The Pointer UW-Stevens Point Student Newspaper
The new advising center for the School of Business and Economics marks its progress towards becoming accredited.
For business and economic students before the fall semester of 2015, advising rooms were on the fourth floor of the College of Professional Studies building, among endless halls of offices. When advising meetings were scheduled, students would wander the halls, randomly popping their heads into offices, hoping to see their adviser sitting there, tapping his watch because it took ten minutes to find the room.
Those were the old days, when people were listening to Daft Punk and Donald Trump was only a reality TV star. Nowadays, kids have it easy.
Any simple question can be answered with a quick stroll to the first floor of the CPS. In room 100, peer advisers and the Director of Advising Max Trzebiatowski await students’ questions to help them continue moving forward.
“Students are more open to coming to the advising center without trudging up four flights of stairs,” said Kyle Kuzynsk, senior business administration major and head of peer advising.
The room became available when Continuing Education moved its office to Old Main, freeing up a rare piece of real estate on the first floor of the CPS. The decision of who could have the room was an easy one for Marty Loy, dean of the CPS .
“Business has grown quite a bit over the last five years,” Loy said. “We’ve added faculty and become really crowded in our offices upstairs. We wanted to give SBE a prominent spot in the college.”
The enrollment for SBE has been steadily increasing over the past five years to over 1,000 students. As administrators hope to reach accreditation this spring, the spotlight continues to fall back on the students.
“A true advising center, one that is modern and easily accessible to answer students’ questions, is crucial to student success,” Trzebiatowski said.
Once accredited, the school hopes to compete with the business programs of UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater. With the help of differential tuition, another advising center for the entirety of the CPS hopes to be completed by next fall, near the SBE advising center in room 128.
“One of the goals with the Pointer Partnership is to have an identifiable space in each college for student success,” Loy said. “Advising impacts all students and I can’t think of a better way to help student success.”
Adam Ruka
Contributor
Adam.T.Ruka@uwsp.edu
