Pre-graduation audits are available through the office of Undergraduate Academic Services in Warriner Hall. They are not required, but are highly recommended. Once a student signs a graduation application, which must be done at least two semesters before graduation, a final audit will automatically be initiated. It is emailed to a student's account.

These audits are essential to a successful graduation. Advisers provide a holistic examination of a student's progress on all university and degree requirements.

At CMU, this system is failing students.

Too many are unaware of their major, minor, degree and other requirements, and go into their final graduation audit unprepared and missing credits.

We believe requiring a pre-graduation audit of all students and the addition of more audit advisers will alleviate stress and confusion for students.

At CMU, the ratio of academic advisers to students is 1 to 600-700, far above the ratio of 1 to 300 recommended by the National Academic Advising Association. Undergraduate Academic Services has only four advisers who offer audits and counseling. That is a ratio of about 1 audit adviser to every 5,000 undergraduate students.

"We feel we offer service to all students eligible for our services. We have options for all students," Linda Gillingham, associate registrar and director of undergraduate services, told Central Michigan Life. "We have a pretty specific timeline. You never can have too many advisers, that's for sure. We do feel that we're serving the students."

But they're not.

Students are encouraged to get a pre-graduation audit during their junior year, but the process of making an appointment is made difficult by hundreds of students calling at the same time.

Four advisers are not enough to accommodate more than 20,000 students.

If CMU is going to invest in something, it ought to invest in something that directly benefits students. Additional audit advisers will do just that.

Frequently-changing requirements for majors, minors and University Program courses make scheduling classes difficult. In 2012, for example, the Competency requirements were updated so students enrolling in 2014 and beyond have to take courses in the areas of Writing Intensive and Quantitative Reasoning.

Often, students are not aware of these changes. Many also are unaware that they can switch to the most recent bulletin whenever they sign or re-sign a major. While sending emails and spreading the word in the affected departments is helpful, it would be more helpful for students to meet face-to-face with academic and audit advisers.

This can only happen if we have more of them.

Students will also be able to navigate these changes more easily if they are actually required to sit down with an audit adviser. By only strongly recommending the audits, the university allows for students to forgo them until it is too late to schedule an appointment and make up for missing credits, all while graduating on time.

Students can schedule as many pre-graduation audits as they like after signing a major. They are completely free of charge.

Undergraduate Academic Services offers walk-in hours every day from 1 to 3 p.m. for students who have completed a pre-graduation audit but would like it updated.

It is up to students to take an active interest in their education and progress toward graduation. It is up to students to meet regularly with their academic advisers and take advantage of the services the university offers.

It is up to CMU to meet them halfway. How can students meet regularly with advisers when they are stretched so thin? How can they schedule the recommended audit with enough time to register for classes when there are only four people to see hundreds of students?

No student should ever be surprised to hear they won't be graduating when they expected. While resources at CMU strive to advise and guide students, they are still falling short.

We have made a major investment in CMU. It's time for CMU to invest more in the success of students.