57 Advisors will need to reapply for only 44 positions in the university’s effort to cut costs after funding cuts. In my experience with my daughter, having strong advising and mentoring was a major asset of her program.
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This isn’t unusual. I went through this myself in April and at my last job. Reapplication and re- interview. And you can bet there are certain people who have been hinted at that they are good and will be rehired. I’ve heard it at other places too.
My daughter had great advising although I think she’d have taken 99% of the same classes advising or not.
My son’s advisors were nice and knowledgeable but the sessions were required and he hated to have to go. As he said, how hard is to follow a flow sheet?
I guess everyone will see this differently.
The other day someone posted about layoffs at Wash U. Now USC. Even the wealthy have to tighten up.
But hey, they’re big names and that’s what the majority will see when choosing where to apply.
This is worrisome to me, as other schools seem to be doing the same. The crunch of reduced federal funding, decreased international students and worry about rising costs appears to be catching up. I do wonder how this impacts admissions especially at schools like USC that meet 100% need but clearly need to consider ability to pay if the university is operating at a deficit.
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You are exactly correct. As noted in the WashU article I posted in the WashU forum last week, schools are seriously feeling the effects of the federal funding cuts, decreased international/full pay students, etc.
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My daughter’s advisors did much much more than “follow the flow sheet”. Freshman advisor got her on a path to an extra certification that wouldn’t have happened without her. That certification ultimately led to her landing a co-op as a freshman and later her FT job. And for co-op students, the co-op advisor is crucial to stay on track for graduation. They were able to do some essential overrides to the schedule as well if classes were full or if there were conflicts. It was also my D’s advisor who also helped get her into graduate level courses as a junior and senior.
What I hate most about this news out of USC is it’s happened AFTER the start of the school year, there will be less advisors, and the article says they will be paid less.
And yes, this is happening at schools all over the country, even at some of the most well funded.
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The article reveals that USC is facing over a $200 million operating deficit. At least 692 USC employees have been laid off.
Maybe graduate students can assist in advising undergraduate students in their respective depts. beyond that which is already in place at USC Viterbi.
Advising is one of those situations where everyone thinks it’s easy, until it’s not. Both my kids had special circumstances. My daughter was a double major and how certain classes were counted toward both majors and general education requirements required input and in a few circumstances petitions. My son had a serious medical issue at the beginning of sophomore year that resulted in assistance from his regular advisor, disability services and transportation who all coordinated when he missed the first week of school. Then he switched majors and needed some of his intro engineering classes for one engineering major to be applied to another.
It’s also true that the kids who need advising the most - typically first generation, low income students without good family support that are most harmed.
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Advising is especially important at schools with an open curriculum where the student is essentially creating her/his own flow chart. Probably less important at an engineering school, for example, where there is a flow chart for standard majors.
My d was an engineer. Advising was still critically important!
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Good point. 
Don’t forget, at many schools, sometimes the advisors are profs.
I think if a school needs to cut, advisers are a reasonable place. In this case, they’ll still have many.
Many businesses can do more with less. I don’t know about USC but hopefully, for the students, they can.
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The thing for me is less pay. Cut staff is one thing but to decrease pay is cruddy. Especially when others like the HR supervisor has been given a 467,000 a year increase over 2 years. Or when their football coach went from getting 4M to 19M in just 1 year. The advisors salaries are likely not the issue.
Take my college. Over the pandemic my salary was frozen for 3 years. I then got a 1% raise, then 2% and another 2% in the years following. In 8 years my salary has gone up less than 1k a month total. I teach nursing (not at all low applications) at a T30 institution.
Our advisors help with courses and are basically mini guidance counselors as well referring students to resources. We have an advisor ratio of about 1 advisor to 200 students. Its insane.
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From what I see with my son and his friends, I think advising is extra important for engineering, because the long prereq chains and high number of courses required can leave minimal wiggle room if courses are unavailable or if changes need to be made. Many students also switch engineering disciplines during the course of their degrees.
USC Viterbi advertises itself as being especially flexible for an engineering school, allowing students to switch majors freely and encouraging students to customize their degrees with interdisciplinary study, so I expect advising might matter even more there (compared to a school like Cal Poly where there is more of a set flowchart).
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While it can be easy to follow a template, not every student comes in at the same level in math and other subjects. Both the less advanced and more advanced (relative to what the template assumes) students may find advising helpful to optimize course ordering to finish prerequisite sequences as soon as possible to graduate on time and allow for the greatest flexibility in upper level electives in major. Transfer students with their variations in courses taken at their prior colleges may also need assistance. Students who change majors could be in similar situations.
It is possible that some engineering students will be able to handle optimizing their schedule plans on their own (after all, engineering is about designing and optimizing things under constraints), but not every entering frosh has taken to that part of the engineering mindset yet.
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It wouldn’t necessarily be a more difficult task to make a schedule in an open curriculum – indeed, with no general education constraints, it is likely easier, though some future slots might be held by placeholders (“whatever interesting free elective is offered”).
What can make the scheduling problem harder is if the student is undecided, particularly between majors without much or any overlap in introductory courses. Then the schedule must make progress in all of the possible majors of interest, at least until some are decided against, to avoid accidentally closing off the possibility of doing them.
There are so many moving parts for students. AP/DE credits, minors, concentrations, certifications, grad courses, co ops , etc…. Not to mention if there are medical issues or family emergencies. Advisors are a crucial part of the team.
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We disagree.
This. Engineers (am assuming that the USC profs are full time faculty) could have pursued lucrative careers in the private sector, but chose instead to educate students. And now what are they getting for it? Job insecurity with a pay cut!
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What we don’t know is will 44 be enough ?
Some business are over staffed - you know, even in a downturn no manager wants to let headcount go.
I’d be most concerned or more concerned if faculty is cut.
Hopefully the remaining advisors and there will be plenty, can handle the workload.
I wouldn’t assume less = worse though. We aren’t USC. They charge a premium price. Hopefully for the students, they’ll continue to provide premium services.
There are a lot of employees in life who have a cush schedule. I’m not saying it’s these advisors. We don’t know. Hopefully USC does.
And like anywhere, hopefully someone who loses employment will be able to obtain another staff position.
And to be clear - USC’s engineering advisors are not profs. Some have BA in things like Poli Sci with many having masters and EdDs.
It stinks any time anyone loses their job due to no fault of their own. But this happens outside of education regularly. It’s likely every student will encounter a layoff in their life - even if not personally but it will to someone they work with.
I’m sure these folks will figure it out as others do.
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The problem is that this is a contracting economy. People are being laid off in other industries as well. Some are well positioned and will ride this out, maybe retool and be better off in a new career than before. But for others it is/will be a disaster. There’s no way around that.
The sad thing is that this is exactly what this administration wants. They want to inflict pain on the members of society they hate. They want to spread fear among all their perceived “enemies”.
It’s really pathetic and quite disgusting.
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