Minutes of the University Advisors Network
September 17, 2014
9:30 – 11:00 a.m.
101 Flinn Hall
Members present: Steve Barth, Ed Black, Helen Doerpinghaus, Katie Ethridge, Art Farlowe,
Meghan Fields, Reenea Harrison, Rushondra James, Susan Jarvie, Loren Knapp (Faculty
CoChair), Melissa Lowe, Kara Montgomery, Alfred Moore, Claire Robinson, Jack Turner, Heidi
Waltz, Donna Watson.
Members absent: Jennifer Bloom, Nikki Knutson, Brian Shelton.
Guests: Julia Bellon, Jennifer Burr, Mary Anne Fitzgerald, Daniel Freedman, Mike Lampe, Aaron
Marterer, Ginger Nickles-Osborne
Loren Knapp began welcoming all to the meeting and announcing that the UAN schedule has
moved to meeting on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. Introductions were then made around
the room. Helen Doerpinghaus made a change to the agenda, removing the Orientation Review
as Bethany Naser was not able to attend. Loren then asked for approval of the minutes. Jack
Turner made a motion to approve the minutes which was then seconded by Steve Barth.
Loren Knapp then introduced Mary Anne Fitzpatrick and Ginger Nickles-Osborne to speak with
the group about the “Summer on Your Time” program. Mary Anne began by giving a brief
review of program and its success in its short history. In particular, she pointed out the
popularity of the program with our state government officials and their willingness to allow
state scholarship money to be used during the summer term. Another major milestone was
consolidating the various summer calendars of the past into a single summer term. One current
project is creating a Mutual Expectations document for students to sign when beginning a plan
to pursue an accelerated degree program. Approximately half of the current undergraduate
programs in the College of Arts and Sciences are ready to be pursued in an accelerated fashion
and Mary Anne is working with the other colleges and schools to identify additional degree
programs. Her team is also working on creating a website that can house information about
these available programs for undergraduates. The key is to offer many of the Carolina Core and
major-entry courses during the summer so that students are free to take the more specialized
courses during the Fall and Spring. If nothing else, Mary Anne hopes that the options provided
through this initiative has a positive effect on graduation rates as students will be able to take
on an experience like an internship for a term and still graduate on time due to the expanded
availability of course during the entire school year. She also talked about the possibility of
attracting more students to the university by promoting some of the accelerated 5-year
programs that exist or are in development. In similar fashion, some of the cognate/minor
institutes that have been developed, such as in Retail and Business are very attractive to
students.
Mary Anne Fitzpatrick then asked for feedback on the summer from the group. Helen
Doerpinghaus commented on how much it means for the university to be offering a full-fledge
summer term. Helen also pointed out how the process of developing On Your Time showed us
that it was actually Carolina Core courses that students needed the most over the summer.
Another outcome of the process is that Dean’s List can be generated for the summer because
now students can accumulate enough credit hours to qualify for the honor, according to Aaron
Marterer. Loren suggested that the representatives from each college/school here at UAN act
as the point of contact/advisor for these accelerated programs until the structural organization
of the initiative is settled. Rushondra James asked about the minimum enrollment
requirements for the summer and Mary Anne remarked how those requirements are a deanlevel decision, and Ginger Nickels-Osborne reiterated the suggested strategy of not offering the
unique courses over the summer but instead focusing on offering larger courses then. Susan
Jarvie explained how important it was for Engineering and Computing students to get their prerequisites courses and asked what the plan was to deal with the backlog of students who didn’t
get into math and physics courses. Ginger asked for colleges to communicate those identified
needs to inform course offerings. Mary Anne agreed and asked that colleges send a memo
estimating needs for the next term to accommodate any backlog as they hold money back to
address unexpected needs over the course of the year. It was suggested that there might need
to be a clearer system for communicating or estimating needs for seats in certain classes. Steve
Barth brought up that possibly waitlist systems could be developed that informed how many
students are in need of a course now or in the next term. Loren Knapp pointed out that Math
has a system that verifies a student’s desire to stay on a wait list and that this could be a model
that is expanded across more classes. Aaron Marterer pointed out the advantage of using a
system as opposed to a person reduces the confusion of finding/contacting that person.
Steve Barth then revisited the discussion from April regarding the change of major process and
confirming the correct contact for each college or school that should be notified when a
student leaves a particular college. That process of confirmation has not been finished but will
be done soon so that the online curriculum change form can be kept up to date. Aaron
Marterer suggested that colleges develop a generic email address that multiple officials in the
department can access to ensure these notifications are not missed.
In terms of the SARS implementation, Steve Barth passed around a handout outlining who is
using the SARS software on campus. Each college or school is utilizing the program to some
degree and we are well on our way towards all advisors on campus in the system. Steve also
outlined some of the current projects involved in the implementation process, including the
development of a web portal that can house the links students use to make appointments.
Steve projected the web portal so that all could see what it looks like. The group then offered
feedback and ideas, particularly on some of the supplemental resources linked to the portal
and Helen asked that a sub-committee form consisting of Art Farlowe, Susan Jarvie, Claire
Robinson, and Steve Barth to look at these advising resource links and develop improved
resources that can be added to the portal as we go. It was requested that the group present
their implementation plan at the October meeting.
Aaron Marterer gave several updates on Spring Registration. Many colleges have already
started advising and registration starts for the Honors College on September 29. These early
dates necessitates that Banner update the default term to the next term, in this case Spring
2015, so that advising holds can be released and registration can occur. Jennifer Burr
announced that regular undergraduate registration would begin November 10 and that student
time tickets would be posted October 6. Special populations will begin registering November 3.
Aaron Marterer explained that the Honors College registration process was a customized
process for entry into Honors classes only and that doesn’t impact the regular time tickets.
Susan Jarvie asked about the feasibility of registering for classes later though it was explained
that the restraints of the holidays and the end of the term make it difficult to fit in all of the
needed time tickets. Kara Montgomery asked if Honors students need to be advised by
September 30 and they do not. That registration process is separate and priority registration
students just need to be advised before November 3.
Jack Turner explained that he is getting many requests from students needing LIBR 101 to
graduate so they have created a new section of the class. Registration for the class needs
special permission and Jack will need verification from the college offices to enroll students in
the course.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:04am.