I served as an advisor for premajors during Transfer Orientation, and there
were a couple of problems that I think faculty (and department heads)
should consider.

1)  Even though it was an advertised orientation day, some departments had
no one there to advise students.  I spent a great deal of time with a
student who had been sent away from his department unadvised due to a lack
of an advisor.  Even the department head was unavailable.  The student was
belligerent by the time he arrived in the advisement office, and very
frustrated.  There were issues on his transcript (possible course
substitutions) that only his major department could really answer.
Although I did all that I could, and did eventually make out a schedule for
him, I am uncertain that he will actually attend.  He had already applied
to and been accepted at MTSU, and seemed to feel after his experience at
orientation that he might be better off there.  Please have someone
available at orientation!

2)  I believe that we should revisit the practice of majors requiring
specific courses to meet Gen Ed requirements.  Having served on the Gen Ed
committee, I have heard all of the complaints about our Gen Ed.  However,
in advising the above student, (or ANY student who changes his or her major
after taking some of their Gen Ed), I realized that the biggest problem
isn't so much the advertised Gen Ed as the major specific courses.
Students who think they have taken, for example, their social sciences, and
then realize that their major requires different ones are, I think,
legitimately upset.  I was not aware until recently how many majors do
this.  I quickly went through the 1999-2000 catalog (closest at hand) and
found the following:

Departments specifying at least one course in this category
        Cultures & Civilizations:  7 education majors, 1 other
        Humanities & fine arts:  7 education majors, 6 others
        Behavioral & social sciences:  10 education majors, 14 others
        Natural Sciences:  6 education majors, 5 others

I did not even bother with intensive writing, oral communications, computer
literacy & statistics because so many majors have either incorporated them
into the major or require specific courses.  And of course, mathematics has
always been very specific to major.

My question then: if a pre-major does not need tons of developmental
courses, what do we tell them to take?

I'd like to see some discussion on this issue.

Gail

Gail M. Meyer, Ed.D.
UC Foundation Associate Professor of Chemistry
UTC Chemistry Department - 2252
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN  37403
Phone:  (423)755-4486
Fax:    (423)755-5234
e-mail: [log in to unmask]