New Registration Procedures: Just one more aggravation?

If you are an upperclassman, think for a moment about when you last met with your academic advisor. If you are anything like me, you probably haven’t thought to schedule a sit-down meeting with your advisor for the last several semesters unless something was wrong. However, if you have checked your Bucmail account recently, you know that things are changing.

All undergraduate students are now required to contact their academic advisors before they can register for next semester’s classes. This will not be a huge change for freshmen because they are already required to meet with an advisor about scheduling between semesters. But, if you are a sophomore, junior, or senior, this could seem like just one more thing to add to your cramped and busy schedule; one more pointless requirement that administration is forcing upon you to waste your time.

However, my fellow students, this is not the case. I talked to Dr. Rick Martinez, the assistant vice president for academics. He very quickly cleared up the assumption that this was just a way to complicate life for students at CSU. In fact, it is just the opposite! Aside from the obvious benefit of making sure that undergraduate students are taking classes that are going to help them advance in their pursuit of a degree, the mandatory advisor meetings will, according to Dr. Martinez, help provide a “greater service to students.”

The reason for the sudden urgency stems from the recent revamping of the Student Success Center. The whole point of the Student Success Center is to help students succeed, but it also strives retain students. Keeping track of students by making advisor meetings mandatory is one way the administration plans to increase the retention of students from one semester to the next. The administration hopes that by making it mandatory for students to meet with their advisors, or at least to touch base with them, students will not fall through the cracks and waste time in classes that will not help them with their degree. However, there is another reason for this new requirement, and it has a lot to do with our mission statement.

Here at CSU, the focus is to promote academic excellence in a Christian environment, as well as integrate faith in learning, leading, and serving. What is the point of going to a Christian school where the faculty is hand-picked, not only for their knowledge in their content area and ability to effectively teach students but also for their ability to be good Christian role models for young adults who are trying to find their place in the world, if the only interaction the faculty have with their students is in a class of 20 or more? Where is the godly guidance that should come with an education at a Christian university going to come from if there is no discipleship between the students and professors they respect?

That is not to say that the advisor meetings are supposed to be Bible lessons or devotional meetings, but isn’t it nice to be able to sit and talk to someone you respect about what is going on in your life and classes and know that he or she cares about what you are saying? Knowing that the person you are talking to is able to guide you spiritually if you need it is part of the pleasure of attending a Christian university.

In other words, this is not just one more task that administration is trying to force upon students to make life more complicated. Actually, this requirement is being put into place to show that the faculty, the professors whom you look up to and respect, really do care about how you are doing and want to make sure that you are getting the most out of your college experience. So make sure that you touch base with your advisors. They are here to help because they care about you.