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In Thursday’s paper, we published a story about advising becoming a mandatory process for the first two years as a Kent State student. Provost Robert Frank described it as “uniform standards of advising.”

Right now, advising is centralized at Kent State — meaning you can schedule appointments with any adviser in your field of study to discuss your major, minor, concentration and class registration. Though we agree that making the advising process mandatory will be beneficial in helping students choose classes they need to graduate in a timely manner, we don’t think centralized advising is exactly uniform.

Centralized advising can possibly cause a little confusion. Talking to any adviser — possibly someone you don’t know or are not comfortable speaking with — can be frustrating if the adviser isn’t familiar with you as a student or a person.

As freshmen, students should be assigned a specific adviser who will help them throughout their four years of college. This way, the same adviser is dealing with the same student; therefore, the adviser knows the student’s major/minor, what his/her career goals/aspirations are, what classes he/she is currently enrolled in, and what steps the student should take to complete the program.

Furthermore, speaking to someone familiar makes it easier for students to talk about the problems they’re facing, and they won’t be as afraid to ask questions.

As a result, students have a better, more informed advising and college experience.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.