Advising Coordinating Committee


Thursday, January 19, 2006

11:00 a.m. - EC 107

ATTENDING:

Advising & Transfer Services: John Mortensen (conducting), Michelle Bogdan, Becki Broadbent, Susan Haddock, Stephanie Hamblin, Lisa Hancock, Tracy Jones, Wade Oliver, Deborah Reece, Renee Tuke

College of Agriculture: Lisa Allen, Emily Hoffman, Betty Muri, Cathy Myers-Roche, Tami Spackman, Eric Worthen

College of Business: Peggy Buttars, Ruth Harrison, Isobel Roskelley, Joan Smith, Sue Young

College of Education & Human Services: Tressa Haderlie, Marilyn Kruse, Darcie Peterson, Mary Lou Reynolds, Sylvia Robinson, Denise Taylor,

College of Engineering: Kathy Bayn

College of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences: Susan Parkinson, Lynne Slade, Sally Peterson

College of Natural Resources: Kristy Hodson, Maureen Wagner

College of Science: Geri Child, Myra Cook, Janalee Johnson, Peter Kolesar, Karalee Ransom, Dennis Welker

Distance Education: Blanding (Mark Bradford, Laurie Francis), Brigham City, Logan (Vince Lafferty, Dee Dee Leonard, Heather Thomas), Moab (Sam Sturman), Price (Laurie Culbreth), Salt Lake City, Tooele (Brandon Boulter)

Disability Resource Center: Christine Lord

Multicultural Student Services: Fawn Groves

Registrar’s Office: Krystin Deschamps, Roland Squire

Student-Athletic Services: Shukria King

Student Support Services: Carol Sainsbury

Excused: Dawn Black

MINUTES

Welcome to Joan Smith, who has moved from the Mechanical Engineering Department to the Engineering Advising Center.

1. Connections 2006

Connections Week (August 22-27) will follow the same format as last year. However, a new component has been added to the check-in procedure. Check-in and USU Welcome Fair is scheduled from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Parking, Housing, Recreation Center, Student Employment, and local churches will be among those at information tables to field questions from students and parents. There will be 50 sections of Connections (25 students per section). This information will appear in the Fall schedule bulletin. Students will register by section.

The literature selection for this semester is “Warriors Don’t Cry” by Melba Patillo Beals who is one of the Little Rock Nine. Complimentary copies will be sent to each department within the next few weeks.

National Student Exchange

The National Student Exchange program is a cost effective method to broaden perspectives and explore new cultures. March 1 is the application and payment deadline. Advisors need to check to see that each class taken counts towards graduation at USU.

2. First-Year Experience Website

Two websites are up and running to explain the first-year experience. One is for students and can be accessed at www.usu.edu/fyi/goals.cfm. The professional website was designed to give information to other institutions and is geared for our colleagues. The web address is www.usu.edu/fyi/report.cfm.

3. USU Advising Conference 2006

Becki Broadbent reported that the conference will be held Tuesday and Wednesday, August 15 and 16. Requests for proposals will be sent out within the next few weeks.

4. Advising Awards

Congratulations to Dawn Black who received the 2005 Outstanding New Professional Advisor Award. The nomination deadline for Robins Award Professional Advisor of the Year is February 28, 2006. More information can be accessed at www.usu.edu/ats/professional-advisor-form.html. Any nominee can receive advice about putting together his or her portfolio by contacting the UATS office.

5. Recruitment Open Houses

The Provo Open House is January 25 at the Provo Library at Academy Square, 550 N University Avenue, Provo. The Salt Lake Open House will be held at the South Towne Expo Center, 9575 South State Street in Sandy on January 26. There is also an open house scheduled for Preston, Idaho on February 2. All events are from 6:30 – 8:30. For additional information, please contact the Admissions office.

6. Letter of Completion Guidelines

In order for USU to submit a Letter of Completion, all credits must be posted on the transcript. If a student takes classes at another institution to meet the criteria of the Letter of Completion, he must reapply to USU and send a copy of the transcript so that it can be posted on the USU transcript. John Mortensen will look into this to see if the process can be modified somewhat. It seems inefficient to have a student reapply when they have no intention of attending again.

Does BYU accept a Letter of Completion from USU? John will ask BYU at the state articulation meeting on January 27.

7. AP Credit for Chemistry and Physics

Breadth Physical Science (BPS) credit will now be awarded for scores of 3 or higher on the AP Chemistry exam, AP Physics B exam, and the AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism exam. See the attachment for details.

8. Report of the Academic Standards Subcommittee

USU Courses Required for Graduation: The current policy requires that candidates for a bachelor’s degree must earn a minimum of 30 credits at USU, of which at least 10 of the last 40 credits presented for the degree must be USU credits. The new policy states that candidates for a bachelor’s degree must complete at least 30 credits at USU’s Logan campus or designated center, or through classes offered by distance education through USU. A minimum of 20 of these credits must be in upper-division courses, of which at least 10 credits must be in courses required by the student’s major.

Provisional Admission Policy: Under special circumstances, a student who does not qualify for admission into one of the academic colleges or the Undeclared Program may be admitted provisionally for one semester. Students would be required to sign an institutional agreement with UATS, indicating completion of 12 or more graded semester credits with a 2.0 or higher GPA, and any other conditions outlined by an advisor. If the provisions are not met, the student’s matriculation would be closed and the student would need to reapply for admission.

New coding will be instituted to differentiate students who are admitted provisionally. The new General Studies degree does not replace Interdisciplinary Studies; rather, the IS degree will revert to its original intent. “Undeclared” students are degree seeking and are therefore eligible for financial aid.

Admission Policy for Home School: Students without a transcript from an accredited home school organization must provide a list of classes they have completed and a minimum ACT score of 21, or an ACT score of 19 accompanied by a grade of C on the GED.

USU E-Mail Policy: Communication to a University e-mail account is considered official, and students will be held accountable as being “officially notified” for any correspondence sent from a University representative to the student’s e-mail account. A student is considered a USU student if he is registered for classes; until then, University officials may correspond to student electronically via other e-mail providers. CC accounts are available for Continuing Education students. It is the goal to get away from corresponding to students through their private e-mail accounts. “Disturbing” messages are sometimes received when responding to such accounts; i.e., Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. The recent increase in SPAM on the USU e-mail accounts is being addressed.

9. Changes in Transfer Services

Students who transfer to USU still send their transcripts to the Admissions Office for admission purposes. However, they are then sent to UATS for posting and articulation. Jennifer Caines, formerly in Admissions, has moved to UATS to assist with this process. She joins Tracy Jones, Brandy Reeves, and Cara Allen. Our goal is to have complete articulation tables built in Banner by March 1 for our 17 top feeder schools.

Implications of the “To Be Evaluated” designation was discussed. Some advisors voiced the opinion that the notation is better than not knowing what is happening. General consensus is that 10 working days is sufficient to receive an answer from a department. After this time period, UATS should contact the department again. If a syllabus is needed for evaluation, it is the responsibility of the student to collect that information. Other suggestions for a quicker response time from departments were requested.

10. Banner Data Conversion Update – Associate Degrees & Articulation

John has been working with Networking and Computing Services to have associate degrees posted in SIS Plus to be identified in Banner. He is also working with them to have Excel articulation tables loaded into Banner. The goal is to have all of these things in place by March 1.

11. Articulation of Associate Degrees

Please refer to the list in the catalog and/or the Advisor Handbook. Any associate degrees that are not found on the approved list cannot be accepted as satisfying ALL General Education requirements. For any other degrees, courses must be looked at on an individual basis to see how they fit into the USU General Education requirements. The General Education Subcommittee evaluates and approves associate degrees for acceptance. A few associate degrees currently approved will be removed from next year’s list. The General Education Subcommittee will be making recommendations in its February meeting.

12. Viewing Future Terms in Self Service Banner

Advisors’ need to see Summer and Fall Semesters was accommodated, but the change caused serious financial problems. Monies are being charged to the wrong semester. This component of the system has been shut down until this problem is fixed; hopefully, it will up again soon.

13. Change of Major Advisor Assignments

Advisors indicated that there is a delay in the time it takes for the Registrar’s Office to process a Change of Matriculation form. Heidi Beck has asked her staff to change the advisor for a student when the new advisor’s name is found on the form. Otherwise, it will be up to the advisors to enter the advisor’s name in Banner.

The Banner team is working on a default program where an advisor can be assigned automatically.

14. Discoverer Viewer – Reports from Reporting Warehouse

John Mortensen demonstrated the reporting system that has been developed to access needed information. The Banner Reporting Warehouse Training/Access Authorization Request from must be turned in before you can access the reports. Using Viewer, advisors cannot add data, but can sort and change appearance as needed. For advisors with update access, please make a copy of any reports you use so that you do not accidentally modify the original report. It is suggested that you export the report to an Excel file and work on it from there.

The access request form is attached.

CALENDAR

January 26 Open House in Provo, Utah

January 27 Open House in Salt Lake City, Utah

February 2 Open House in Preston, Idaho

February 9 Advising Coordinating Committee

February 22-24 NACADA Regional Conference

March 9 Advising Coordinating Committee

March 23-24 Scholar’s Day

March 28 SOAR for students coming Summer 2006

April 6 Advising Coordinating Committee

April 21 Early SOAR for Fall 2006

May 11 Advising Coordinating Committee

May 19 Early SOAR for Fall 2006

May 21 Early SOAR for Fall 2006


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