Michaela Goss

Connector Editor

In college, students learn to find their voices, and many have said that the support of faculty members has helped them to do so.

For the most part, UMass Lowell students and faculty said they have strong relationships. They said the implementation of faculty advisors has helped them become closer and helped to make sure students graduate and succeed after college. While students are not required to meet with their advisors, students said it often benefits them during their time here.

Yet senior psychology major Courtney Carnevale said she has managed without these meetings. “I’ve never met with my advisor,” she said. “I don’t know why—I didn’t think about it.” She said she was even unsure of her advisor’s name.

This situation differs from other student and advisor relationships. Junior criminal justice major Mike Steere said he highly regards his relationship with his advisor.

“I have a really good relationship with [him],” he said. Steere said he has had a very positive experience since he transferred from Middlesex Community College. “I’ve never had an advisor or teacher that didn’t want to help me,” he said.

One faculty member that said she loves to help her students is Pauline Ladebauche, the assistant dean of the College of Health Sciences. She said she takes student concerns very seriously.

“I think visibility is very important,” she said. “Students are our best source of information, so, if you’re visible and you’re interacting with students, then you know what their concerns are.”

The College of Health Sciences is one of the largest colleges within the University. They have dozens of programs from undergraduate through doctoral degrees and more students than there are faculty in the whole University. Despite its size, Ladebauche said that she thinks their faculty and students have great relationships.

“I am very pleased with [these relationships] in the College of Health Sciences,” she said. “And I think, if you talk to [students], they will tell you that one of the very positive aspects of being a student here in this college is the relationships with the people who work here.”

Freshman nursing major Betsey Brayton said she agreed with Ladebauche about her own student advisor relationship. She said her advisor is also one of her professors, and she finds this beneficial because it helps her feel like she can rely on him more. “[Our relationship is] really good,” she said. “He seems really knowledgeable.”

Since she came from the healthcare world 25 years ago to work in the University’s nursing department, Ladebauche said that she has seen student and faculty relationships grow in a great way. She said she is very proud of how far they have come.

“I think [these relationships have] changed in a very positive way,” she said. “Higher education has recognized that the needs of students are really the driving force in education, and they put lots of strategies in place to address those needs.”

One strategy put into place is the faculty advisors; this semester, faculty advisors have designated Oct. 24 until Nov. 7 for the advising period. During the advising period, students choose what classes they will take for the following semester.

As students are around more faculty than just their designated advisor, there are also dozens of professors whose relationships vary just as student and advisor relationships do.

Carnavale said she did not have a personal relationship with her professors. “I’m not going to tell them about my day,” she said. “But if I have questions I’ll ask them.”

Brayton said she felt differently about her other professors than she did about her advisor. She said that some professors seemed approachable, but not all of them.

Steere said he has had a positive experience with professors overall since he transferred here because they create personal relationships with students.

“They can talk to you about anything,” he said. “I actually consider some of my professors like friends.”

Because of their positive experiences, both Steere and Brayton said that they could not think of any way that they could improve their relationships with faculty, but Carnevale said that the format of her advising sessions has made her reluctant to get advised.

“I know we do group advising in psychology,” she said. “The way I’ve heard it’s set up is you sign up for a time and there’s multiple people there, but they can only talk to you one at a time so it doesn’t really work. That’s why I’ve never gone. It just sounds like a waste of time.”

Students have said, despite the quality of their relationship with their advisor, that they feel that their voices are being heard and their needs are being met, which is something Ladebauche thinks is important. “Students are our business,” she said. “If there were no students, there would be no UMass Lowell.”