Dean: focus on advising system

Dean of Faculty Christie Sorum urged her colleagues to focus their energies this year on developing an advising system that "more fully integrates the in- and out-of-classroom life at Union and makes the education we provide more coherent."

Advising has become increasingly important to students, she said at the opening faculty meeting on Wednesday, citing that top-quality students identify a strong advising system with the quality of a college.

"We have the opportunity to explain to our students what a liberal arts education is … and to help them create such an education for themselves," she said.

In urging a review of faculty workloads and the reward system, the dean called on senior faculty to take the lead in setting standards and introducing junior colleagues to the life and demands of a small, residential liberal arts college. "Our roles are held hostage to what has become an anachronistic system of rewards which primarily values contributions we make to knowledge in the disciplines and, at Union, to classroom teaching, and does not recognize or accommodate other demands."

Also at the faculty meeting, President Roger Hull reported that the just-released "America's Best Colleges" published by U.S. News and World Report ranked Union at 36^th (tied with Franklin and Marshall). All colleges ranked higher than Union had a higher academic reputation index, and Union was ranked 54^th in financial resources.

Tom Werner, chair of the faculty executive council, announced that the Resource Allocation Sub-Council _ a panel appointed to review the proposed elimination of civil engineering _ is to issue their report on Friday, Sept. 14, with discussion to follow at the Oct. 3 general faculty meeting. A faculty vote would not be binding, but would give the administration a sense of the group, he noted.