For years, students have complained about the current system of academic advising at Fairfield University. Faculty advisors can be difficult to contact and less than helpful in their role of dispensing useful advice to students.
On Monday, the Fairfield University Student Association did something about it. FUSA hosted the first academic advising session for students and by students in the Barone Campus Center. Students in different schools and with different majors advised their peers on required courses, good professors, and an entire realm of other academic issues. Administrators were also on hand to add their advice.
The very format of this advising opportunity clearly demonstrated its student influence. The various majors with their upperclassmen advisors were aligned in a ring of tables in one of the high traffic areas on campus. Better yet, the session was held for three hours during the evening to allow students to attend when they were able.
This is exactly the sort of focus that the advising system lacks at this university. Now, a student must schedule their meetings around the professors’ schedule. All too often, these meetings last only a few minutes and serve as nothing more than a formality, something to brag about in pamphlets.
While not suggesting that FUSA’s new system would or should replace the faculty advising system altogether, it is encouraging for students to have more options when it comes to academic advising. Hopefully, students, faculty and administrators will continue to work hard in the future to make advising more beneficial to the academic welfare of all students.
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