American University is redesigning the American University Experience program under the AU Core with the introduction of AU Encounters in the spring while phasing out designated first-year advising after spring 2025.
First-year advisors, who also teach AU Experience I and AU Experience II, will not teach AU Encounters and will be transitioned to major-based advising, raising concerns for multiple first-year advisors who spoke with The Eagle.
The introduction of AU Encounters for spring 2025 is a “a stop gap, or a bridge” as the AU Core curriculum is evaluated, according to Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Education Brad Knight.
The course will fill the AUx2 requirements for freshman and transfer students, with a focus on the works of James Baldwin following his 100th birthday.
The course, taught by full-time AU faculty and University leadership, will meet four times per semester with around 75 students per section and include asynchronous work. Peer facilitators, who work with AUx1 and AUx2 courses, will assist with AU Encounters.
An AUx subcommittee under the AU Core committee in the faculty senate began meetings in early summer and held regular meetings over the summer to evaluate the first-year experience courses, according to Knight.
Knight said the decision to change first-year advising is a “parallel set of changes, but outside the work of the AUx committee.”
“So, once we understood that the changes to the first-year advising program would mean that instruction would no longer be a part of their role, we did have to sort of address that, like, what is then the instructional, how will this course be taught?” he said.
Bridget Trogden, dean of undergraduate education and academic student services, confirmed to The Eagle that the decision to separate instruction from the advising role was pursued by her last year within academic affairs. She said she was informed by conversations with leaders in Academic Affairs, including the Office of the Provost and the Academic Schools and Colleges.
AUx is a full year curriculum under the AU Core designed for students transitioning to their first-year at the University, including freshmen and transfer students. AUx1 serves as a course for students to develop sustainable habits, learn how to establish boundaries and familiarize themselves with AU resources, while AUx2 discusses race, social identity and structures of power.
Incorporating student feedback
Changes to the AUx2 requirement for the spring semester came from feedback from students and ongoing discussions over the best teaching modalities. According to documents obtained by The Eagle, students did not feel that there was enough time in AUx2 to resolve initial discomfort to share their views on topics, with some feeling the course was meant to indoctrinate them.
Carter Eardley, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs, said it can be difficult to have generalized discussions in AUx1.
“Having a generalized course that discusses these subjects, it means that you can never really go into that in depth,” Eardley said.
Student feedback in the documents obtained indicated that some students did not think the course was executed to the quality of other AU courses. The documents also noted that some instructors said they did not think they are expected to be experts on the content matter.
As for the move to major-based advising, documents obtained by The Eagle said a lack of access for first-year students makes it harder for colleges and schools to connect early in their college career. Case loads for major-based advising have also increased.
Eleanor Sciannella, a financial aid counselor, union representative and co-chair of organizing for AU Staff Union SEIU Local 500, said the AUx program does work for students and staff.
“It works for most students. There are, of course, people who are not happy with what they are learning. But that's true anywhere, anytime. But it's a program that works for students and staff, and these changes are concerning because they're happening without proper input,” she said.
Trogden outlined two goals, and three steps to achieve such goals, that have guided this change.
The first goal is to strengthen undergraduate advising to improve support for academic advisors through opportunities for professional growth. The second goal seeks to improve student support in academic, personal and career goals.
The first step is developing a unified four-year undergraduate advising model within colleges and schools. Secondly, standardizing prioritized elements of undergraduate advising to allow for a high-level of student services, including initial advisor training, use of common software and a career ladder for advisor promotion. The third step is re-envisioning the current AUx program in the AU Core to better meet students’ educational needs and institutional academic values.
First-year advisors and peer facilitators learned of the changes to the AUx program, with the introduction of AU Encounters, and the dissolution of first-year advising at the end of September.
First-year advisors who teach AUx will not teach AU Encounters in the spring, but they will continue first-year advising duties until the end of the spring semester.
Shifting to major-based advising
The Eagle spoke with multiple first-year advisors and instructors for this story. The information is attributed to the multiple first-year advisors and instructors who spoke to The Eagle on the condition of anonymity due to job security concerns during this transition.
For multiple first-year advisors, not teaching AU Encounters is a signal that administration thinks they are inexperienced for the role.
While multiple first-year advisors The Eagle spoke to didn’t see themselves as experts in Baldwin’s writings, teachings and activism, they said what was more important is they are experts in facilitation. They were left wondering why they couldn’t teach AU Encounters, as they said almost all of them have advanced degrees like Masters and PhDs.
They also raised concern with their job being changed. The role of first-year advisor and instructor entails advising a cohort of freshmen and teaching AUx1 and AUx2, something they said is included in their job description. For them, they chose the role because they like the mix of advising and teaching.
Multiple first-year advisors were shocked when this change was announced mid-semester, as it had been under consideration in previous months.
Following spring 2025, current first-year advisors will be transferred to major-based advising in schools and colleges at the University. They’re left unsure how they’ll be matched to the schools or if they’ll still work with first-year students. In fall 2023, first-year advising moved to a single academic unit focus aligning with AU’s schools and colleges.
According to multiple first-year advisors, some in the office are now looking for job opportunities outside of the University due to an unclear job transition.
A September presentation document obtained by The Eagle announcing the changes to first-year advising said the University does not anticipate a change in salary.
However, first-year advisors are in a different pay band than major-based advisors, according to multiple first-year advisors and Sciannella.
Sciannella said first-year advisors are in the 4.1 band number under the senior coordinator and senior analyst band. Salaries are listed in three zones, each with a minimum and maximum. The 4.1 band number salary can range from $58,263 to $93,222. She said a typical College of Arts and Sciences academic advisor is in the 3.1 band number under the coordinator, analyst and senior specialist band. A salary amongst the three zones can range from $48,176 to $77,083. The midpoint salary of the 4.1 band number is $75,744, while a 3.1 is $62,630.
In an Oct. 22 meeting, Trogden said the HR and the compensation team cannot come in and confirm salaries until first-year advisors are assigned new schools, according to a transcript obtained by The Eagle.
Trogden told The Eagle that the ranges of pay bands are “actually quite large” and that she doesn’t anticipate “anyone's pay will be reduced.”
According to multiple first-year advisors, they are still unaware which schools they will be moved to, but anticipate learning their new assignments in January.
The University’s ongoing budget issues also draw concern. Multiple first-year advisors weren’t convinced that this decision isn’t related to the budget. The initial presentation and Trogden assured the change was not related to the budget.
First-year advisors will have to vacate Clark Hall, which houses their offices, by the end of March. The building is being renovated into housing, Chief Financial Officer, Vice President and Treasurer Bronte Burleigh-Jones and Acting Provost Vicky Wilkins announced during a Dec. 5 meeting on the FY26 budget.
These changes for first-year advising raises concern with the AU Staff Union, whose contract is up on June 30, 2025. First-year advisors will switch to their new major-based advising on May 31, 2025 and their new salary on July 1, 2025, according to a December presentation obtained by The Eagle.
“The way we see it, this is either a reorganization that's affecting the entire department, and therefore they have to work with the union about how that reorganization is happening, or this is a change in a job description, and they have to work with the union about the changes to a job description,” Sciannella said.
Gearing up for contract negotiations almost three years after the staff union won a contract following a week-long strike, Sciannella said the union is beginning to think about how to address these changes and large union priorities in the new contract.
“We're just talking to each other right now about what’s important to us, setting our priorities. There are a lot of things that a lot of people care about on campus. And there's been a lot of changes that administration is making, not just first to first-year advising,” she said.
Updating the AU Core requirements
The AU Encounters course focusing on the works of Baldwin will include both in-person and asynchronous sessions.
In the course sections, groups of 8-12 students will form for in-class dialogue, facilitated by peer facilitators, on topics such as race, gender and class.
They will study Baldwin’s work through an interdisciplinary approach, such as with film screenings and visits to a Smithsonian exhibit on the author.
“The AU Encounters course in the spring is really listening to our students and being able to do something different from the status quo, which we know was not working,” Trogden said.
Peer facilitators will be trained for the new Baldwin class in the spring, according to Izzi Stern, the director of the AUx program.
“We'll also, similar to what we've done in the past, have an onboarding process for new peer facilitators. We've traditionally done a new peer facilitator training that's around three hours long. We'll do that,” she said. “We'll have to adapt it, because the role is slightly changing. And then there are also Canvas modules that they'll go through as well.”
Stern and others in AU Core will still oversee peer facilitators, who will also work with the full-time faculty and University leadership teaching the courses.
While AUx is held once a week over 10 weeks, AU Encounters will meet four times a semester.
“Most peer facilitators who are assigned to two sections of AUx1 or AUx2 typically have about eight to 10 hours a week that they're currently working,” Stern said. “With AU Encounters that will look different, because the class is not meeting consistently every week.”
Peer facilitator’s hours will be dependent on how much extra work they pick up. For example, they can choose to lead groups to the Smithsonian visit or help out with the screenings, Stern said.
As AU Encounters is a bridge to an updated component of the AU Core, discussions are ongoing over what AUx1 looks like in the coming semester.
AUx1 is currently under discussion for fall 2025, Knight said. He said they’re figuring out the best way to integrate some of the information taught in AUx1, potentially through freshman orientation.
“They're making announcements on things where they don't have a full plan in place, and we're gonna see, we're gonna get a poor transition to the new situation as a result,” Sciannella said.
Monette Chang, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she liked how AUx1 acted as a transition into college.
“I feel like we should have some kind of, like, transition,’” Chang said. “And while I get that a lot of other colleges, like, don't really do that transition hand-holding thing, I feel like it was really useful for me, because, like, college is such a big change from high school, and it's, like, so much bigger.”
She appreciated how the course was shortened from an entire semester to 10-weeks, ending before finals, but felt like it could have been shorter.
While Chang will be abroad next semester and won’t take AU Encounters, she said she wishes “that there was communication in general” about the changes.
Eardley said there could have been an email to explain the changes, but “realistically, most students probably don't pay attention to or care enough to really have strong feelings.”
Many students were informed by their instructors and peer facilitators of the change.
“This announcement went out to our instructor and our peer facilitator cohorts right before class six, registration readiness in AUx1, and so we developed some general slides and talking points for instructors and peer facilitators to have and to potentially use if they wanted to with class six,” Stern said.
For the multiple first-year advisors who spoke to The Eagle, they felt they built strong relationships with students and helped them in their transition to college, something they said they may not be able to do in major-based advising.
Chang said her first-year advisor was communicative and helped her reach out to University resources.
“It gives a student more influence or like leverage in terms of like, finding out more information where like, they might not get it when reaching out individually by themselves,” she said.
Eardley said as long as advisors are still accessible to meet with first-year students, the shift to major-based advising will better connect them to “the system that they're going to use in second, third, and then, depending on the student, fourth year.”
“For students, whether or not an advisor is labeled as first-year or as a school advisor, I think it really is just a matter of for the advisors, if they feel like they have the like skills and ability to be able to give advice within both of those contexts, which I don't think should be like impossible,” he said.
This article was edited by Olivia Wood and Tyler Davis. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Sabine Kanter-Huchting and Ella Rousseau. Fact checking done by Luna Jinks and Hannah Paisley Zoulek.
