By Amanda Falzon
Students who have previously complained about the impersonal structure of the advisement office can now look forward to a more functional and friendly way of communicating with advisers.
Vice President of Student Affairs, Sandra Johnson, took another step forward in the development of the “Focus on Students” campaign Tuesday evening during a presentation at a weekly Student Government Association meeting.
With the help of PowerPoint and her enthusiasm for the new program, Johnson was able to inform the members of SGA of the Office of Student Affairs’ plans for reorganization in 2007.
The primary goals of “Focus on Students” are to utilize services the University already has in order for all students to feel more connected to the school. The new campaign wants to focus on demonstrating “Hofstra’s commitment to student success.”
The basic plan is to reorganize advisement in order for the students and advisers to form consistent relationships with each other from the point of entering the school freshman year to the day of graduation.
The current system is such that when a student declares his or her major, the student is assigned to an adviser in that specific department. However, the advisers are not required to know every detail about other subjects besides their own and sometimes students have questions that need to be answered about issues that are not relevant to what their adviser has a degree in.
“We want the faculty to focus on what they’re passionate about and what they’re good at,” Johnson said.
A survey was recently conducted to find out how the students feel about the current program. Due to the results, advisement will change and students will not only be assigned a department adviser but a general adviser as well.
Vice President Johnson explained in her presentation that this new program would allow the students to feel more comfortable approaching their advisers.
All incoming freshmen for the fall of 2007 and the rising sophomores and juniors will be assigned a general dean of advisement. Rising seniors will not be assigned a general adviser because they are already deeply involved in their own department, but the program is open to them and the advisers will take “walk-ins.”
Along with a general adviser students will also be assigned their own financial aid counselor, only if the student has financial aid, and student accounts representative.
Johnson also pointed out that the plan is not to reassign any faculty, but to change the way general advisement is handled in the University Advisement Office.
“The Deans in the advisement office will be able to work with the students on an individual basis,” said Johnson. “Each dean will have a cohort of students that are their advisees versus what we’ve been doing which is you come to the office and you see the first person who is available, and if you have to come back you see the first person who is available. There is no continuity and there is no consistency.”
Besides remaining in Memorial Hall, where most advisement takes place, offices will be located in the Netherlands Core building and in the Student Center where the Cultural Center currently is. The Netherlands Core building will also be utilized for the program’s new student orientations that will take place in the summer, fall and winter as well as a counseling center for students having transitional problems. The Deans will all be relocated to their new offices by June 1.
Vice President Johnson plans to e-mail students as well as send them hard copies to their permanent residence informing them and their parents of the University’s changes. The “Focus on Students” program will be ready for launch in September 2007 and Johnson, along with the rest of Student Affairs, will continue to work on the campaign through the spring.
“It’s a work in progress,” said Johnson.Other areas of change that will take place in the following academic year will occur in ResLife and the Student Activities office.