The Undergraduate Student Government Academic Assembly has started to look into creating a closer student-adviser relationship for incoming students.
The University Advising Council (UAC) introduced the possibility of changing the advising structure for potential freshmen, said Wendy Flynn, vice president of the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments.
Flynn said the idea is to get freshmen more involved with their adviser and the role they have in registration and scheduling for classes.
She added that students are often shy of a few credits or have not scheduled for a class they need to graduate.
The suggestion is for incoming freshmen to have a similar procedure to the summer First-Year Testing, Counseling and Advising Program in the spring semester, Flynn said.
In the spring, students would meet with their adviser and register for classes together instead of students scheduling for classes on their own.
"Most students come in and want to be free, but if you're the first child from your family [to go to college], it's nice to have that option of an adviser to support you," Flynn said.
Eric White, executive director for the division of undergraduate studies, said the issue is whether or not students should be required to see an adviser before scheduling for their second semester and have that adviser's signature of approval.
White said a decision was not yet made about the advising plan, but the UAC is still looking into other ways to address the issue.
Assembly President Mark Levin said it is not an official proposal and it is not something that will be implemented anytime soon.
Smeal College of Business Administration Representative Leslie Hubbard said being responsible is the key to registering for the correct classes.
"We're all adults. Shouldn't this be our own responsibility?" she asked. "We go out and get a job. Nobody is there to hold our hands."
At the assembly meeting Monday night, Flynn said she suggested trying out the new advising process for incoming freshmen for a year and then tabulating the results to trace its effectiveness.
"There are other schools ... and they do it without a problem," Hubbard said. "It would be hard for a school this size to get it started, but it is very possible."
The additional advising may not be university-wide and might start at a branch campus or unit, White said.
Susan Winck, academic counselor for the Smeal College of Business Administration, said most students do not come in and get advising or use the degree audit.
She said the degree audit can be accessed on eLion at any time, and any major at Penn State can be researched.
Winck said the only way to implement this idea would be to shut down eLion and have advisers be the only ones to access it, which defeats the purpose of why eLion was developed.
