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.