{"id":4944,"date":"2023-04-24T20:37:23","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T00:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=4944"},"modified":"2023-04-24T20:37:23","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T00:37:23","slug":"got-advisors-exploring-student-opinions-on-hunters-advising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2023\/04\/got-advisors-exploring-student-opinions-on-hunters-advising\/","title":{"rendered":"Got Advisors? Exploring Student Opinions on Hunter\u2019s Advising"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like its commuter student population, Hunter advisors are as hard to track down. Hafsha Rahman, a human biology major, reports that she had to wait up to one week to see her general advisor about a question regarding her degree works\u2013 she ulti<\/span>mately had to turn to her department major advisor for help.<\/p>\n

This experience isn\u2019t unanimous though. Advisors are readily available for students in honors programs like Macaulay. A quick comparison shows <\/span>four active advisors<\/span><\/a> for Macaulay Honors\u2019 <\/span>480<\/span><\/a> students an<\/span>d 15 active advisors<\/a> for the rest of Hunter\u2019s 24,052<\/a> students. Students with special cases, like transfer students or athletes, have their own advisors.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Office of Advising is located at two locations, Hunter East 1119 and Hunter West 417, with the latter pictured above.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hunter\u2019s advising system creates a <\/span>dynamic that makes students feel like they need to be \u201cspecial\u201d to receive help.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For some students, their biggest motivation for joining an honors program is to have access to an advisor. But, even then, these honors programs are not an option for all students\u2013 transfer students are barred from being considered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m my own advisor,\u201d said Ray DePaul, a transfer political science major, \u201cI heard all the horror stories and just didn\u2019t find it worth it to wait for passive-aggressive treatment. I didn\u2019t really have the choice since I couldn\u2019t qualify for an honors program.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These feelings are shared across platforms that Hunter students use to vent and socialize. One Reddit user, <\/span>zXHerpaDerpXz<\/span><\/a>, writes on r\/HunterCollege \u201cBro who even is your guy\u2019s advisor? When I emailed mine I got an automated response saying she quit. I ended having to solve my own issues because these advisors really are useless.\u201d zXHerpaDerpXz was unresponsive when reached out for comment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The quality of advising problem can be attributed to low pay. With the Director of Advising reportedly only making <\/span>$116,724<\/span><\/a> in 2022, these advisors are overworked with large student loads. Speaking with Director Nikole Feliciano, she confirmed that each advisor has a caseload of 800 students, grouped by major clusters of A for science and nursing, B for arts and humanities, and C for social sciences, technology, and mathematics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking at the website, this advising structure isn\u2019t clear, with the <\/span>site<\/span><\/a> listing 11 directors for the advising office, with the majority vaguely titled and missing a picture. In addition, Director Feliciano shared that the office lost two advisors, due to extraneous situations like maternity and relocation, and an associate director, which can\u2019t be filled due to the <\/span>CUNY Freeze<\/span><\/a> put into place on February 11, 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

While students tend to prefer to rely on their department major advisors, Director Feliciano emphasizes that the advising office works closely with both the <\/span>Pre-Professional advising<\/span><\/a> and department major advising, and should be seen by students as a support system. \u201cWe like to think of ourselves as a triple network, where you will have an advisor that is in the Office of Advising, you can have an advisor in prehealth, prelaw, and prebusiness if you chose, and then you also have support from the department,\u201d said Feliciano.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aside from access, students need to be made aware of where the advising office is and how they can schedule appointments. Speaking with 20 students on the fifth floor of the Leon & Toby Cooperman Library, more than half were unsure where the office was, and how to use the college\u2019s system, <\/span>Navigate<\/span><\/a>, to book an appointment.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, the problem extends beyond just a lack of staffing and funding. Students are generally unaware of the resources the office has to offer. The Office of Advising\u2019s website lists dates and times for <\/span>in-person walk-in visits<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>virtual Zoom visits<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While Director Feliciano shared that campaigns are done frequently to encourage students to visit the office, the lack of awareness held by students stems from the fact that Hunter doesn\u2019t mandate regular students to meet with their advisors unlike the honors program, which do. With no rules mandating meeting with one\u2019s advisor, students can easily get lost with all the information consistently thrown at them by Hunter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hunter\u2019s advising system creates a \u201csurvival of the fittest\u201d environment, where students in honors programs are adequately supported while those who aren\u2019t are left to fend for themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like its commuter student population, Hunter advisors are as hard to track down. Hafsha Rahman, a human biology major, reports that she had to wait up to one week to see her general advisor about a question regarding her degree works\u2013 she ultimately had to turn to her department major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64,532,536,13,533,535,537,534],"class_list":["post-4944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-advising","tag-advisors","tag-help","tag-hunter","tag-macaulay","tag-need-help","tag-opinions","tag-studentstakes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4944"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5025,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944\/revisions\/5025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}