The Madison Initiative for Undergraduates Advising Working Group proposed increased advising services Tuesday, made possible through the allocation of $1.5 million from the MIU.
The first recommendation proposed by the committee—improving access to advisors—focuses on increasing the number of advisors to allow easier access to academic and career guidance.
""We definitely need more advisors on our campus. Demand outstrips supply when it comes to student-to-advisor ratios,"" Annette McDaniel of the Center for the First Year Experience said.
According to McDaniel, over $1 million of the $1.5 million set aside to improving advising will be dedicated to hiring 20-24 new full-time academic staff advisor positions, which will be allocated across various schools and colleges.
The second recommendation is to create a system for campus-wide advising leadership and coordination. Currently, according to McDaniel, there are over 200 different departments and services that provide advising on campus.
The committee proposed hiring a Director of Undergraduate Advising who will oversee all undergraduate advising and hopefully create centralized leadership within the advising system.
The third recommendation is to improve advising-related technology, which would increase accessibility to advising.
""Unlike advisors, technology can be available 24/7 to students,"" McDaniel said.
The proposal suggests that the Director of Undergraduate Advising be given an annual budget to develop new advising-related technologies and better coordination of existing technology resources.
The final recommendation was to improve advisor training and assessment. The MIU Advising Working Group said it has recognized a current lack of, and considerable need for, coordinated training for new advisors as well as ongoing development and assessment of experienced advisors.
According to Aaron Brower, vice provost for teaching and learning, these recommendations will be sent to the provost and chancellor for final decision.
""There are parts of this that we hope to get started soon. We hope that the call for proposals for new advisors can start this summer to get advisors hired by the fall,"" Bower said.
