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It’s 2009. Need tech support? Go to the Information Technology Web site and chat with an expert. Need to add money to your meal plan? Go to the Campus Card Web site and instantly transfer funds from your bank account. Need to check the line at McAlister’s? Go to UofL Today and look at the webcam. Need to schedule an advising appointment? Go to…oh, wait—University of Louisville advising is stuck in the pre-electronic age.
In 2007 we wrote about AdvisorTrac, a new software package the advising office was launching. Due to be operational by spring 2008, it would keep a record of students’ advising visits, while allowing students to schedule appointments online.
At the time, Janet Spence, executive director of undergraduate advising, said, “Advisers will enter their notes of the advising session into AdvisorTrac, so that the next person who meets with the student will have access to the information. This is important, especially in situations where students change majors or transfer to another unit of the university.”
AdvisorTrac is currently available to Honors students, but to the vast majority of students, advising is still done with pen on paper, leading to confusion and delays.
Compared to other universities, U of L advising is downright embarrassing. Western Kentucky University uses Topnet, a software package that shows students their GPA, the classes they have taken and the classes they still need. It provides students with links to the classes they could take, and presents it in an easy-to-use format, complete with graphs and color coding. Surely U of L could adopt a similar program.
For many students, registering for classes is a minefield of guesswork, forcing students to write so many notes in their course catalogs that the catalogs could be confused for a Biology textbook. At the very least, the university needs to make good on its commitment to use AdvisorTrac for everyone, and maybe one day we can catch up to our tech-savvy neighbors in Bowling Green.
