Catalog
The Advising System
Goals of The Academic Advising Program
The faculty has approved a system for academic advising and has articulated the following aims and goals of effective academic counseling:
- To enable students to take responsibility for designing their programs of study.
- To encourage and assist the student to explore and articulate interests or career goals.
- To encourage the student to take a "reasoned, contemplative approach" to the problem of designing a program of study.
- To assist the student in designing a program within the liberal arts framework that is clearly related to interests or career goals.
- To ensure that the student has been fully informed about all available options and has been encouraged to examine all options, and that the course of study is designed to meet the student's individual goals.
- To provide advisors who not only monitor the student's academic program but also speak personally with the student and explore his or her changing interests and goals.
- To ensure that advisors have current and detailed information about course offerings and are aware of the variety of options offered to students.
The Faculty Advisor
Each student is assigned to a faculty advisor who has been chosen especially for this task and who works with his or her advisee until the advisee declares a major, normally at the end of the sophomore year but in time for advising for fall. Juniors and seniors are assigned either to their major Department Chairs or to other members of the Department, if the Chair determines such an assignment appropriate. Students should be particularly careful when arranging their academic programs, for they must comply with all graduation requirements and fulfill specific prerequisites. Faculty advisors are not infallible, and students must remember that the final responsibility for meeting all of the academic requirements rests with the individual student.
Both advisors and students have a responsibility in advising. It is essential that both take the matter seriously if students are to achieve a meaningful and successful program of study. In the dialogue between advisors and students, advisors serve in two capacities: to interpret the College and its goals for students, and to encourage students to gain understanding of their potential and how it may be developed. In a very practical way, advisors are sources of information for students, explaining campus rules and customs, giving clarification about special programs and requirements, and more.
When students have questions or problems, they should feel free to see the advisor. Although the College schedules advising sessions each year, the real benefits of such an advising system can be realized only through more frequent meetings between student and advisor. It is hoped that good working relationships will develop. However, students and their advisors do not always relate well, and the student is free to ask the Associate Provost for Academic Services for a change of advisor.
Among the faculty, students will find friends as well as advisors, and they are urged to foster such friendships. Herein lies the great value of the small, liberal arts college and the education it provides. The benefits of personal attention and assistance under the advising system of Washington College derive from close association among students, faculty, and administrative officers, an association rarely possible at large colleges or universities. The academic advising system is under general direction of the Office of the Provost and Dean of the College. The Associate Provost, the Registrar, the faculty advisor, and the instructors are also at hand to help with advising.