Though students are generally pleased with the quality of academics here, they find writing and advising programs to be lacking, according to a survey conducted by former Union Director of Academic Affairs Alan Tannenwald '05.The Student Union Executive Office released the results of the Fall 2004 survey on the quality of academic life at Brandeis on April 5.

According to the survey, 70 percent of respondents have not received academic advice from a Roosevelt Fellow, and 73 percent never received academic advice from an undergraduate department representative.

Transfer students responding to the survey were the least satisfied with the level of advising services at Brandeis, with 54 percent reporting "not satisfied" and only eight percent reporting "very satisfied."

According to Tannenwald, this likely stems from the fact that transfer students do not receive academic advisors, unlike first-year and mid-year students. Based on the results of the survey, "there is now a policy that transfers get advisors," Tannenwald said.

While 42 percent of respondents said Brandeis has done "extremely well" exposing them to new ways of thinking, 19 percent said their writing skills have not improved at all and 59 percent felt they have improved their skills only somewhat.

Writing intensive courses received low marks as well, with 34 percent of respondents responding that the classes did not improve their writing skills at all, while 49 percent said their skills improved somewhat.

Several administrators including Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Marty Krauss received the results of the report in January.

"I am pleased that students report improvement in their writing skills," Krauss said. "The fact that those responding to the survey question whether writing intensive courses can be credited with this improvement does suggest that we need to understand better how such gains are achieved. No single method may be the answer-this is a challenge for all the faculty."

On the topic of diversity, 42 percent of students responded that a diverse student body is "very important" to their learning experience at Brandeis while 19 percent felt that is it "not important."

"It was apparent to me that there are things that Brandeis is doing very well, and there are things that Brandeis does not do well, such as improving writing and getting advising from the day students set foot on campus," Tannenwald said.

This is the first survey of its kind conducted in many years and Tannenwald hopes that it will become an annual endeavor.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it's done again," Tannenwald said. "It might become mandatory for sophomores to fill one out before registering for classes.