When the Undergraduate Council of Students released its 2009–10 agenda, it highlighted the goal of reviewing advising at Brown. Following its pledge, UCS delivered an "Advising Review" report to the Office of the Dean of the College at the end of last semester.
In a brief list of recommendations, the report touched upon objectives ranging from expanding online advising resources to the University's continued commitment to class-specific programs, such as the new Matched Advising Program for Sophomores, said Taj Moore '11, former UCS academic and administrative affairs chair. "It's about getting our ideas on paper, saying, ‘This is what we would like to see,' " he said.
Many of the recommendations made in the report are either currently being implemented or are in the works, said Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron. "We are impressed with the thoughtfulness of the ideas and suggestions. We are also pleased that a number of issues raised point to things that we are now doing," she said.
In order to produce the report, UCS researched advising at Brown and other peer institutions such as Cornell and Yale, said Jennifer Bloom '12, current chair of the Academic and Administrative Affairs Committee.
"It's about taking the best from every school we investigated and seeing how we can adapt it to Brown," Moore said.
The Office of Dean of the College has yet to issue an official response to the report, but UCS is pleased to have laid out the results of their research, said UCS Vice President Diane Mokoro '11.
Bergeron said she expects both sides to meet on the matter shortly. "As soon as we have our next meeting, I imagine that we will discuss next steps," she said.
