After years of operating on a “one-plus-three” advising model, the Notre Dame administration announced its intention to transition toward a four-year advisor system, changing the advising structure.
In an email to The Observer, centralized advising program director Kate Broadbent noted the impact of this reform on Notre Dame advising.
“Rather than having dedicated first-year advisors and then collegiate advisors for the subsequent three years, the University is gradually transitioning to a four-year advising model,” Broadbent wrote. “This shift will allow for continuity in the relationship between advisors and students, which I believe will only benefit both parties.”
The “one-plus-three” system initially provided incoming students with a dedicated first-year advisor, who was meant to guide them through the shift from high school to college and the unique challenges that may come with it. Fr. Daniel Groody, vice president and associate provost for undergraduate education at Notre Dame, highlighted the administration’s commitment to upholding the original intent of the “one-plus-three” advising model throughout the transition.
“I think the important thing is that we haven’t really changed our vision of advising, although this has given us a chance to step back and still say this really matters,” Groody said. “There are special needs for your first year that are different; that’s a big part of it.”
The decision to make this transition was not made lightly, with Groody emphasizing the inclusion of a wide range of perspectives among Notre Dame faculty to address possible concerns throughout the transition.
“I think change is difficult for people,” Groody said. “But we had five different committees … and in the end, 85 people working on this. So this is not a small process. We spent a lot of time planning this.”
Kelly Harrington, a first-year advisor in the College of Science, expressed optimism about the adjustment to a four-year advising system, hoping it would allow for stronger student-advisor relationships.
“I think it’s a great switch overall,” Harrington said. “All of us in advising are looking forward to those four-year relationships with our students as we help them grow and change through … their years here at Notre Dame, so we’re excited about it.”
According to Groody, there were several motivations for the change, such as promoting a more suitable student-to-advisor ratio and generating a more practical work situation for advisors. Above all, however, Groody underlined the need for continuity in the advisory system.
“At some point, we felt that this disjunctive system … was not the best model,” Groody acknowledged. “If we still had a first year of studies, it would probably be different because then you just have dedicated first-year [advisors]. But now that we have people in their colleges, we say, ‘What's the most efficient system?’ And that's switching to the four-year system.”
Groody also noted, despite the changes, the mission and overall philosophy of Notre Dame’s advising team remains the same: to deliver excellence in advising to all Notre Dame students.
“The needs of first-year students are very much at the heart of this. There is always a risk when you go into a four-year advising that people would just blend in, but we recognize that the first-year students have needs that are very specialized,” Groody said. “We spent a lot of time over the years really looking at what works that first year. We don’t want to lose that all to this blended model.”
