Juniors will be asked to evaluate their academic advisers when they go to see their adviser this semester. There is a new process beginning this March concerning the junior adviser evaluations. Due to the growing percentage of students who register online, the Faculty Evaluation committee created a modified procedure on Monday, Feb. 21 at 8:45 a.m.
What is the junior adviser evaluation? As Cabrini students reach their junior year, they must fill out a form for the sole purpose of evaluating their advisers. It gives students a chance to voice their opinion and partake in benefiting the future program. According to Dr. Thomas Stretton, assistant professor for education, the two main purposes of the process are to assess faculty for tenure purposes and to make the advising system better.
What was the previous process like? Before registering online was an option, juniors would go to the Registrar’s Office with their course selection form signed by their adviser in hand. Previously, there would be a table near the office with evaluation forms ready to be completed by students waiting in line and handed in with their registration papers.
However, the decrease in students actually registering in the Registrar’s Office has created the need for a convenient and altered systematic approach for juniors.
How will the new process play out? For students who register online, they will receive a form via e-mail about a week before registration, which is on March 17. The e-mail should be printed out, completed and handed into their adviser when they visit them for registration approval, a step that has always been mandatory. Envelopes will be provided to place the evaluations in; furthermore, students should sign the back of this envelope to privacy.
If students should register in person, they can either use the same system as the on-line registration process or they can complete the form at the Registrar’s Office at the time they register.
“There will be a table for it on March 17 with candies and cookies,” Stretton said. “Most kids do it within two to four minutes…it’s fairly simple.”
Although the system is meant to be uncomplicated, the importance of the situation should not be neglected. “We need a high percentage of students to participate. It’s the rare student who knows all of the requirements of the college…the information we are given from the evaluations is taken seriously so as to help improve the advising program in the future,” Stretton said.
Advising is a crucial part of a student’s career at Cabrini. “The success of a student in college is highly connected to good advising,” Stretton said.
“Faculty professionals try to do a good job…evaluations help cover blind spots for them. It’s sort of like tests for students. It helps to discover what you know and what you don’t know…the evaluations can give you a red flag,” Dr. Robert Jozkowski, assistant professor of business administration, said. “It would be a nice story to say that we do this whole evaluation process to benefit the system in the future…but the added advantage is that it’s actually true.”
Posted to the web by Shane Evans
