Advise me?

The advisement system at UNM was implemented to keep students on track for degree completion requirements and provide information to students when needed. Although some schools and colleges at UNM have attempted to streamline the process, making it easier for both the advisement department and students may not have completely been accomplished.

Since Fall of 2005 I have been passed around to advisor after advisor and, of course, each gives me different advice. For those completing a major or minor in the Department of Arts and Sciences advisement tactics are changing! It looks to be at least this far a change for the better. Instead of advisors taking students by last name they will now take you by degree or program. What a concept!

You will now be able to speak to one person who knows not only you but your academic situation. The advisor will be able to concentrate on just a few programs instead several. The quality of advisement in Arts and Sciences should improve, at least we can all hope.

I know those who have to deal with Anderson’s advisement system have very mixed feelings. But overall I have to say that I have had great experience there. Turn around is exceptionally quick, information given is accurately and overall they are very helpful. But the size is much smaller in comparison to A&S, which is gigantic.

The Advisement Department at Arts & Sciences can be accessed via this link: http://www.unm.edu/~artsci/advise/advise.html and has tons of information. It provides something called The Electronic Advisor (a newer feature) which gives you information about common issues you may need to see an advisor about. It also provides a GPA Calculator that you can use to calculate what grades you need to reach a desired grade point average.

Also anyone who needs to see an advisor in any college should offer any suggestions that could possibly make the process more successful. A few weeks ago while in an appointment with my advisor I asked her about the accuracy of the degree auditing system that is being used. The one we students use is the Registration and Records sections of LoboWeb. Yep, that one. Well the advisors use the same program and have had several issues with it. For example, the system sometimes does not report an application for graduation has been submitted when it actually has.

I suggested to her that maybe advisors can mention these types of unexplainable errors to students to minimize panic. Informing students that a fault in the system could reduce miscommunication and misunderstandings among staff and students tremendously. I don’t know or have any way to know if it will happen but she took my recommendation with good reception.

So, overall we know that an improvement needs to be made. Some departments are implementing new systems, which is a very good start to begin finding a solution to the problem. As students we need to make suggestions or even take action to make advisement more successful, since we are the reason advisement was implemented to start with.

-Ashley