A new ASUA-created advising contract that would prevent students from being punished for bad advising may not be effective or even necessary, campus advisers said.

Kim Bui and Cassi Sonn, Associated Students of the University of Arizona academic affairs directors, recently created a contract that will enable students to keep a record of their academic advising appointments.

The contract, signed by both adviser and student, can be used as evidence if bad advice is given, so that the student is not penalized.

But academic advisers said the contract is not the best solution to a problem that might not even exist.

Ann Parker, Advising Resource Center director, said when Bui and Sonn had first presented their idea for advising contracts, the first question was whether bad advice was actually a problem.

"This was the first question advisers asked: How much research had they done in determining how big this problem is?" Parker said.

Bui said ASUA has received several complaints from students in the past year about bad advising. A common problem is that students are sometimes incorrectly told a particular class can be substituted for a major requirement, Bui said.

Four years later, students learn that the information was incorrect, Bui said.

"Its purpose is to protect students and give them proof of any agreements or discussions that might have been made during an advising session," Bui said.

But Parker said changes made after the Academic Advising Task Force published 37 recommendations to improve advising in April 2001 might have fixed the problems.

"So even if students getting what they thought was the wrong advice was a problem in the past, things have now changed. And it might not be as big of a problem as it once was," Parker said.

Among the recommendations made by the task force was that the UA should hire more advisers and devote more resources to training them.

The recommendations are being implemented over a three-year period, and results are still being assessed, Parker said.

Parker said that before trying to solve the problem by creating a contract, advisers are asking that more assessment is done to determine the severity of the problem.

"The bottom line is, as professionals, advisers want to give the right advice to students. And if there is a problem, they want to learn more about it and create dialogues with students about how best to go about meeting student concerns," she said.

But Bui said the contract acts as insurance for students who want to make sure the information they get from advisers is correct.

"This contract is not meant to undermine advisers; it's just meant to protect students," she said.

But Bethany Ekegren, a psychology adviser, said the contract, although helpful to some students, is vulnerable to accidental or intentional misuse.

Ekegren said there needs to be a working relationship between the adviser and student in order for both to be adequately informed about policies and curriculum.

"If I am telling someone who is graduating that they will have the 120 units necessary after this semester and I miss that they are (using the grade replacement opportunity) and they do not say anything, they will be three units short of graduation," she said.

Bui said that while the form's intent is to protect students, it does acknowledge that students must make an effort to be informed.

"It explicitly encourages students to be aware of university policies, and we hope that students will be informed enough to provide the adviser with the correct information in order to receive correct advising," she said.

Bui said that even though students should be informed, they often aren't. And that is why they expect advisers to provide them with accurate information.

However, Parker said students are ultimately responsible for the advice they receive and should be actively questioning the information they receive.

"While the adviser has the responsibility of giving the most appropriate advice to a student, the student has the responsibility of being clear about that advice and then following through with it," Parker said.

A copy of the contract will be available in the ASUA offices and a copy of the contract can be viewed online at web.asua.arizona.edu/~asua/misc/0405/carboncopy.pdf.