End-of-Year Brings Adviser Switches

Every year at Exeter, some students switch advisers, either voluntarily because personal preferences or involuntarily due to faculty living arrangements. Many students have expressed confusion and difficulty about the process; others, however, have found it to be straightforward.Some advisers move from being a dorm affiliate to living in a dorm from year to year. Science instructor Michele Chapman is currently an affiliate of Main Street Hall, but next year, she will move into Knight House as dorm head. Chapman said that the school requires faculty to live in a dorm.“It was not my decision,” Chapman said. “It’s something you agree to when you get a job [at the Academy]; you agree you will live in a dorm for ten years.”Many faculty go through similar experiences as Chapman every year, and have no other choice but to leave some of their advisees.“I told my advisees if they wanted to keep me, even though I’m moving, they should email Dean Cosgrove and that there’s a request form to fill out,” Chapman said. “But there’s no guarantee. I think the idea is they want whoever is your adviser to be in your dorm, so you can see them a lot.”Some students have found the process of switching difficult. Prep Issay Matsumoto expressed his confusion about the process. “I would definitely appreciate some clarity. I would at least want to know who is still accepting advisees, at the very least,” he said.Prep Wei Xiao Zhang, who has requested music instructor Kristofer Johnson as her adviser, said that she did not receive guidance for the process of finding a new adviser and filling out the forms.“Our adviser just told us to find people we connect well with,” she said. “She also touched a bit on the procedure for filling out forms, but [she] did not go into a lot of detail.”Although the deans did not offer her advice, Zhang said that she would have ended up choosing the same adviser anyways. She also found the process fairly straightforward and did not require clarification about any parts.Unfortunately, the fact that not all advisers can accept students who would like to join their advisee group makes the process of switching advisers much more difficult.“I asked Mr. Janicki to be my new adviser, but I don’t know if I am going to get him because he advises people in Cilley,” prep Eliza Khokhar, whose adviser is moving out of her dorm, said. “I talked to Dean Cosgrove and he told me he doesn’t know if I [am] going to get him because each adviser has a responsibility for people in the dorm, and there is a cap.”Khokhar added that she was first given the misconception that the process of switching advisers would be simple and straightforward. It was never made clear to her that a faculty member she wanted as her new adviser might not be available.“I was kind of upset because when I first came to Exeter, people told me that if I wanted to switch advisers it would be really easy. I had the understanding that if I felt like I have a connection with someone and that the teacher would be a good adviser then they would let me switch,” she said. “I didn’t expect to run into any problems like I have now.”Matsumoto was also disappointed to find out that some advisers were unavailable, especially since he was never told who was accessible and who wasn’t.As a representative for next year’s lower class, he proposed an idea to Student Council that could potentially solve this problem—members of StuCo could send a survey to all faculty on campus, asking them about their current status as an adviser. Council would then forward this information to all the students on campus to avoid conflicts.Although there are some flaws in the system of switching advisers, students expressed gratitude towards the fact that every student is given the option. “At least there is some flexibility. Advisers can be really helpful in all kinds of situations, so when they can't fulfill their role to help students because of any incompatibility, it's comforting to know that you can move on,” Matsumoto said. “In my experience though, I've never felt that urge.”Zhang believed that it was especially comforting that an adviser and advisee who do not have a positive relationship are not stuck together. The only aspect of switching advisers Zhang would like to see refined is the pressure a student can sometimes feel to join the advisee group of a faculty in their dorm or house. Zhang said she has requested Johnson because she tends to spend more time in the Music Building than in her dorm. However, because Johnson is not in Zhang’s dorm, she is unsure that he will be her next adviser.“On one of the sheets I had to fill out, it asked me if I would get a person who is part of my dorm and I definitely felt pressure to have my next adviser be a dorm faculty,” she said. “I don’t feel that is necessary because some people don’t spend as much time in their dorms.”