A Faculty Survival Guide Steve Klepetar : Mike Sharp: Advising Center Phone:

Advisors rock! And good advising makes a difference. Students appreciate the help they receive. Good advising saves students time and money; sometimes it can lead to real epiphanies (Mike’s word) in terms of career paths.

New Students / Context Advising and Registration Days NET Optional Hands on registration assistance is not guaranteed NEF Required Hands on registration assistance guaranteed Missing? Registration window Access code

The Registration Process at SCSU Students register for the upcoming semester by priority based on the number of credits earned. In Fall, 2010, registration begins on November 8.

Advisor Assignments Departments determine who advises Intended Determined by student intention Advising Center coordinates and assigns Declared Determined by major application process Records Office coordinates and assigns

Students who have not been admitted to a major must secure an access code from an advisor. This code is an arbitrary, six digit number. Its only purpose is to get students to meet with an advisor. Providing a student with this code without an actual advising appointment defeats the purpose.

Academic Advising Prescriptive A  S Developmental A  S Developmental – Prescriptive A  S + A  S =  Desired outcome Social Constructivism A  S + O (O=important others) Self Directed (Sharp) S

Advising We find it helpful to our advisees early to invite them to meet with us before the rush begins. We actually make three invitations. When we meet with our advisees, we find it helpful to have them print out a copy of their degree audit report – DARS. Students can access their DARS through the online system. You can easily have them do this in your office from your computer. This allows you to show students exactly where they stand in terms of the LEP, major and minor, total credits, GPA, completion rate, etc.

It feels great to know you are heading in the right direction.

The Online Registration System When you meet with an advisee, you could ask the student to log into the online registration system. Have the student change the semester to Spring, You can have the student check for registrations holds.

If there is one or more hold, students can take care of that prior to their registration time. You can also have students check to see when their registration window opens. Once you have completed the appointment, you can have students enter their codes to make sure you have given them the correct one.

Course Selection / Big Picture Major LEP (General Education) PESS 122 Minor UniversityElectives 120–128 total credits credits full load 45 upper level ( ) Upper Division Writing

The SCSU Liberal Education Program Students entering in Fall, 2010 and after are required to complete the SCSU Liberal Education Program. This is now the general education curriculum for all students except for those in the Honors Program (who will receive general education advising from the Honors Program) The LEP consists of ten goal areas Students must fulfill each of the goal areas through coursework or experience (in the process of being defined by the General Education Committee) Goal areas require either one or two courses In goal areas that require two courses, these must come from different rubrics (e.g. in goal 3 a student could not count two Biology courses to satisfy the two course requirement).

Liberal Education Program 10 Goal Areas 1. Communicate Orally & in Writing (2 courses or experiences) 2. Critical Reasoning (one course or experience) 3. Natural & Physical Sciences (two courses or experiences; two rubrics; one lab) 4. Mathematical Thinking & Quantitative Reasoning (one course or experience) 5. History & the Social & Behavioral Sciences (two courses or experiences; two rubrics) 6. Humanities & Fine Arts (two courses or experiences; two rubrics) 7. Racial & Ethnic Diversity in the U.S. (one course or experience) 8. Global Perspectives (one course or experience) 9. Civic Engagement & Ethics (one course or experience) 10. Environmental Issues (one course or experience)

LEP Updates The most up-to-date version of the LEP appears on the Records and Registration page, under Forms: ationProgram.pdf ationProgram.pdf

Special Features of the LEP Some courses count in more than one goal area. The limit for SCSU courses is two goal areas. However, transfer students might have courses that count in more than two goal areas. While double counting is fine, students must earn 40 separate credits in the LEP.

Students who use two double-counts, for example, might end up with only 34 credits in the LEP. These students would have to make up those credits by taking additional coursework in the LEP. Those credits may be taken anywhere in the LEP, even if the student has already taken a course with the same rubric.

A little confused?

Clarification The last point is a little tricky. This explanation might help: For any goal that requires two courses, students must take courses with two different rubrics. For example, a student who takes ENGL 184 in goal six, cannot use another English course as the second one for that goal area. However, If that student has fulfilled the requirements for each goal area, but has earned only 34 credits due to double counting, that student may select the remaining six credits from any rubric.

Example Say a student completes all ten goals, and in doing so takes SOC 200 for both goals 5 and 10, and ENGL 216 for both goals 6 and 7. That student might end up with only 34 credits earned in the LEP. He or she could take SOC 160 and ENGL 202 to reach the 40 credit minimum. No rules would be violated because that all ten goal areas would be satisfied and the student would have selected courses from two different rubrics in the areas that require two courses. The additional SOC and ENGL courses would simply get the student up to 40 credits in the LEP.

What a relief! Makes sense now.

Diversity Students must take three courses that have diversity status. All diversity courses are also in the LEP, and are marked as bold faced and double spaced. The diversity courses must come from three different rubrics. One of these diversity courses must be a Racial Issues class. All of the goal 7 classes are also RIS. Students who transfer a class into goal 7 that is not a RIS and must take one (unless they have completed the transfer curriculum elsewhere, or have earned an AA degree, or have 40 transfer credits placed in the LEP).

Transfer Credits and Diversity If a student transfers credits into the LEP (please note that only credits transferred into LEP count for these waivers), these waivers apply: 20 – 29 credits – waive one diversity class credits – waive two diversity classes. 40 or more credits – waive all diversity classes, including Racial Issues. These waivers are in addition to any diversity classes that may have come in via transfer.

Ready to go for Spring semester !