The beginning of each semester can be stressful for students: new classes, teachers, tests and challenges. But are the classes you’re fretting over even the ones you need to be taking? The professor from your department swears these are the right classes and that you must take them now in order to graduate on time.It’s hard to believe that majority of professors on campus are familiar enough with TCU core curriculum to advise students correctly on every class they need to take each semester. How much does the average physics professor really know about the English courses students need to graduate?

Many professors either don’t know enough about advising to help students -or simply don’t care.

This is not meant to attack TCU’s faculty and professors – they are clearly capable of understanding the core curriculum, but it takes time and experience to educate oneself on the curriculum. Faculty members should remain focused on educating their students or conducting research rather than tending to a slue of confused students awaiting their advising appointments.

The Center for Academic Services offers a slight alternative for advising. The center specifically accommodates students who haven’t declared a major; students who have declared a major must be advised by a faculty member in their respective department.

Marsha Ramsey, director of the Center for Academic Services, said, “the center answers questions regarding general core requirements,” but added that specific questions about the core curriculum must be answered by faculty members within the department.

It doesn’t make sense for this center to specialize in the core curriculum but not to advise the entire student body on those requirements.

TCU needs a center specifically designed to advise students on core requirements, regardless of whether a student has declared a major or not. Professors could spend more time in the classroom performing the tasks they were hired to do instead of wasting time familiarizing themselves with TCU’s core curriculum.

-Associate editor Leslie Honey for the editorial board