UNM undergraduate students can take comfort that they are receiving the best advisement possible, although in some instances a loophole is allowing advisers to practice without meeting the minimum requirements of the job.
According to the Human Resource Department's Web site, an undergraduate adviser at UNM must have a minimum of a bachelor's degree in a related field or discipline to the department they are advising and six months to one year of work experience.
Senior academic advisers are required to have a bachelor's degree in addition to one to three years of work experience.
Susan Carkeek, associate vice president and director of the Human Resources Department, said while this is true for advisers coming to UNM now, there was a stipulation years ago, within the UNM Pact, which allowed advisers who lacked a bachelor's degree to continue working.
"The UNM Pact took place six years ago," Carkeek said. "We were hoping that it was forgotten about, that it was history."
Carkeek said the Pact, which took effect in 1997 after several years of extensive research, was also used by Human Resources to update job descriptions, re-evaluate salaries to remain competitive in the job market and otherwise update its systems.
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She said another purpose of the UNM Pact was to update job requirements so that UNM employees were as highly trained as possible, but people who performed effectively in their current jobs were allowed to remain.
"It was unreasonable for us to tell them that they couldn't do their jobs," Carkeek said. "However, those demographics are gradually changing, those people are leaving our system."
The pre-Pact advisers learned through experience, and that experience deserves recognition, Carkeek said. However, she added, new advisers must have a bachelor's degree.
Carkeek would not comment on the number of undergraduate advisers on campus who were allowed to retain their positions, or the number of current advisers who do not have a bachelor's degree.
Carkeek added that the 15 undergraduate advisers at UNM, who on average make $24,898 annually, and the 34 senior academic advisers, whose annual salary is $31,432, are underpaid and under-appreciated at UNM.
Despite the under-appreciation, some advisers don't agree with the loophole created by the UNM Pact.
"It stinks," said Ken Van Brott, senior academic adviser for the College of Education. "I think there is a lot of nepotism going on in the individual departments."
Von Brott said on the job experience cannot replace the knowledge gained from obtaining a bachelor's degree.
"Accurate, timely information needs to be a priority," he said. "There should be mandatory training in every department, at the University's expense, for those at the front line of advising."
He added that the College of Education is stringent about its advisers' adherence to the minimum requirements and that the college's advisers undergo extensive training to ensure that it provides the most accurate information possible for students.
He added that every student within the college is required to meet with advisers to make sure they don't fall through the cracks of the system.
Wanda Martin, associate dean for Student Academic Affairs at the College of Arts and Sciences, the largest undergraduate college at UNM with more than 44 majors and 5,000 students, said the department's eight full-time advisers are trained through an apprenticeship with a supervisor and aren't allowed to meet with students until the department is sure they are ready.
"We give them small tasks and gradually increase the complexity and amount of responsibility," said Monique Denzler, student advisement coordinator for Arts and Sciences.
"It is a continual learning process, with advisers not fully on their own for three years," Denzler said.
She noted the implementation of Project Progress, an online electronic audit system that allows students to view their progress and gives advisers extra confidence in the information they provide, as an invaluable tool in improving undergraduate advisement at UNM.
"Our advisers are as trained as possible to help students navigate through the complicated bureaucracy that is college," Martin said. "While their primary responsibility is to help students graduate on time, they are also there to help students think through their hopes and dreams."
Stephanie Hands, academic advisement supervisor for the University College, said that her college relies heavily on the Human Resources Department's standards for its advisers.
"Human Resources sends us those who fit the minimum requirements, and then they are subjected to our own criteria," said Hands, who added that all five of the department's full-time advisers have at least a bachelor's degree, with several holding master's degrees.
"The screening process for undergraduate advisers in our college is rigorous to say the least," she said.
She said new advisers in the University College undergo an additional two weeks of training, through the Office of the Registrar, on the details that accompany a college education, and they must follow a senior adviser in real-world settings before being granted a case load of student files for their own.
"The minimum requirements are there for a reason," Hands said. "Not only do they provide accurate information about an adviser's ability to perform their job, but I think it is hard for an adviser to relate to a student's journey toward a degree when they have not experienced it themselves."
