Last week President Richard Freeland stressed the importance of advising in the upcoming phase of semester conversion.

Student Government Association Vice President for Academic Affairs Andres Vargas emphasized the same sentiment this week, that advising will continue to be critical until the fall semester.

One key difference between the two men and their statements is that VP Vargas is singling out the administration for a lack of resources provided in terms of advising.

“The administration, I will give them credit for them staying committed to the fact that they do want to continue to advise and have made the efforts with us to do the best they can,” Vargas said. “Nonetheless it is still a resource issue which was poorly planned for.

“In the article last week, Freeland emphasized the importance of advising, but yet he hasn’t pushed for advisors, something we have a lack off … I respect the fact that he realizes how important advising is, but yet he has not made any initiatives to improve our advising program. We still remain with the same resources and they are inadequate. It is embarrassing ”

The School of Business Administration has faced the roughest journey as far as semester conversion goes. An example is the fact that the additional section had to be added the first week of this spring quarter in order to accommodate students. Vargas said some of the sections were scheduled during activities period, which is not ideal, but it had to be done due to space and for the convenience of students and professors.

“We constantly complain that there are not enough advisors, and it is a flat out fact. In business, they have had to pull two of their directors to become part-time advisors, while Dean Fletcher has had to pick up the load for those directors.”

Though Vargas said he is pleased that the Registrar’s Office stepped up to the challenge and demand for additional sections, he is displeased that the university tends to be reactive to conflict instead of resolving it before it arises.

“I was happy that they added sections, I was disappointed by the fact that we were not better prepared for the fact that we knew that we would have those students on campus. I think for some reason business was by fa, the worst prepared. It could be because of complete lack of resources, but they had an overwhelming load of students who just did not have classes and that was a big issue for that one week, when students were in line for hours, trying find classes, trying to add into classes, but everything was full.”

As this current quarter progresses, Vargas’ focus is now on summer quarter, which many administrators have dubbed, “the end of the line,” which in fact it is, because it is the last opportunity for students to enroll in a quarter hour course. For some students who are deferring their graduation, this summer is their last chance to avoid semester conversion at all costs.

“A huge concern is the summer. If you have seen the catalog for the summer you have seen that we are not offering anything more than we usually offer and I understand the fact that they [administration] are afraid to over prepare, because it is a wasted resource but at the same time you have to assume that there will be a higher level of need for this upcoming summer,” he said. “We all know that seniors are trying to get out of here as quick as possible, people are deferring, people want to get out. If you can speed up and you don’t have to be here under semesters, people are speeding it up.”

Another concern which may soon become a critical issue is resources. Registrar Linda Allen and Vargas alike are already anticipating an increase in students on campus this summer, which may weigh heavily on the resources normally provided during a summer quarter – only this upcoming summer will not be normal.

“There will be twice as many students on campus, we are going to be a fully functional university this summer, with a quarter of the resources that we normally run with … I am very concerned by summer quarter,” Vargas said.

Northeastern, being a research facility, allots vacation time for its full-time professors during the summer, which may put the university far behind if the event arises of adding sections to accommodate students attending this summer.

“Where would you come up with these resources last minute?” Vargas questioned. “So the registrar will still be faced with those challenges and I think Linda [Allen] does a great job of accommodating us. I think her ingenuity was proved again by providing business with those four sections,” Vargas said. “I was happy that they were able to come up with those sections but I just wished they would stop being so reactive and start being more proactive.”

Vargas highlighted a computer program that Provost Ahmed Abdelal spearheaded that will enable the registrar’s office to monitor the patterns in which students register for classes, also allowing for a more proactive manner of managing the registration period.

“By all means the provost has been our biggest supporter this year and I think we are very lucky to have him. I think without him here, we would have a ridiculous amount of problems this year. By all means he has been our biggest advocate this year. But I am concerned with the fact that we are not providing the resources for this summer.”