COAA Thursday, November 15, 2012 10:30 AM, Union Board Room Present: Bryan Barker (UAASC), Jean Bird (CBT), Donna Bradford (COEHS), Jane Coplan (UAASC), Sue Dagit (Registrar’s Office), Jeanne Gage (COEHS), Jennifer Grimm (COFAC), Molly Homer (Honor’s College), Anna James (CBT Advising), Ember Keithley (CBT), Kim McDaniel (Study Abroad), Shelly Meier (Biological Sciences), Lisa Melz‐Jennings (Athletics), Kathy Meyers (SAPSC and VRC), Caryn Morgan (CAS), Julie O’Brien (UAASC), Missy Phillips (COEHS), Larry Pickett (Military Science), Chris Ramsey (CBT), Colin Rogness (BA/BGS), Jennifer Sandrik‐Rubio (Physical Sciences), Renee Simpson (UAASC), Larry Tingley (Admissions), Vicki Walters (Biology), Michelle Yager (UAASC) Guest: Dr. Andy Borst, Admissions Office Information from Andy Borst about Reverse Transfer Agreements A WIU Reverse Transfer Agreement has been signed with SRC and Carl Sandburg College. Scott Community College, Blackhawk, and Joliet Junior College have also expressed an interest. John Wood Community College will be the next local college to sign an agreement. WIU is in the process of creating about 25 new transfer guides that will lay out degree requirements and electives at community colleges in order to best prepare students for coming to WIU their junior year and establish new 2+2 agreements. The Reverse Transfer Agreement will honor 15 hours of gen ed classes taken at a community college and then 45‐50 hours at WIU. In reality, students would probably only need 6‐9 hours. Advising for a student’s associate degree is completely up to the student. SRC asked to use WIU space in return WIU could use space at SPC for the nursing and other programs. SRC will increase their Financial Aid package to include room and board (the current package only covers tuition). If a student is in a residence hall, WIU needs to know how many classes they are taking on campus. This agreement is a gesture of partnership that will give SRC an opportunity to increase their enrollment in Macomb and an opportunity for WIU to save students who are doing well academically but can’t afford to stay here. The degree to which this will impact WIU is considered low at this point but could grow in the future. The President’s Cabinet will eliminate the 1‐year reduction for those who come to WIU with an associate’s degree. If eliminated, WIU would use the extra money on a transfer scholarship or book award. Application will be automatic, the same as with Western Commitment but tentative until the student can show evidence of a completed transcript. When students come in with an associate’s degree, WIU will forgive some general education requirements that they would have taken if they were a regular freshmen. This becomes tricky when a student comes to WIU while still pursuing their associate’s degree. In this case, it was suggested to have the advisors develop two WARD reports , one reflecting the scenario in which the student completes their associate’s degree and one in which they transfer without completing the degree. It’s then up to advisor’s discretion on how to advise the student. On another topic, Andy felt the Western Commitment Scholarship is making an impact as a recruiting tool and has made WIU relevant in some of the Chicago suburbs. Last year 13 students who met the criteria applied and 10 of those 13 came to WIU. This year Admissions has accepted 64 students who meet the scholarship criteria. Western Commitment is budgeted for 25 students. The deadline date to accept the scholarship is December 15. Overall, WIU is down about 14% in applications/accepts but will catch up with freshman applications by December 1. I.
Approval of the November 1, 2012, minutes The minutes from the November 1, 2012, meeting were approved with the following correction: Michelle Aurand and Molly Homer were both present at the last meeting. II.
Freshmen & Transfer NSR ‐‐‐Michelle Last minutes details? Michelle sent an updated agenda for the transfer SOAR registration. Tammy will pick up for COEHS students and Andi will pick up CBT students. Molly will pull Honors students from the Springfield Room and take to the Fox Room at 1:30. She has a list of students registered for SOAR, but sometimes more students self‐identify. She will have a student helper part‐time at the Honors table. Advisors need to ask transfer students what classes they are currently taking as WIU would not have these grades. There are no screens that reflect dual‐enrollment. In the Admissions packet sent to accepted students, they are told to bring transcripts listing courses in which they are currently enrolled. An announcement about transcripts will be made during “Announcements” in the Springfield Room … “if you have taken any classes not listed on your transcripts please be sure and let your advisor know”. Math placements will be held in Stipes 331 and English placements in Stipes 313. When a transfer student finishes the English exam, and doesn’t need math, they will be sent to their advisor without waiting for the other students to finish. Since this is a new procedure advisors were asked to be patient and realize their students will be brought to their registration room as soon as possible. III. Advisor Registration for Students Needing Placement Testing ‐ Michelle Yager Michelle pointed out that freshmen should be strongly encouraged to come to campus for registration and be a part of the program. There is important orientation information they need to hear as well as taking their placement exams. Also, if a student needs to take a math class they can get into a course earlier by coming to an on‐campus registration event and taking the placement exam as opposed to a telephone advisor registration option and waiting a semester to take the test. Students do better in their college math courses when they take them as close to their high school math as possible. Registering before open registration on the 19th is an incentive for students to come to the November 16th Freshmen and Transfer Registration Day. IV. SOAR 2013 – Michelle Yager Schedule The word “draft” should be ignored on the SOAR copy recently sent. These are the official dates. In looking at the SOAR 2013 schedule, Michelle is very pleased with the schedule. She feels that administration listened to advisors’ concerns and a good compromise was reached. Student Life probably compromised more than advisors since they really wanted 5 weekend dates. Michelle also likes the new schedule as it helps UAASC prepare for individual SOAR events. UAASC does all the registration prep work leading up to SOAR and it is chaotic when events are back‐to‐back. The new schedule only has 2 back‐to‐back SOAR events. Transfer registration will be held on November 22, 2013. This is the same date as this year’s program….the Friday before the week of Thanksgiving . Evaluation Committee As part of the SOAR schedule, the Committee for New Student Programs (CNSP) will be looking to improve student and family evaluations. They want to ask better questions so information can be gathered in a more intentional manner. The COAA will create a SOAR Student Evaluation Task Force to review evaluations to see what information needs to be collected and how it can be asked in the most user‐friendly way possible. Evaluation proposals will go back to the CNSP for review before being finalized. It’s possible that student and family evaluations may be combined into one form so the same items are being reviewed by both groups. The time frame for the summer SOAR events has not been finalized but will probably look different from last year. The CNSP is strongly leaning toward a noon‐noon time frame in response to the lack of food service in the Union due to remodeling. No food service creates a big problem when needing to feed that many people in the most efficient way. If we go to a noon‐to‐noon format several items need to be considered: 1) Changing the agenda since 4 hours will be lost 2) Considering if SOAR is the best time for some agenda items to be delivered 3) Is it possible to expand the fall orientation and bringing students back to campus the Wednesday before classes? This may be a better time to address orientation items such as academic integrity. 4) Right now, there are no changes being made with the Honors Breakfast schedule 5) What needs to be considered if we move Math testing to Day 1 6) English placement will be determined by ACT sub scores. There is a growing trend to do more online placement testing. Of the eight peer institutions surveyed, all have discontinued giving an English placement exam. The English department is looking to use ACT and/or student selection for placement into ENG 100 or 180. Student selection seems to lead to a more accurate placement since students don’t want to be overwhelmed and are inclined to be more honest about their writing abilities. Ron William’s reported to Michelle a growing sentiment from the State legislators wanting to prohibit non‐credited (remedial) courses from being offered at 4‐year colleges/universities. This would mean MATH 100 would be the entry level math course. WIU would need to fully commit to offering tutoring resources and learning labs to assist students. Those who failed Math 100 would need to take their remedial math courses at a community college. If this requirement would go into place, Michelle hopes a partnership could be forged with Spoon River Community College which would allow SRCC faculty access to WIU classrooms so students could take their remedial courses on our campus. This proposal is only in the talking stages….no decisions have been made! Michelle will keep the group updated if more is reported. V.
Removing the Pebble in my Shoe ‐‐‐ Michelle Yager Michelle shared her thoughts about statements being made from many departments around campus regarding advisors. As Michelle was being introduced, she often heard, “Wow, you have the hardest group on campus to work with.” Michelle heard this statement from various departments and from people with all levels of authority. It appears others find it difficult to work with advisors. We have a reputation of digging our heals in the sand and not wanting to compromise. Michelle challenged advisors in the following ways: 1. Live and work by the Golden Rule – Treat others as you want to be treated 2. Seek to understand before being understood 3. Be watchful of the words we choose to use and how we choose to say them. VI. Standing Committee Reports Professional Development The committee hasn’t met but referred advisors to the announcement about the NACADA presentation on November 28. It is hoped all can attend. Campus Affairs and Public Relations The committee has had one meeting since the last Council meeting. The advisor listserve is up and running and everyone should be included on it. It has been changed so that when replying the reply goes only to the sender and not the whole listserve. The Professional Dress Clothing Drive will start shortly after Thanksgiving break and continue through the beginning of next semester. The committee would like to have everything disseminated before the Career Fair. They will work with Career Services about how best to distribute the items. Distribution boxes will be located in academic building. Assessment The Assessment Committee meets before each COAA meetings and is currently trying to assess answers on the Student Survey form. They are working on a possible revision of the Student Survey, deciding what to do with the evaluation data, looking at themes and comments, and then determining what information should go to what committee. Areas of the survey that need to be revised deals with the early warning system and tutoring; i.e. asking if students are using tutoring services and if not, why. Information obtained from the surveys about early warnings will be sent to the Provost office and the Campus Affairs and Public Relations Committee. Juniors and seniors knew about tutoring service, but only 30% were using the services. The committee would like to determine why there is such a big gap between knowing about it and using it. The committee will create a drop‐down menu and bring it back to the Council for discussion. Tutoring pages could be more user‐friendly. At the Nov 27 meeting we will discuss how to improve the the web page. Before that meeting, COAA reps were instructed to go to the tutoring web page and bring a list of ways you think the page could be improved. Julie will work on revamping the tutoring web page for next semester. All the information is there but it is hard to find and hard to navigate. She may insert bold headings over break but will not do a major overhaul until next semester. She might also be able to get an alias for that page and will check with Heather about it. Next topic the committee will start working on are the advisor evaluations. Advisor evaluations are important, but the committee chose to first focus on student evaluations because retention is so important. Currently, only freshmen and juniors take the Student Survey. The committee is considering having every student take the evaluation next year. The CAS Standard will be presented and voted on at the next meeting. It was encouraged that COAA reps take information to their departments and to ascertain advisor opinions. No discussion will be held on it again because it has already been sent and no comments were returned to Julie about suggested revisions. Awards and Recognition The November recipient of the ‘Advisor of the Month’ award was Ron Pettigrew from the BGS Program. There will be one more award this semester. November 27 is the deadline date for submitting names. Advisors can only receive the award once during an academic year. There were three advisors nominated the first month and this month there were 11 which means the nominations are picking up. Advisors will receive their nomination forms in order to see the impact they are making with students and colleagues. VII. CAGAS Report – Jean Bird At this week’s meeting CAGAS had 2 requests for gen ed substitutions or waivers, overload appeals, and late withdrawals (total withdrawal and selective withdrawal). The substitution waiver had to be broken into 2 parts, with one part approved and the other denied. Make sure students are very specific and definitive with their appeal. Overload appeals need to be submitted by good students, approval depends on what classes students are looking at, and CAGAS looks at GPAs and past history. One appeal was approved and one denied. Selective withdrawals dealt with personal issues. One New Start was approved. An exception to the final exam schedule for the athletics student banquet was approved. Although this was not discussed at CAGAS, it was felt that those students who are have a very low GPA are better off applying for New Start rather than doing grade replacement. VIII. News from the Registrar’s Office – Sue Dagit 1. Before advisors send Donna an e‐mail regarding FL/GI for a particular student please check to see if she has already addressed the issue previously. You can check the DAED (DARS Exception Display) screen to see if something is there. If she has already viewed the transcript and the student has insufficient semesters or insufficient grades resulting in no credit toward the FL/GI requirement it will be noted there. 2. Dates: a. Monday, November 19 – Open Registration begins for SP13 b. Monday, December 3 – Final grade reporting is available on WIUP c. Friday, January 4 ‐ Deficiencies for Fall 2012 graduation must be cleared d. Tuesday, January 8 ‐ Fall 2012 degrees will be conferred overnight and visible Wednesday. 3. Changing Staff – Mary Erlandson, CAGAS and Registrar Secretary, will retire at the end of December. Friday, Dec. 21, will be her last day. IX. College Area News Study Abroad Ehrin is still in Spain and will be back the Monday after Thanksgiving. For spring students wanting to study abroad, their deposit deadlines are this month and next month. If students are worried about classes closing, they should be encouraged to have a Class B contingency plan in place. Students doing independent study outside the US or internationally will be processed through Study Abroad. Have those students contact Emily for more information. Registration started today for President Goldfarb’s New York Theatre trip. Let Kim know if you are interested in participating. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 12:10. Respectfully submitted, Debbie Carithers