Consecutive Advisee Meetings Cancelled
This past week, department meetings and meditation, which normally fall on Thursday and Wednesday, respectively, swapped days to accommodate the schedule of visiting Academy trustees. In turn, Wednesday advisee meetings were omitted from the schedule and classes were moved ahead of schedule by fifteen minutes. This marked the second consecutive cancellation of advisee meetings, frustrating instructors and students alike.
Last week, advisee meetings were cancelled due to the first strategic planning meeting for faculty under Principal Lisa MacFarlane’s tenure. This week, midterm grades were released on Tuesday and the add/drop period was open; both events rely heavily on adviser-advisee communications, and some were frustrated by the removal of the structured meeting time.
Day students felt the most profound effect; they do not encounter advisers in the dorm like most boarders do, so they were either unable to meet with advisers this week or had to find a separate time to meet.
Associate Director of College Counseling Cary Einhaus said that while the cancellation had little effect on college counseling, the impact on day students was significant. “Sometimes we forget that 20 percent of the population of the school is day students. Boarders can speak to their dorm faculty to get advice on what course to drop, or which teacher to talk to,” Einhaus said. “However, day students rely on their advisor for that kind of interaction.” He said that he saw four of his five day student advisees, but the cancellation made those meetings more difficult to find time for independently.
Senior Noa Siegel said that the cancellation of advisee meetings was incredibly stressful for her, especially with the early decision application deadline fast approaching and the add/drop window closing soon. “I was already stressed about everything I needed to get done before the Nov. 1 early decision deadline for colleges,” Siegel said. “That, in combination with the fact that I had to add/drop and I didn't even know what to take, got me really upset.”
Siegel said that she wished the administration had given students more notice about the schedule change, or perhaps allotted another time for students to meet with their advisers.
“I had to go home and figure out the coursework and registration by myself, with no feelings of confidence about a few courses lined up for the rest of my year,” Siegel said. “I also had to send a few frantic emails.”
Senior Emma Kim said that many of her day student friends were “worried because it happened during the week of midterms and add/drop.”
“My advisor reached out to me to check in this week, but some advisors may not have,” Kim said.
English instructor and Director of Studies Brooks Moriarty said that while the situation was far from ideal, it was also unavoidable. The arrival of the trustees on campus for their annual meeting, which tends to fall on a Thursday each year, necessitated the cancellation of advisee meetings, so that a trustee is given the opportunity to give a meditation. The trustee meditation is considered an important opportunity for students to meet a group of important but mostly-inaccesible individuals.
While the cancellation of advisee meetings might be an inevitability, this year, it fell on a particularly hectic week for both students and faculty, creating challenging complications. “It’s a shame we lost advisee meetings two weeks in a row,” Moriarty said. “In addition, it’s unfortunate that this week coincided with add/drop and midterm grades being released.”
The cancellation of two consecutive advisee meetings motivated Moriarty to reach out to Academic Scheduler Kenney Chan in an attempt to extend the add/drop window; this way, students could have more time to consult with their advisers before being locked into winter term course decisions.
History instructor Michael Golay said that he believed this week was “probably the worst week of the term to miss an advisee meeting” due to the importance of adviser-advisee communication during the add/drop week, and after midterm grades were released.
Golay expressed concern that a student who might be struggling in their classes or in picking courses for next term might not get the opportunity to communicate their difficulties to their adviser. “We all know how busy everyone is here, and it isn’t a good thing to have no structured meeting when a lot of advisees might be having trouble with courses or midterms,” he said.
Einhaus said that while the cancellation was a detriment to advisers, it did lend more free time to some students. “We were actually able to have even longer drop-in times for seniors, and I think around fifty seniors came by with questions, which is more than usual,” Einhaus said. He added that while the meetings granted more time for drop-ins, the schedule change had many other negative repercussions.
“We tend to forget that even small changes in the schedule can have a ripple effect in many other areas,” Einhaus said. “Given the importance of [one-on-one conversation between] advisors and advisees regarding add/drop and midterms, it was unfortunate that the Dean of Faculty’s office did not recognize the impact of having two weeks without the advisee meetings.”