By Jamil Oakford/editor-in-chief

Students across the district seeking advising must now make an appointment to see an academic adviser.

Advising by appointment was implemented just after the spring semester started.

“It’s like a doctor’s appointment,” TR counseling director Louanne Schulze said. “You make the appointment, and you show up. Let them know you’re there at the front desk, and then you’re seen.”

This program is one that took many campuses’ advising centers some time to adjust.

“We’ve gone through some learning curves with it,” NE counseling director Condoa Parrent said.

South Campus, having piloted this program last summer, had some readjusting as well.

“We’ve had to retrain students to make the appointments and retrain our advisers and front-desk people to use the software,” South counseling director Jade Borne said. “We’ve adapted, and it’s running pretty smoothly.”

Despite learning curves, improvements are already felt in some campuses’ counseling offices.

“Our wait time has been cut significantly,” Parrent said.

SE counseling director Michael Dupont said not only has wait time been cut, but advisers feel they’ve helped students more effectively.

“Advisers can see how far along students are in their trajectory for graduation,” he said. “The 30-minute slot gives students more time with the advisers as well.”

NW counseling director Ricks Edmonson said this helped advisers get a heads-up on who they’re helping.

Borne agreed: “Because you know who’s coming, you can prepare accordingly, especially if you have an ongoing relationship with a student.”

With the many advantages advising by appointment brings, some things still have to be worked out, especially on the technology side.

“People are still being inconvenienced by bugs, which brings frustration from both students and advisers,” Schulze said.

The real test of whether this method will work has yet to be seen, especially since it started when students couldn’t sign up for classes.

“We’ll need a good semester or two to see how this really works,” Schulze said.

This test will come in August when advisers will see their largest number of students for registration under the new system.

For TR student Darius Harrison, the plan seems a bit unnecessary.

“I don’t like it because I don’t need 30 minutes to talk to an adviser,” he said. “At most, I need two to five minutes.”

No matter how long a student needs to sit with an adviser, everyone agreed that despite the change, the counseling centers and their purpose haven’t changed.

“The thing I want students to know is that we will never turn a student away,” Parrent said. “We have same-day appointments for walk-ins and online advising as well.”

Students don’t even have to leave home to receive advising, or even set up an appointment with an adviser online through WebAdvisor.

TR student Mary Wix finds making her appointments online great.

“It’s more convenient, and it’s cool too because you can cancel online,” she said.