Council of Academic Advisors
Thursday, June 19, 2014
8:30 AM, Union Board Room
Present: Laurie Black (Registrar’s Office), Jane Coplan (UAASC), Susan Dagit (Registrar’s Office), Jennifer Grimm (Communications), Molly Homer (Honor’s College), Allen Khan (Athletics), Kim McDaniel (Study Abroad), Lisa Melz‐Jennings (Athletics), Kathy Myers ISAPSC and VRC), Caryn Morgan (CAS), Kelly Morris (UAASC), Julie O’Brien (UAASC), Andi Potter (CBT), Chris Ramsey (CBT), Andrea Riebling (CBT), Colin Rogness (BA/BGS), Jennifer Sandrik‐Rubio (Physical Sciences), Renee Simpson (UAASC), Vicki Walters (Biology), Tammy Wilson (COEHS), Michelle Yager (UAASC) I.
COAA Technology Subcommittee Voting at July 17th COAA Meeting The need for a Technology Subcommittee came out of the Advising Self‐Assessment Report and Advising Audit and is centered on how technology, as an essential tool, can be improved to make advisors’ jobs more effective in order to serve students more efficiently. One suggestion was to develop a tool to code why a student is leaving WIU (financial, personal issues, etc). When a student leaves in the middle of the semester they are required to attend an exit interview with SDO to have their last credit removed from their tuition bill. Many times if a student leaves at the end of the semester, only their advisor knows why they’re not returning since these students are not required to have an exit interview with SDO. When looking at retention, we need to know why students are leaving and not returning. It has been suggested that there be coding with a drop‐down menu of why a student has left, listing non‐privacy issues such as medical, financial, etc. This can be useful when receiving a list of students who are not enrolled for the next semester. Julie distributed a basic description of the committee. Since there were no suggestions for re‐
wording, advisors were asked to take it back to their areas. Michelle will send it out to the listserve. A vote will be taken on July 17. Representatives from UTech, AIMS, and Registrar’s Office, and possibly other areas are needed on the committee to help move forward with suggested ideas. Notes can be put on PSNT but it is a prospective student screen that is not available to everyone and a report can’t be generated from it. It is hoped that a screen for advisors to keep track of current students might be created to follow students as they move to different majors. The initial idea for this was to have a field on the ADEN screen for a hold and another field for a code that would say, yes, we have already met with the student. There would also a letter field that would be an indicator to see information about the student. A report could be requested as to that particular code indicating the student has met with their advisor and this is why they are not returning. II. SOAR Things that are going well 1) Advisors like having the same rep from the O‐Team for each session 2) Students taking the College Student Inventory as a group. 3) Moving away from a big session in the Ballroom and moving it into smaller groups and rooms so that students and parents can interact more was an improvement. 4) Advisors liked getting students all at one time … before students would trickle in. 5) ROTC has been coming around to the major meetings. ROTC and Honors have a table in the Ballroom on Day 1 … ROTC also has a table at the Fair. ROTC does a short presentation at some major meetings. It makes sense to talk about ROTC at registration so that students can actually sign up for a class. ROTC tries to focus on specific majors that would work best for them, so they don’t have representatives at every major meeting. 6) Advisors liked that students have to go to the Fair to get their IDs. 7) It is nice to have Financial Aid in a different venue from the Fair, since it streamlines the process and allows for more privacy. 8) For students who haven’t paid their deposit, holds are lifted quickly and students are able to register. Students are flagged at registration and they must go to Larry before going any further. Advisors are surprised by the low number of students who come without having paid their deposit. It is good to know that an O‐Team member can walk a student over to pay the deposit. The ones who haven’t paid a fee are primarily the ones who don’t come to registration … it will be interesting to see if these students come to WIU on the first day of classes. No‐show rates have remained at 10% for the first few SOARs. The deposit has helped in this area. 9) Advisors haven’t had trouble getting parents to leave during registration. Parents have been surprised that they can stay for major meeting. 10) SOAR survey results have been emailed to representatives of each advising area. Those reps should share that info with all in their college. 11) As a newly‐piloted program in COFAC, Tim is meeting his OAS students at the COFAC meeting. For part of that meeting he takes the Fine Arts COFAC students out to talk about OAS issues and then returns to the COFAC group for registration. It has been awkward singling out OAS students and taking them out of the meeting. There has been discussion about different ways to do this. The goal is to have students feel a part of the major and to identify themselves as that major area rather than OAS. Tim feels it has been very positive. The goal next year is that all OAS students will be at major meetings and that the OAS meeting will happen at a later time. Students may have to register with OAS, but the OAS meeting may have to occur outside of SOAR. Students have come to understand that Tim is their advisor the first year but then they will be meeting with another advisor the second year, families like talking to the major advisors, and 1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
families and students feel included. One of the OAS meetings they must attend with OAS advisors is easier since they know their major meeting advisor. COFAC students meet with the chairs and faculty and families have liked that. It leaves a positive impression on students and parents. Although students can meet faculty during Discover Western, about 50% of the students at SOAR have not attended a Discover Western program. OAS students meeting with their major advisors will happen in all areas next year and will be discussed more fully at future meetings. It will have to be determined where major meetings will be held next year, which could become a logistical problem. This would be for major meeting and not registration. CONCERNS O‐Team members seem exhausted. In the past, the O‐team was split in half with one group taking the late shift on Day 1 and the other group taking the early morning shift on Day 2. Students are tired when taking the math placement test. Last year it helped doing math placement on Day 1. Students are also very tired for major meeting and registration, some just want to get done as soon as possible and go home. Some students reported that they had been told by “someone” that their math scores are too low to stay in some majors. No one could identify who had told them that. With only 3 advisors (doing math placement, change of majors, transcript collection and fielding advising questions) and 1 Math professor allowed at check‐in, there isn’t room for Theo Schultz to address nursing application questions and denial notifications. Bryan Barker is having some very difficult conversations with students and there have been some angry families. It would be better if there was a rep from the nursing program available at registration to speak to them. Also these conversations are dealt with out in the public since there is no private area at registration. The 3 advisors who are at check in are very busy with the placement and major change, which doesn’t leave any one to answer general questions about advising and registration. Sometimes students or parents stand in the math placement line to ask about another advising/registration issue. It would be better if there was a separate station for advising questions. Advisors would like more time for major meetings and pre‐advising sessions. Travel time needs to be built into the schedule for students and families to get to the major meetings and pre‐advising sessions. Some advisors would like to have major meeting/pre‐advising sessions and registration split up with lunch between the sessions. They liked taking students to computers and showing them how to use STARS before registration. Having different sessions in the past allowed students to take a tentative schedule to lunch to discuss with families. It would be nice to do pre‐advising with students, have a major meeting with parents, lunch, then registration. If 2 sessions can’t 10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
16)
17)
be worked into the schedule, they would like more time in the major meetings for pre‐advising and talking with parents. There should be programming for students who are not doing placement testing. Maybe those students could do some pre‐advising meetings at that time. Advisors feel it is very important for families to get all their questions answered before they leave the major meeting. This is not happening under the current process. Major meetings are getting started late due to the Ballroom not being available prior to the dismissal session. Michelle has to wait for parents/students to get into the Ballroom and find a seat before starting. The O‐team members want to collect parents at 2:00 but that is too soon in light of the major meeting starting late. It would be helpful if the Dollars and Sense session was moved to a different room. This would allow parents/students to start finding a seat prior to 1:00 so the session could start on time, thus putting the lost 10 minutes from the major meeting back in the schedule. Michelle instructed advisors to keep the parents until all information has been given and all questions are answered. Parents and students are saying they need more time with advisors The UAASC is offering students and parents walk‐in time with advisors the afternoon of Day 1. Sarah Jewell said she would promote this with students & families who arrive early and are looking for something to do. A suggestion was made to ask if the O‐Team can stop activities at 10:00 PM and so students get back to their residence halls by 11:00, and if the O‐Team can encourage the students to get more sleep. There is also concern that the students are given the impression that college life will be about staying up all night socializing rather than getting enough sleep to be prepared for classes in the morning. MG 109 is being trashed by students being held there while others are taking math placement. Advisors have to clean up the trash prior to the major meetings. Having alternative programming during placement testing would help this situation. There was concern about inappropriate language being used by an O‐Team member in one situation this week, and a few other situations during the first few programs where O‐Team members may not have displayed the most professional behavior (ie: laying down on the floor napping and texting on phones during the placement test instead of socializing with the freshmen). There were concerns about poorly written questions on the SOAR survey. An example: a. The courses pertaining to your college graduation requirements are considered what type of course? i. 52% (79/153): Major/minor courses ii. 48% (74/153): General education courses or didn’t answer The student can only pick one answer when both are correct. Since students are completing the assessment in the registration lab, they are asking advisors for answers. For questions students don’t understand, tell them to ‘answer as best you can’. If students don’t understand a question, tell them to write ‘I don’t know’ or leave blank. Students need to be reassured that this is an assessment, not a test. 18) It was requested to have campus maps distributed to students in their purple bags. Students need these maps to determine distance between buildings when making their schedules. The map on the app has not been helpful for this purpose. 19) Students would benefit from having a folder to keep their papers in. It’s hard for the students to be organized if they are digging in the purple bag looking for various documents that have become wrinkled and bent up inside the bag, especially when it rains and they put wet clothing in the purple bag. 20) There was concern with the SOAR app. Not all students have a smart phone and some who do, are having trouble getting service. III. Standing Committee Reports Professional Development and Networking Jane will send details about the advisor workshop. Let Jane about if there are specific topics that need to be covered. Campus Affairs and Public Relations No Report Assessment Advisors need to complete the advising survey. Jennifer will send out a reminder next year. The survey will close at the end of July. Awards and Recognition No Report IV. CAGAS Report No report … Bryan was unable to attend the last CAGAS meeting due to SOAR. V. News from the Registrar’s Office Readmission Reports – they run every Monday morning and are designed to alert you to any advisees who have applied for readmission but have not yet registered. Caution: The report includes students who have been suspended or dismissed. Please do not assume that a student who came back for summer classes is automatically eligible to continue for the fall semester. Catalog Changes o
o
Donna has all the changes to WARD done for the new catalog except the changes to BLAS. The five new minors are good to go EXCEPT that since the new minors do not officially become available until Fall 2014, summer students cannot declare them at this time.  Once the SU14 degrees have been conferred, the minors will be available to all current and future students and will not be catalog‐dependent. o
VI. If anyone notices something on WARD that does not seem correct, please contact Donna Williams at 298‐3126. Program Change Announcements The G‐Com major did not go to CCPI or Faculty Senate, so there will be no changes. The DS minor has been changed … it will now be called Business Analytics instead of Decision Sciences. None of the courses will be changed. Classes are still coded DS … only the name of the minor was changed. VII. College/Area News Veterans Affairs will be sponsoring a webinar on academic advising next Thursday in the Capital Room. There will be a transition seminar on Monday, August 11, for veterans who haven’t attended SOAR. Sixty‐two percent of veterans are registered and the numbers usually climb in July. The Fallen Soldiers Run is Saturday, October 18. Registration forms are available on the Foundation webpage. Please spread the word. Since students overseas can’t access STARS, it is suspected they have their parents pay the enrollment deposit for them. Call Larry Tingley if there are problems with deposits not being processed since he can manually remove the hold. The enrollment deposit is deferred for Centennial Honors students and athletes that have full scholarships, and it was suggested that it would be nice to have veterans deferred, as well. Transfer students and summer enrollees don’t have to pay an enrollment deposit hold. The CBT dean is retiring. Jack Elfring will be interim chair as of August 1st. Andy Baker has been named as director of the School of Ag. Nancy Parsons will add seats to FYE classes. Morning FYE classes are closed, but it is not known if students really prefer morning classes or if they just clicked on the first class. Classroom space is an issue. It is hard to register the linked FYE classes; the class times look odd to students. Registering students for linked FYE classes is tricky and time consuming for advisors who have a lot of students. VII. New Business Advisors have experienced problems with getting transfer student transcripts evaluated. Some transcripts aren’t being evaluated until all transcripts from the same school have been received, which creates a challenge for advisors. It is a very slow process. Admissions has been telling transfer students that they have been admitted and to call their advisor for an appointment, but all their transcripts haven’t been evaluated. When talking to transfer students, advisors need to ask students if they went to any other schools besides the community college. There was concern with the lack of courses offered during summer school. Athletics will move forward asking for classes they need but would like others to address that, too … especially the 2nd 4‐week session. There is a problem with finding classes for athletes since they don’t want to put students in courses that aren’t degree applicable. It would be nice to have math and English classes available in the summer. Advisor room numbers, along with phone number, have been added to the MVS ADVG screen. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:50 AM. Respectfully submitted, Debbie Carithers