November 17, 2011 Council of Academic Advisors
Wednesday, November 17, 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), Kim McDaniel (Study Abroad), Candace McLaughlin (UAASC), Caryn
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), Tammy Wilson (COEHS). Vicki
Walters (Biology)
1.
November 30 Counts and Final (for now) Agenda - McLaughlin
The November 30th New Student Registration Agenda was distributed, which included
advising locations. At the last Student Task Force Meeting Sarah Lawson said that at this
time last year there were 35 students registered and that the numbers had doubled by the
time of the program. Candy doesn’t think the numbers will double but that it will
probably reach 100 and is tentatively planning on using the library (3rd floor classroom).
If staggered correctly Stipes 307 would work, but it all depends on the number of
freshmen and transfer students who need placement testing. Check MVS for English
placement results if you need them before they get delivered. Students who take
COMPASS will have the math placement cover sheets with them with the placement
marked. Those who don’t will turn the placement sheets in so we can load the placement.
These math cover sheets will be returned after loaded, but it might be faster to check
MVS for the placement rather than wait for the paper copy – particularly since we will be
in different buildings.
It was decided that advisors or a rep from their area would be in their individual advising
rooms by 1:45 to meet the first group of students finished with COMPASS. Other
groups would filter in as they are finished testing with the freshmen finishing last.
There will be a UAASC staff person located at the west doors of Stipes and the entrance
to the Library to help students get to the correct area from math placements.
The day for transfer registration next year was discussed at task force. Suggestions were
to have it on a Saturday, Thursday, or Friday in order to perhaps eliminate the facilities
usage problems encountered this year. We’ve had a real problem finding enough
computer labs this year. Although an October date was suggested it felt that wouldn’t
work because of the criticism from the on-campus students about these new students
getting to register before them. It is difficult to have registrations in December because of
the weather. This will be a continuing discussion for next year. Be thinking of any
suggestions and bring them to the meeting.
2.
Retention Committee Report
Candace summarized some information from the Retention Committee. It was not sent as
an e-mail attachment because it included student names.
A new GA will be hired through SDO to deal with student retention. It is hoped that this
person, once hired, will get involved in identifying students who are at risk and then
provide some interventions. There is an initiative to encourage faculty to report
excessive absences, particularly of freshmen, to this person who could then follow up
with advisers and residence hall staff.
The Retention Committee will draft recommendations to present to the President’s
leadership team. As you have ideas, give them to the committee to address.
New Student Programs Committee:
Freshmen and transfers applications for fall 2012 are both up.
All 25 honor scholarships offered to incoming freshmen have been accepted and the
students are coming to WIU. The scholarships were offered immediately this time instead
of waiting for them to be processed which means we are locking students in earlier than
in previous years.
Retention rates and the Fall 2011 profile for the freshmen class can be found in the 2011
Factbook on the WIU website.
Tracy Scott talked about other things the Retention GA will do. This person could
coordinate how the student survey is done, tabulate results, and find out how to do it
campus-wide. There is also a need to identify students who don’t actually come to WIU
after attending SOAR and registering for classes. This person could work with Housing
to see who didn’t check in and then contact students to see if they are living off campus
or not actually here. There needs to be more communication between departments when a
student withdraws or doesn’t come to campus.
A question was asked if there was some way for professors of online classes to also
provide midterms grades to students or to let someone know when a student isn’t
participating in Western Online. The mid-term date for Distance Learning does not
necessarily coincide with the Registrar’s Office mid-term timeline so they are not in the
population that gets mid-term warning grades. CAGAS determined that online classes
would not issue early warning grades so any changes in this would have to go through
CAGAS and ultimately Faculty Senate. Students can access their grades through
Western Online, so it was asked if there was a way to mandate that faculty use that. One
problem with online grades is that students can see their grades but advisors can’t. The
other problem is that faculty cannot be mandated to use it. The early warning process is a
valuable tool for advisors for see students’ progress at mid-term. The Retention
Committee has been discussing this as well.
SGA recently passed a resolution mandating faculty to submit early warning grades. This
will now go to Faculty Senate. If mid-terms were made easier for faculty to complete
maybe that would encourage them to complete them. The COAA Campus Affairs
Standing Committee will follow-up with SGA about this, letting them know that COAA
as a whole supports their efforts and asking them if they would be willing to talk to
COAA about it. It would be good to have a SGA rep on COAA. A proposal may need to
be developed in support of this when it goes forward.
III.
Standing Committees
Assessment (Julie)
The next Assessment Meeting will be held at 9:00 on Wednesday, December 7, before
the COAA meeting. Unless Julie notifies the committee by e-mail it will be held in the
Board Room.
Professional Development:
The next event is Candy’s “last” lecture on Thursday, December 8, 2:00-3:30. Following
the lecture there will be a social in the Lincoln Room hosted by the COAA Social
Standing Committee. Candy promises to embarrass as many people as possible during
the “lecture.”
Campus Affairs
The committee met Monday. They need feedback on the Zimbra calendar. This has been
shared with members of the Campus Affairs Committee and the next step is to share it
with advisors. There are no guidelines at this time for including information on the
calendar, but they don’t want it cluttered. Currently included are registration dates,
CAGAS meetings, COAA meetings, anything advisor specific. Caryn and Theo are
going to be trained on the knowledge base and then can they can put information on it.
Theo will send the calendar to everyone and then advisors or their reps should send
information to be included on the calendar to Theo and he can include it.
Candy suggested that after this first year the by-laws be reviewed to see if some standing
committees have too much to do and should be divided into more than one committee.
Also a decision should be made as to whether advisers should serve on more than one
standing committee and what procedure should be followed to become a member. Some
committees will be more time consuming than others and it’s important that adviser’s
don’t spread themselves too thin.
IV.
CAGAS
CAGAS hasn’t been too busy lately. There might be more on this week’s agenda because
of drops. There may be some policies coming this week. There is no CAGAS meeting
during finals week. The last CAGAS meeting this semester is December 8. If students
need to turn in an appeal, it has to be in the Registrar’s Office by Monday at 4:00. E-mail
appeals can be sent to cagas@wiu.edu.
V.
Registrar’s Office
Open registration begins Monday, November 21
IC sections that had been restricted to certain majors will be opened
IC sections of the following courses will remain restricted: Eng 180, 280, 391;
Math 101; Univ 490; Kin 149
Answers to questions from the last meeting:
Undergraduate Tuition for ECOEE
For students who have graduated but want to return to complete the Outdoor Leadership
minor or qualify for the certificate through WIU coursework, the only way to do that is to
re-enter WIU as a second baccalaureate student with all of the papers (i.e., application,
major degree plans, etc,) that it requires. This is not a viable plan for students wanting
only to complete the minor or certification requirements.
Western Online
There is no way for the Registrar’s Office to check on the percentage/number of
instructors using Western Online or the specific online gradebook. If the Council wanted
to pursue that, someone would have to contact U-Tech to see if they could help. It was
emphasized that even if a student was using Western Online they may not necessarily be
using the gradebook portion of it.
Caryn will check on the percentage/number of instructors using Western Online
or the specific online gradebook.
Why is the last day to drop classes a Sunday?
This was determined by CAGAS and the last day to drop used to be Friday. It was
extended through Sunday in order to give students as much time as possible to
consider their options before the next “business day”. Consequently, the deadline was
extended to Sunday with the understanding that there would be a Monday “grace period”
for those who attempted to drop over the weekend but could not because of technical
problems.
Candy contacted Financial Aids about this and they said that moving the drop day
from Sunday to Monday would not affect the return of federal Title IV aid
calculation that must be done when a student withdraws. It was an issue back
when the last date to withdraw was the beginning of the 10th week, but it would
not be an issue for the 11th week.
This would need to be a formal proposal to CAGAS. Candy will mention to the
new director that this is an initiative that needs to be addressed spring semester.
The New Calendar (with the Fall Break) will begin Fall 2012
VI.
College News
Arts & Sciences
Students are unknowingly registering for Quad Cities classes when they actually want to
enroll in a class at the Macomb campus. It was decided it would be best to have the Quad
Cities campus restricted to Quad cities students on MVS. Macomb campus students
wanting to take a class in the Quad Cities would need to have permission loaded on the
PERM screen by their advisor. Sue will check on this.
CSD
Cheri Gipson is leaving at the end of the semester. Kate Pohlpeter will be doing
undergrad adv; Maureen will do graduate advising. Maureen will be leaving at the end of
spring semester. It is hoped that an announcement about her replacement will be made
soon.
VII.
Miscellaneous
•
Financial Aid document: Students who don’t make satisfactory progress with
financial aid need to sign a document agreeing that they understand what grades
they need to get in order to achieve good standing and again be eligible for aid.
The hours needed and the gpa required is outlined. Candy will check to see if
grade replacement is any part of the formula being used in the document.
•
A student taking Math 137 and then deciding to take Math 133 will get credit for
both classes (total of 7 hours).
•
Candy will check with Nancy Parsons about FYE counts. Advisors need to know
at what point more seats will be added. Every advisor has the ability to load the
FY2 permission so if a student dropped the fall FYE class, they can enroll in two
during the spring semester.
•
An FYE survey has recently been sent to those students currently in FYE classes,
students who are FYE peer mentors this semester, and faculty teaching FYE
classes. The survey can be completed during class time. The committee hopes to
have a good return rate. The committee’s primary focus at the present time is
reviewing the results of this survey.
•
The Gen Ed Council is currently gathering information about reading comprehension
in general education courses. A subcommittee has been formed to explore this area
because faculty members are concerned about the level of reading comprehension in
many gen ed courses.
_______________________________________________________________________
Below are answers to questions raised during the meeting that Sue agreed to check
on:
•
Online Courses in Early Warning Grading Population
o
This question was last raised in November 2009. Laurie Black looked into this
and reported back to the Advisors that when online grading was discussed in
2008-09, CAGAS was asked whether the population for Early Warning should be
"opened up". CAGAS did not approve changing the population and therefore
online courses are not included.
•
HUM (and ELEC) on Course Search drop-down menu
o Again, this was discussed in 2009 and has been on the "fix list" for AIMS as a
lower priority item, given +/- grading, grade replacement, etc.
o The menu pulls from a table file that is used in other places in the system and is
not as easy a fix as it might seem. We will see about moving it up the list after
some other projects are completed.
•
Preventing students from incorrectly registering for QC courses
o It appears that the best option discussed today would be to force registrants to
choose a campus before using Course Search.
ƒ The "Q" student designation is assigned according to majority of
registered classes, so that is not an option.
ƒ Defaulting to one or the other campus is not desirable.
o We can look into "forcing the choice", but I checked and there have not been any
CAGAS appeals as a result of incorrect QC registration, so is this really a big
problem?
Thanks,
Sue
____________________________________________________________________________ Candace will recommend that Ember put this on the agenda for the December 7th COAA meeting to see if the Council feels it is a big enough problem to “force the choice.” Having no other agenda items, the meeting adjourned at 11:55. Debbie Carithers, COAA scribe