Talks of structural changes to the advising system, where an advisor would also serve as their advisees’ point person, have recently begun to circulate across campus. This model is similar to the current system for day student advisors.
This question of expanding an advisor’s role is pioneered by the Learning Steering Committee. Deputy Head of School Merilee Mardon, who helps lead the committee, outlined its history, goals, and detailed aspects of the potential change.
“The Learning Steering Committee was put together in the spring of 2023 and was charged with making recommendations for improvement to the school over the next couple of decades. So, for the past three years, that committee has been meeting with students, with adults, surveys, et cetera, gathering a lot of information, and one of the recommendations from that committee is to have the advisor be the point person for all students. Is there a vote? No. Is it going to happen? Maybe, but that’s not happening for next year,” said Mardon.
Mardon continued, “It’s about wanting to provide more consistent support for students and families. Our system that we have at Andover doesn’t exist at other schools. And one of the features of it is that sometimes students have different go-to adults every year. And that can feel confusing for families and even confusing for students. One of the promises of the advisor-point-person is that students and families would really get to know their person on campus.”
Despite the change’s goal of fostering further connections, Dareus Conover ’27 emphasized the importance of having a point person in the dorm.
“I feel a little closer to my point person than my advisor, even though my point person’s only been my point person for a year now, because I see them every day in the dorm, and I’ll just see them around even not in the context of being a point person. [With the change], I would definitely feel less close than I do now to my point person…being able to see them in a context outside of school, it’s not during the school day, really, I think that’s an important thing,” said Conover.
Lilia Li ’28 echoed Conover’s sentiment, noting a preference for a divide between advisors and point people due to their divergent roles in student life. She also noted that gender plays a role in the approachability of campus adults.
“If I’m in a serious situation, which I’m usually in my dorm for, I want someone that I can go to directly. Proximity matters. When it comes to advising, an advisor is more for academic purposes and deciding classes or making changes to your schedule, while a point person I feel like you can go to from all your personal problems. So I feel like that’s a good divide between those two things, and I think that it should stay that way. I’d leave [the advising system] as is,” said Li.
She continued, “I’m equally close to both my point person and my advisor, but also my point person is a female while my advisor is a male, and when it comes to talking to my point person, I feel like it’s much easier to bring up topics that I wouldn’t normally feel comfortable about talking to my advisor.”
Conversely, Emerson Davis ’29 expressed support for the proposed change and felt that consolidating the two roles would give students a more complete support system. She also pointed to the potential benefit for advisory groups themselves.
“I think that this change is good and it’s something that should happen… it would be good to have a more centralized system, or person rather, that has access to everything instead of just one side or the other, academically and with the rest of your life here. Compared to my advisor, I feel closer to my point person because she is someone who I can talk to in the dorm about more things surrounding my life, whereas my advisor is only once a week for academics,” said Davis.
She continued, “It’s important to stay with the same group of kids throughout your Andover experience. I think it creates a small community that is a sort of source to rely back on whenever a student is going through a hard time or otherwise, and I think having that same group of people can definitely make it more of a uniting force, rather than just meeting once a week.”
Mardon said that the school is leaning towards this change, but expressed that some adjustments may be made to the final proposal.
“Right now we’re in this process of trying to think about implementation and people’s worries, and is there a way for implementation to address some of the worries without giving up the principles of the recommendation? So we might fine tune things. I think we’re leaning toward the change, but with an open mind to tweak in ways that it feels more comfortable for the community,” said Mardon.
