Written by: Philippe Buteau/Staff Writer
Kris Guzman said he has to wait two hours to meet with an academic advisor after making an appointment.
“I definitely have to make an appointment,” said Guzman, a sophomore mechanical engineering major. “He’s a really busy guy.”
The University has added 69 full-time academic advisors since 2010, and about six to eight were hired per year for the last three years, according to Charlie Andrews, Academic Advising Center assistant vice president for Undergraduate Education.
“If the University continues to grow, then you have to add however many [advisors] as the institution grew,” said Andrews.
The number of students for every advisor has lowered from 950:1 to 420:1, according to Andrews. The ratio becomes 380:1 for full-time students who take 12 credits, however.
For the past seven years, the University has hired enough advisors to help raise the percentage of First-Time-in-College students who graduate within six years from about 44 percent to 54 percent.
First-Time-in-College students are those who start in a fall term, or summer continuing to fall and graduate from the same university within six years.
Andrews said the numbers fluctuate based on the total number of “active students,” which includes students who have enrolled at some point in the past three semesters.
The University’s strategic plan, “FIUBeyondPossible2020,” aims to boost six-year graduation rate among first-time-in-college students from 53 to 70 percent. It also aims to increase transfer student enrollment and four-year student enrollment, hoping to have 65,000 students enrolled by 2020.
Science, technology, engineering and math are among the programs of strategic emphasis that are common to all Florida state universities.
The state legislature uses a performance-based funding metrics to determine how much money to give each college in the state system. A key performance metric is the percent of bachelor’s degrees awarded in the STEM fields.
Advising remains an important need for the University’s critical investment in funding, Andrews said. The strategic plan centers heavily around student success, he said.
The University’s goal in the student-to-advisor ratio is to maintain a 300:1. This means a handful of advisors are hired each year, according to Andrews.
However, the College of Engineering and Computing does not have enough academic advisors for students, he said.
The six-year graduation goal for 2015-2016 Board of Governors Work Plan is 56 percent, up 3 percent from the previous year. There is no goal for numbers of additional advisors in the Work Plan.
Andrews said the University plans to hire more of both advisors, and faculty who can also advise, but specific numbers were not provided.
“Advisors are proactive and contact students who need help, telling them, ‘Hey, come see me,’” Andrews said.
If the gentle nudge doesn’t work, sometimes advisors take drastic measures; they can place holds on students, so they are forced to see an advisor, he said.
But in their regular workload, advisors are noting students who might be pursuing the wrong major, or the one they are pursuing might not be the right one for whatever reason.
“Finding students an appropriate major is a part of their job,” Andrews said.
Advisors focus on working with exploratory students — those who don’t have a major — by providing them with options.
Sergio Ruiz transferred from the University of Florida as a sophomore. He said he has only seen one advisor since he came in as an exploratory student.
Ruiz, now a junior biomedical engineering student, said his advisor Michael Christie has kept him on course to graduate.
“I love it,” said Ruiz. “I can do walk-ins, and he’d be available.”
philippe.buteau@fiusm.com
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