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November 20, 2014 - UAAC Meeting Notes

UAAC MEETING NOTES

November 20, 2014

Present:  Brad Merrill (Admissions), Kevin Barrett (Asia Center); Erik Weierholt, Brandon Gorman (Athletics); Michelle Brooks (Atmospheric Sciences); Dave Gard (Biology); Jess Taverna, Amanda Miller, Anna Johnson (Business); Tracey Farnsworth (Chemical Engineering); Travis Ciaramella (Communication); Vicki Jackson (Computing); Merilee Anderson, Janet Goff (Continuing Education); Chris Burningham (Disability Services); Jill Wilson (Economics); Wendy McKenney, Sara Bachynski (Exercise and Sport Science); Amy Capps (Financial Aid); Liz Leckie (Fine Arts); Annabel Cho, Alisa Tank (Global Engagement); Shari Lindsey (Health); Erica Rojas, Michelle Taliaferro, Holly Pokorny, Aaron Reynolds (Honors); Taunya Dressler, Copeland Johnston (Humanities); Lisa Hutton (Languages and Literature); Leslie Giles-Smith (Learning Enhancement); Joy Velarde (Mechanical Engineering); Mary Ann Dresher (Music); Garrett Kachellek (Orientation and Leadership); Melissa Hall (Public Administration); Elizabeth Henke (Public Policy); Emily Johnson, Michael Santarosa (Registrar’s Office); Bobbi Davis (Social and Behavioral Science); Paul Humbert-Fisk (Student Equity and Diversity); Kristen Lindsay, Sara Hatch (Teacher Education); Maria Baldwin (TRIO); Sharon Aiken-Wisniewski, Leslie Park, David Eisen, Kelsey Nicholson, Shelley Nicholson, John Nilsson, Martina Stewart, Terese Pratt, Richelle Warr, Steve Hadley, Sarah Rollo, Heather Crum, Jen Wozab, Sean Crouch (Academic Advising Center); Lena May-Fraser, Kira Jones, Brett Runnion (Academic Advising Center / Fine Arts); Angie Gardiner (Academic Advising Center / Mathematics), Tamara Young (Academic Advising Center / Physics and Astronomy), Lisa Shaw (Writing and Rhetoric).    Total:  63

Kathy Hajeb presented and distributed information on the University’s Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, which is an interdisciplinary home for all student innovators and entrepreneurs – those who “want to change the world, and make an impact.”  The Institute is here to help them do this, regardless of what major they are in.  All programs are run by student leaders.  The Innovation Scholar Program (which is comprised of courses, extracurricular activities, and creation of an innovative, impactful experience and website portfolio) allows students to receive recognition at graduation (and on their transcript). The Lassonde Studios will be the new home for student entrepreneurs and innovators. Opening in Fall 2016, the building will combine 400 beds with a 20,000-square-foot "garage" for students to "Live. Create. Launch."  The website for the Institute is lassonde.utah.edu. 

Admissions – Brad Merrill

  • Application for Spring 2015 will remain open until November 30; transcripts are being evaluated as quickly as possible.
  • For registration holds placed by Admissions:  if the student brings in their document in person, the hold can generally be released immediately; otherwise, it may take about seven days.
  • Sometime next year, Admissions will migrate to a document management solution.

Registrar’s Office – Mike Santarosa

  • Current enrollment for Spring 2015 is 18,392 (down 2% from last year).
  • Clarification on these two e-mail addresses:  registrar@utah.edu  vs.  registration@utah.edu – these go to different places; most of the time, students and staff will probably want to use the second one (the first one routes to support staff).
  • Open enrollment for Spring 2015 begins on November 24.
  • The next Registrar’s Summit is on December 2, from 8am to 12noon, and includes breakfast.
  • The current supervisor of the graduation area will be moving to the Department of Economics; the position has been posted (Jill Wilson will move from Economics to Biochemistry).  Megan Johansen, the registration area supervisor, will go on maternity leave soon.
  • Thanks to those who came to the recent inservice on the petition process (one clarification:  “advisor error” never works as a valid reason when it concerns a graduation requirement).

Financial Aid – no report

Scholarships

  • An announcement was sent out regarding the Ute Indian Tribe and Native American scholarships (students must be a member of the Ute tribe to be eligible for the former); more information is available at financialaid.utah.edu.  (Note:  a recent Salt Lake Tribune article had incorrect information as far as the scholarship amount; the amounts are determined by a committee, on a case-by-case basis.)   The application is available online, and the award will be for Spring 2015 (application deadline is January 5).

Curriculum Administration – no report

DARS/GPS – Richelle Warr

  • A reminder:  those who need assistance with DARS should use this e-mail address:  dars@sa.utah.edu

Advisor Education and Development – Leslie Park

  • The next campuswide inservice will be on December 11, in 323 Union; it will feature the Preprofessional Advising Office team.
  • Please RSVP as soon as possible for the international student advising workshop on December 3.
  • The annual campuswide advising conference will take place on March 27, 2015, in the Eccles Business Building.  A call for proposals will go out in the next week or so.

Orientation –Garrett Kachellek

  • There are orientation programs tomorrow and on November 24 (for those starting in spring), as well as a first-year orientation on December 6.  The registration system should become available at 2:00pm on that day; if advisors can take screen shots of final schedules and send them to Garrett’s office, they will be checked to ensure there has been no data loss. 
  • Nomani Satuala is the new assistant director in Orientation; he will focus on orientation logistics and transfer student programs.  John Pantlik will begin as senior assistant director on November 24.

Transfer Student Issues – Terese Pratt

  • Ruth Watkins, senior vice president for academic affairs, has started a working group to examine the transfer process and see where it can be improved, etc.

Committee Reports

Mandatory Advising Program – Martina Stewart

  • MAP second-year students were selected on November 20.  Advisors need to mark the advisor meeting panel in PeopleSoft with the MAP 2nd-year meeting type so that students do not get a hold in March.
  • Undeclared students with 45 or more credit hours (and at least one prior term of enrollment) were e-mailed on November 24.  The e-mail encouraged them to meet with an advisor if they know what they want to major in, or to meet with a Academic Advising Center advisor for assistance with major exploration.

Advisor Awards – Angie Gardiner

  • This year’s award process will follow the same timetable as last year’s; nominations will be due in February, with the winners being announced at the advisor social.  It’s also planned to work on submitting a nomination for a NACADA award as well as a UAA award.

Marketing and PR for Advising – Taunya Dressler

  • The Committee’s first meeting is slated for December 15.

The Advisor Position – Jess Taverna

  • The Committee is convening today.

Assessment of Advising – Steve Hadley

  • The Committee will convene for a second meeting in a couple of weeks.  Qualitative data will be presented at the December UAAC meeting.

Appreciative Advising – Liz Leckie

  • The Committee has scheduled its second meeting; an important announcement is coming at next month’s UAAC meeting.

Sharon Aiken-Wisniewski noted that the current membership roster for all UAAC committees now appears on the UAAC website.

Continuing and New Business

UExplore Open Houses: Sarah Rollo reported that the fall series has concluded, and was very successful.  Student attendance has ranged from 26 to 101, with a total of 228.  Thanks go to those campus departments and programs who participated in the Open Houses this fall; advisors are encouraged to continue to refer students to these.  Those departments or programs who wish to participate in the spring series, please contact Sarah (srollo@uc.utah.edu); certain departments will also be contacted by e-mail about participating.

The Spring UExplore magnets are now ready (and available today).

Statistics for Retention and Completion:  Sharon Aiken-Wisniewski called attention to the statistics published with today’s meeting agenda; from 2012-13 to 2013-14, the fall-to-fall freshman retention rate increased, as did the six-year graduation rate; there is also a rise in the average total credit hours taken by new freshmen.  Martha Bradley, senior associate vice president for academic affairs, has noted the importance of advisors in effecting these positive changes and to the underlying processes.

AP Physics Update:  Tamara Young reminded the group of the following:

Three years ago, the Physics majors meeting decided that the AP physics exams should not replace any class (i.e., Physics C Mechanics is NOT equal to PHYS 2210, Phys  C E&M is not equal to 2220, and Phys B is not equal to 2010/2020).  That said, the official university policy is 3 credits SF for each Physics C exam, 6 credits SF for the Physics B exam, and otherwise, placement by the department.  The fact that Math, Engineering and Chemistry frequently allow the AP score to fulfill their physics requirement is their decision, they set their own requirements.

Second, the AP Physics B exam is being replaced with two exams, AP Physics I and AP Physics II.  The idea is that by separating the courses, students will have time to have labs be part of the course.  The exam does include test questions on the lab techniques and data analysis.  The official recommendation (approved by committee and the Chair) of the Department of Physics & Astronomy Department is that each exam should be worth 4 credits SF, 3 credits for the material, 1 credit for the lab.  If there are departments that require PHYS 2010/2020 and the labs, and they choose to allow AP credit to meet that requirement, AP Physics 1 is similar to PHYS 2010/2015, and AP Physics 2 is similar to PHYS 2020/2025.  Biology and Architecture are two departments that require those courses (Dave Gard noted that Biology does not allow AP credit).

Text Messaging:  Holly Pokorny, from the Honors College, said that it had come to light during Welcome Week that many students prefer to be communicated with via text (rather than phone or e-mail).  She asked those present:  how many use texting as a key method of communicating with students?  (Few of those present so indicated.)   There followed a short discussion of e-mail vs. texting, what students “see” with each method, etc.

Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Scholarship:  Kevin Barrett distributed and reviewed information about the scholarships (federally funded awards) available for students who wish to study any of a specified group of languages and related area studies.  These carry a stipend as well as up to $10,000 (for undergraduates) in tuition awards; the scholarship is also available to graduate students.  These scholarships will be available for the next four years.  More information can be found at latin-american-studies.utah.edu/flas and at asia-center.utah.edu/flas.  The deadline for application is January 30. 

Other Items:

Leslie Giles-Smith noted that the ED PS 2600 course has openings for Spring 2015.  The Learning Enhancement Program is engaged in a discussion about rebranding; an online survey is being sent out, and advisors are encouraged to forward the link to students, as their feedback is desired as well.

Tutoring – there is now a drop-in center in the Marriott Library (in addition to the one at the Heritage Center).  The Tutoring Center website (http://tutoringcenter.utah.edu/) has been enhanced.

Blake Perez distributed information about the FCS 5964 course, to be taught in spring. This Community Engaged Learning (CEL) class offers students a coordinated opportunity to participate in a national program (VITA) to assist people in preparing their income taxes.

Rick Ernst announced that the CHEM 1010 class (intended for nonmajors) is being “resurrected” by instructor Laya Kesner.

Bobbi Davis called attention to the eight courses listed on today’s agenda; for more information, e-mail her at bobbi.davis@utah.edu

Sharon Aiken-Wisniewski noted the new UGS 2050 course (Making Noise:  Sound Art and Digital Media), taught by University Professor Erik Brunvand.

Tip of the Month:  The Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) ties to the Acalog (the online University catalogue), and a catalog year, for each major and degree program.  It reflects what is in the specific catalog year.  Therefore, DARS is updated for each catalog year based on the Acalog product.

THE Next UAAC meeting IS SCHEDULED FOR

THURSDAY, december 18 at 2:00pm IN AEB, ROOM 320

Last Updated: 8/21/23