Last year's Committee on Advising and Counseling issued by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences report has inspired some departments to make changes and start discussions, or in some cases, to do nothing.

Departments that drew student criticism on the 1997 and 1998 senior surveys have made changes to their systems, and other departments are in the process of evaluating their advising.

However, some departments that received bad ratings have decided to make no changes.

The Committee on Advising and Counseling, chaired by Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 released their report last January. The report made several recommendations for the improvement of advising within the concentrations.

The recommendations included calls for more tenured Faculty members as head tutors, undergraduate input into the programs and increasing Faculty familiarity with departmental and college requirements.

Following a poor showing on both the 1997 and 1998 senior surveys, the Department of English and American Literature and Language has changed its advising system significantly. On the 1997 survey, the department received a rating of 1.94 out of five possible points when students were asked to rate their satisfaction with overall concentration advising. The average satisfaction rating was 2.85.

Until this year, the English department's advising system left many students with a different adviser every year, often a graduate student.

This year, the department has assigned each concentrator a permanent faculty adviser. The adviser will not offer specific requirement advice, but will serve more as a mentor. The change follows several of the recommendations in the advising report that Faculty members be more involved in the advising system.

"The English department was influenced by the general malaise about advising, but the department is also perennially involved in efforts to improve its teaching, including advising," says Professor of English and Folklore Joseph C. Harris, director of undergraduate studies.