An afternoon of advising at University College

It's April 20, but faculty advisors and others at University College link are thinking September because registration for the Fall 2005 semester is in full swing. That means a sizeable percentage of the 4,645 students whose administrative home is University College will be looking for advice.

Sophomores began registering on the 17th; first-year students begin on the 24th. As the open courses (or preferred sections) dwindle, students' anxiety levels creep upward. On my walk from Chafee to Roosevelt, I wonder if today's great weather will result in "No Shows," the bane of advisors.

In an effort to handle the glut of public relations and journalism majors who need attention, a few weeks ago I added an hour to my Wednesday 1-3 p.m. advising commitment and told scheduling maven Jacquelyn Moreino that it was OK to schedule two students in each 15-minute slot. As a result, appointments for 17 students -- a mix of first-year students (gray folders) and sophomores (green folders) -- awaited me. (A 17th name was crossed out as canceled.)

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About 12:50, I settled into my half (109B[ack]) of the advising space I share with Sandy Hicks, associate professor of education, who counsels the elementary-school-teacher wannabes. Over the semester we have become comfortable office-mates, routinely sharing an answer or observation for the student on the other side of the room divider. In between appointments and paperwork, we chat. Sandy faces a long afternoon too. She's got 14 individual appointments and a group session in the middle of those.

By 1 o'clock, the chairs that line the hallway are mostly occupied. I step into the doorway to see if my first appointments have arrived. They have not. One eventually is a NS, and when I note that in his files, I see I am not the first advisor he has stood up.

Within a few minutes, a steady stream of students flows through Room 109. They are among the approximately 255 students who have scheduled appointments for the day, according to Dean Libutti, interim associate dean of University College. Another 15 to 20, he said, would be seen during walk-in hours (1-3 p.m.).

For the spring semester, according to Libutti, UC advisors will handle about 3,800 appointments. That is fewer than fall because it is in early spring that many students get moved from UC to one of the degree-granting colleges (the largest is Arts & Sciences).

My appointments today ranged from the simple ("How do I get my permission number for JOR 220?") to the time-consuming ("I'm really not sure what I want to do; can you tell me if Public Relations is the right major for me?"). I do my best to "hear between the lines," guide, cajole, direct, answer, instruct . . . whatever.

I wish I could say each visit is different, but after more than 10 years of UC advising there isn't much I haven't heard and there's a lot I have said again and again. As the afternoon wears on, the office gets more stuffy. I try opening the window, but papers on our desks blow around. I wish I had remembered my bottle of water. As I near the end of my schedule, I feel as if I sound like a recording.

At 3:30, I have two appointments remaining. No. 15 is a NS. By 3:40, the hallway chairs are empty. Sandy is with her last appointment, a young woman who arrived to change her major and said cheerfully, "I want to teach!" I give my 3:45 -- No. 16 -- a few minutes grace period, then record my third NS of the day.

I organize my folders - some for filing, some for the "change of major" basket - and double-check to make sure I have all first-year students on the "lift hold" form. I have told each of them that "the bad news is you are a freshman and register last, but the good news is that some day you will be a senior and register first," and I don't want to make it any harder on them by failing to clear them for registration.

Finally, I put my advising materials in my Green Bay Packers binder, signal good-bye to Sandy and make my way out into the late-afternoon warmth - another UC advising day complete.