An attempt to synthesize some recent conversations.
How many advisees do you have?
Let me see ... Three in the class of 2020. 37 in the class of 2019. Fourteen in the class of 2018. So 54, all told.
That sounds like a lot.
It feels like a lot.
How many advisees does a normal faculty member have?
I'm not sure that there is such a thing as a normal faculty member. But I suppose we could compute a statistical average. Let's see. We have a nine to one faculty to student ratio. About one third of Grinnell students have two majors. So perhaps twelve to one [1]. There are, of course, some faculty who regularly have large numbers, between thirty and forty. L.F. Parker Chair Sarah Purcell '92, Karla Erickson, and Barb Trish come to mind.
What's the record?
Counting numbers of advisees is hard, since it depends on the time of the year. For example, In spring 2017, after second-year students had declared but before seniors had graduated, I had about 72 advisees. If I look at the historical data that the Dean's office provided [2,3], the previous high seems to be the 44 that Astrid Henry advised in 2011-12. I was second with 40 in 2015-16. Barb Trish regularly has numbers in the high thirties.
Do you meet with all of your advisees each semester?
I try. Of course, some are abroad. In most cases, I advise students abroad through email. However, I have been known to advise via Skype session or the equivalent. I met with all of my advisees who declared a CS major in the spring, and that's the majority of them [4]. A few just stopped by quickly. But I try to be available, and most seem to be able to find me when they need me, in person, via text message, or on the phone.
Do you think having so many advisees affects your advising?
Almost certainly. It affects all aspects of my life. But I would say the vast majority of my advisees check in with me when they need support, and get that support, whether it be to chat about life, to think about options for the future, to decide on options when they are having difficulty, and so on and so forth.
The advisees it affects the most are the ones who are least likely to advocate for themselves and the ones who need to be reminded to take advantage of opportunities. Some seek out opportunities on their own. Some do okay with a nudge: "Hey, we have alumni from Google on campus. I know it's scary, but sign up for an interview anyway. It's low stress. Really." And some need constant reminders: "I've sent out five messages about this really great opportunity. Have you signed up for it?" "Um, no. You send too much email, so I ignore it." When I have more time and energy, I am much more aggressive in supporting those students.
Why do you have so many advisees?
We have a lot of majors [5]. I could not think of an approach that would give me fewer. My two third-year colleagues have twenty-four and twenty-seven advisees, which is a bit more than I would set as upper limits for early-career faculty. John Stone is on sabbatical this year and shouldn't have any advisees. At the time students were declaring, Jerod Weinman was on sabbatical. I had assumed that all of John's and some of mine would switch to Jerod when he returned. That hasn't happened yet. John has graciously volunteered to keep his twenty or so advisees, so I am hopeful that Jerod will get some of mine. But Jerod will also get a bunch from the class of 2020.
I've also found that I advise and mentor students regardless of whether I am their official advisor. "I need this class that seems to be closed; what should I write to the faculty member?" "I need help planning next semester?" "Will you help me think through internship opportunities?" "I can be on these two teams at my company. Which should I choose?"
Have you asked others for advice?
Yes. I went to the Dean about a year ago, when my predictive analytics suggested that we would have a problem. The Dean's only advice was to put more work on my junior colleagues. I did not think that was acceptable [6]. He passed me on to an Associate Dean. She suggested an interesting long-term strategy: Pick some tenured faculty who are known to be good advisors and who have comparatively few advisees and train them to be CS advisors. I think those students will still come to the CS faculty for lots of advice, but it might help a bit. On the other hand, I don't think most students will want a CS advisor who is not in CS. It's also unclear who would push forward such a program. That Associate Dean also asked the Tutorial and Advising Committee, who had no good suggestions.
The appropriate long-term solution is to have more tenure-line faculty in the department. But that doesn't really have a significant effect until they are in their third years.
What will happen with the class of 2020?
I'm not sure yet. That's not my job any more. But let's see ... I anticipate about 55 majors in the class of 2020 [7]. I'll be graduating 14 majors in the class of 2018. Let's assume that I pass ten on to Jerod. That leaves me with about thirty. I could probably take ten more. John will be graduating about fifteen [8] and can take on fifteen. Our brand new faculty member can take six [9]. If we can convince our visitor to accept a multi-year contract, we might allow him to take another six. One of our third-year faculty will be on leave in 2018-19. He will not take any more advisees and he'll probably have to give up his major advisees (say six). The other will likely graduate about six advisees. Where does that leave us? Ten for Sam. Fifteen for John. Six each for three early-career faculty. So Jerod would need to take ten, giving him twenty. That's not so bad. Maybe I don't need to take ten more.
How will you decide which students will claim the ten or so advisee positions you anticipate making available?
When we have a reasonable number of faculty available, we have a practice wherein we ask students to interview each of the available faculty so that they can find the one that's the best fit. I'll start by asking students to consider whether one of the other faculty might be a better adviser for them. I will then prioritize my research students and students who have previously asked about having me serve as their advisor [11]. But, really, I think it won't be a big issue.
I've heard your snarky sons say something about the number of advisees you have vs. the number of students in each major. Can you explain?
Eldest and Middle say something like "Dad has more advisees than most departments have majors." They are correct. But I don't keep track of it, so I'll have to look on DB [14]. I have more than Anthropology (27), Art History (11), Chemistry (46), Chinese (4), Classics (7), English (52), French (28), GWSS (24), General Science (4), German (7), History (47), Independent (11), Music (16), Philosophy (25), Physics (40), Religious Studies (12), Russian (11), Spanish (27), Studio Art (19), and Theatre and Dance [15] (14). That's twenty majors, if I count correctly. I have fewer than Biological Chemistry (66), Biology (85), Computer Science [16] (98), Economics (93), Mathematics (59), Political Science (86), and Psychology (73). That's seven majors, if I count correctly. I'm tied with Sociology (54). That's one major; no need to count.
They also said something about the class of 2019.
Yeah, things get better [18] in that class. I have 37 advisees in that class. Of the eight large departments, I then have more than Biological Chemistry (34), Mathematics (26), Psychology (32), and Sociology (27). I have fewer than Biology (44), Computer Science (51), Economics (42), and Political Science (39). That puts me ahead of twenty-four of Grinnell's departments in that class.
Do you know who all your advisees are?
Not off the top of my head, no. But that's always been the case, even when I only had twenty advisees. Why? Because I end up providing advice to a wide variety of students and I don't try to keep track of which are official advisees and which are unofficial advisees.
I do warn my prospective advisees about this issue.
I am likely to forget anything we discuss, including your courses and that you are my advisee, unless my remembering inconveniences you. On the other hand, I am happy to discuss with you course selections and planning for life beyond Grinnell. I am happy to help you work through administrative issues at Grinnell (and, surprisingly, I'm good at navigating administrative stuff). I am also likely to care about you as a person. But I will discuss courses and life with you, help you with administrivia, and care about you, whether or not you are my advisee. [19].
What happens when you go on leave?
It seems likely that I'll keep my advisees. It depends, a bit, on where I take my sabbatical and whether the College has seen fit to provide us with another tenure-line position.
Are you worried about posting this information to the Web?
A bit. But prospective majors should know what they are getting into. And we are a wonderfully supportive department, even if we currently have a high student/faculty ratio.
[1] That's not quite accurate. For example, it ignores concentrations. But students also do t declare majors until late in their second year, so it's close enough.
[2] Taken from a document made available to faculty members and
entitled ALLEnrollment-Majors-Advisees 2015-16.
[3] Sorry, I don't know what time of year they choose to gather those data. I assume it's relatively consistent.
[4] When I meet with a student to set up a four-year plan, there seems to be little point to reviewing the plan in person two weeks later for preregistration. We've set up the semester and there's generally no need to change anything.
[5] 98 majors all told, including 51 in the most-recently-declared class of 2019. I also anticipate at least two more in that class.
[6] He did offer to excuse them from Tutorial. But that struck me as an even worse idea. Teaching Tutorial is what really prepares you to advise well at Grinnell. Council has also made strong statements about the importance of every Grinnell faculty member teaching Tutorial before they are considered for tenure.
[7] That's a WAG. But my WAGs have been pretty much on target the past few years, or sometimes a bit low.
[8] I should know that number better.
[9] That number assumes that Henry Walker can serve as backup/training advisor.
[10] That number also assumes that Henry Walker can serve as backup/training advisor.
[11] I believe that I've been contacted by a few rising second-year students who have not declared a major and a few rising third-year [12] students who are considering CS as their second major.
[12] I'm not sure why I switched from "Class of 2020" to "rising second-year students" or "Class of 2019" to "rising third-year students". However, I'm sure that you can cope.
[14] Data collected at 11:30 a.m. on 17 August 2017.
[15] The department is Theatre and Dance. The major is Theatre. But they'd like to rename it, so I'm using the new name.
[16] Obviously [17].
[17] Well, not completely, since I do have some non-major advisees.
[18] Worse?
[19] SamR'S Site: Front Door. Available at http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~rebelsky/index.html.
Version 1.0 of 2017-08-17.