Council of Academic Advisors
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
8:30 AM, Union Board Room
Present: Michele Aurand (Honor’s College), Laurie Black (Registrar’s Office), Julie Brines (UAASC), Jane Coplan (UAASC), Sue Dagit (Registrar’s Office), Jeanne Gage (COEHS), Jennifer Grimm (Communications), Molly Homer (Honor’s College), Kim McDaniel (Study Abroad), Lisa Melz‐
Jennings (Athletics), Caryn Morgan (CAS), Charles Noble (Military Science), Jinny Page (BA/BGS), Estelle Plewa (UAASC), Andi Potter (CBT‐Engineering Technology), Chris Ramsey (CBT), Jennifer Sandrik‐Rubio (Physical Sciences), Michelle Terry (CBT), Phoebe Wilson (COEHS), Michelle Yager (UAASC) I.
Tenth Day Enrollment Update from Dr. Lynn ‐ Michelle Yager Angela Lynn gave enrollment statistics at the Deans and Directors meeting attended by Michelle. These figures have been adjusted as they were given out on 10th day prior to the official count. Sue Dagit updated the information in the “News from the Registrar’s Office” below. II. Attendance Tracker – Michelle Yager Dr. Hawkinson has requested that Roger Runquist, Ron Williams, and Michelle Yager meet to discuss issues with attendance tracker with the hope of getting more faculty involvement. Attendance tracker is a tool WIU faculty are encouraged to use to identify students who have consistent absences, since chronic absenteeism can lead to academic failure. Do advisors get student attendance info from the AT system or SDO? Some advisors don’t get information from either; some get copied on the letter sent by SDO to the student when there is a persistent attendance problem. Attendance tracker messaging is sent out by a Student Success GA in SDO. Unfortunately, not all faculty use AT so the system has its limitations. Areas that need to be determined are: 1) GA’s interpretation of chronic absenteeism, 2) Percentage of faculty using the AT system, 3) Who receives notice of chronic absenteeism, 4) Is the GA doing anything other than sending out e‐mails, and 5) Does the GA try to bring the student in to talk to them? Brainstorm Intrusive Advising Strategies Charles Nobel felt it was crucial that ROTC receives a weekly list of student absences as that could impact the student’s scholarship. Some advisors felt that if absentee information is distributed, then an intrusive advising plan should be in place as to how to intervene and assist these students. All agreed that professional development should include intrusive advising strategies. Michelle reminded the council that the COAA Professional Development Committee is hosting a webinar on Thursday, February 19th titled, Intrusive Academic Advising: An Effective Strategy to Increase Student Success. More information can be found below in the Professional Development and Networking committee’s report. It was suggested that Carolyn Hauerr and the SDO GA be invited to a COAA meeting to discuss their present duties. This topic will be discussed again in the future. III. Centennial Honor’s New Student Reception – Molly Homer Centennial Honor’s New Student Reception will be held on Sunday, April 12th Students who have been notified that they are eligible for the Centennial Honor’s Scholarship are invited to attend The Centennial Honors’ New Student Reception. Although it has not been formally approved in writing by the Provost, it is hoped that advisors will be allowed to register students before open enrollment begins, prior to the reception. The process will be as follows 
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Molly will initially send Sarah Lawson a list of students who could potentially accept the award and will also send each advisor a list of students in their colleges. Molly will send letters to students telling them who their advisors are and a list of classes from which to choose. Advisors will contact students the month before the reception and talk to them about classes. The window for students to register is April 6‐10. Sarah does not want all students to register on the same day. Approximately 150 students total have the opportunity to accept the scholarship, but not all will accept. The week before April 6, advisors should decide when to register students and tell Sarah that you are going to register a specific student on that date … she will then open up that date and then switch the student back to their original SOAR date after they have registered. It is not a problem if a student wants to come to WIU but can’t attend the reception; however, it is hoped that everyone who comes to the reception will be registered. With the designated registration window, students probably can’t register at the reception. Molly will be sending out a list of Honors class; she would like students to register for a FYE class. There are probably only about 10 Honors FYE classes; to check, they always have to have SPP permission with a footnote that says “Honors students only, permission of Molly Homer”. Larry Tingley will be at the next COAA meeting to discuss the Landing page. The Math and Foreign Language Placement page will be active as of April 1. All honors students will also come to SOAR as they have in the past, so any scheduling problems can be fixed at that time. If a student says they are not coming to WIU, please let Molly know. IV. Standing Committee Reports Professional Development and Networking A webinar entitled, Intrusive Academic Advising: An Effective Strategy to Increase Student Success, purchased from Innovative Educators, will be presented on February 19th from 2:00‐
3:30 PM. The presentation will be held in HH 83 in order for the QC campus to be involved. Since this is not a NACADA webinar, it not known if there will be a recording that could be shown afterwards and/or handouts. (UPDATE: a recording will be available for a year following the live presentation) It was suggested that those advisors who see this Webinar be part of a discussion group afterwards. Caryn will talk to the committee about a follow‐up discussion. It was also suggested that OAS advisors be included to present strategies to help at‐risk students and talk about how these strategies could be implemented. Campus Affairs and Public Relations The committee has been working on putting out notices all over campus to encourage students to meet with their advisors. Yesterday (February 10th), there was an advisors lunch at Corbin‐Olson where 8‐10 advisors participated. The next advisor luncheon will be in the Union. There will be a dinner at Bay‐Hen in April. A list of dates and locations will be sent soon. The Committee has also been working on the idea of raising money for student textbooks. However, there is an initiative led by Jude Kiah for students to pay a fee that would cover all textbooks and lab books. Since this is in conjunction with a company that has no connection with WIU, lab fees, art supplies, or software are not included. Jude will announce more information as the details are worked out. Assessment The committee is meeting today. They are working on the student survey, with the advisor survey to follow. They will work on the assessment plan over the summer. Awards and Recognition Award plaques have been purchased for last year and this year. The committee will be retroactively giving these to past award winners, as well as handing them out to the spring winners. A Telestars announcement for February nominees has been sent. ILACADA and NACADA have awards to be offered, but the committee needs help from the entire advising community in nominating advisors for these awards. They would love to see WIU advisors get state or national awards. Technology Angela Lynn helped with determining that the advisor hold screen and listing options for non‐
returning students do not need to go before the IT Technology Governance Committee. Angela needs to know how you want the advising screen for advisor encumbrances to be set up on MVS and what options are to be included. The web version will have a pull‐down menu. It was suggested to leave the first category alone, if Y (Advisor HOLD is in place), if N (Advisor HOLD has been removed). If, for example, a student indicates they are transferring, advisors should record the reason why the HOLD remains in place. Codes will have to be developed that cover various reasons why a student has not registered for classes. These codes could include, transferring, homesick, medical, military leave, non‐responsive (to advisors attempts to contact), and more. It was felt that the new Change of Major form and procedure are working, but it would still be good to have an electronic version of the form. Either way, the process can only be efficient if the advisor responds in a timely fashion. An electronic form with the option of an electronic student signature, would be good for students who make requests away from campus. The committee needs to talk to the programmers to see how this would all fall into place. Bryan Barker will take Jean Bird’s place on the committee. V. CAGAS If you have students writing appeals, make sure they include documentation. VI. News from the Registrar’s Office 1. Data for SP15 (as compared to SP14) a. SP15 total enrollment is down by 145 students (‐1.3%) i. Note: FL14 enrollment had been down by 249 students (‐2.13%) b. SP15 overall Macomb enrollment is down by 101 students (‐1.1%) c. SP15 overall Quad Cities enrollment is down by 44 students, mostly graduate students (‐
3%) d. Positives i. Overall graduate student enrollment is up 68 students (3.8%) 1. Macomb graduate student enrollment is up 111 students (9%) 2. New graduate student enrollment is up 32 students (>16%) ii. New transfer student enrollment is up 75 students (21%) e. Retention i. FL14 to SP15 = 87.7% (FL13 to SP14 was almost 90%) 1. OAS = 84.7%; non‐OAS = 88.4% Note: These numbers were taken from the counts the day before the official Tenth Day numbers were taken and may be slightly different from the official numbers published on the Web. 2. Commencement Deadlines and Dates for Undergraduates/Graduates a. Week of March 2 – Commencement information postcards will be mailed to prospective Spring and Summer graduates. b. Friday, March 20 ‐ Deadline to file a graduation application in order to have name in the Commencement program c. Monday, March 23 – University Bookstore begins selling caps and gowns d. Wednesday, April 15 (1 – 5 p.m.) – Grad Prep Day at the Quad Cities Campus e. Thursday (10 a.m. – 2 p.m.) – Grad Prep Day at the Macomb University Union Concourse. f. Ceremony Information i. Friday, May 15 1. 2:00 p.m. – Honors Convocation 2. 5:30 p.m. – Graduate Commencement Ceremony ii. Saturday, May 16 1. 9:00 a.m. a. College of Business and Technology b. College of Education and Human Services i. Athletic Training ii. Bilingual/Bicultural Education iii. Elementary Education iv. Exercise Science v. Media Instructional Technology vi. PE K‐12 vii. Special Education c. College of Fine Arts and Communication 2. 1:00 p.m. a. College of Education and Human Services i. Emergency Management ii. Family and Consumer Sciences iii. Fire Protection Services iv. Health Services Management v. Law Enforcement and Justice Administration vi. Public Health vii. Recreation, Park and Tourism Administration viii. Social Work 3. 4:30 p.m. a. College of Arts and Sciences i. General Studies ii. Interdisciplinary Studies degree programs iii. Sunday, May 17 1. Noon – Quad Cities Honors Convocation, TBD 2. 1:00 p.m. – Combined Graduate/Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony, TBD 3. Early Warning Grades a. Monday, March 2 – The grading screen (GRRP) will open for SP15 instructors. b. Monday, March 16 – Grading screen closes at 4:30 p.m. i. In the evening/overnight Early Warning email notifications will be sent to students and reports will be sent to advisors. 4. Summer and Fall 2015 Course Schedules ‐ Now available on Course Search. 5. New Gen Ed Courses in WARD a. Donna has added the following courses: i. HIST 115 ii. HIST 116 iii. HIST 211 iv. GEOG 251 v. FL 350 VII. College/Area News – Council Members The tutoring website and app are finished, except for math. If you open the app and it is blank, refresh it. Julie Brines hopes to have the app go live this week. The application deadline date for most Study Abroad Programs is in March. Check their website for more details. There is a new Biology option (Environmental Biology) All students in the honors program have to take 3 honors gen ed courses. GH 101 may be suggested. ROTC headquarters is very specific about students taking the minimum number of hours per semester, and the ROTC Academic Planning Worksheet template has been updated to reflect this. Advisors need to sign this form. Charles will send a copy to advisors. The CBT Dean’s search is down to 2 candidates who will be brought in the first weekend in March. Candidates interviewing for Jean Bird’s advising position will have on‐campus interviews next week. VIII. SOAR Day 2 Tentative Schedule The advising portion of the schedule was developed by Missy Phillips, Sharon Evans, Caryn Morgan, Sarah Jewel, Chris Ramsey, and Michelle Yager. Two considerations had to be incorporated into the academic portion of SOAR this year. First, staggered lunch shifts had to be created because of the potential for major chaos if SOAR students, summer camps, and SOAR guests are eating at the same. Corbin/Olson’s cafeteria cannot accommodate those numbers without a staggered schedule. Secondly, Dr. Hawkinson wants every OAS student to attend their major meeting to help the student better identify with their major and to give the departments an early opportunity to embrace them. This needs to be done while still creating time for the OAS advisors to meet with OAS parents and students to discuss specific policies and procedures in that program. Both these goals were met in the general outline of the SOAR Day 2 schedule. It’s very doubtful the general outline will change before SOAR, however, minor details may be adjusted. The number of students taking the math placement exam will need to be reduced since only 14 out of the 650 who tested last summer, increased placements. This indicates that Boris (and the Math Dept) are very good at making initial placement decision. At the same time, the Compass exam is a PR tool since it gives a neutral voice about placement levels to students and parents. The Math Dept. has agreed to be more conservative and selective in deciding which students take the Compass exam at SOAR. Please realize the process of narrowing down the pool of students taking the Compass exam at SOAR is up to the Math Dept as it’s their program. In the event that students want to take the placement exam but haven’t been selected to take it during SOAR, they will most likely be allowed to have access to PIP (an online Placement Improvement Program) over the summer. Those students given access to PIP, who have completed the majority of the program, will be allowed to take the Compass exam the Saturday afternoon of move‐in weekend in August. An academic check‐in will occur in the Union Grand Ballroom. This is where students and parents will receive a briefing about the registration process, where students will receive their orange files, and when they will be dismissed to their major meetings. All major meetings will take place in the Union. Each orange folder will have a sticker indicating what major meeting room the student needs to go to. There will be an O‐Team student assigned to each major meeting. OAS advisor will not be in the major/program meetings as many serve students from multiple colleges. OAS will meet with parents and students prior to going to lunch and then will return to pre‐
registration. Everyone registers at 1:30pm on day two. Michelle is inquiring to see if the registration computer system can be adjusted to remain closed until 1:30. If this is impossible, advisors will be on an honor system to refrain from starting registration prior to that time. Michelle indicated she DOES NOT want to be the registration enforcer, but she will if needed. Hopefully, all advisors will understand the fairness of having everyone start at the same time. At Check‐In on Day 1, Honors, Music, and ROTC will have a table in the back of the Grand Ballroom. Study Abroad will be at the Activities Fair. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 10:10. Respectfully submitted, Debbie Carithers