Feeling inadequate

Today I was part of an interdisciplinary faculty team of about 6 people that provided advising and registration help to about 30 entering transfer students who are undecided as to their major.

It was just deeply, deeply unsatisfying on every level. First, the goals and agenda for the session were provided less than 24 hours in advance. I am the kind of person who mentally prepares for things in advance - meaning that if I have a presentation to give in a couple of weeks, my mind (on some level, if washing dishes, showering or even sleeping) is thinking about this at odd moments and envisioning what I'll say, how I'll respond to questions, what I need to know to prepare, etc. When I have no time for this, I feel mentally unprepared.

Second, we as faculty are completely unprepared to advise outside our own discipline. We can get students to find the major worksheets online (none were provided on paper) but we don't know the optimal course sequences, prerequisites, or conventions of scheduling - how often a course is taught, and which semester. Why not require ONE rep from each department at each advising session to deal with this? My session had, like 3 English profs, 1 chem person, and a communications person. Some fashion people showed up later. NOT a complete effort. Not a complete slate of resources.

Third, there was no handy reference sheet of General Education courses that are offered in fall. (These are the 12 (!) courses that every student must take to be well rounded and whatnot.) This lack is part of a larger problem - the misplaced desire for paperless advising - but it's a mistake. ONE sheet of paper in the packets could have solved a lot of problems - it's just too hard to toggle back and forth between different queries on Gen Ed on the screen.

Fourth, students were dropped into the lab and the on-line registration system with little or no help as far as I could see. No one was in charge, and it was that chaos of working with a class all on computers: you walk around learning tips and sharing them as you go, but it's all VERY haphazard.

Fifth, the organizers did a very BAD job managing expectations. Turns out that transfer students are in the worst position of all for fall registration. Lots of courses are still entirely reserved for first-years and there were very few seats available in the required Gen Ed sections. There was no general discussion of how to deal with this through the summer - monitor the system; check in after first-years register; contact profs for overrides, etc.

One girl I was helping was quietly crying as we worked. She kept turning away to blow her nose and wipe her face. I felt so bad for her. Can't we do better? This is a horrible introduction to our college.