As the Director of Undergraduate Studies for your department or program, you will oversee a variety of academic advising responsibilities:

• guiding students through the process of declaring, designing, and completing a major course of study: you are the individual from whom all majors, concentrators, and prospective majors receive authoritative information about everything connected to the major or concentration;
• assisting students who elect to study abroad in understanding how they can integrate their intellectual experiences with their academic pursuits at Columbia;
• offering advice on pursuing an advanced degree, research opportunities, internships, career opportunities, fellowships, and other postgraduate options;
• making all definitive departmental judgments about the appropriateness of courses for the requirements: you should have the endorsement of the department both to interpret departmental rules and to make exceptions to departmental policies when necessary and appropriate;
• communicating information about policies and procedures to other faculty advisers.

Familiarity with the College's academic rules and requirements as set forth by the faculty Committee on Instruction (COI) is necessary to make these decisions and to provide correct information to both students and your faculty colleagues.

If you have questions about the College's academic rules and requirements, please contact any of our staff in the Dean's office for information, specifically Hazel May, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, at 4-6372 and hm2135@columbia.edu.