Alternate Academic Advising in Near Future
By Lori DesRochers
News Associate

Pomona College prides itself on the interaction between faculty and students, the support system offered to freshmen, and the closeness of the small community. Incoming students are all assigned to a sponsor group with two sophomore sponsors. Students have the opportunity to participate in various mentoring groups, and interact with resident advisors, and a faculty advisor. In the very near future, freshmen will be offered the chance to get to know one more friendly Pomona face: a student advisor.

In the still-developing plan for student advising, freshmen who indicate interest will be paired with an upperclassman to receive advising about classes, major tracks, and other pertinent academic issues. The students will meet over lunch in November, and will have opportunities to meet and talk more often if the students feel it is necessary.

Thirty student liaisons in a variety of departments and over sixty freshmen have already indicated interest in the program.

“The purpose is to give students another source apart from their faculty advisors for information and thoughts about majors,” said Dean of Students Ann Quinley. “You could have conversations with a peer advisor from two or three departments, depending on what you, the student, were exploring. It will also serve as a link between upper classmen and first year students, which is important.”

Ryley Share ‘04 helped design the plan for student advisors.

“There are so many things that go into the first year experiences that immediately bridging the gap between the faculty and the students sometimes scares people,” said Share. “Plus, sometimes faculty may have to be so objective in their descriptions of colleagues that students may not get the full story. This program creates another person to go to, another voice, perhaps allows the first years to hear the nitty-gritty about how a class will be or how a professor teaches.”

With the current faculty advising program, freshmen are paired with a faculty member at the beginning of the year based on the major interest they indicated on their application and a variety of other factors. While this system of advising works perfectly well for some students, it is also possible that this immediate introduction to a faculty member can be intimidating for others.

Kimberly Skog ’06 was given an advisor in the department of Physics, and then felt uncomfortable expressing her desire to switch fields to biology.

“I told him I was interested in both physics and biology first semester, so I started in the physics track,” said Skog. “When I changed my mind and was more interested in biology for second semester, he made it clear that it would be a bad idea to quit taking physics. I felt like he wanted me to major in his field because of his own biases.”

Share describes the program as part of her goal for the Freshman/Senior interaction committee. “It gives freshmen firsthand advice about academics through the voices of experienced students. It also gives freshmen exposure to upperclassmen and may foster friendships or a continued advising relationship,” said Share. “Upperclassmen get the chance to impart some of their wisdom to freshmen so that freshmen can have as good as, if not better, experiences than the upperclassmen.”