Council of Academic Advisors Wednesday, September 21, 2011 10:30 AM, Union Board Room Present: Althea Alton (LAS), Jane Coplan (UAASC), Sue Dagit (Registrar’s Office), Stacy Dorsett (COEHS), Jennifer Grimm (Communications), Molly Homer (Honor’s College), Ember Keithley (CBT), Patty Mason (Admissions), Kim McDaniel (Study Abroad), Candace McLaughlin (UAASC), Lisa Melz‐Jennings (Athletics), Kathy Meyers (SAPSC and VRC), Caryn Morgan (CAS), Russ Morgan (CAS), Kelly Morris (UAASC), Julie O’Brien (UAASC), Chris Ramsey (CBT), Shannon Reed (LAS), Jennifer Sandrik‐Rubio (Physical Sciences), Theo Schultz (Pre‐Nursing), Patrick Stout (Broadcasting), Michelle Terry (CBT Rep), Jennifer Tibbitts (BA/BGS), Tammy Wilson (COEHS) Thanks was extended to Ember Keithley for chairing the last COAA meeting Patrick Stout will be the second rep from the College of Fine Arts and Communciation with voting rights I.
Transfer Evaluation Changes – McLaughlin These changes put more responsibility on advisors to see if students need placement testing. Patty will send a copy of the mailings sent to transfer students and once received Candace will send via e‐
mail to advisors. Evaluations are now processed as students are accepted. There is currently a backlog because admissions can accept more students than can be evaluated in a day. If the student is a Fall 2012 matric, a note will be sent to the student saying their fall grades and spring schedule are needed. Once received, the accept packet of information will be sent. They are now doing onsite evaluations and admissions where they accept transcripts and do evaluations on the spot. Patty and Tishly spent a day at Black Hawk, evaluating and accepting 26 students. Some were interested in the Quad City campus and others the Macomb one. The majority were LEJA majors. The Transfer Center is up, running, and doing well. An announcement about the facility will be made at a later date. The Center is located at 103 Sherman Hall. Students still need to see an admissions counselor, but they can go there for transfer questions. The Center doesn’t have enough staff to do evaluations for someone who wants to see what will transfer. For those students, it is best to apply and be accepted and then their transcripts will be evaluated. Updated evaluations are sent to the students with a copy to the advisor. Once a transcript from a school is evaluated, it will be loaded on U‐Select. U‐Select Training will be rescheduled for a later date. If students are planning their spring schedules at a community college, they can go on STARS and run an articulation to see what courses they could take that will transfer to WIU. II. Mailing and Agenda for November 30th Program ‐ McLaughlin A copy of the confirmation mailing sent to new spring freshmen and transfer students about the November 30th program and a tentative agenda were distributed. Sarah will start mailing these out the middle of October. Stipes 309, 312, and 327 have classes scheduled and will not be available for registration. Shannon will let Stipes 307 be used, but not Stipes 331. Candace will check with Boris about using the Stipes 216 computer lab. Debbie will check with the COEHS Dean’s Office about using the Horrabin Hall Lab. Send Candace an e‐mail if you have any suggestions for rooms. The suggestion was made to cancel the program since we can’t seem to find a place to placement test and advise the students – but the Council felt this probably wouldn’t fly (: III. SOAR 2012 Dates ‐ McLaughlin Two dates held in reserve but not advertised, July 24‐25, will not be available next summer since a conference will be at WIU on those days. The New Student Task Force has suggested June 25‐26 as an alternate date, which would make 7 programs in June and 4 in July. It will be suggested to the Task Force that this date be opened and a later date in July be marked as ‘closed’ until it can determined if it will be needed. Since the program dates are already in print the new June dates would be in the computer to select and the July date could be marked as closed. Candace will send the 2012 dates around to the Council in time for responses so it can be discussed at the New Student Task Force meeting on Monday. IV. Standing Committee Reports The Assessment Committee has had its first meeting and Julie was selected as chair. They will send around the results from the last student survey. These survey results will be reviewed and the committee will meet again to talk about the freshman and junior survey. The Social/Public Relations Committee will meet before September 30. All standing committees have scheduled a meeting but may not have met yet. This will be a continuing agenda item and space for reports will always be included in the agenda. V.
CAGAS News – Julie O’Brien CAGAS is basically dealing with late withdrawal and adds. It was suggested that on the Degree Exceptions and Waivers form the statement be added that “you should contact your advisor with the results from your CAGAS appeal to see how the results may affect your class schedule”. Advisors would like a copy of the letter sent to the students as well. There is a screen that is updated with CAGAS decisions immediately following the meeting. It is possible this screen could be made available to advisors, if needed. Again, that would require advisors to go on the screen and check results. Students call the Registrar’s Office for results and the mailing may not immediately follow. No e‐mails are sent to students. It was requested that advisors be copied on formal letter sent to students. Sue will check to see if this is possible. If students do not follow‐up, they may not know results immediately. E‐mail notifications being sent immediately after the meeting to students has not been a policy in the past. MVS screens are updated first then letters are processed. The statement “you should contact your advisor with the results from your CAGAS appeal to see how the results may affect your class schedule” was also asked to be included on the letter. Results are listed on the GRUP MVS screen. Suzanne processes requests for access to this screen. It was decided that advisors would like to have access to the screen, as well as being copied on the letter sent to students. Sue will check on this. VI. News from the Office of the Registar – Dagit •
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VII.
Early Warning Grade Screen will be available Monday, 10/3 through 4:30 p.m. on 10/17. Freshman holds are on; transfer holds are in process. FLGI Requirement – if a transfer student intends to use high school foreign language credit to satisfy the requirement, s/he must provide a high school transcript. • Commencement: o 10/3 – Commencement postcard goes out to anticipated December participants. o 10/21 – Graduation Application must be in the Registrar’s Office for the student’s name to appear in the program. • General o Carrie Peters (front desk) is now working in Career Services. o Fran Hedblade is filling in temporarily. o Kim Stuaan (worked with Laurie) is now working in the Alumni Office. College/Area News Honors College – Molly Homer The SHS fair will be today from 4:00‐6:00 in the Grand Ballroom. Molly did not know how this was publicized other than in the e‐letter that was sent out. Candace asked that Molly let the students know that if they want to target undeclared students to please let UAASC know enough in advance so word can get out to the undeclared students. UAASC has had a table in the past, but was not contacted this time. It was suggested the date for the fair be decided in the fall. Even though officers aren’t elected until the last day of spring semester, a date could be selected and then that become a recurring date each year, regardless of elections. If a date was decided enough in advance, it could be announced at the UA major meeting. Another suggestion was that the concourse or around the purple couches be used as an alternate spot if a room could not be found. Some place highly visible would attract more students. Study Abroad – Kim McDaniel Students wanting to study abroad for the whole Spring 2012 semester need to make sure their applications
are turned in to the Study Abroad office by September 30. They also need to come in and see
Ehren about their options.
Several faculty-led Study Abroad Courses for Spring 2012 have been having interest meetings lately and
are currently taking applications. Three of the Courses have application deadlines in the next two weeks:
Disney World Communication Culture--application deadline September 28
Stories of India--application deadline September 30
Food Meets Fashion: Italy--appliation deadline October 3
A full list of the Spring and Summer Courses is attached. More details for many of them can be found on
our Faculty-led Programs webpage: http://www.wiu.edu/international_studies/study_abroad/FacultyLedPrograms.php.
Veterans Affairs – Kathy Myers The Center has received a $75,000 grant. Three new GAs have been hired to assist in the initiate. A $25,000 grant for student programming and activities has also been received. An alcohol‐free Meet and Greet Barbeque will be held at Horn Lodge from 5:00‐8:00 the Friday before Homecoming with free food for veterans and family members ages 13 and below; above age 14 there will be a minimal charge for all activities. They would welcome any idea for activities. A Success Leadership Team will be created consisting of instructors and advisors. The Center has been working with the VA Hospital in Iowa City and they have graciously agreed to fund a Rural Healthcare Grant. A veteran can go into the facility located on the 2nd floor of Seal Hall on Mondays or Wednesdays. Appointments can be scheduled through the Iowa City VA Hospital. It is hoped to expand this initiative to include veterans in the community. The number of veterans on campus is up 20% from last year, well above projections and it is assumed that this population will continue to grow. Veterans that have been identified are coded on the ADVG screen. Kathy is compiling a list of all veterans and is tracking all individuals. On WIU’s application, where it asks if you are a vet, reserves and those currently serving do not check the box because they do not consider themselves a veteran. Let Cathy know if you have a veteran you advise. Cathy will send a list of currently‐
identified veterans, eliminating ID numbers, to each advisor, listing their students. VIII.
Miscellaneous •
Music 190 update. Dr. Locke called and assured Candace that no one is required to sing solo in Music 190. If there is a group sing, no grading is attached to it and piano playing is also not required. •
Sending text messages through an online website for free was discussed. Kelly checked and the one we talked about at Council was only for US Cellular recipients. There is an alternative: You can use Yahoo to send an SMS message to any cell phone user. Go to COMPOSE and click SMS message. Put in their cell number click 'enter' then it will allow you to compose a text. Be sure to identify yourself because otherwise it will simply say it is from whatever your Yahoo username is. •
Since more students are coming to WIU with foreign language credit, make sure you understand the advanced placement option. FL 223 or 224 both count as humanities … be careful that you don’t put a student who anticipates getting advanced placement credit for one of these classes into a humanities class because he/she might not need one if credits are awarded for FL. The student would only need a Fine Arts class (if following the University Gen Ed). A more detailed email about this will be sent separately with info on how students actually get the credits applied. •
Tutoring information has been updated on the UAASC website. •
AP scores are coming in the 3rd or 4th week of the semester and they have to be loaded manually. Several students are currently enrolled in courses for which they are now receiving AP credit. It’s important to know that if they keep the class, the grade they get will stand and will be counted as hours toward the “retake” hours. Notices are sent to students earlier than to schools. Students need to be reminded to contact advisors when receiving AP scores so that classes can be changed, if needed. Candy will attach the AP chart to the minutes. It was suggested that something about this be built into a SOAR presentation. Students should explore appealing for a refund since the credits aren’t received until after the drop date. Advisors should contact Russ Hamm in Billings and Receivables to explore this possibility. This year’s AP scores were scanned after the 10th day. •
Alcohol Wise – the following email was received from Vivian Coeur re the Alcohol‐Wise program in response to my question about when holds would be placed. Completions have to be checked against the database individually and I have gotten midway through the M's between my other student appointments. When the database has been checked, I will send the names of those who have not completed it to Stacie Hunt and she will place all the holds at one time. I will let you know when I have sent the list to Stacie. Stacie's office sends a mass e‐mail to all students when the holds are placed so they are immediately notified. I can e‐mail you the list of holds. We will immediately begin updating the holds for those who have completed it in the last couple of weeks since the original download. NOTE: There will be a change in how I track the holds this year. I will keep the holds in place until the student has done the follow‐up if they are eligible to complete the 30‐day follow‐up by the time they are supposed to register. Students will have to complete at least Part I but they will not be prevented from registering if they are not yet eligible to complete the follow‐up. The good news is that many students have already completed Parts I and II. Advisors expressed concern about several things: 1. The lateness of applying the holds. They felt that holds should be applied as students are checked or at least in groups rather than waiting two – three weeks until all have been checked before placing holds. There was also the hope that these could be applied much earlier in the semester as was promised last year. 2. The change in procedures from last year concerning the follow up caused concern because many advisers have already told students that they need to do Part I, but that they can follow up with Part II next semester. Advisers were under the impression that holds would only be placed if students don’t complete Part I. 3. The question was raised as to whether or not the Alcohol‐Wise program could follow the Anti‐
Violence program and find another way for students to complete it rather than tie it to registration. Candy will convey all these thoughts to Vivian. •
Ember mentioned that she had discovered that forced English enrollments had not been placed in the computer. She notified the English Department and there appears to have been a mix‐up and some confusion as to which office was responsible for placing the forced enrollment. There has been a change in the Director of Writing position. Advisers need to be sure their students who placed into English 100 and haven’t taken it enroll in the spring, even if not forced to do so. Having no other business, the meeting adjourned at 11:55 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Debbie Carithers