By Nini Edwards | @KyKernel

[email protected]

Students are being hired to help advisers in the College of Arts and Sciences manage students.  Student Government approved a $6,700 grant Wednesday night to support the project.

The college’s dean said A&S plans to match the funds to help further.

“The college plans to match the funds to build our student employment opportunities for the summer,” College of Arts and Sciences Dean Mark Kornbluh said in an email to the Kernel. “Once passed, I plan to sit down with the A&S senators, as well as the advising professionals, to develop the best possible employment opportunities for students that also helps the administrative needs of the unit.”

A&S has lost eight advisers and one director in the past eight months. Kornbluh said no advisers were laid off during that time, but others have said people left amid the threat of budget cuts.

“When I learned that there were budget cuts and people were let go, there was a panic and people left when they heard there was going to be another adviser cut,” Luke Glaser, an English and Spanish senior and A&S ambassador, said.

Due to this shortage, two students will be hired for full-time academic status working in the front office and assisting professional advisers.

“The quickest way we thought we could fix this problem is to provide student workers,” said Maddie Wright, an English senior and A&S senator and ambassador.

“When we were approached with this item we enthusiastically took advantage of this,” said Ariel Blythe Reske, a biology junior and A&S ambassador. “The advising problem has hit every student.”

Blythe Reske said she hears students constantly complain they cannot find an adviser when priority registration is near.

“In some majors, like my own, some advisers have been taken off for junior and seniors,” she said. “Upperclassmen are being paired with professors and professors are going to make advising their secondary priority at best.”

A&S is interested in hiring new professional advisers, Kornbluh said.

“I believe strongly in student employment and a community that involves students and giving students the opportunity to work at the university. It’s a really valuable experience,” Kornbluh said. “This fits with our long-term goals to have more student workers.”