Advising: Faculty, Forget Me Not

Transitioning from life at home with family to a hectic and sometimes lonely life at Exeter can be quite a challenge. Although parents are just a phone call away, being almost completely independent for the first time, as most new students are, is undeniably an enormous change—one that can be difficult to handle on one’s own. This is one reason that the adviser system exists at Exeter.When new students arrive they are assigned a faculty adviser, usually someone in their dorm, who serves as a parent figure for the student, guiding them through their acclimation stage and checking up on them frequently. Advisers assist with picking courses, giving parents updates on their child’s progress, and counseling their advisees in every aspect of life at Exeter from academics to dorm life.While it would seem that the adviser system would be extremely beneficial to students, especially new ones, it has some flaws that significantly hinders its efficacy.Some advisers may not give sufficient help to their advisees. They may be too busy, have too many students to split time between, or simply forget to check in with an advisee. Sometimes, a student won’t hear from an adviser for a long period of time. Advisers are usually available if you go to them, but they should take the initiative to contact students themselves.It seems that some regulation should be implemented, as was discussed in StuCo near the end of last year, that mandates advisers to meet with their advisee group on a regular basis. While I’m sure the majority of advisers stay on top of their meetings, I have heard of far too many cases of students not being able to find their advisers or receiving mid-term grades weeks after they should have been handed out.It is also extremely difficult when advisers aren’t in the same dorm as their advisees. If they reside in the same dorm, it is easy for the student to go to their adviser with any questions or problems they may have. Otherwise, it can be difficult to track your adviser down when you have a busy schedule, as most of the students here at the Academy do. While it doesn’t apply to day students, I think that the advising system would be greatly improved if all advisers could be given advisees in their own dorm.A final problem I see with the current system is that some teachers don’t want to or don’t have time to be advisers. However, they are still assigned students to advise and end up doing a poorer job than could otherwise be done. Perhaps in this sense it would be better to making advising a voluntary responsibility, though the measure could result in a lesser number of available advisers.In any case, something should be done to ensure that all students are receiving the help that they need from their advisers. Whether it’s more frequent meetings, an increased ease in changing advisers if a student wants to, or some other measure, it is clear that a reform is warranted. Hopefully in the coming year the administration can continue to address this concern that many students share with me and we can work towards a more effective method of advising. Transitioning from life at home with family to a hectic and sometimes lonely life at Exeter can be quite a challenge. Although parents are just a phone call away, being almost completely independent for the first time, as most new students are, is undeniably an enormous change—one that can be difficult to handle on one’s own. This is one reason that the adviser system exists at Exeter.