Advising Coordinating Committee


Thursday, November 14, 2002

MINUTES

Attending: John Mortensen (conducting), Aaron Andersen, Arsenath
Hartman, Brian Evans, Brigham City Extension, Carol Sainsbury, Cathy
Meyers Roche, Christine Lord, Cindy Moulton, Dan Hubert, Dan Peterson,
Darcie Peterson, Ephraim Extension, Fawn Groves, Isobel Roskelley, Jan
Pichette, Jill Hoffmann, Karen, Bindrup, Karen Ranson, Kathy Bayn,
Krystin Deschamps, Marie Dinger, Marilyn B. Kruse, MaryLou Reynolds,
Maureen Wagner, Peter Kolesar, Price Extension, Rachel Lewis, Roosevelt
Extension, Rudy Tarpley, Ruth Harrison, Salt Lake City Extension, Sheri
Noble, Stephanie Hamblin, Susie Maughan, Suzie Stones, Terry Robinson,
Tressa Haderlie, Trudy Hess, and Wade Oliver.

*Degree Audit Update - Krystin Deschamps
A consultant has recently reviewed the new degree audit system to make
it more user friendly. The system has almost been completed for the
College of Science and the College of Business. The next undertaking
will probably be the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.
The goal is to have the degree audit system completed by the middle of
Spring Semester. This can only be used for students who are on the
semester system. Because of recent major requirement changes, students
beginning prior to the year 2002 may need minor adjustments made to
their audit by advisors. However, the system is expected to be quite
accurate with few exceptions. To help keep everyone updated, either
Heidi Jo Beck or Krystin Deschamps will attend the ACC meeting each
month to report on the progress of the degree audit system.

*Transfer GPA Standards by Major - Sue Shelton
The Admissions Office is asking that departments indicate the
requirements needed for a student to be admitted to their program and
the requirements needed for a student to transfer into their program.
It has been difficult for Admissions to figure what GPA each department
requires and how many credits are required for that GPA. For example,
one college may require 30 credits and a 2.0 GPA while another college
requires a 2.2 GPA and only 12 credits. An Undergraduate Default
Advisor List was given to all college representatives and will need to
be filled out and returned to Advising and Transition Services TSC 304
or UMC 0114. Please return the lists by November 26.

*Evaluation of ATS Services - John Mortensen
Everyone should have received an e-mail that directs you to an online
evaluation of Advising and Transition Services. This is a short
evaluation that asks you to rate us on our performance in several areas.
We would really like to hear your feedback. John has asked if everyone
would please fill out the evaluation by Thanksgiving Break. The
evaluation is available at: www.usu.edu/ats/evaluation

*Online Advisor Evaluations - John Mortensen
We have been receiving the advisor evaluations by e-mail and forwarding
them to advisors. The only thing ATS is recording is a count of how
many evaluations are received for each advisor. Currently, the advisors
are the only people who are seeing the results of the evaluations.
Reminder cards were handed out at the meeting, but the original is
linked here so advisors can make their own cards for the students. If you
have any questions please call 7-3373.

*2004 Tuition Deposit - John Mortensen
President Hall is interested in knowing who is attending Utah State each
fall. One proposal is that a $100 deposit be paid by May 1st to secure
the students a spot at the university. The money would go toward the
students' tuition. This is an issue that is still being debated and
will likely be put in place for fall of 2004. There are still questions
being raised about incentives verses penalties for paying or not paying
this deposit. No other schools in Utah have a deposit system and some
fear that a deposit may discourage people from coming to Utah State.
One idea for an incentive would be that students would automatically be
put into some classes. There is still a lot to be discussed before the
deposit is put into place. For Fall 2003, a screen will be created in
SIS plus that will indicate if a student came to SOAR, paid for housing,
accepted a scholarship, or received financial aid. Between all of these
avenues, we could determine if the student was, in fact, actually
planning on coming to USU. We are looking closely at a program put into
place by Appalachian State. They placed incoming students into classes
this past year. If USU ends up doing something like this, we would stay
in very close contact with many schools that have experience with this
type of thing and we would solicit continued input from advisors.

*Advising Extension Students - John Mortensen
Students at the USU extension sites are expressing a need to talk to
advisors from their different majors. An option would be to have
advisors stay after the ACC meeting and talk to students over the
satellite system. Also, two tier tuition funds could be used to pay for
advisors to rotate staying late so students would have someone to
contact for their questions. Many extension students are only available
during the evening hours and they need to speak with advisors about what
classes they can take if they want to eventually come to the Logan
campus. We could also make better use of the point-to-point video
system to speak with students. If you have any ideas or feedback,
please let John know.

*Proposed Second Chance Scholarship - Dan Peterson
Assistant Dean for Continuing Education, Dan Peterson, came to talk
about a proposed new scholarship for nontraditional students. Some
students graduate from high school and may not have the grades to be
admitted to Utah State. They fit the profile of someone whose previous
grades do not reflect their life experiences. They may have joined the
military or held a job of responsibility. The University is considering
providing a second chance to students who are over the age of 26 and
demonstrate financial need. Those who are identified to participate in
the program will be taught two classes in the Fall Semester for free.
Students who maintain a 2.5 GPA will automatically be admitted to Utah
State in the spring. This will be good for these students because once
they have been admitted they will be eligible to receive the Financial
Aid they need. Many details are still being discussed, but this will be
good publicity for the school and will be of much help to students who
want to come back to school.

*Proposal for First-Year Advising Center - John Mortensen
Many large universities have focused their retention efforts on
providing a better first-year experience. This includes providing
better advising for students, and attempting to reduce the amount of
runaround that students tend to encounter. One way to accomplish this
is to centralize advising during the first year by creating a First-Year
Advising Center. This Center would consist of one or more advisors from
every college who would advise declared majors. This Center would be in
close proximity to the Undeclared Advising Office. In planning ahead,
the ideal scenario would be to have an entire floor of one building
dedicated to serving first-year students. This location would house the
following offices and functions: New Student Orientation, First-Year
Advising (declared and undeclared), First-Year Experience, Academic
Resource Center, Career Exploration Resource Center, Testing Services,
and possibly a Transfer Student Resource Office.

It is proposed that money from the Second Tier Tuition be used to hire
new advisors for the centralized, first-year advising office. As part
of this proposal, each college will evaluate its current advising
structure. In addition to the new advisors, some colleges will assign
selected advisors to work in the centralized advising center. It is
hoped that the advisors in the centralized advising center will be
cross-trained and be able to assist in other areas as occasion requires.
The centralized center could be open for extended hours to serve
students attending Evening School.

Having a First-Year Center and centralized advising has the following
advantages:

1. All incoming students would go to the same general location for
advising.
2. Less runaround. Students who are referred to this general area would
typically be able to have their questions answered by an individual
within one of the surrounding offices.
3. Students who are unable to attend SOAR will be more likely to get an
advising appointment.
4. Backup. Advisors will be covered when they are sick or on vacation,
meaning that students may still be served, even though their advisor may
be away.
5. Professional advisors will focus more on general education, allowing
the faculty to focus more on major requirements, mentoring, career
advising, and graduation.
6. Tracking and student assessment will be easier to do in a centralized
system.
7. Improved training.
8. Improved communication flow to students and staff. There is no other
office on campus that consists of representatives from every college.
9. Ability to be open for extended hours. With a large staff, evening
assignments could be rotated.
10. Better employee morale. Employees would have cross-training, which
may make them eligible for more career opportunities that may become
available in the future.
11. Easier to evaluate the overall effectiveness of advising.
12. Sends a strong message to students and faculty about the importance
of advising and the first-year experience.
13. Forms. With representatives from every college, students would not
have to run all over campus to get a form signed.
14. Transfer students would go to this Center for their first advising
experience and to have their transcripts evaluated. From there, they
would be introduced to their college advisor.
15. Easier to follow up on students who were provisionally admitted to
ensure that they take the appropriate remedial courses.
16. If a deposit is implemented, centralized advising could facilitate
those who pay the deposit by registering them in a cluster of courses,
prior to attending orientation.
17. Centralized support and collaboration for first-year experience
programming.
18. Centralized support and collaboration for recruitment visits and
open houses.
19. Better resources for Undeclared majors by having college
representatives and Career Exploration in close proximity.

NOTE: This is a long-term plan. Current space is limited. The only
way to accommodate this plan is to have space allocated as future campus
construction takes place.

Technology in Advising
The ASUSU Academic Council is currently putting together a survey to
assess what students expect from an advising appointment. After
assessing these expectations, advisors will put together some guidelines
to inform students about the best way to access these resources. Many
of the information items can be made available electronically, thus
freeing up more time for advisors to meet with students who really need
to see an advisor. Mary Leavitt is working on a system for the College
of HASS for creating electronic files that may be shared between the
advising center and the faculty advisors. It is hoped that this project
can be expanded to serve the entire University.

It is proposed that money from the Second Tier Tuition be allocated to
hire a computer specialist/webmaster to support advising.

The Technology proposal has the following advantages:

1. It is important that students be able to easily access information
regarding majors, career opportunities, types of jobs held by alumni,
etc. Students want access to information when they need it. This would
allow students to retrieve information when they want it.
2. Advisors would be able to set-up e-mail appointments for quick
questions, chat rooms where students could send questions for any
advisors, provide information for students to review prior to
appointments.
3. Virtual files could easily be shared across campus with all advisors
making information more readily available for student advising
appointments.
4. Appointments with advisors could cover more in-depth questions and
allow students to delve into more detailed concerns if much of the
information currently received in advising appointments was available
electronically.
5. USU currently has departments in Business (BIS Department) and
Education (Instructional Technology) with students who need internship
opportunities. This would provide those students with opportunities to
work with advisors to create the best information sites available for
students.

We have a computer-literate student body which would access much of this
information, if it were available.

John has strongly expressed his desire for input from students and
advisors in this process. He does not want to put a program in place
without a lot of thoughtful consideration. There will probably be a
meeting held in the future in which all the advisors can get together
and discuss the First-Year Advising Center. If you have any further
questions or comments please call Advising and Transition Services
7-3373.


NEXT MEETING
Thursday, December 5 at 10:30 a.m.


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