Advising Coordinating Committee


Thursday, September 18, 2003

11:00 a.m. – Merrill Library 204

MINUTES

Attending: John Mortensen (conducting), Lisa Allen, Nazih Al-Rashid, Dorrie Barnes, Kathy Bayn, Peggy Buttars, Geri Child, Glenn Davis, Krystin M. Deschamps, Lee Essig, Penny Findlay, Ronnie Green, Fawn Groves, Susan Haddock, Tressa Haderlie, Hyrum Hall, Stephanie Hamblin, Ruth Harrison, Harry Heap, Joslyn Heiniger, Margaret G. Jaggi, Janalee Johnson, Peter Kolesar, Marilyn B. Kruse, Melanie Kvarfordt, Mary Leavitt, Rachel Lewis, Christine Lord, Jana Kay Lunstad, Susie Maughan, June McInerney, Cathy Meyers-Roche, Betty Murri, Wade Oliver, Tom C. Peterson, Karen Ranson, Deborah Reece, Mary Lou Reynolds, Marianne Rich, Sylvia Robinson, Terry Robinson, Carol Rosenthal, Isobel Roskelley, Lynn M. Slade, Tami Spackman, Suzie Stones, Rudy Tarpley, Maureen Wagner, Dennis Welker, Eric Worthen, Darin Young.

Informational Items

1. Leave of Absence moved to Registrar’s Office

All students who will be leaving the University, whether for a complete withdrawal or a leave of absence, should go to the Registrar’s Office. Edith Reimers has left USU, but Krystin Deschamps has taken a change of assignment and will be advising these students.

2. Freshman/Sophomore Survey

A Freshman/Sophomore Survey was conducted last academic year by the office of Analysis, Assessment, and Accreditation (AAA). John gave a copy of the results to each of the college advising representatives. The survey included many questions about advising at USU.

3. Lists of Currently Enrolled Students/Advisor Assignments

John handed out a third-week report of all enrolled students and their assigned advisor as indicated in SIS Plus. Advisors should make sure the advisor assignments are accurate. Changes may be made on screen 194, or corrections may be sent to ATS to update. Advisors should identify students who do not meeting GPA standard for their intended majors.

4. AP Credit and Residency

AP and CLEP do not count toward residency requirement, 60 credits must be earned at USU. Contact Ann Gibbons re: residency questions.

5. Clusters for Fall 2004

Next year students will be required to pay a $100 University Deposit. Students who pay this deposit by May 1 will be allowed to preregister for a cluster of 3 classes, guaranteeing their spot in the classes. Departments need to submit recommended clusters to John Mortensen by Friday, September 26. Cluster information will be sent to students along with the deposit information. Admitted students who pay their deposit and register for SOAR prior to May 1 may sign up for a cluster in advance, and later add to their schedules when they participate in SOAR.

6. Academic Standards Committee Follow-up

Students may only take a course up to 3 times. However, there is no means available on the computer now to enforce this policy. It was suggested that this policy be taken off the books, but the Academic Standards Committee decided to keep the policy and depend on the honor system for students to abide by the policy. Under the Banner system it may be possible to enforce the policy.

Another issue is that some instances there may be more than one course at another institution that equal the same course at USU. For example, one institution might have two different courses that USU will accept as satisfying English 2010. USU must accept both classes and count the credits toward graduation. However, the computer system will only allow one of the courses to count as English 1010 (in this example). A decision was made to equate the course with the best grade to English 1010 and the other course will be articulated as elective credit.

7. Advising Workshop Series

This series is geared toward professional development. The theme for fall semester is “Harvesting and Advisor/Student Partnership: From Prescriptive to Developmental Advising” and will be held in Merrill Library 204 at 11 a.m.

Sept. 25 – “Planting Seeds: Prescriptive Advising”

Oct. 23 – “Growing the Relationship: Intrusive Advising”

Nov. 20 – “Cultivating the Partnership: Developmental Advising”

8. Changes in Business Admission Requirements

Freshman Admission. Students may be admitted directly into the College of Business as incoming freshmen if all of the following conditions are met: (1) admitted to Utah State University; (2) submitted an admission application to the College of Business or designated a College of Business major on their University application; (3) achieved an ACT Composite score of 24 or higher; and (4) achieved a high school GPA of 3.5 or higher.

Admitted freshman students must first complete the following four courses, or their equivalents, with a C grade or better in each course, as prerequisites to College of Business courses numbered 3000 and above: (1) Econ 1500, Introduction to Economic Institutions, History, and Principles; (2) Math 1100, Calculus Techniques; (3) Stat 2300, Business Statistics; and (4) Psy 1010, General Psychology, or Soc 1010, Introductory Sociology.

Students Not Admitted to the College of Business as Freshmen. Students admitted to Utah State University who applied for admission to the College of Business, but do not meet the ACT and high school GPA standards, will not be admitted to the College of Business. However, they may be designated as Pre-business. This designation is for students who have not been accepted into any USU degree program, but plan on competing for admission to the College of Business as a transfer student.

Nonfreshman and Transfer Admission. USU students not meeting the freshman admission requirements and transfer students with more than 30 credits from other accredited colleges or universities may apply for admission to the College of Business as nonfreshman students. Admission is competitive and based on available space. An application may be submitted after completion of 24 credits of coursework, including the four courses listed above.

Questions regarding the College of Business admission requirements may be directed to Ruth Harrison (rharrison@b202.usu.edu).

9. Advisor Pictures for Advising Website and Display Case

We want to do a better job of publicizing who students’ advisors are. A member of the A-team may be calling to request an appointment to take photographs of advisors. This is voluntary, and pictures will be placed on Advising Website as well as in a display case outside the ATS Office.

10. Additional copies of the 2003-2004 Advisor Handbook are still available in the ATS Office (TSC 304).

11. The General Education Committee will be reviewing courses that are currently listed as exceptions to the policy for all students to take six breadth courses. The proposal is to remove the exceptions in 2004. If these exceptions are no longer allowed, departments may need to get some courses officially approved as breadth courses.

Discussion Items

1. PSY 1730 Modules

Carol Rosenthal discussed Strategies of Academic Success. Their office has developed four one-credit study skills modules: Listening and Note taking, Text Book Reading, Test Preparation, and Test Taking. Advisors may make a recommendation to students to take one or more of these modules if they are having problems, or they may refer students to the Academic Resource Center to see Janet Carter. She will register them (she signs them into the courses). If the student has already passed 1730 for 3 credits, they can’t take the modules for credit. If a student failed 1730, they could take 3 of the modules for credit. The Academic Resource Center monitors students’ progress. They have Center business cards available if advisors would like to have a supply on hand to give students to make it easier to refer them. The standard registration process will be used for modules and fees are the same as for a regular one-credit course.

2. 142 Screen Demonstration

Krystin Deschamps did a demonstration of the 142 screen (student specific articulation screen). If you have access to this screen, you had to have been approved by your Dean, and you can work on articulation for individual students. If an articulation would be applicable to more than one student, call Krystin (ext. 0977) so she can make the change to benefit all students.

Krysten discussed how to see the definition of a group. The far-right column of Screen 143 screen explains what group represents. Also, Screen 140 shows the descriptions of courses taken at other universities. You have to use 4 spaces for the prefix and 4 spaces for the number.

3. Changing Matriculations in SIS Plus

Glenn Davis led this discussion. He mentioned that one college has requested that they have the ability to change a major, minor or emphasis on the SIS+ system. Mary Leavitt discussed efforts at trying to save students time by allowing colleges to change majors on SIS Plus. Discussion ensued regarding concerns of a department losing a student as a major without notification. It was suggested that at first there be minimum access, only allowing departments to change a pre-major to a major in same college. It was also suggested that the accepting department make the change. This topic will be discussed further in the future.

4. Continuing Education

Vince Lafferty discussed changes in Continuing Education Office. Jill Long has accepted another position. She had been helping with recruitment and retention. These responsibilities have now been divided among staff members. They have requested an online advisor position be created.

All of Continuing Education and Distance Education can be counted toward financial aid, but year-long independent study courses cannot. They have been reluctant to have scholarship students take online classes since their department gets no money to pay instructors in this case. They do charge $135 per credit for undergraduate courses. The $135 is tuition without fees. It costs approximately $10,000 to offer a course online. Advisors can sign students into satellite or online classes over SIS Plus.

5. Proposed Changes for the General Catalog

There will be some significant revisions to the next version of the General Catalog. It will now be a yearly publication and given to a new students when they participate in SOAR. The biggest change is that course descriptions will be at the back of the catalog, alphabetical by prefix. Advisors strongly support this change. Other formatting and style changes were discussed.

6. Revision of SOAR Dates

There was a scheduling problem with some of the SOAR dates. After receiving input from advisors, SOAR dates for Fall 2003 are now as follows:

June 18 Transfer and Outdoor (advising all day)

June 21 One-Day (advising at 1:00 p.m.)

June 22 One-Day (advising at 1:00 p.m.)

June 23 One-Day (advising at 1:00 p.m.)

June 24-25 Two-Day (advising at 1:00 p.m. on June 24)

July 7 One-Day (advising at 1:00 p.m.)

July 8 One-Day (advising at 1:00 p.m.)

July 9 One-Day (advising at 1:00 p.m.)

July 15 One-Day (advising at 1:00 p.m.)

July 16 One-Day (advising at 1:00 p.m.)

For lack of time, the remaining agenda items were not discussed and will be included on next month’s agenda.

CALENDAR
October 2-5 National Academic Advising Association Conference Dallas, Texas

Thursday, October 16 11:00 - 12:15 Advising Coordinating Committee MLIB 204

Thursday, October 23 11:00 - 12:15 Advising Workshop Series MLIB 204

Monday, November 10 1:00 - 3:00 SOAR Advising (for students beginning Spring 2004)

Thursday, November 13 11:00 - 12:15 Advising Coordinating Committee MLIB 204

Thursday, November 20 11:00 - 12:15 Advising Workshop Series MLIB 204

Thursday, December 4 11:00 - 12:15 Advising Coordinating Committee MLIB 204

Monday, December 15 9:00 - 3:00 New Advisor Orientation TSC 336


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