It’s that time of year again; midterms are coming up and soon students will be meeting with their advisors to schedule classes for fall 2014. Everyone knows that choosing the right classes for your major can be tough, but what happens when you don’t feel like your academic advisor is being very helpful?
A lot of students are focused on the short term; students ask questions like what class will be the easiest and which classes will get them to graduation. This short-term view comes into contrast with an advisor’s more long-term view.
Robert Warburton, assistant dean of teaching, learning and instructional resources and professor chemistry, points out that advisors only have as much insight as students give them. Advisors are unaware of family situations, work schedules, and other restrictions.
Warburton says, “Advisors are not able to guess all the different circumstances that are causing students to make a decision. Advising is a conversation and a dialog.”
But what if a student tells their advisor everything that could possibly influence their decision and the student is still unhappy with the advice?
Warburton says there are only three reasons why a student should switch advisors: The student was an undeclared major when they started at Shepherd University, the student changes their major, or the advisor leaves Shepherd University and the student is assigned a new advisor.
Although the circumstances under which a student can switch advisors seems limited, Warburton says, “A student who feels that their advisor ‘isn’t giving great advice’ should really talk that over with their advisor first.”
Stephanie Slocum-Schaffer, associate professor and chair of the department of political science, seconds that idea. She says, “Generally, I think that it is very, very important for students to have a good relationship with their advisor, who can help them a lot beyond just choosing which courses to take.”
So what if a student talks to their advisor and still wants a second opinion? They could just go to the Advising Assistance Center. The faculty there can help students sort through catalogs, course requirements, and other aspects of majors and minors.
Warburton says that the staff at the Advising Assistance Center can help students formulate questions for their advisor and can also help students come up with a general game plan. Essentially, the Advising Assistance Center acts as a pre-advising session, which many students could potentially benefit from.
If students go through all of these different steps and are still unhappy with their advisor, the student should contact the department chair. The department chair will ask questions to make sure that the student has done everything possible to reconcile and cultivate a positive relationship with their advisor, and in certain cases, the student will be assigned to a new one.
“If the relationship that a student has with his or her advisor is not productive,” Slocum-Schaffer says, “then I would encourage the student to switch to someone else as long as they have made a real effort to establish a relationship with the first advisor and it hasn’t really worked out.”
Slocum-Shaffer continues by saying that faculty members want their students to succeed, and because the relationship between a student and advisor is an important component of success, she says that she would not be offended if a student switched to someone else.
Warburton says that “advising is a complex process but ultimately Shepherd believes that advising is a component of teaching, and we are helping the student take ownership of their degree and career.”
To make a long story short, students may change advisors under very specific circumstances, but the best way to solve any issues is to talk directly with your current advisor and try to work things out.