The Student Senate Academics Committee has been working on addressing student advising concerns through surveys members have passed out to various student organizations.

Students have many concerns regarding their advisers, according to Committee Chair Amber Joyner.

Joyner, a sophomore in political science, said she has been heading the project for a month and a half.

She said she came up with the idea to have students fill out surveys, which are geared toward advisers and advising after hearing many students express concerns about their advisers.

The main goal for the advising surveys, according to Joyner, is to “figure out what students are looking for when they go to their advisers and what Student Government can do to make it a better system.”

It was also important to obtain a diverse response from students, she said.

“We basically wanted to find a way to reach as many students and majors as possible,” Joyner said.

With this in mind, Joyner said she and her colleagues contacted the presidents of all student organizations to see if they would be interested in participating in the survey.

Once they received responses, they went out to meetings of the various student organizations and gave brief overviews about what they were trying to accomplish with the survey.

Committee members also gave out pizza to students as an incentive if they took part in the advising surveys, according to Courtney Parnell, Academics Committee secretary.

Parnell said she has also been working on the project with the advising surveys.

“The surveys are to see what problems students are having with their advisers and what Student Government can do to make the advising process more effective,” she said.

Parnell said she wanted to ensure that students are educated on the differences between professional advisers and faculty advisers.

“My goal has been to listen and figure out what students want,” she said.

Joyner said the committee has received a wide range of responses.

“We have had an excellent turnout,” she said.

Students have completed about 800 surveys.

The surveys are anonymous, which keeps the students’ identities from being revealed, according to Joyner.

After all the surveys have all been reviewed, Joyner plans to put together a report that will be presented to administration during the beginning of next semester, she said.

Both Joyner and Parnell said they are hoping for changes and some consistency with the University’s advisers as a result of the report.