And responses to senior surveys of Government concentrators have shown “that students don’t like [a matching] system better than our system,” according to Campbell.

However, Gerald E. Wootten III ’05 says he would choose a matching system over the current system in Government.

“Having a professor whose knowledge is compatible is more beneficial,” Wootten says.

“I would much prefer where you at least had a professor that could send you in the right direction than have someone who lacked knowledge,” he says.

DUS’s and head tutors have also sought to make more advisers available.

One way to do this is strongly requesting faculty members to take on more advisees—a tall order, as thesis advising often requires a great deal of time and effort on the part of the faculty.

“That’s a lot of personal attention, which takes a huge number of hours,” says Psychology Head Tutor Ken Nakayama. “Few faculty members would want more than 2 or 3 [advisees].”

According to New, the English department asks every member of the faculty to advise at least one student thesis—and the Visual and Environmental Studies department asks its own to advise three or four, according to DUS Paul Stopforth.

“There’s a norm, there’s an expectation that everyone advises a thesis” in the Government department, says Campbell. “It’s not a requirement.”

Wootten believes all professors should be required to have a minimum of two or three advisees.

In fact, Wootten says concentrations requiring theses should guarantee a full professor as an adviser for each writer.

“You should teach, research, and you should advise,” he says. “Those are the three primary facets to a professorship.”

In fact, some economics professors do not advise theses at all—although the Curricular Review report says, “We remind colleagues that legislation adopted by the Faculty in 1979 requires all faculty to advise at least one senior thesis or tutorial.”

Diana N. Fridberg ’05, an Anthropology concentrator, disagrees.

“If a professor feels like they’re saddled with somebody, that doesn’t help anybody,” she says.