Another brick in the wall?
Advising. It’s a word that pretty much every student at VCU dreads. But why? Why is it that one simple word holds the power to strike fear into the hearts of VCU students campus wide? Because of one plain, yet obvious, fact: the academic advising department, to put it nicely, sucks.
Advising. It’s a word that pretty much every student at VCU dreads. But why? Why is it that one simple word holds the power to strike fear into the hearts of VCU students campus wide? Because of one plain, yet obvious, fact: the academic advising department, to put it nicely, sucks. Volumes of students complain day after day about the utter lack of competence of the advising department. Is this a problem that plagues all schools? None of my friends from other colleges or universities seem to have a problem with their advisers. Yet I’ve encountered numerous VCU students who have told me that they have been screwed over by advising. The advising department is almost infamous for its ineptitude. So what is it? What makes VCU so special that we can’t seem to get a handle on a capable advising department?
For starters, the department is completely unorganized. Most of the advisers don’t even know what’s going on half the time, and when they seem like they do, they’re wrong. I really feel bad for transfer students. I can’t tell you the number of transfers whom I have talked to who have somehow been misinformed of how many of their credits have actually transferred, or how many credits they need to graduate. Is it really acceptable to tell a student: “Oh, I guess I was wrong. You won’t be able to graduate this semester after all. My bad, dude?” I myself have been the victim of advising faux pas, and let me tell you, it’s no walk in the park. The advising Web site boasts what the goals and ambitions of the advising department are, which, in theory, are nothing less than admirable. But it seems that somewhere between the mission statement and the actual implementation, the purpose gets lost. Students stop being priorities, and deadlines take their places. The importance no longer lies in helping each student, and instead the focus turns to how many students can get in and out and how fast.
But all the blame cannot be put on the department. It’s not as though advising doesn’t want to change. They are constantly looking for ways to improve the system. There was even recently a forum hosted by the SGA regarding the problems that students have been having with the advising department, addressing the issues that students brought to the table. But, unfortunately, hardly any students showed up even after free pizza was advertised. Who turns down free food? Apparently, VCU students who are all talk and no action do. Out of the 29,000 students on campus who may be frustrated with academic advising, there was a total of 30 who actually attended the forum, and that’s stretching it. If we are going to sit around talking trash about how much our advising department sucks, we might as well try to help change that fact. We can’t expect change to happen on its own. That’s just not the way the universe works. Sorry, guys.
So, yeah, our advising department is unreliable. And yeah, they screw us over. And yeah, they’re unorganized. But shame on us as students if we don’t seize every opportunity to spark some kind of change. If we care so much about not only our school, but ourselves, don’t we owe it to ourselves to make the changes? Don’t we deserve better? I’m beginning to think not, so I can’t imagine what the people in charge are thinking. If they see the lack of empathy that I’m seeing, then I don’t blame them for not doing anything about it. After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
http://www.students.vcu.edu/rg/academics/advising.htm
