Photo courtesy of Pixabay.
Issues abound in the world of Alaska’s education system, including budget cuts and declining student populations. Alaskan students have a lot to contend with when taking classes at any grade level, and college students are no exception.
A college’s advising department is a key to students meeting their degree goals, such as graduating in four years. Advisors help to shape schedules, grant credit exemptions and council students on big educational decisions, among other things.
In an effort to understand student’s experience with advising at UAA, I took a survey of 20 UAA students asking three questions:
1. Do you have or have you had issues with an advisor or the advising department?
Eight students answered yes, while 12 answered no.
2. Do you have a neutral, positive, or negative view of the advising department?
Twelve students answered neutral, six positive, and two negative.
3. Has advising had little to no impact, some impact, or much impact on your degree plan?
Nine students answered little to no, seven said some, and the remaining four replied with much.
While this survey was not exhaustive or scientific, it serves as an initial gauge of the student population's feelings toward UAA advising.
Those eight students who had an issue with the advising department all mentioned having a hard time getting in contact with their advisor and described difficulty in scheduling advising appointments.
Emily Hurtado, a student, stated that she “had to go above and beyond to get a hold of them.” While the process of initially getting in contact was not simple, Hurtado had no issues with an advisor specifically and found that her appointment was useful.
Another student, Allyson Brakow, said her advising experience was “helpful” and “positive”.
Several students mentioned a system called Navigate, and no one I asked about it had a positive opinion of it.
Navigate is a website as well as a smartphone app that contains university information and can display things such as upcoming advising appointments and your schedule.
I experimented with the app, and it seemed somewhat outdated. It wasn’t the simplest to navigate either. I was able to find the advising appointment scheduling menu with no issues though.
The web-based version of Navigate is significantly simpler to use. From the home page you can easily schedule an advising appointment by clicking on a large, blue button labeled “Schedule an Appointment.” While the website works fine, students have to get through several menus on UAA’s advising web page to access it, which may create confusion.
Each advisor has different processes for contacting and consulting with students. My advisor has never asked me to use Navigate, which was the reason for my not knowing of its existence. Other students, however, have been asked to use this system – which feels redundant considering students and staff should be available for contact through Gmail.
The Navigate information page on UAA’s website displays statistical evidence apparently in support of the Navigate platform although it’s not clear if these statistics are directly related to Navigate. They are described as the results of “appointment campaigns.” The page attributes these appointment campaigns with a 57% increase in student outreaches from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020, a 14.6% increase in persistence to Spring 2021 of students who held an appointment through a campaign, and a 4.6% increase in students who were identified through a campaign in persistence to Spring 2021.
It’s not fully clear what the word “persistence” means in this context or what the difference is between a student who “held an appointment” and “were identified through a campaign.”
Overall, it feels that there is a general sense of indifference among students when it comes to the advising department, and the major issue, from the few I spoke with, seemed to be communication.
In speaking with students, inconsistency appears to be at work as well – at least in respect to the quality of advising.
The Northern Light will be continuing its reporting on advising at UAA and will seek to have some of these issues and questions addressed by university administration.
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