An anonymous students survey has expressed the issues students have regarding advising. A forage of advisors is one of the most common issues students face. For example, one respondent said, “There’s not a lot of advisors for IT majors… Often the professors have to act like advisors to make up for it.”

Dean of Advising, James D. Lett, may have an explanation for this; “We have a number of staff who would have retired had COVID not kicked off… they wanted to help the college… but once they were coming out [of COVID-19], they were ahead and retired… [or] moved on to other opportunities.”

Other concerns include the way advisors communicate with their students. One student responded to the survey by saying, “My first experience with an advisor wasn’t the best. I could only call or email them, which made communication super slow. It felt like I was waiting ages for a response.” Lett has proposed innovations on communication, “Our career counselors have been doing things like classroom visits… finding places where students might be gathering both virtually and in person to see if maybe we can go there to share information.” A texting platform has also been in consideration and may be implemented.

If you are an international student looking for an advisor, James know exactly what to do, “Students participating in the International Education Program may contact their advisor by scheduling an appointment through Starfish or emailing internationalpierce.ctc.edu.”

Help Us Improve Advising By Filling Out Our Anonymous Survey.