University of Virginia Library

Undergraduate Counselling

Rising third-year men in the College will be
declaring majors this week, making a decision
that will have a vital effect on their academic
careers, and perhaps on their lives as well. Too
often, we fear, they will be doing it with a
totally inadequate knowledge of what they
are getting into and the options open to them.

We're told there was a time at this
University when the doors to faculty offices
were open more often than closed. There was
a time when faculty members went out of
their way to inquire about the problems and
progress of their undergraduate students.
Professors knew the undergraduate majors in
their departments by their first names rather
than their social security numbers and often
met with them outside of the lecture hall.

Increasing enrollment and academic specialization,
coupled with the rising importance
of graduate students, has changed all that.
There are undoubtedly a great many faculty
members who would like to haver closer
relationships with their students, and there are
some who still do. But the majority haven't
got the time, and quite a few haven't got the
inclination. These factors, in turn, have had
their effect on the undergraduates. Many feel
that their problems are too petty to bother
the august and learned members of the faculty
with, and they make no attempt to do so.
Their basic ignorance of the disciplines
available goes unameliorated, and they wander
blindly into the groves of academe. If they're
fortunate, they emerge two years later with a
degree in a field that interests them. The only
counselling they had consisted of a few
scrawled signatures on an IBM card.

The problems of undergraduate counselling,
as important as they are, are not going to
stand in the way of the trends that have
subverted the faculty-student relationship on
the undergraduate level. Classes are going to
get larger, there are going to be more graduate
students, and the faculty members are going
to specialize. Unless the students do something
to help themselves, they re not going to
get the education they're paying for.

Several departments in the College are
considering major changes in the traditional
system where every faculty member acts as an
advisor to a certain number of students. That
system was designed for another University of
Virginia, and it simply will not do the job in
this University. They are considering things
like graduate students acting as undergraduate
counsellors and the like, but in a University
where personal relationships are breaking
down on the academic level, this will not be
enough. Basic information about each department,
its discipline, its personnel, and its
academic requirements must be purveyed to
all students in more than the skeletal form of
the University catalogue. Given such basic
information, a student could then make much
wiser use of the time of his faculty advisor.

We suggest that the students and faculty
members of each department cooperate in
putting out a counselling brochure with the
necessary information. Such a brochure must,
however, be more than a compendium of
course and classroom numbers. It ought to
evaluate subjective considerations as well.
Prospective majors ought to know, for
instance, about the political orientation of the
economics department, the career prospects
for government majors, or the most interesting
way to fulfill the English requirements.
They ought to know which courses and
teachers are difficult and which are boring.
They out to know how the department
operates, what will be expected of them, and
what to expect in return.

Unfortunately, information of this sort
will not be readily available to the current
second-year men. They will have to get by
with the present methods. We urge them to
think carefully, and investigate their options
completely. Make the faculty give you the
service and the advice that your tuition is
paying for. Those who decide on the basis of
hearsay or fraternity poodah files may well
regret it next year.