Looking for a few good mentors

Darn big.

Most students don't know just how big it really is until they're smack dab in the middle of their freshman year, puzzled and overwhelmed and really needing some advice.

That's where a mentor would do the most good. The UA's Faculty Senate's proposal of a mentoring program to help advise and retain first-year students is a necessary and practical step toward improving the University's retention rate.

Currently, the University retains only three out of every four first-year students. That's a 25 percent loss of students every year and that's too many. By concentrating on programs that enrich and personalize the first-year experience (such as the Freshman Colloquia, the First Year Center and Core Education Programs), the university becomes a much less intimidating place for freshmen.

The mentoring program is a natural extension of a process that happens to most students who remain. Most upperclassmen have found a professor who, in effect, mentors them. Someone a student can talk with about classes, concepts, careers, as well as personal issues. Freshmen need this type of academic support as much as seniors do.

So what's holding up the mentoring? Lack of mentors, according to Jeff Warburton, Senate presiding officer and theater arts associate professor. Apparently some professors are not willing or able to advise and mentor freshman.

Which leads to this question: What kind of teachers are unable to mentor their students? The mentoring process is not far removed from the teaching process. The communication skills and life knowledge a great teacher uses are the same requirements necessary for a good mentor.

When professors argue against proposals like the Legislature's Teaching Incentive Program they claim classroom time is an unfair measure of their commitment to students. The incentive program ties some salary increases to the number of hours a professor teaches. Professors who dislike the program say they spend a lot of time in office hours and working with research assistants - all components of teaching.

Students and professors come to the university on a quest for knowledge. It is disturbing that a program meant to help nurture that thirst in the newest members of the community doesn't generate extraordinary interest among its elders.