The College of Management is in the process of changing its approach to student advising from professors to paid professional advisers. The Tuition and Fees Conference Committee pre-approved $350,000 for quality and accessibility which Provost Larry Nielsen said will likely go to pay five professional advisers. Each professional adviser is set to make approximately $70,000 a year in salary, but even with professional advisers, faculty advisers will still be involved with students.

These professional advisers will be responsible for advising 2,400 undergraduate students in the COM. Professional advisers will be used to aid students in their coursework for their majors and concentrations, while faculty advisors will still be used to help students with their plan of work and selecting which classes to take.

This new model of advising is a waste of money and students will ultimately suffer. Students will suffer in part because each professional adviser will be responsible for roughly 400 students, which is too many for one person to advise. Students should be able to develop close one-on-one relationship with their adviser so that they can best achieve academically.

COM students aren’t solely paying for the services of the professional advisers, all students are. The raise in tuition according to the recomendation will provide the financial backing to hire these professional advisers. Students in other colleges will be responsible for the salary of the professionals through the rise in the quality and accessibility portion of the tuition increase.

Instead, this money should be used to hire more faculty members within the college. In recent years, COM has grown and become more prestigious in the state and nation. However, they are now facing a situation in which it’s becoming harder to keep up with the increase in student demand.

By hiring more faculty members in COM, it will not only aid in reducing class sizes but it will also allow students to have their own faculty advisers who are actual professors to advise them on all matters. Additionally, hiring more faculty members will reduce the student-to-faculty adviser ratio, thus giving faculty more time to get to know their students.

Advisers are important to the success of a student collegiate academic success. NCSU and COM must do all they can to provide students with the best possible advising. This advising should come in the form of faculty members who knows what’s best for students in their particular fields of work and study — not hired professionals who wouldn’t necessarily have degrees in the student’s academic area.