College is a very confusing time for many people. Students must try to figure out what major they want to pursue, what clubs and organizations they want to join, what classes they want to take and how to get job experience through internships.
Most of the time, students find out what to do through trial and error.
However, wouldn’t it be great to have someone who has actually been through a similar situation and could give other students advice using their own experience?
Well, Associated Students Inc. may make this a reality through its plan to create a student-run advising center. ASI plans to hire student advisers and have them trained before the advising center is ready to open, which could be as soon as this April.
The program will not focus solely on academics but rather be expanded to include extracurricular activities as well. The new advising center is expected to be located in the Maxson Center.
ASI has already secured the funding needed for the program. Now what’s left is a final approval and the hiring of the best and brightest individuals to help out their peers.
The Daily 49er editorial board likes the idea of having a student-run advising center. Although departments and the university offer advising, its really not enough to properly advise all students.
Also, the proposed student-run advising center would focus on individual majors rather than general education, and it would allow students to receive information from peers who have most likely taken the same classes or professors, applied for the same internships and joined the same clubs and organizations. It would make the student adviser essentially the most relatable expert a student could go to.
Our only initial concern was if the student advisers were to give the wrong advice. The professional advisers on this campus have been doing their jobs for years and have seen a variety of students and situations. Even though these student advisers will be trained, they may lack the years of hands-on experience.
The authors of this proposal, however, have already addressed this issue and have designed the program to act as a supplement to current advising programs on campus.
The pilot program for student advising will include 11 different majors, and the advisers will only be allowed to work with students within their own major. The student advisers will also be compensated for their work.
It will be interesting to see if the new student-advising pilot program will be successful. We think it will be.
Even if it isn’t, though, students will still be able to get advice from their peers, probably while sharing a twelve pack of beer, which sometimes produces the best advice of all.
Emphasis on sometimes.