PIN eliminated in advising changes

By Sarah Rutledge     3/27/08 7:00pm

Starting next fall, students and faculty may at last be happy to find something missing at Rice - the RDA Personal Identification Number previously needed to register for courses. After presenting his plan to the Faculty Senate at its March 12 meeting, Director of Academic Advising Brian Gibson found himself with an 83 percent approval rating to abolish the RDA PIN process, which has existed since 2003.Currently, students must visit an academic advisor to receive the PIN needed for registration. Gibson said this system will stay in place for the fall 2008 registration which begins April 7, but starting with next year's incoming freshmen, the PIN will be dropped. Gibson said students will instead be encouraged, though not required, to visit academic advisors for course guidance. He said the removal of the PIN will improve upon the current faculty advising system because over the years, many students have visited academic advisors to gain their PIN rather than to ask for academic advice.

"We had many instances of students seeing an advisor as a gatekeeper rather than as a resource," Gibson said. "That is not advising. It's more bureaucratic paperwork than advising."

Gibson said students often use their academic advisor to prescribe the courses to take to meet distribution and major requirements rather than to seek advice for long-term planning. He said students should seek this information on their own and periodically check ESTHER's E-cap degree audit, which will compute their graduation requirements. Gibson said the audit will not, however, compute a student's major requirements, because faculty members will often approve of and substitute major courses not listed in that year's General Announcements, which are almost impossible to computerize.

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Gibson, who was appointed dean of academic advising last July, said he started formally researching the PIN advising system a year ago by looking into peer schools' methods. He said the former dean, Michelle Daly, had looked into revising the system. After meeting with 2,500 students and faculty members, Gibson presented his proposal to the faculty senate March 12. He said his 12 years at Rice as a resident associate at Sid Richardson and Martel Colleges have afforded him a unique perspective of students' views since he had heard their complaints about the PIN system over the years.

Gibson said he expects a slight decrease in the number of students who visit faculty advisors since registration will no longer require a PIN. He said the number of substantive meetings between students and faculty advisors will increase, however.

"The responsibility [of registering for major and distribution courses] has always been with students," Gibson said. "Now, they're more aware of this responsibility, and they won't see a faculty advisor just because of requirements."

Gibson said the Student Association's fall poll about the RDA PIN revealed that 40 percent of students would still see a faculty advisor even if they did not need to get a PIN.

He said he does not predict an increase in the number of student errors in satisfying graduation requirements.ww

"Students make mistakes now," Gibson said. "With that freedom [to choose one's courses], students do different things and sometimes fall through the cracks."

He said he plans to keep freshmen from falling through those cracks by encouraging them to meet with faculty advisors in November and in the spring of their first year.

In the future, Gibson said he plans to start an advising profile Web site for students. Students will log on and enter information about their academic interests, which they can change as often as necessary. He said the Web site may be up by next fall.

"It's a bad analogy, but it will serve like Facebook for advising," Gibson said.

Gibson said while faculty advisors in general may be underutilized, advising for transfer credit, pre-law, athletics and health professions are understaffed areas that see large numbers of students. He plans to train more faculty members to be advisors this summer to increase students' advising resources.

Gibson also plans to increase the number of academic fairs on campus to provide students additional information about different majors. He also plans to increase the number of Peer Academic Advisors on campus during Orientation Week from 18 to 27 to ensure that they adequately answer students' questions.

Gibson, who began the campus-wide PAA program in 2005, said he wants to have PAAs work with faculty advisors to offer students additional academic guidance within the colleges.

Gibson said students and faculty members have generally reacted positively to the PIN elimination.

"Students are excited about the removal and are actively interested in the rest [of the advising reform]," Gibson said.

Lovett College sophomore Amber Williams said getting rid of the PIN would make registration easier for students.

"I know a lot of people who have had really bad experiences with advisors not being available," Williams said. "When you have to drop a class tomorrow, it's really difficult to meet with your college counselor to get a PIN."

She said students would be less likely to visit their advisors in the future since it is no longer required.

"It gets busy that time of year," Williams said. "People aren't going to take the time to do something that's not mandatory, especially at Rice, when everything is really hurried.

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