Fagen said individual professors, not generaldepartments, bring down the quality of advising inthe graduate schools.
"I think advising is to some extent a nebulousissue," he said.
"It tends to get left up to individual Facultymembers. There needs to be something to improvewhat they are doing," he added.
The students said advising needsstandardization.
Advisors do not devote full attention to theirstudents, according to Fagen, and spend more timeon research.
About 95 percent of students experienceproblems with their advisers or know students whohave advising difficulties, he estimated.
Fagen, himself a student in biology,complimented the History of Science, Classics andAstronomy departments for their effective advisingsystems.
The students also emphasized standardizing therequirements departments place on students anddecreasing the overwhelming workload that studentsare forced to shoulder throughout the semester.
In the letter, they request more reasonableresearch workloads and fewer program requirementsthat can more easily be met in the time set asidefor earning the degree.
They also demand certain student rights, suchas "the right to be respected as persons, scholarsof merit and junior colleagues of the faculty uponadmission to a graduate program."