Students debate three focuses of task force report

A recent report concerning academic advising was released by the IU-Bloomington Academic Advising Task Force, calling for a career ladder for advisers, a central advising office and additional advising tools. While some students support the task force’s ideas, others are unsure about its reasoning.

John Martin, a junior majoring in biology, said he feels his current advising experience is fine and doesn’t think it necessary to have a task force overseeing the advising service. While the task force asks for advisers to receive a central office, Martin said he is unsure this measure would make a difference.

“I feel like there are more things to be done than this,” he said. “Why fix something that is not broken?”

Although there is no harm with the advising task force, Martin said he would rather another issue be addressed, such as the campus transportation system.
J.D. Bhattacharya, a recent graduate of the Kelley School of Business, said he believes the Kelley advisers are doing a good job and sees no significant reason to have a central office or administration on advising.

Furthermore, he worries that combining all of the advising resources will cause more congestion and wasted time.

“But it’s a good thing if the task force is to improve the effectiveness of advising between departments,” he said.

However, Nathan Bower-Bir, a recent graduate who studied neuroscience, physics and math, reached a different conclusion.

He said he thinks advising differs from department to department and that it might be a good idea to have the task force look into it.

“IU has always been decentralized,” Bower-Bir said. “It seems the task force is a step away from what has been done and sounds like it could be beneficial to the campus.”

Bower-Bir said the adviser who helped him during orientation did not explain the benefits of some classes that can fulfill multiple requirements.

“All the advisers that I had with my departments have been knowledgeable and pointed me to the right directions,” he said. “But the adviser that I had during orientation was not particularly good.”

Because of the lack of sound advising when he first attended IU, Bower-Bir said he wasted more time taking classes to fulfill each requirement separately.

He also said he has heard complaints from students while working in the Department of Mathematics.

“A girl from M118 did not need the class, as she had already taken calculus, but ended up in the class because of her adviser,” Bower-Bir said.

Advising is especially important for new students because they are not familiar with IU’s academic system, Bower-Bir said.

“The advisers should be there to advocate for the University and to help the students getting comfortable with their academic career in an early stage,” he said.