Harold G. Downs and Jayette Bolinski

Linda Seibert surveyed the students sitting in Lawson Hall and, instead of standing on the stage and giving a presentation, she told the students to gather into the front rows as she sat down to talk with them about their concerns on academic advisement for the College of Business and Administration.

The student turnout for the town meeting was virtually nonexistent Thursday evening as four students from a college of approximately 1,500 gathered in Lawson Hall to discuss advisement.

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The town meetings were created to allow students to voice their opinions on advisement. Advisers implemented the meetings after Undergraduate Student Government announced it was taking steps to improve advisement procedures at SIUC.

Attendance was low for other college’s advisement forums:40 students attended the College of Applied Sciences and Arts meeting.

Four students, including Undergraduate Student Government President Dave Vingren, attended the College of Business and Administration meeting.

Two students, USG vice president Megan Moore, a major force behind the creation of the town hall meetings, and Connie Howard, USG Internal Affairs Committee chairwoman, attended the College of Liberal Arts meeting.

18 students attended the College of Education meeting.

Three students attended the College of Science meeting.

Two students attended the College of Agriculture meeting.

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One student attended the College of Engineering meeting.

Three students attended the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts meeting.

Four students attended the Center for Basic Skills meeting.

Seibert, chief academic adviser for the College of Business and Administration, said the dismal attendance was a good sign for the college’s advisement department.

I think the fact attendance was so small is a positive indication, Seibert said. [Students] are not happy, but at least they are content.

Seibert said despite low attendance the town meetings had to occur in the wake of advisement criticism from students and USG. She said the students had to make efforts for advisement to work for them.

We don’t care if you see us every week, Seibert said. Faculty in the College of Business are available, but you have to seek them out. We do the best we can for the students, but we can’t assume responsibility.

Wanda Oakey, chief academic adviser for COLA, said there is only so much advisers can do for students.

We can lay out the plans, hope the classes are offered, hope the student doesn’t drop and hope the student doesn’t fail anything, Oakey said.

Moore said students need to know how they can get help and where they can go to get it.

I think students are confused about who to go to for what information, Moore said. I hear students say they don’t know about courses. This is the role of departmental advisers, but many people don’t know this.

Among the issues discussed at the COLA meeting were running advisement schedules and other information on SPC-TV and offering group advisement sessions for students who self advise and need additional information.

Oakey said group advisement had been tried before but was unsuccessful because groups could not be gathered.

We found that we wound up dealing with them one-on-one anyway because that was their need, Oakey said.

If people are passive and you want them to do something, you have to go to them, Moore said. Students need the information put out there in a different way.

Vingren said he thought the town meetings were necessary to receive student input on advisement, and some students may not have attended because they were busy. He said advisers and USG were taught a lesson from the meetings.

It is much more efficient to go to a student organization to get diverse opinions, Vingren said.

Howard said she attended the COLA meeting to hear other students’ thoughts on advisement.

I have concerns about advisement and about students not understanding, Howard said. I’ve had problems with my advisement and I wanted to see what they had to say.

Seibert said attendance at the town meetings spoke for itself.

When you invite comment and suggestion and no one shows up, that gives no basis to make a change, Seibert said. Whether it needs to be done annually or routinely is questionable. I just don’t think the turnout says we should do it annually.

Unless students find it necessary or a good thing, I don’t think we have cause to do it.