The College of Management’s Office of Advising is switching over to professional advising, which college officials hope will be finalized by the end of the semester.

According to Erin Dixon, director of admissions and advising of the COM, the office is not currently fully staffed, so students can walk in for drop in advising appointments during scheduled hours each day.

“What we had in the past was students assigned to faculty who had a difficult time overseeing the students,” Dixon said.

She said the professional advisers will be able to assist students more because they advise as their careers and won’t have to worry about teaching courses as well.

“[That way] most of our advising staff will have chosen this as a career,” she said.

According to Dixon, with the professional advising change, faculty members will still be around to mentor and work with students in regards to specific courses pertaining to their majors, but not general education requirements.

“The [COM] student credit hours are well above others on campus, so the faculty are overwhelmed with student numbers,” Dixon said.

She said professional advisers will be able to work with students and will be more informed about the general University requirements.

According to Dixon, several of the people already on staff will switch over to professional advising and some others’ positions will be shifted around. She also said COM officials have been advertising the open positions.

Dixon said all students’ advisers will change as a result of this switch.

Mark Saad, a senior in business management, is one student that this change has affected.

Saad said he had an assigned adviser his freshman and sophomore years but didn’t have an assigned one his junior year or this year.

“I’ve gone to a couple of walk-in sessions,” Saad said.

According to Saad, each students’ needs determine whether he or she needs an assigned adviser.

“It depends on where you are,” he said. “I had a pretty set path … but maybe if I was struggling with grades or was not sure if I wanted to be in the College of Management, it would be good to have an assigned one.”

Dixon said advisers hope to have all 2,400 undergraduate College of Management students assigned to advisers by the end of the month. The goal, she said, is to have students stay with their assigned advisers from freshman to senior years.

She said two need advisers were hired, and at least two or three more will be hired.

The faculty advisers, she said, will be moving to more of a mentoring role, assisting students with career choices and upper level course selections.

“I see us doing a better job advising our students and bettering retention and graduate rates,” she said. “[It will help students] move more quickly to graduation by taking the right courses.”

Saad agreed with Dixon and said he thinks the introduction of professional advisers is a good idea.

“It seems like they’d be able to focus more on helping students rather than having to multi-task with other things going on,” he said.

Although Saad did not have an assigned adviser his junior year, he said he thinks that is the most crucial time for students in the COM to have assigned advisers.

“That’s when you’re starting to get into the 300-level classes, and picking your concentration,” he said.

Justin Byars, a senior in business management, said he had not taken advantage of the walk-in advising sessions this year event though this is the first year he doesn’t have an assigned adviser but that he has in years past.

“I kind of like having an assigned adviser rather than walking in,” he said.

But, Byars said the COM advisers have been helpful, sending seniors a checklist for graduation and offering them assistance.

According to Dixon, the walk-in advising sessions also include both large and small group sessions based on students’ years and majors and additional walk-in sessions for students who don’t get all their questions answered in one.

She said advisers encourage students who have more complicated issues such as study abroad or transfer students to set up appointments to meet with advisers.

“The advantage of what we’re doing right now is students can come in any time they want … and get their questions answered,” she said.

According to Byars, the COM faculty advisers he has seen have always been really helpful, but he does see the advantage in the switch.

“Some of them are obviously not as experienced in the professional world as others,” he said.