Council of Academic Advisors Wednesday, September 7, 2011 10:30 AM, Union Board Room Present: Althea Alton (LAS), Michele Aurand (IS), Laurie Black (Registrar’s Office), Jane Coplan (UAASC), Sue Dagit (Registrar’s Office), Stacy Dorsett (COEHS), Jennifer Grimm (Communications), Moly Homer (Honor’s College), Cheryl Hutching (DFMH), Ember Keithley (CBT), Kim McDaniel (Study Abroad), Ehren Kuzekov (Study Abroad), Kathy Lisa Melz‐Jennings (Athletics), Meyers (SAPSC and VRC), Caryn Morgan (CAS), Kelly Morris (UAASC), Julie O’Brien (UAASC), Missy Phillips (COEHS), Chris Ramsey (CBT), Shannon Reed (LAS), Colin Rogness (BA/BGS), Jennifer Sandrik‐Rubio (Physical Sciences), Theo Schultz (Pre‐
Nursing), Patrick Stout (Broadcasting), Michelle Terry (CBT Rep), Jennifer Tibbitts (BA/BGS), Dana Vizdal (CBT Admin Intern), Tammy Wilson (COEHS), Jeanette Zotz (BA/BGS) Guest Speaker: Justine Johnson Due to Candy’s absence, the meeting was chaired by the vice‐chair, Ember Keithley I.
The 2011‐2012 Council members were introduced II.
Guest Speaker, Justin Johnson, Coordinator of Violence Prevention Grant and Program Justine handed out her business card so that anyone who had suggestions could contact her. Violence Prevention Grant and Program website address: ivpo.wiu.edu The orientation can be accessed by going to the Violence Prevention Grant and Program website. It will take approximately 45 minutes to complete the orientation. Login with your ecom address; you are able to log in and out at any time. Once you have completed the orientation you may return to this site to access its resources at any time. Please check out the website and provide feedback. In viewing it you will see what your students will be seeing and it is important to know what kinds of information are being dispersed to students. The orientation is geared toward incoming students (first semester) and transfer students. All transfer students, regardless of how many hours they have, should take the orientation. It was suggested that maybe this should be a FYE assignment or event, but that doesn’t pick up those transfer students with more than 12 hours. Viewing the presentation is a mandatory part of the grant and a mechanism needs to be developed to hold students accountable for viewing it. At the present time, there will not be a hold placed on student registrations (this may occur at some date in the future, but it is not known when or if), so some sort of accountability is needed. This year is the pilot year, next year will be the first full year. If a registration hold is approved it will go on next year and would go on after open registration for spring semester. The site will be available now for students to look at on a voluntary basis. The committee would like this promoted, but at this point it is not required. Everything connected with the program is ready to launch but they don’t know what the required mechanism is, so no Telestars announcement has gone out to students. The feedback about the site has been pretty good. The site was created in‐house through CAIT and is specific to WIU, listing resources on campus and in the community and utilizing WIU students on the video. There is data on the first page which doesn’t need to be filled out unless you are a first‐
year or transfer student, since they are tracking those populations. The language to use is being discussed. Since “mandatory” can’t be used at this time, they don’t know if “strongly encouraged” is powerful enough. They are looking for suggestions on how to make this mandatory without putting on registration holds. If you have any ideas, please let Justine know (298‐2242; JA‐Johnson3@wiu.edu). Advisors urged that if this is somehow going to be made mandatory this semester, they need to know as soon as possible. They are against making it mandatory for fall at this late date, but not against making it mandatory at some point in the future. If you have any questions, please contact Justine. III.
Review of opening week ‐ Everyone •
Advisors were concerned about students who are being accepted late and students still registering in the second week of classes. It was felt that someone needs to look at if we are doing students an injustice by allowing that to occur. •
Julie will ask at CAGAS if there is a way for advisors to be notified on decisions impacting their students, such as if their students are appealing or the outcome of an appeal. Without all available information about their students, it limits advisors ability to do a good job. •
It was felt that many students don’t understand how to add and drop classes during the first 2 weeks. A suggestion was made that a general Telestars announcement could be sent informing students, both new and old, about the way to add and drop classes. It should also be emphasized that adding classes during the 2nd week means that special permission is needed. Another problem is that teachers sometimes don’t understand how the process works. •
Education advisors have had Matt Clark develop a listserve that updates students, starting the Monday before classes begin, and then they send an e‐mail listing 2‐3 sentences about first and second week tips. They prefer a listserve instead of TeleStars because the listserve comes directly from the advisor. Student e‐mail addresses can also be downloaded from the registrar’s website and put in e‐mails. •
Sue will check with Suzanne about updating downloads year‐round, particularly during the summer as it gets closer to fall semester. This can be narrowed down to what is needed once Sue checks with Suzanne to see if it is possible. If is not labor‐intensive, it would be nice to have it updated daily. •
Anticipated graduation dates are now located in front of student e‐mail addresses. Could this be taken out of the e‐mail column and put in a different column since this was just recently changed. •
Students not being able to pay their bills because they haven’t gotten financial aid, thus affecting their ability to register for classes, was discussed. It was felt that financial aid is, in theory, available to pay for the current semester, not past semesters. •
Math 131 is in the “freezer” and can’t be picked up as a pre‐req unless it is in the catalog. Caryn will check about getting it out of the freezer and back in the catalog. Math 155 is in the catalogue but STARS does not pick it up. Wording in the catalogue needs to change to “128 or higher” so that it will be picked up. There has to be specific numbers in the catalogue in order to be recognized. •
The Transfer Center will start loading all transcripts for accepted students – not just students who have selected a registration option (as in the past). There are an enormous amount of transcripts and they are slow to be evaluated at the beginning of the semester. •
Many of the community colleges have added a new math class between 099 and 100. There are some schools offering Math 100; however, 099 is not a pre‐requisite for 100 in some Chicago schools. The City College of Chicago seems to be expanding and changing their intermediate algebra and it is not lining up with our Math 099 class. •
The increased number of courses meeting at unconventional times was noted. This can make developing a schedule a challenge for students and advisers. When a class meets from 10 – 11:15 on a TTH, this overlaps two traditional Tuesday/Thursday times (9:30 – 10:45 and 11:00 – 12:15). Another example would be a class that meets from 9:30 – 10:45 on a Monday/Wednesday. This overlaps two common MWF slots – 9:00 – 10:00 and 10:00 – 11:00. It was pointed out that some classes had to be adjusted due to uplinks with the Quad Cities. Another reason cited for the non‐standard times had to do with classroom availability. If you know of other class times that have been a problem, let Candy know so a list can be compiled. It seems that this comes up every few years and if it creates significant scheduling problems, we will want to at least bring it to someone’s attention. IV. Finalize Standing Committees •
At the Advisor Workshop, no one indicated they wanted to be added to the standing committees. The by‐laws require standing committees to meet once a semester at a minimum. Those who have indicated an interest in serving on a standing committee will be contacted to see when they want to meet and identify a chair. If you have an interest in joining a committee, or if you know someone in your office who would like to serve, let Ember know. The list will be sent out again soon. •
According to the by‐laws, chairs of standing committees have to be a standing member of the Council, but there is a need to share the workload on our campus. Also with the new PAA system, credit can be gained by being a chair of a committee and that would let points be available to everyone, not to just a select few. A point is already awarded for being on the Council, so there may be other advisers who might like to serve and get PAA points. •
An ad‐hoc committee may be created in the spring to address the types of things we would like to change in the by‐laws. If procedures change, by‐laws need to be changed. Committees and chairs, as it stands right now, are for 1‐year terms. V. Grade Replacement Clarification •
Advisors need to monitor their advisees use of the 20‐hour limit on retakes. For example, if a student needs to improve a major GPA by retaking major courses, he/she shouldn’t retake a bunch of gen ed courses and use up the 20 hours doing that. There will be an “R” designation if students have retaken the class. •
From Sue Dagit: Each time that a particular course is being repeated for grade replacement the course counts toward the 20‐hour limit. Example: 2011SP Student takes POLS 122. Grade = D‐ (Try 1) 2011FL Student takes POLS 122. Grade = C‐ (Try 2) C‐ = grade of record 3 of 20 retake/replace hours used 2012SP Student takes POLS 122 Grade = B+ (Try 3) B+ = grade of record 6 of 20 retake/replace hours used Course has been taken a total of 3 times (retaken twice) and cannot be taken for grade replacement again. Student has 14 retake/replace hours left to use. It does NOT matter how many times the student took the course prior to 2011FL. The counting (number of "Tries") starts now. It DOES matter how many times a course is taken beginning 2011FL and going forward. A course can be taken a maximum of 3 times. For each retake (for grade replacement) of a course beginning with the 2011FL semester, the hours count against the 20‐hour total allowed. Some at the meeting thought that as long as it was the same course being repeated, the same "3" hours would count again and again without accruing. That is not true, as in the illustration above. A student can only retake for grade replacement a total of 20 semester hours whether that 20 is comprised of 6 different courses (ex. four different 3‐hour and two different 4‐hour courses) or the same courses retaken twice each, as in the POLS 122 example above. Write down any questions you might have and send to Candy VI. CAGAS News Thanks was extended to Tammy for serving as CAGAS rep. CAGAS has been hearing appeals from students for overloads and then selective appeals for withdrawals and late registration. Faculty Senate has asked CAGAS to review their policies. Whether or not students have spoken to the instructor should be addressed in student appeal letters VII. News from the Office of the Registrar – Dagit A. Dates 1. Registration appointments for Spring 2012 a. Available to advisors now b. Can be seen to students on STARS September 10 and on STARA registration September 19 c. 2012 Spring schedules will be on Course Search September 19 d. Advisor Holds are back on undergraduate student records e. Open registration begins November 21 for new and returning students 2. Commencement a Commencement information postcards go out to December prospective grads Oct 3 b. Deadline for graduation applications to be in for name to be in Commencement program is October 21 B. Miscellaneous a. The Tenth Day Freeze is off. You may resume updating information in MVS for currently‐enrolled students b. If transfer students have not yet submitted a final transcript from their previous school(s), they are being placed on probation (advisors were notified last year … Sue will check with Sadie to see if they will be notified again this year) c. Be extremely cautious when e‐mailing sensitive (non‐directory) information to students!!! Pay particular attention to any attachments or when forwarding e‐mails you have received! C. Reminders a. Major Declaration Forms – be sure that both the former and the new advisors sign the form before submitting it to the Registrar’s Office (advisors prefer sending the form to the new advisor and then having the new advisor send it back to them for their signature) b. Graduation Application – if you are signing it for another advisor, please indicate whom you are signing it for. c. Please, only yellow highlights! We have been getting some documents highlighted in pink and it scans as solid black. VIII.
College/Area News •
The 2012 summer Foreign Language WYSE Program, which had previously gone to Mexico, will now go to Costa Rica for 3 weeks instead of 6 weeks. •
Larry Roller is retiring during the semester. His last day will be in early October. There will be a search committee formed for his position. •
Andi Potter is advising the Engineering Technology majors in the QC. Dr. Pratt is advising all WIU QC Engineering Students (in QC location). Chris Ramsey will be available on the Macomb campus to assist students preparing for the WIU Engineering program in the QC. Jennifer Sandrik‐Rubio will still be advising all Pre‐Engineering Students who are planning to pursue Engineering programs other than the WIU Engineering program in the Quad Cities. Dana Vizdal will be an Affirmative Action Administrative Intern in CBT Advising. IX. Miscellaneous – Council Members •
Ember/Molly shared information on the upcoming PAA Meetings 1. Monday, September 12, 2011, 2:30‐4pm in Malpass 180 (with UPI and Provost's Office) 2. Tuesday, September 13, 2011, 11:30‐1:30 in the Lincoln Room (Less formal ‐ UPI only; advisors can drop in anytime) •
Kelly shared that there is an instructor for MUS 190 who had originally required students to sing or play the piano. Kelly and Candy have been in contact with the instructor/department to clear up issues. Still being worked on. One difference between Althea Alton’s Bachelor of Liberal Arts program and the Bachelor of General Studies Program is that Althea’s program has no on‐line courses. It is also more “course specific” than the BGS major. •
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Please refer any students who are struggling with their major and need extra help to the TAP program in the UAASC. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:30 AM. Respectfully submitted, Debbie Carithers