A study of national academic advising shows that Harpur College’s ratio of 1,257 students for every full-time adviser is over four times the national average.

According to the Sixth National Survey of Academic Advising conducted by ACT, a not-for-profit organization which assesses education services, the national average of full-time academic advisers to students is about 285 students to one adviser in four-year public universities.

The National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) states on its Web site that academic advising experts recommend a full-time adviser target load of 300 students to one adviser — a sharp contrast to Harpur’s approximate ratio of over 1,000 students to every adviser.

“The administration understands our needs, but it is an ongoing discussion,” said Lawrence Greenfield, director of Harpur College Academic Advising. “There is a balancing act going on.”

The Advising department in Harpur is made up of six general advisers — like the ones mentioned in national averages and recommendations — and also employs a pre-health adviser, a pre-law adviser and an additional part-time employee who works with pre-law students. On top of those nine, the office houses four peer advisers, three student office assistants, three secretaries and a graduate student who works with technology.

While additional support would be appreciated in Harpur Academic Advising, a number of other offices are also competing for resources, said Jennifer M. Jensen, associate dean for Academic Affairs.

“[Harpur Academic Advising] definitely has room to grow and get better,” she said. “The size of the student population has increased, but unfortunately the size of the office has not increased. That’s true for many other departments as well. There are budgetary limits from the state but we try to maximize what we do.”

With recent revisions to the New York State budget, the State University of New York’s base budget has been reduced by $38.8 million dollars, or 2.9 percent.

“I’d like them [Harpur Advising] to have more advisers, but there are certain departments where I’d like more faculty,” Jensen said. “With the housing bubble bursting, the economy and Wall Street down, it is hard for the state to give us money and we have historically kept our tuition low.”

THE IVY OF THE SUNY’S?

Even between other New York State institutions, the statistics vary, along with the setup of the advising systems.

The State University of New York at Stony Brook is happy with their numbers when it comes to academic support to freshmen.

“All freshmen are assigned an academic adviser (across all colleges — Arts & Sciences, Business, Engineering, Journalism, and Marine Sciences),” Richard J. Gatteau, SBU’s director of the Academic & Pre-Professional Advising Center, said in an e-mail. ”The ratio is one adviser for each 260 students … quite good, and we’re proud of that!”

Two thousand four hundred sophomores at Stony Brook have academic advisers as well, but these advisers also provide service to 6,000 seniors and juniors. Some seniors and juniors also have major advisers in Academic Departments. The ratios for these students comes out to about 933 students to one adviser.

Cornell University’s freshmen have faculty advisers whom they work with for two years, prior to a major adviser stepping in, who usually has a load of 10 students, according to David DeVries, associate dean of Undergraduate Education. There are 650 faculty advisers who advise in one form or another and 12 advising deans who help with requirements, study abroad and scholarships.

INSIDE BU’S ADVISING OFFICES

According to Student Association President-Elect Matt Landau, no students have lodged grievances about the issue with him.

“No one has complained to me about academic advising,” said Landau, who is also the current academic vice president. “The problem with academic advising is the location, as it is not a big enough office for its needs. The other issue is that students do not use the advising tools, as the NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement) survey results have shown.”

Numbers across BU vary by school in terms of advisers and office assistants. The Watson School of Engineering exceeds Harpur’s ratios of general professional advisers to students, despite a fewer number of students.

Watson offers nine peer advisers, two professional advisers and a secretary for 1,512 degree-earning students as of fall 2007. Decker has two peer advisers for freshmen and sophomores and faculty advisers for juniors and seniors, serving a total of 478 degree-earning students as of fall 2007. The School of Management has one professional adviser, seven peer advisers and two more student office assistants for 1,433 degree earning students.

“We have had conversations about assigned faculty advisers but there are challenges: the availability of advisers, the workload already carried by the faculty coupled with advising workload,” Greenfield said.

At BU, Harpur works on a dual advising system, where faculty members advise on majors, and Harpur advisers deal with issues aside from majors.

Jensen plans to improve meetings and make sure the new faculty has a better sense of what Harpur Academic Advising does.

“If a department makes changes and Harpur doesn’t know it, it can’t serve students best,” she said. “We need to put correct information forward.”

The office has taken steps to improve despite budget limits. Staffing has increased by three general advisers since three years ago, when Greenfield became director.

Besides an increased staff number, Harpur Academic Advising has become more technological, as their Web site was recently nominated for a national award. Communication has also improved, including the listserv, a Facebook presence and outreach programs. The system of check-in was also upgraded, from a notebook to electronic records, enabling the collection of statistics.

With more resources, Harpur advising would be able to extend their labors even further.

“If I had more resources, we could do more outreach, [have] more time allotted to individual appointments, and our availability would be expanded,” Greenfield said. “A large enough increase in staff could move the system into an individual adviser system, but we are far off from that.”