No more advising

So did anyone else in Columbian get an e-mail from them on Tuesday? (Emphasis mine:)

CCAS would like to announce that no advising holds will be placed on junior and senior students with declared majors and in good academic standing. We strongly urge you to meet with your faculty advisor in your major department to discuss your outstanding graduation requirements prior to registering for summer and fall courses. These discussions help shape your academic plans, but the ultimate responsibility for registration lies with each individual student.

Is it just me, or is this incredibly lazy on the part of CCAS? Sure, meeting with my adviser was never overly helpful. Then again, it wasn't a huge time commitment on anyone's part, either -- I never spent more than fifteen minutes discussing my schedule, and it was usually closer to five. Even if you factor in the number of students the average adviser meets with, is the system really such a time drain that they have to eliminate meetings with upperclassmen?

And raise your hand if you think any juniors or seniors are going to set up meetings with their advisers unless it's an absolute emergency. Heck, I'm the most conscientious, rule-following, number-two-pencil-sharpening kid this side of Hermione Granger, and I wouldn't schedule an appointment under these conditions.

I've never had any trouble getting a meeting with my adviser when I needed one. Then again, I never really needed one, either. My adviser, while a great guy, never really told me anything I didn't already know. I probably would have survived my four years here without meeting with him once. It's possible that, as an SMPA kid, I've been somewhat spoiled -- there aren't that many of us, and I've had the same adviser all four years. But the worst advising stories I've heard have come from undeclared freshmen. If the new system lets advisers focus more on those kids, then I guess it'll have done some good. But completely eliminating any kind of need for an adviser for upperclassmen just seems like another way of cutting corners.