To innovate the current system of class counselor, Office of Student Affairs proposes a new “twin-counselors” system in freshmen year; a class will be divided into two groups, with two teachers serving as class counselors. This proposal will be discussed in the meeting on student affairs held on March 12; meanwhile, the meeting will also evaluate the possibility of abolishing the regulations on class counselors’ grading of students’ behaviors, and thoroughly reexamine class counselors’ qualifications.
Ministry of Education empowers universities to institute their own system of class counselor, anticipating that teachers-students ratio can be reduced. In the meetings of student affairs last semester, the agenda of twin-counselors system was once brought up, but its actual practice was obstructed owing to the insufficiency of full-time teachers in every college. After properly scheming, Office of Student Affairs found out that sixteen departments were alleged to have difficulties practicing the new system. To solve this problem, Office of Student Affairs calls for the assistance of the teachers from Office of Physical Education, Division of General Education and Core Curriculum and Office of Military Education and Training to meet with many departments’ urgent needs.
The current system of class counselor is based on the principle of openness and multiplicity; every department decides its own way to run the system. However, most departments still maintain the unit of a whole class, while Departments of Mass Communication, Architecture, Educational Technology, Industrial Economics and History divide the whole classes into families or groups, a system more similar to that of “twin-counselors.” The teachers-students ratio at Tamkang, 1: 57, remains high, and it can be reduced to 1: 46 if the new system is put into practice.
The Chief of the Guidance Section Yu-yien Kao, who is responsible for designing the system of counseling, feels optimistic toward the system of twin-counselors. She indicated that the school should be more concerned about freshmen and help them get adjusted to the new life at Tamkang, and the new system of counseling allows teachers more time and energy to assist freshmen.
Because the current Regulations on the System of Class Counselor refer to qualified class counselors as “full-time lecturers or staff recognized by the Ministry of Education with the certificates of positions no lower than lecturers.” The Guidance Section proposes to add military teachers, and, following the instructions from Ministry of Education, transfers the source of legitimacy from the already abolished “Guidelines for the Practice of Class Counseling at Colleges and Universities” to the Article 17 in Teachers’ Regulations. The revised regulations, again in accordance with the instructions from Ministry of Education, will raise the level of decision, and will be finalized by the meeting of school affairs.
New agenda of abolishing the current grading system of students’ behaviors will also be proposed. The original standard behavior grade is 82, class counselors have rights to adding or deducting five points, and the results of students’ rewards and punishments will be counted into the final grades. With teachers’ grading being abolished, rewards and punishments will stand as the most decisive factors in students’ behavior grades.
