursday's Marquette Student Government Senate meeting. Bloom said MUSG has been voicing concerns both formally and informally to Provost Madeline Wake about advising for the past two years.
Sixty-three percent of respondents reported advising as helpful, 33 percent indicated they needed more help following their advising session and only a small percentage answered that advising was not helpful.
Despite some positive findings of the survey, Bloom said she is not satisfied. More than a third of respondents indicated that their adviser did not keep them informed of their academic progress by examining grades and talking with them about their classes.
She called one-third "not good enough," but noted that the university can never please everyone totally.
Bloom said students may perceive advising sessions as ineffective because of the difference between what they consider important and what actually occurs in advising sessions. In the survey, respondents indicated which of 22 potential advising activities occurred during their most recent advising session of the 2006-'07 academic year.
Seven activities, mostly career- and future-oriented, had a significant mismatch in how important they were to students and how often they actually happened. These included declaring and changing a major, discussing internship and cooperative education experiences, discussing further graduate or professional study, discussing job opportunities and discussing career alternatives.
Furthermore, there were significant differences in what students from various colleges considered important in advising. Both College of Business Administration and College of Communication students viewed discussion of co-op and internship opportunities and job opportunities as important, yet they occurred less than once a year in advising, according to the survey.
College of Arts & Sciences students rated this less important than students in other colleges, instead favoring discussion of study abroad, discussion of graduate or professional study and declaring or changing a major.
Although occurring frequently, students ranked signing registration forms and acquainting the adviser and student as less important than other activities.
The survey was developed by a subcommittee of the Board of Undergraduate and Professional Studies at the behest of the provost to address advising concerns. By presenting the survey Bloom said she hopes to generate ideas for improvement.
Thaddeus McGuire, a junior College of Arts & Sciences senator, said he is already at work on legislation proposing multiple advising meetings as opposed to just one advising week per semester. Other senators echoed the idea of multiple meetings and some suggested additional meetings via e-mail might be sufficient.
Program Vice President Matt Robinson, College of Health Sciences senior, dissented from the general statements saying responsibility for advising falls on students being prepared and knowing what they can and cannot expect from sessions.