Faced with plunging enrollment and the need to increase student retention, Bucks is moving forward with a plan to make academic advising easier and more effective, even though the plan is controversial with some faculty members.
In a wide-ranging interview, Dr. Clayton Railey III, provost and dean of Academic Affairs at Bucks, discussed the new tools that are being rolled out to improve academic advising. He also discussed his relationship with faculty and his work with President Stephanie Shanblatt.
Bucks, like many other colleges and universities, has sought to provide an array of choices in terms of majors and classes to its students. Railey believes that when presented with so many choices, many students could easily get confused without proper guidance.
Railey said the guiding principle behind the implementation of the new advising system is to help steer students, particularly those who are the first in their family to attend college, in the right direction.
As a result of the new advising system, it has become mandatory for every Bucks student, either part-time of full-time, to have an adviser.  Railey noted that the advisers would guide the students in two important ways: first, they would help students identify their goals; second, based on those goals they would assist their advisees in determining the “most effective path to reach those goals.”
Railey pointed out that the relationship between advisers and part-timers not only would better guide students in reaching their goals but would help with “maintaining the student population,” thereby addressing one of the most serious issues facing Bucks – an ongoing decline in enrollment.
Railey said Bucks is in the process of implementing several new programs that would lessen the burden of advising for professors.
First, setting up a time for advising is sometimes a challenge because many students do not use their Bucks emails.  Under a new system called GradesFirst, when it is time to do advising, the advisers would send a message to their advisees.
The students would receive the message through their Bucks emails and through a text message.  They would get a link.  The link would tell them when their advisers would be available.  Once the students sign up for a meeting, their advisers would be alerted.  GradesFirst is likely to be available this spring.
Navigate is another program that is in development.  It would permit students who are undecided on a major to type in their interests.  Based on those interests, the students would be given a list of suggested majors and a list of recommended courses for each proposed major. It is not yet determined when Navigate would be available.
The Student Planning Module is the software currently being used for advising and course selections. It allows students to choose classes before they meet with their advisers.
The advisers are able to check all the classes that their advisees intend to take before meeting with students. This allows the professors to determine whether the students are taking the right courses in the correct order for their major.
In an interview with two part-time students, both welcomed the new advising requirement.  James Sykes, an undeclared major from Chalfont, said “I think that it is a good idea because not everyone knows what he or she wants to do; so it is good to be able to talk to someone who can advise you.”
A Medical Assistant major, Nilufar Rikhsibaera, said, “With an adviser, I’ll avoid the headache of taking classes that I do not need for my major.”
Before the implementation of the new advising system, only full-time students were required to have an adviser.  Part-timers made up 60 percent of the student population.  Thus, requiring part-time students to have advisers would sharply increase the numbers of advisees that would be assigned to each faculty member.  Some professors were not thrilled about this new development.
To address this major concern, the school administration has worked out an arrangement with the head of the faculty union, John Strauss. This agreement set the number of advisees to 25. The negotiated plan also establishes an “overload compensation,” which incentivizes faculty members to take on more students.
Strauss said the administration and faculty “have a mutually-agreed standard advising load and compensation for overload, which we negotiated in a memorandum of agreement last spring.”
When she was asked whether the new advising system is a burden, Marianne Kepler, a psychology professor, said that the 25 advisees requirement is a “reasonable number.”
Kelly Jones, an assistant professor in the department of Kinesiology and Sport Studies, said it would be difficult for a general adviser to advise “students on every program and career” because they would not have the necessary background to do so. Jones added that she has been advising more 25 students even before the new advising system has been adopted.
Professors who decide to add 35 more students on their list of advisees would be compensated as if they were teaching a one-credit class. Thus, each additional group of 35 is akin to a one-credit course in determining the adviser’s compensation. But if they decide to make some extra money by advising more than 25 students, faculty members must discuss that decision with the dean of their department. The 25 quota rule and the overload compensation are already in effect.
Strauss said the “long-term advising plan is in the hands of shared governance, where it belongs. It will receive collaborative input from faculty and administration and, when completed, review by and input from the greater college community before it is finalized and put into action. We believe that this cooperative, democratic approach is the most productive and appropriate way to handle such things: the range of perspectives will produce the best result for students, faculty, and staff.”
When it comes to the adoption of the new advising tools, Strauss said “Faculty (as well as college staff) are involved in developing, piloting, and evaluating new advising and communications software to make sure that it works well for what we need it to do.”
Strauss added, “I’m satisfied with where things are going regarding the new advising system, while varying levels of glitches (particularly technological) continue, I am satisfied with the way that we are handling the process.”
When it comes to the relationship between administration and professors, Railey said “for the most part, there is a good relationship with the faculty.” When asked if faculty members were consulted before the implementation of the new advising system, Railey said there were a few meetings with the school’s faculty. Railey also stressed that he had many discussions with Strauss, adding that he maintains an open-door policy as far as being available to the school’s faculty.
The interview also touched on the relationship between Railey and Stephanie Shanblatt, the president of Bucks. Asked to describe his partnership with Shanblatt, Railey said they “have shared goals and they are both committed to offer students an excellent education and to provide faculty members with all the tools that they would need to educate their students.”