Advisor Meeting Preparations

The Advising Committee has prepared the following guidelines for undergraduate academic advising.

Best Practices:

• Have dedicated advising hours; increase availability during peak advising times.
• Schedule advising appointments to accommodate a variety of students’ schedules in relation to the academic calendar.
• Send students reminders about when they need to schedule appointments and encourage them to see all their advisors.
• Meet with current students at least three times per semester (recommend week 1, 5 and 10) to coincide with pre-exam time period.
• Require or encourage students to complete/update an academic plan including when they intend to take which courses and bring it to appointment.
• Discuss students’ responsibilities in advising such as preparing calendars and reading emails.

General:

• Provide arts and DLA advising in one advising session so that students do not need to make multiple advising appointments or see different advisors.
• Discuss unsatisfactory mid-term grade notifications, semester warning alerts, implications of academic probation, and refer to academic support resources (refer to Advisor Manual).
• Discuss undergraduate research opportunities, support systems, study abroad, internships, and other forms of experiential learning.
• Encourage engagement in the University and local community (e.g., clubs, student government, recreation, community service).
• Demonstrate that you care about the students’ academic success and be patient.
• Communicate regularly with students through emails about appointments and appointment preparation.
• Ensure that students have access to updates curriculum worksheets and information on departmental websites.
• Utilize departmental worksheets for arts and DLA requirements.
• Participate in advising workshops for faculty, provided by the University.
• Evaluate your advising and make improvements by seeking students’ input through appointment surveys.

Time-to-Degree/Withdrawals/Repeats

• Address time-to-degree by advising which courses need to be taken immediately and which can be taken later for proper progression.
• Review entire transcript to ensure students have not repeated credit for equivalent coursework. This includes courses repeated at UNCSA and TR/AP/IB credit (together with transient study).
• Inform students about possible pitfalls of changing disciplines (e.g., time-to-degree; tuition surcharge; financial implications).
• Discuss consequences of withdrawing (from a single course and/or the University) and repeating a course; help them to understand the consequences (e.g., time-to-degree; tuition surcharge; financial implications; unique consequences per college/department). Send emails regarding these topics as appropriate.
• Assess students’ progression toward degree.
• Have students leave advising appointment with a plan to enroll in the exact courses needed to graduate.
• Encourage students to consider summer school as a method to staying on track.
• Discuss plan for finishing before reaching 140 attempted hours (tuition surcharge).
• Continue to make appropriate referrals in relation to career exploration and career development.