An adviser is...well, full of great advice

Associate Dean Virginia Mansfield-Richardson, left, and Tracey Frenyea, Academic Advising Coordinator: The "advising gurus" of the Park School's Dean's Office

It's that time again:

Mid-semester. Crazy busy. Too many things to think about. (You coming to see Tom Wolfe on Thursday? Someday, somebody will say something about how great Tom Wolfe was, and you're going to be able to say: Oh, I saw HIM when I was a Parkie at Ithaca College...he was very cool.)

AND

this week, you are getting ready to think about NEXT semester (and, if you're as smart as I know you are, the semesters after that....)

And that means it's time to go and see the person in your (academic) life who can give you the help and information and advice and mentoring you need -- and want -- better than anybody else you know:

Your academic adviser.

OK, so it's true: Parkies don't HAVE to see their academic advisers (watch this space: that may change).

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't. (And in fact, you should.)

We surveyed you all last year (and we're going to do it again...), and here's what you said:

Park doesn't have mandatory advising. But you know (you said), it should.

Our seniors said that they didn't go see their advisers because they didn't have to. And now, at the end of their four years, they were wishing they had.

So:

This semester, just do it.

Go sign up on the schedules on your advisers' doors. Ask about your courses. But more important, ask about your future, your goals, your plans. Establish a partnership in which you can work with a faculty member to map your future.

That's really what advising is all about. Inevitably, those conversations touch on course selection and scheduling. But they're really all about you, your ambitions, your dreams, your future.

So why would you NOT do that?

And if you don't want to do it for you, maybe you could consider doing it for the rest of us.

At the end of advising season this year, I'm going to send you all -- every one of you -- a survey, to ask you to give us feedback about your experience with advising.

We really want to make Park a better place to be a student -- including your experience as advisees.

Help us out. Sign up. Show up. And let us know how it went.



If you don't know who your adviser is, you can find it in your Homer account (Click on "Student Financial Aid, and Residential Life"; then on "Student Records & Billing Information"; then on "View Student Information" (11th option on the list); and your General Student Record will appear. It includes all kinds of info about you -- the ninth one on the list is your "primary adviser".

Voila!

Or you can stop up to my office and see Tracey Frenyea, Park's Academic Advising Coordinator (see her smilin' photo, above), or call her at 274-3898. OR you can stop by and see our associate dean, Virginia Mansfield-Richardson (also smilin' above). They would be HAPPY (really, I mean it) to help you out.

And if you have decided you want to change your adviser (don't feel bad, it happens all the time), they can help you with that, too.

Think about it: It's an hour out of your life....

What better way to spend it than talking about where you're headed and how you're going to get there?