Council of Academic Advisors
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
8:30 AM, Union Board Room
Present: Michele Aurand (Honor’s College), Laurie Black (Registrar’s Office), Jane Coplan (UAASC), Jeanne Gage (COEHS), Jennifer Grimm (Communications), Molly Homer (Honor’s College), Lisa Melz‐Jennings (Athletics), Caleb Maddox (UAASC), Caryn Morgan (CAS), Charles Noble (Military Science), Ronald Pettigrew (BA/BGS), Estelle Plewa (UAASC), Jennifer Sandrik‐Rubio (Physical Sciences), Theo Schultz (Pre‐Nursing), Michelle Terry (CBT), Phoebe Wilson (COEHS), Michelle Yager (UAASC), Kim McDaniel I.
Guest: Dr. Jennifer McNabb, Dept. of History Curriculum Changes Dr. McNabb presented a PowerPoint presentation and distributed handouts related to changes in history gen ed requirements As history classes now stand, they are too heavily focused on the Western world, sending a confusing message to students. Instead, they want to introduce students to a true world/global history instead of the history related exclusively to Europe, America, and a few other scattered areas. In order to rectify this and to stay current with other peer institutions, the department is re‐
designing their curriculum, streamlining 100‐level course offerings. History 125 and 126 will no longer be offered History 144 and 145 will no longer be introductory survey courses, but will become 200‐
level courses with different emphases. They will still remain in the multicultural area. History 115 and 116 will be new courses replacing History 125 and 126, with humanities, multicultural, gen ed, and FYE designation associated with them The major and minor options have been rewritten, so these changes do not affect history minors. For more information, please contact Dr. McNabb or refer to the handout. The department is committed to making positive changes. II. Centennial Honor’s Reception and Registration Update ‐ Molly and Michele  There will be a Centennial Honors Scholarship reception at 11:30 on April 12 in the Lamoine Room. About 164 students have been offered the scholarship for next year and all will be invited to the reception.  Last year advisors were sent a list of names of all who was offered the scholarship; however, some of these students may not be coming. The expectation is that approximately 50% will come.  Mailings will go out later today and next week (if you have students on the list, you will get more specific instructions on how to register students, the list of students, and honors classes for which they can register at the same time the student letters are sent). Letters are going out to Macomb students only since there is no GH 299 on the Quad Cities, but Michele is working with them on this; hopefully something will be in place in the Quad Cities next year. 





Honors students to be advised are divided alphabetically: A‐M will be advised by Molly; N‐Z will be advised by Michele Procedure: o English placements will be loaded into MVS by UAASC o Math placements: the same placement form as last year will be used and included in the e‐mail sent to advisors. When initially talking to students, fill in their math information and send to Boris or Caryn and they will determine math placement. o Students may be called anytime after advisors receive their lists; however, April 6‐10 will be the actual registration dates. In order to avoid multiple e‐mails about changing dates, each student will be switched to adv reg for 1 day. Contact Sarah ahead of time for each student you will be registering and tell her which students to switch to adv reg on which day of that week. Advisors will have a window of that day to register students then they will be switched back to their original SOAR program date at the end of the day. All students don’t have to be registered on the same day, but let Sarah know which day to open a window for a particular student. The Centennial Honors College would like all honors students to take Dr. Hardy’s GH 299. If both sections are filled, another section will be offered in the spring. This is a presidential leadership class that is not mandatory, but strongly encouraged There will be 5 FYEs classes and they would like all students to be in an FYE class or GH 101 They are strongly encouraging students to take a FYE class, leaving GH 101 open for on‐campus honors students. Theatre 101Y is a pilot program with a link to a U100 class. Students registered for Theatre 101Y will be expected to live in a living/learning community on an honors floor and will automatically be enrolled in a U100 class. Instructions will be on the sheet. All FYE honors classes will require special permission from Molly. It was suggested that Molly include advisor office hours on the mailing III. SOAR Updates – Michelle Yager 






Michelle and Jane are trying to determine the best way to get information to students and parents, since each student’s schedule will be different. Michelle showed folders to demonstrate scenarios. If students want to change majors, call Michelle. Major Changes o Bryan will change majors on the evening of Day 1 at registration o If students are at math placement and want to change majors, Jane will change them o If students want to change majors while Michelle is in the ballroom handing out folders, she will change them Do not send students to lunch with their orange files, advisors must keep the folders. At major meetings, each college is responsible for developing a registration and lunch schedule to give to parents. Dismissing students from Ballroom Students will be given their orange file when they first come into the Ballroom. O‐Team members will lead students from the Ballroom to their major meetings, dismissed by dots, eliminating the need for signs. At major meetings, OAS students need to be dismissed first 







Michelle will check with Sarah to see if 1‐2 representatives from each college can go to lunch with students and parents and if their lunches can be covered. A question raised was if advisors want to work through lunch. If approved, can there be reserved tables for specific colleges in the dining hall? Michelle will check to see if the app will be used again this year. There was a suggestion that students be given schedules according to major, color‐coded to dots on folders, or that a copy be put on their orange folders. A campus map will be put on the back of the gen ed handbook this year with a sentence on the front, telling students to “bring this to pre‐registration”. There was a suggestion that a map of the Union be put in student folders English appeal dates have been updated and will be included in the orange files A meeting will be held on March 9th to narrow down the letter sent in April. Also discussed will be which students will be allowed to test at SOAR. Michelle will provide feedback as it is determined. Math and Foreign Language Placement forms will go live on April 1st. Placement letters to SOAR participants will go out on April 1st. IV. NSR is set for Friday, April 17th Michelle will provide more information on this after her meeting with Sarah. V. Standing Committee Reports Professional Development and Networking Costs and activities for a retreat in the QC are being developed, with a theme associated with ‘Bridging the Two Campuses’. The tentative date will be May 18th. Two 15‐passenger vans are being reserved. More information will be provided as it develops Campus Affairs Advisors had lunch at Corbin‐Olson. Additional dates will be sent soon. There will be another lunch in the Union at the end of March and a Bay‐Hen dinner in Mach at 5:00. The committee is disseminating information aimed at reminding students to meet with their advisors. They are still working on book scholarship information. Assessment The committee is working on sending out the student survey. Awards and Recognition The announcement for the February AOM has been sent. AOM statues have been purchased and will be retroactive for last year and this year. The Provost has charged the Awards and Recognition Committee with selecting the advisor of the year from the pool of advisors who were selected as advisor of the month. His office is rewriting policies and procedures for that. The award will be based on advisors who received awards in (2014) September, October, November and (2015) February, March, and April. Technology The committee is still working with Angela Lynn on getting advisor screens for listing options of why students are not returning to WIU. Advisors should be receiving an e‐mail from Tim Johnson about ranking in order of importance future tasks for the committee. VI. CAGAS Report CAGAS has considered and approved the adjustment of the FLGI requirement to include courses from other institutions. It went through CIE on February 11th and will be presented to CCPI today, then to faculty senate. This will be retroactive, if approved. The minimum GPA requirement for LEJA majors is no longer a CUM but a GPA within the major. Majors will now be majors, not pre‐majors. This has to go to Faculty Senate, but CAGAS has approved it. It is hope to have this in the fall catalogue. They are not sure how the department will handle the potential increase in class sizees. Students on probation can now be in the major. The committee has been hearing appeals. It was stressed that appeals need good documentation. VII. News from the Registrar’s Office The Spring 2015 QC Honors Convocation and combined graduate/undergraduate commencement ceremony will be held at The RiverCenter in Davenport, IA on Sunday, May 17. The HC will begin at noon followed by the commencement ceremony at 1 p.m. A reminder...Friday, March 20 is the deadline for graduation applications to be turned into the Registrar's Office for names to be included in the commencement program. VIII. College/Area News Journalism will no longer be a part of English but will be combined with Broadcasting. The transition will happen before this summer so students attending SOAR will be advised by Michael Murray. IX. New Business It was suggested that a meeting be held outside the COAA meeting to discuss changes in minors and how that will impact current students. Michelle wants to include COAA information in her annual report. She asked that chairs of each committee e‐mail her accomplishments for spring and fall 2014 so that each committee is highlighted within the presentation There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 10:15 AM. Respectfully submitted, Debbie Carithers