The majority of Northwestern undergraduates are dissatisfied with academic advising on campus, according to research done by the Undergraduate Budget Priorities Committee.

In a report presented to administrators March 9, about three-quarters of students called advising they have had either “not helpful” or “not helpful at all.”

“The numbers really speak for themselves,” said Trevor Nelson, chairman of the priorities committee. “Speaking with (Weinberg) students and Speech students, we found that very few students were satisfied with the advising they received or understood the current system.”

Now in its second year, the UBPC is a five-person committee administered by Associated Student Government that researches student needs and works with administrators to implement changes. Last year, nearly all the committee’s proposals were implemented, bringing enhancements to Patten Gym and Blomquist Recreation Center and expanding the student shuttle and escort services.

This year, the committee report named academic advising “the most fundamental concern of undergraduate students,” and outlined several recommendations for improvement.

NU has no centralized advising system, and relies on separate, but overlapping, advising systems for students who have academic questions. The systems include advising for all Weinberg freshmen and departmental advising for students who have selected their majors. Students seeking advice on selecting a major can visit the Office of Studies, and the General Advising Office helps students with interschool transfers.

“All of those, as the proposal mentions, serve a good purpose,” said Nelson, a Weinberg senior. “But at the same time, we feel there’s really a lack of quality advising. That’s why we suggested that the university try to create an advising system that is understood, centralized, systematized and provides a fairly high quality of advising.”

But implementing a such system is easier said than done, Weinberg Associate Dean Robert Coen said.

“It’s still an uphill struggle,” he said. “We’re trying to strengthen advising in every dimension.”

Coen said freshman- and department-level advising are already strong. He said the more important issue is helping students find the advisor who is right for them.

“The problem is not that we lack good advising,” he said. “It’s just the problem of match-making. Somewhere in this world there’s a girl for you — the problem is finding her. It’s the same thing with academic advising — there’s probably an advisor for you somewhere. But you might spend four years here and not find him or her.”

The report lauds the School of Education and Social Policy’s advising system, which uses professional advisors who develop personal relationships with students. But Coen said Weinberg’s large number of students whose breadth of intellectual interests could make it impossible to find — or fund — advisors proficient in all subject areas. And he said Weinberg would be reluctant to accept such a system, since the college’s advising philosophy involves faculty rather than professionals.

“We’ll only give that notion up with a struggle,” he said. “It may be that there’s some medium ground that’s most beneficial.”

But Nelson said the committee’s job was to identify problems, not solve them.

“We’re not necessarily charged with proposing a solution,” he said. “Our goal is to present to (the administration) what the needs are.”

The UBPC report also called for:

pi Syllabi posted online so prospective students could get a better sense of a class before registering.

pi Establishing a university-wide lecture series modeled after the Medill Crain Lecture Series.

pi Hiring a lawyer to field students’ legal questions.

pi Overhaul the student handbook, with updated pictures and a new design.

pi Better advertising for already-existing university services such as Calendar 2000, an interactive schedule on HereAndNow.

The administration will include any changes in its budget for the 2000-01 academic year, which it will announce later this quarter. Nelson said he was satisfied with the university response to the committee’s suggestions.

“(The UBPC) allows the university to actively improve the educational experience for students,” he said. “I’m very hopeful of the budget planning process and I’m excitedly awaiting the results.”