The Office of Academic Advising is located in the Campus Avenue Building.
Provost Jeffrey Herbst announced Monday that Miami University is another step closer to changing the university's system of academic advising after reviewing recommendations from a senate committee and two independent experts.
At a university senate meeting, Herbst stressed the importance of quality academic advising and suggested that the blame for the failure of the current system does not fall on the advisers but on the structure.
"The problems with advising are not with individuals, but with the system itself," Herbst said. "The system prevents them from serving our students as well as is possible."
Richard Nault, vice president of student affairs, explained that students and Associated Student Government (ASG) consistently asked for improvements to the system, prompting the university to investigate possible solutions.
"If you survey our students and you compare them to benchmark institutions, our students rate Miami's advisers much lower," Nault said. "Fifty-seven percent of seniors felt that our system is good or excellent compared to 71 percent at doctoral intensive universities."
According to Nault, another problem, which drew attention to the need for a different approach to academic advising, was the increased number of students who were placed on academic warning, which means that a student has earned a cumulative GPA less than 2.0 during his or her first semester.
"There were 40 to 50 more students on academic warning this year," Nault said. "That is a problem that needs systemic inspection."
Nault explained that the problems in the current system of academic advising are caused by a lack of central direction and purpose.
"We're talking about a system that is very complex," Nault said. "We have a series of very effective offices, but the offices do not integrate ... There is no coordinated effort on decision making."
To unify these disjointed offices and create a better system, Herbst introduced the recommendation for a central office headed by an assistant provost for academic advising who will coordinate and deliver all the advising services to students before they begin focusing on their majors. After a student declares a major, the recommendation calls for faculty advisers to take over responsibility for advising.
Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter
"I honestly believe that once a student has declared a major that they should be advised by someone within that major," Nault said. "I hope the central office would clear away the underbrush, but I never want to take that responsibility out of the faculty."
The "underbrush" that Nault referred to are the minor questions that slow down academic advising and could easily be answered by one centralized location.
Byron Finch, professor of management, expressed concerns with continuing to allow faculty to advise students.
"Faculty don't help much," Finch said. "They point to a list and say 'Here is what you should be doing.' Whenever we have an external reviewer, they say 'Get advising away from the faculty.' I don't see how advising will ever be able to be high on a faculty member's list of priorities. It's never going to be as high as teaching and researching."
Nault stressed the fact that although they are making these recommendations, the final decisions will not be made for some time.
"It is not something that is well fleshed out at this point," Nault said. "It's an overall philosophy that we want to hone."
Herbst added that it would be some time before a final plan is announced.
"This is not a plan, this is a direction," Herbst said. "A plan will require a tremendous amount of work and a lot of attention to a lot of nuts and bolts details."
Read More
How one professor and her classes are preserving Oxford’s Black history
By Sean Scott | March 20, 2024Jazma Sutton, an assistant professor of history, teaches The Black Midwest (HST 350Q) and Black Women in America (HST 450D) classes. In both courses, she has students working with the Smith Library of Regional History and Miami’s archives to document and preserve Black history in Oxford.
Miami faculty members recount Freedom Summer in new documentary
By Luke Macy | February 25, 2022After seven years of work, “Training for Freedom,” a documentary highlighting Oxford’s involvement in the Freedom Summer of 1964, premiered on PBS Western Reserve on Valentine’s Day.
“Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic”: History in the making
By Alice Momany | August 29, 2021In March 2020, Miami University’s archives launched “Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a collection focused on life during the COVID-19 pandemic.