Kansas University administrators want more students to graduate in four years. And KU students have a suggestion: Improve advising.

“I really feel students shouldn’t have to take summer school in order to graduate on time,” said Melissa Horen, student body vice president, who had to take classes during the summer to stay on track.

About 31 percent of KU students graduate in four years, according to the latest report.

Horen and her fellow student senators are pressing for a new holistic advising approach focused particularly on juniors and seniors.

Upperclassmen work with advisers in their schools, but it can be hard to get advice regarding what classes to take outside their majors, she said, and students need someone who can give big-picture advice.

Horen suggests having a general advising help desk – preferably near the Freshman/Sophomore Advising Center – where students could drop in and get advising from a broad perspective. The approach could better address the needs of students with multiple majors, she said.

Horen also suggests updating what’s called an ARTS form, the electronic document of a student’s academic record.

“It’s not very interactive and it’s not very user-friendly to read,” Horen said.

The improvements would have helped Horen, she said. As she neared her senior year, she discovered she didn’t have all the credits she needed to graduate on time. She had to earn those credits during the summer.

“I really wish I’d had someone to sit down with me and say: ‘Hey look, let’s plan out your four years. Let’s see where the gaps are,'” she said.

Senior Luke Thompson said KU could improve its advising.

Thompson will graduate on time with four majors. It’s a feat he believes wouldn’t be possible for many students. Thompson meets regularly with an adviser within KU’s Honors Program, which serves a select group of about 1,200 students.

“Unfortunately my experience has been atypical,” he said. “I would never have been able to complete my project without having a good adviser and, being outside of the honors program, it would have been an impossibility.”

Horen said she’s working with KU Provost Richard Lariviere and others to discuss the plans, and that initial response has been favorable. Lariviere could not be reached for comment.