The Standing Committee on Advising and Counseling reached a not-so-starting conclusion in a report it released this month: advising varies widely across the concentrations.

Some concentrations--such as women's studies, literature and religion--reported student satisfaction ratings several times those of the lowest performers, like economics and applied math.

The advising standards vary so widely by concentration, the committee reported, because each is responsible for developing its own system.

Dean of Undergraduate Education William M. Todd III acknowledged that the decentralization of academic advising is an obstacle to swift reform, but said he was optimistic about future improvements.

"We can't really 'make' them [adopt the committee's proposals], but we can help and encourage--by getting head tutors together to trade good ideas, by working to get Faculty into the process, and by setting standards," Todd said.

Although the committee, led by Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68, did not suggest restricting the current level of autonomy that the concentrations currently enjoy, it recommended fostering a certain amount of coordination that could set some minimum College wide standards.

The Suggestions

The committee's proposals--based on three years of review of the comprehensive senior survey of 1997--are aimed at creating a more universal standard for concentration advising.

The committee's first suggestion that instead of broad college-wide efforts, the revisions focus on two departments at a time. This proposal aims at changing a few large departments to help a large number of students.

The second proposal urges departments to select tenured Faculty as the directors of undergraduate studies and head tutors.

If all concentration heads were also tenured professors, Associate Professor of Economics Christopher L. Foote suggests, there would be an incentive for Faculty to familiarize themselves with departmental and College-wide degree requirements.

"If we used professors, all the professors would have to learn all the rules. Advising is not [currently] the primary responsibility of the Faculty member," Foote said. In the Department of Economics, for example, most undergraduates are advised by graduate students.

In the committee's report, Lewis suggests that the extra departmental clout that senior Faculty would bring to the role of adviser could help them advocate more strongly on their students' behalf.

Foote said he hoped having a tenured Faculty member serve as an adviser may also provide stability. Graduate students andjunior Faculty often leave before a studentgraduates, forcing students to adjust to a newadviser. Foote said he believes high turnover isunavoidable when graduate students serve as suchpositions.

"Students should not tie themselves to oneadviser, but be ready to discuss their academicrecord with many different people," Foote added.

The proposals also call for departments toadhere more stringently to Faculty legislationrequiring each concentration to giveundergraduates a voice in directing its program.Undergraduate involvement in some concentrationshas lapsed in past years.