“We’re here every step of the way.” 

This statement is plastered — and capitalized — across the Northeastern Office of Academic Advising webpage. Some students think otherwise. 

A resource for all Northeastern students, the Office of Academic Advising works to create academic plans and advise students on course decisions. Each college holds independent advising offices, ensuring that every student is assigned an adviser. However, a common experience among students in every college is frequent adviser turnover.

“I have had a different academic adviser almost every semester and they have almost exclusively left without any warning,” said Madeline Marsh, a third-year international affairs major. “Usually, I will send emails or try to make appointments, and I won’t get an answer until … I either call the office repeatedly or get an email from a new person introducing themselves as my new adviser.”

A 2021 N.U.in London student, Marsh said she felt unsupported during her first semester at the university. When she attempted to contact her adviser while abroad, she got no response. 

“The real reason my adviser never responded was because she had left the school, so I didn’t even know what a degree audit or NUPath was until the end of my freshman year,” Marsh said. “I could have declared a major much earlier which would have allowed me to take more useful classes if I had actually had a present adviser.”

Marsh’s experience is not unique. Multiple students told The News that constant adviser turnover has left them hanging without the support they needed. 

“The trend that has been happening is that once I meet with them, about a few months later, I am told that I will be getting a new adviser,” said Carmen Phillips-Alvarez, a third-year criminal justice and political science combined major, adding that her first adviser has since returned from maternity leave and been reassigned to other students. “If she is back from maternity leave, can’t her original students be returned to her?” 

Victoria Caspare, a third-year business administration major, has also struggled with unexpected adviser changes. 

“I had a pretty great relationship with my former adviser,” Caspare said. “I communicated with her every semester to make sure that I was on track and she knew me to the point where she could spot me on campus.” 

This spring, however, everything changed.

“This past semester she emailed me saying how I reached my halfway point of being at school, and that my adviser would now be switching. I thought I had my adviser for all four years, but I guess that isn’t the case,” Caspare said.

After this initial shock, Caspare faced another struggle: getting in contact with her new adviser.

“She said I will be getting a new adviser and that they will reach out to me, and I never got an email,” Caspare said. “This was over three weeks ago, and I still haven’t had anyone reach out.”

Marsh said the lack of accessibility to advisers interfered with her co-op opportunities and schedule flexibility.

“This had a huge cascading effect when it came to my co-op,” Marsh said. “I was scheduled to be on co-op this fall, but because my advisers were constantly changing, I didn’t know I could have registered for the co-op class earlier, which means I could have already completed a co-op.”

Marsh’s scheduled co-op for this semester fell through because of funding reasons at the company that had hired her. While this was not the fault of anyone in the Academic Advising Office, she said, the lack of support that followed limited Marsh in registering for classes she needed.

“It was so difficult to get a hold of my adviser to register for classes, that I am now just taking whatever’s left. I had sent my current adviser so many emails until I eventually had to call the director of [the College of Social Sciences and Humanities] advising,” Marsh said.

Left without the advocacy of an adviser, Marsh had to sign up for classes that were not beneficial to her academic plan. In addition, she must now navigate completing required courses and fulfilling a study abroad major requirement.

“I had wanted to do three co-ops, but now I have to fight to do one,” Marsh said. “I don’t think I should have to give up an experience to study abroad or one of my co-ops to fill in the gaps of these classes because I’ve had inadequate advising.”

When asked about what she wished to see in the future from the Office of Academic Advising, Caspare said, “I would definitely like to see more availability [within the office], or just interest towards the students. I definitely felt like I was the one always reaching out.”

Phillips-Alvarez, who has had six different advisers in her two-and-a-half years at Northeastern, hopes to see institutional changes from the Academic Advising Office. 

“I wish they would hire more permanent staff, but I think the big issue is that they don’t have enough staff in general, so then people get overworked and they need to get more people, but then it becomes a vicious cycle of constantly needing more advisers,” Phillips-Alvarez said.

Marsh shared a similar sentiment and wished for more support from advisers. She also advocated for better resources for the advisers themselves.

“I would like to see some measures taken, whether it be a better salary — because I know Northeastern can afford it — more benefits or any sort of provisions in place that would allow Northeastern to not be a transitional job for these advisers,” Marsh said. “And then, I feel like for those it has affected, there should be measures in place that support us first. Whether it be that we get early registration to classes because we haven’t received the support.”