As much as I love Binghamton University, I have to admit it has its shortcomings. I never have had a class smaller than 92 students in my major; since returning from winter break the temperature has seldom broken freezing (aside from that brief spring-tease); and of course, the school lacks a football team.

Though these are all unfortunate things, I can deal with them. I cannot, however, overlook one of the University’s greatest shortcomings: the lack of good academic advising.

At Binghamton, finding good academic advising is like finding a good man ‘ your chances are slim to none.

Take Harpur College Advising for example. Harpur College is comprised of around 7,200 undergraduates split among 41 majors. That equates to tons of students needing a lot of help, so you would think there would be a plethora of knowledgeable advisers to turn to, right? Harpur advising only has four general advisers and three specialist advisers, one in pre-med and two for pre-law. I don’t know about you, but that does not seem too adequate to me.

As a Harpur student, I have tried to gain direction from these advisers, but to no avail. When I asked which courses would be advisable to take as a pre-physical therapy student, I was met with this response, ‘Look at the BUSI system. The answer will come to you.’ That is a direct quote.

Great! A psychic could have looked into a crystal ball and made up a better load of crap than that.

I long ago gave up heading to the Student Wing for any advice, because I have discovered that the advising Web site is a far better tool.

I transferred to Binghamton University in spring of my freshman year. At my old university, on our first day of classes, every student was assigned a faculty adviser. We had to meet with the adviser twice a semester to talk about scheduling and the progression of our classes. It was comforting knowing that we had someone who would offer guidance and watch us through our four years of undergraduate studies.

I understand this is not feasible at a public university, but BU has to do better, and I am not the only one who shares this sentiment. In a Harpur College undergraduate student profile on the Binghamton University Web site, students said that improvement on campus was needed most in academic advising.

Of course, scheduling classes are not only important for piling up credits to graduate, but they are imperative for our futures. Help us!

‘ Erica Fritz is a senior psychology and pre-med major.