This message is intended for all undergraduate Primary and Professional Academic Advisors.
It is hard to believe that we are in the fifth week of classes, which means we are more than a third of the way through the fall semester! As such, I hope you have taken the opportunity to reach out to your advisees to ascertain how their fall semester is progressing; especially, our new first year students and transfers.
Also, I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you and update you on some of the activities upcoming as students study and prepare for midterm exams, rearrange schedules and begin to reap the benefits of the hard work they have so far accomplished.
- Faculty/Advisor Training
- Start@CU Early Alert Tracking
- OUA Website
- Midterm Grades & student Course Enrollment
- Five-Week Advising Guide
Faculty/Advisor Training
The Office of University Advising provides training for new and existing faculty members. Our website and Moodle page contain resources for new and experienced advisors. We have General Reference Resources, tutorials for new advisors, and resources for experienced advisors as well. In addition, we provide personalized training sessions for new faculty and current faculty. Requests can be sent to Cathy Avadikian, Director of University Advising at oua@clarkson.edu.
Start@CU Early Alert Tracking
For advisors this is a good time to check Start@CU and see if any advisees are experiencing academic difficulty. We recently updated our website to include a brief “Start@CU Basics” tutorial to get advisors acquainted with the actions available for them inside Start@CU. This is an efficient way to intervene with advisees and address situations affecting their studies. In the event that you cannot resolve an issue with an advisee, making referral to oua@clarkson.edu is a good way to make sure the student gets the attention they need.
OUA Website
Over the past several months we have been working on developing our webpage and Moodle site in order to provide helpful resources, training and information relevant to faculty advisors and the advisement of undergraduate students. The landing page of our website contains links to important college policies/events that impact advising. We also have a tab specifically for Faculty Resources and another for Student Resources. At the bottom of the page, you will find a link to our Moodle site which is currently under construction, as well as a link to the Pre-Health Advising Moodle page. In our faculty resources section we have organized our resources under “General Reference”, “For New Advisors” and “Advisor Training Materials”. If you have suggestions or comments regarding the resources you found or did not find on our site please send feedback to jriedl@clarskon.edu.
Midterm Grades & Student Course Enrollment
Midterm grade rosters are due online by noon on Friday, Oct. 9th. This means students should be able to see their grades in their myCU on Friday Oct. 9th or Saturday Oct. 10th. Be prepared to meet and/or reach out to your advisees regarding low midterm assessments following this period.
Starting on Oct.12th the Spring 2020 course schedule will be available. Advisors should be seeking out appointments with all their advisees before the student Self Enrollment period begins on Oct. 26th. Make sure that all advisees are making adequate academic progress in your meetings. If necessary, advisors can use this time to discuss student career goals and connect them with appropriate campus services as needed. (tutoring, counseling, accessibility, etc.) For a refresher on important conversations topics, see our Advising Weekly Guide weeks 6-10.
Five Week Advising Guide
Every five weeks, the OUA publishes an advising supplement across campus for faculty and staff called the “Advising Weekly Guide”. This supplement is designed as a quick reference for faculty advisors to see important advising dates, actions and conversations to engage in with advisees. Ideally viewed in Microsoft Word, this document contains many links to important campus offices aligned with advising best practices as well as freshman exam dates and contact information for advising staff.
Coming Soon
In mid-October, we will be sending out our final Advising Weekly guide for the Fall 2020 semester. Also take a look at our Advising Syllabus on the OUA website if you get a chance. It’s a great way to begin thinking about advising assessment.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions or concerns. https://www.clarkson.edu/office-university-advising-oua For general advising questions email, oua@clarksonFor technical or PeopleSoft related questions, email helpdesk@clarkson.edu
