by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
Students had mixed feelings about a fair meant to help them choose a major.
Advisers and representatives of about 60 UNM departments sat at booths in Dane Smith Hall's atrium Wednesday to talk to students and pass out fliers about different degree programs.
Student Aimee Corcoran said she liked the fair.
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"I think it's a great idea," she said. "It's easy for students to compare all the different colleges and decide what they like."
But student Paulina San Millan disagreed.
"All these papers won't help you decide what you want to do," she said. "I can go into any office and pick these up."
The fair should have focused more on in-depth conversations between students and professors, she said.
Student Destin Lazier did not mind the fliers, but she disliked the location, she said.
"It's kind of in the way of my classes," she said. "But I like all these pamphlets."
She said next year the fair should be outside.
The fair was a mall for academia, said student Marshall Dutton, who worked at the booth for the School of Architecture and Planning.
"It's important to engage the younger people who don't know what they're doing," he said. "A fair like this is like a shopping mall to shop around for a college, a major and a career."
The event was sponsored by the University College Advisement Center.
Josh Hoisington, who helped organize the event, said choosing a major can be a daunting task for students. The fair is meant to make that task easier, he said.
"We believe a lot of students are misinformed, and they don't talk to professors about getting into their college," he said. "We want to bring their majors and their advisers to them."
Janisse V†zqez, who also works at the advisement center, agreed.
"I think that sometimes students are intimidated about going around to each department and seeking out each adviser on their own," she said.
The number of students who are undecided on a major is not a serious problem, but the fair aims to make a necessary task easier, Hoisington said.
"Eventually, every student at UNM has to go through that process," he said. "But everything we do helps make that process more open and more streamlined."
The fair was not only good for undecided students, he said. The overall philosophy of the fair was to bring advisers to students, which he said could also help students who have declared a major.
"Its focus is on people who are undecided and unsure, but there were several students who came and saw their adviser," he said. "I believe it helps open lines of communication between people and their college. I think that's another plus to the major fair."
Karen Majors, who worked at the Sociology Department booth, said the fair was a great idea. However, she said there should also be similar fairs with a more specific focus, such as giving advisement to first-semester sophomores.
"At different points in a student's career they're looking for different information," she said. "A freshman might just want to know what sociology is, but a sophomore might want to know exactly what sociology classes they should be taking."
The fair had booths from student support groups such as Agora and African American Student Services.
V†zqez estimated more than 500 students passed through the fair.
