Faculty Academic Advisor

The role of the faculty academic advisor is crucial to the successful planning of a Fisk education. A faculty academic advisor assists the student in deciding a course of study leading to a liberal arts degree. The student, however, assumes the primary responsibility for the selection of courses that meet all University requirements.

Each entering student is assigned a faculty academic advisor. When possible, freshmen are assigned to faculty members in their expected major discipline or in an allied area. Faculty members often serve as advisors to students outside their own disciplines when students have not yet selected a major. The faculty academic advisor helps monitor the student’s academic progress.

This Bulletin includes suggested program plans for each of the available majors. Transfer students, however, may need to vary the suggested sequence of studies in order to complete an entire program in the desired number of semesters; and other students may for other reasons need to deviate from the suggested program plan. For their own protection, students are advised to draw up their own plans of study leading to the degree and to consult in detail with their faculty academic advisors about these plans.

Faculty academic advisors at Fisk are careful to provide good counsel but students are responsible for maintaining regular contact with their advisors in order to stay abreast of changing course offerings and academic regulations. Two conferences per semester with a faculty academic advisor should be regarded as a minimum level of contact. Since most contact between student and advisor is verbal rather than written and thus is not a matter of record, it cannot be the faculty academic advisor's responsibility to protect the student against misunderstandings of University regulations and policies. The University cannot be responsible for any errors of interpretation faculty academic advisory may make. For this reason, it is essential that students familiarize themselves personally with the contents of this Bulletin.