Binghamton University’s Student Association (SA) and Harpur Advising are launching a new program that will train students to academically advise their peers.

The BU Brainiac program will be a replica of the Harpur Advising Peer Assistant model, which is currently used to teach students how to advise their peers on using BU resources and digital tools. While the Peer Assistant Model assists instructors, students and professional staff across campus, the BU Brainiac program — still in the pilot stage — aims to work on a smaller scale and bring course registration and credit advising to students in their residential buildings.

Anindya Debnath, vice president for student success (VPSS) and a sophomore majoring in political science, wrote that this program is unique because it will have “Brainiacs” located within each living community, who will be assigned a group of students.

“An email will be sent out to each building and community notifying them of this new resource, alongside a link to schedule an appointment where they can meet their Brainiac in-person or virtually,” Debnath wrote in an email.

Part of this initiative will aim to increase accessibility of academic advising to students. Joskarly Rodriguez a junior majoring in linguistics who transferred to BU last spring, said that, for new students, course registration and manipulating sites like the BU Brain and DegreeWorks can be daunting.

“As a transfer student, I had to have a meeting with my advisor first before being able to confidently explore the [BU] Brain,” Rodriguez said. “Now that I know what to look for, the site is definitely intuitive and user-friendly, but for new students it’s a lot all at once. Especially when you’re trying to figure out your credits and what you need to do to graduate.”

Currently, the program is by invite only. According to Debnath, the few students currently being trained for this program include the head executive board of Dickinson Town Council and Hinman College Council. The program is still in its pilot stage, and the SA is waiting to see how it operates before expanding to be campus-wide.

Other students expressed support for the program due to their struggles with the registration process, such as Skyler Sharpe, a sophomore majoring in anthropology.

“I definitely think it would be super helpful,” Sharpe wrote. “I feel it is so confusing to navigate and I think it will seriously help future students. I have been so confused and lost by course registration. I could not understand it at first and I was so lost. I didn’t even know DegreeWorks was a thing until my second semester, then I didn’t even know how to check it. I definitely needed help navigating BU brain and there are parts I still don’t understand. I often forget where things are and how to find them even now.”

Debnath described the groups for whom he felt the program was of particular assistance.

“The groups I see benefiting most are definitely underclassmen who may be unsure on how to use BU Brain as well as uncertain on Harpur College policies,” Debnath wrote. “Some of the most common concerns or questions that [come] up in relation to registration are what courses need to be taken to meet General Education requirements, if a student should double major, if a course has a college restriction and more, which can all be answered by the BU Brainiacs.”