Council of Academic Advisors Wednesday, June 22, 2011 10:30 AM, University Union Board Room
Present: Laurie Black (Registrar’s Office), Jane Coplan (UAASC), Stacy Dorsett (COEHS), Jeanne Gage (COEHS), Jennifer Grimm (Communication), Molly Homer (Honor’s College), Patty Mason (Admissions), Lisa Melz‐Jennings (Athletics), Caryn Morgan (CAS), Russ Morgan (CAS), Chris Ramsey (CBT), Jennifer Sandrik‐Rubio (Physical Sciences), Theo Schultz (Pre‐Nursing), Tammy Wilson (COEHS), Jeanette Zotz (BGS/BA) Guests: Mary Lawson (Financial Aid), Bob Anderson (Financial Aid). Sarah Lawson (Registrar’s Office) Jane filled in for Candy whose husband was having surgery. Bob Anderson was introduced as the new Director of Financial Aids. Two handouts were distributed, “Undergraduate Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy at WIU Beginning Fall 2011” and “Options for Academic Plan.” Much of the information below can be found in the attached handout. a)
The university’s policy on repeat courses does not coincide with the Financial Aid policy mandated by the Department of Education. If a student retakes a course, as long as they don’t have a passing grade, Financial Aid will continue to pay for the course. If they have a passing grade and choose to retake the course for a better grade, Financial Aid can only pay for the class one more time. Students may retake multiple classes for better grades but Financial Aid will only pay for each class 1 time. Please keep this in mind when discussing repeat courses with students. Even though a student may want to retake a course academically, they may want to consider how it will affect them financially. The Financial Aid Office will send a copy to Academic Advisors of the email that is sent to students. b)
New Satisfactory Academic Progress Plan will be place for the 2011 fall semester. Formula to determine the number of hours a student needs to complete to regain acceptable status of 67% completion is: 2 x attempted hours – 3 x earned hours = completed hours needed Example: A student who has only completed 24 of 42 attempted hours (57%) would need to successfully complete 12 hours out of 12 to be back in good standing (2 x 42) – (3 x 24) = 12 GPA calculator to determine how many hours required to obtain a 2.0 GPA is at: http://www.back2college.com/raise gpa.htm •
These changes have been established because of changes in the federal regulations, which are aimed to help students graduate. In order to make WIU compliant, policies had to be updated. The handout is a shortened version of the Financial Aid policy, which hopefully will make it easy for everyone to understand. •
Financial Aid can now look at cum hours attempted (including transfer, incomplete, and withdrawal hours, which could be of benefit to students). •
The calculated GPA is the overall one. •
Students who have been granted “New Start” by the University must be calculated for Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) using all grades. Therefore, the SAP GPA will not match the official university GPA for these students •
If a student does not meet SAP standards after each term, there is an appeal process for reinstatement for the following term. However, a one‐time SAP warning status for one term is automatically allowed and a student retains financial aid eligibility if the student earns 50‐60% cum hours and has a 2.0 GPA or is on Academic Probation or Academic Warning OR earns 67% cum hours and is on Academic Probation or Academic Warning (according to the Registrar’s Office). A financial aid warning is not allowed if a student earns less than 50% cum hours or is Academically Suspended. •
Double majors can’t be considered; only the first major will be looked at when a student is closed to the 150% limit of hours attempted. •
Second bachelor degrees are treated differently since they are a much more confined group because they know the classes they must take. There is a limit of 3 appeals. •
A student can’t be reinstated if it is determined the student can’t be on track or back up to a 2.0 GPA within the 150%. At that point the student is out of federal aid. Several students who have been here for awhile will be caught in that policy. •
Students don’t know that these changes are coming. Notices will be sent to students at the end of summer because they don’t want summer school students to be confused, as well as wanting to talk to advisors first. Students will be sent e‐mails and these news policies will also be put on the website. Advisors will be sent an e‐mail notification. •
Do not confuse satisfactory progress for financial aid with satisfactory progress for athletes. Athletes will need to adhere to both satisfactory progress requirement (NCAA and Financial Aid, if applicable). •
The adherence to policies will be stricter than in the past and “other special circumstances” will be tightened. Advisors will be notified so they can reinforce the policies. •
A discussion was held regarding the options for Academic Plans. Advisors felt they would like Financial Aid to determine the plan since they didn’t want to be responsible for inadvertently endangering a student’s financial aid in any way. •
Many science students need to re‐take a class to get a C or better to go on to the next class. Those courses will be included in the hours attempted and, if passed, in the hours earned. •
If a student files an appeal and wants a statement from the advisor, all that is needed is ‘I have met with the student and approve his/her courses for the term’. Janelle will send an e‐mail to the advisor if more information is needed. Financial Aid starts looking at students when they have 125 hours, and then they send warnings •
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I They won’t give over the 150% for a second major. If the student can graduate and chooses not to, they have graduated as far as Financial Aid is concerned, according to federal regulations. One option for these students is that they graduate and then come back for the 2nd major and reapply for financial aid. Election Results – Coplan Election results as follows: Vice‐Chair COAA – Ember Keithley (unanimous) CAGAS Representative – Julie O’Brien (vote 9 to 6). Candy did not vote so there was not a tie. E‐mail votes have been saved in a folder should anyone want to review them. II. Review of SOAR Thus Far – Coplan, et al There are 402 FYE seats available with 1,000‐1,100 students yet to register, which includes those classes that don’t count toward gen ed and are specific to majors in specific departments. Two seats per class will be opened this afternoon. This situation will continue to be monitored, but it is going to be very tight. This shouldn’t affect those who have failed their FYE class, since they should already have registered. Russ Morgan stated that 15 sections of A&S FYE classes have single digit enrollments and he strongly encouraged advisors to look at those classes since we don’t want to see sections not making. Courses that don’t count toward Gen Ed requirements don’t help anyone but students in those majors. If the nursing FYE classes don’t fill, Theo will request that they be opened up to all students. A reminder about orange folders: often students who think they are going to take the math placement test decide not to. Please look to see that no students have orange folders after the math testers leave your area. O‐Team leaders will change in July Policy for those to leave early: If a student feels he/she needs to leave early, that is fine. Have the student call and they can register for classes the following week. If an advisor feels the student’s reason for leaving is legitimate or is something compelling, collect the information and then the advisor can register the student at 3:00 after everyone else has registered. We don’t want students to gain an advantage over other students when they have left early. Please let Jane or Candy know if a student has left early. Usually Tracy and Vian like to know this, too. At 1:00 PM on July 21 in the Union Board Room, advisors can have a chance to make recommendations for future SOAR programs. At 2:00 PM on Monday, July 25, there will be an all‐ campus SOAR wrap‐up. Anyone wanting to participate in that is welcome. There was a problem with a student at SOAR who registered for classes on his phone after the encumbrance was released but before the actual registration period. At this point it is an isolated incidence, but if it happens again permit numbers may have to be used. III. Draft of Transfer Agenda for July 9th NSR – Coplan A draft of the July 9th Transfer Agenda was distributed.
IV. CAGAS – Tammy Wilson CAGAS met yesterday and is in the process of looking at appeals. The next meetings are July
21 and August 16 (an all day … that will be the one that Julie will be invited to attend as the
new COAA rep to CAGAS) V. News from the Office of the Registrar
No Report
VI. College Area News
• Arts and Sciences Another online section of Math 099 has been added. It is officially a 6‐weekcourse but it actually meets for 8‐weeks. If students get incompletes in their early warning grades, that is why. Ray Brinker is teaching it and he will make sure that Western Online remains active for the entire 8‐week session. • College of Business Andi Potter announced that all three of the majors she advises have undergone substantial curriculum changes. CSTM is now a comprehensive major and MET will now be known as Engineering Technology. Work has begun on updating advising sheets. All old sheets should be discarded. If you need a copy of the new updated sheet, contact Andi and she can send you a copy that can be duplicated. The minor is also undergoing change and she is working on a new minor sheet Information Systems is now a Bachelor’s of Sciences degree, approved at the IBHE level. This change will be reflected in the new undergraduate catalogue. There are changes in the grade point requirement. A Business minor is required (any business minor). Pre‐requisites for Marketing 327 have changed so they no longer match requirements for the Mktg minor. CBT is working to change this, but in the mean time, Econ 231 and 232 can be used for either purpose – check with a CBT adviser for specific situations. Dennis Devolder has been named Interim Chair of Computer Sciences, beginning July 1 since Kathy Newmann will be the interim Associate Provost. Michelle Terry will return on July1. Andrea has not had her baby yet. (correction – yes she has!!!) • COEHS Dr. Sadler will begin his duties as Dean of the COEHS on July 1. If you are looking in the fall catalogue for special ed, it won’t be listed as a department; it will be listed under Curriculum Ed. • COFAC Sharon Evans is the new COFAC interim dean. Dr. Sadler is the new interim chair of Broadcasting. Broadcasting has changed its major, which affects the minor. If you have a broadcasting minor, please contact Patrick Stout. Broadcasting 323 will be offered solely online, if offered. It won’t b e offered in the classroom again. VII. Miscellaneous •
Ninety‐seven freshmen and 130 juniors responded to the student surveys that were sent via e‐mail, which is not considered a good response. Responses form the survey will be discussed in the fall. Eight faculty advisors and 38 department advisors responded to the advising survey. •
New representatives on COAA for next year are as follows: General Studies: to be determined Fine Arts: Jennifer Grimm and to be determined Education: Stacey Dorsett and Tammy Wilson Business: Jean Bird and Chris Ramsey Honors College: Molly Homer UAASC: Jane Coplan and Kelly Morris Vice‐Chair: Ember Keithley CAGAS rep: Julie O’Brien Jennifer Sandrik‐Rubio and Theo Schultz will return as Arts and Sciences reps. There was discussion at the last council meeting about whether or not Ember could serve as both Vice‐Chair and the CBT rep. Candy reviewed the by‐laws and the pertinent passage is copied below: A. Non-voting members include the Chair, Vice-Chair, CAGAS representative if not an
adviser listed in Article V. Section A. and the Student Government Association
representative.
So the only position that can also represent a college/are is the CAGAS representative –
and that isn’t a requirement.
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Advisor Workshops will be held on Monday, August 15 (afternoon) for new advisors and on Wednesday, August 17, for all advisors. If you have any topic you would like to see covered, please let Jane know •
Each area should look at its flat sheets and/or any pamphlets or career information for majors and send Jane at least 1 copy of whatever is most current. UAASC GAs duplicate and keep these copies in a file cabinet so that advisors can give students information about various majors. Course planning information is good to give students when they want to declare, but initially what they want to know is information about the major and what they can do with it once they graduate. •
Andy Borst will be leaving the Quad Cities campus and coming to Macomb as Director of Admissions on July 1. He will serve in this capacity on the Macomb campus for at least 2 years. •
TAP‐B is being phased out. Since TAP advisors know that TAP‐E doesn’t always work with athletes, there may be a meeting called with athletic advisors regarding a program in which to put student athletes who are not ready to declare a traditional major. Respectfully submitted,
Debbie Carithers