Leslie Meyers from New Student Programs and Family Outreach (NSPFO) came in to talk with the Advisor Coffee Talk group about START, Welcome Week and U-Engage.

She shared that START is the orientation program for new students. There are 9 First Year STARTs that happen throughout the summer, mostly on the Corvallis Campus with programs in California and Hawaii. FY On- Campus START consists of a 2 day program introducing them to OSU and to their intended College as well as registration for Fall term classes. There are also 4 Transfer STARTs that consist of much of the same programing but over just a single day.

Welcome Week is the first week of school including the first few days of classes. It usually consists of opportunities at the University, College and School/program level to get to know other classmates, faculty and staff and resources on campus.

U-Engage is a set of First Year Experience courses taught by OSU faculty and staff. While there is a specific topic and typically an interesting question that is being asked, students also learn about opportunities and resources for their first year of college. U-Engage courses are selected from a pool of submitted proposals. There is no preference given to instructors or faculty with experience and it is completed for a letter grade.

Amas Aduviri along with his staff form CAMP and TRiO/SSS treated the advisors to a lunchtime talk about the programs that he oversees. Amas provided some history about CAMP and TRiO/SSS, an overview of the programs/objectives and some updates on new initiatives.

CAMP:
Federally Funded program
2 programs in OR (OSU and Chemeketa)
Focus on migrant farm workers
First year program
Provides: tutors, mentors, social activities, connection to the OSU Community, provides some financial services
35 student in program
Objectives:
– 86% of students in CAMP finish their first year in Good Standing
– 85% of those that complete their first year enroll in second year

It is the only support program for migrant workers and is aimed at breaking the achievement gap.

TRiO/SSS:
Provides services to low income and first generation families
175-190 students in program
Preferred that students start at beginning of year, but anytime is ok
Students are part of TRiO throughout their OSU career
Access to Academic Counselors, summer bridge programs, first year success courses, tutoring, student success workshops, study rooms and electronic rentals, grant aid.
Must be First Gen or Low income or have a documented disability and have academic need
Objectives:
– 74 % persist year to year
– 76% in Good Standing
– 56% graduation rate in 5 years

Updates:
Bringing online SSS STEM Program. Currently recruiting for about 120 students in the STEM fields-including social sciences.

TRiO Brochure

LeAnn Adams, Advisor for Prestigious Scholarships at OSU filled in the Advisor Coffee Talk attendees with the types of scholarships she oversees, how to help student find more scholarships and what LeAnn’s role is as the Advisor for Prestigious Scholarships.

LeAnn works with undergraduate students and alumni to help them find scholarship opportunities. She is not part of Financial Aid and is not a Financial Aid Officer. She advises students on competitive national and international scholarships and fellowships. She can also present to groups of students or faculty, work with students that are referred to her and is a faculty representative for many different awards. She asks that as Advisors, we send her any scholarships that we may know of or hear about.

Her presentation also went into detail about criteria for some scholarships and more resources to find outside scholarships. Presentation: Prestigious Scholarships Advisor Coffee Talk.

Melanie Jones, the former chair of the Academic Standing Committee (ASC) joined us to talk about what the ASC does and how advisors can help the ASC.

ACS enforces regulations on academic standing and have the authority to grant exceptions to the regulations, mainly requests for reinstatement. ASC is made up of individuals from academic partners across campus.

In this talk, Melanie covered reinstatement options including exceptions, the petition process, some definitions and some tips for Advisors.

During the question and answer portion, the question: “if a reinstatement would be granted for a student that had already applied for graduation” was asked. At the time Melanie didn’t know that answered but was able to follow up with the following response;

The Registrar’s Office confirmed that there could be some flexibility on whether the student had a graduation application on file. The firm part of that portion of the guideline is that the student is a senior by credit: 135 earned credits, and can finish their degree within 3 terms. This would need to be clearly documented by the advisor. Again, advisors can call the Registrar’s Office on this if questions arise around a suspended student that fits the guideline:

8. Policy Guideline – Students with Senior Standing who meet all four of the following
criteria may be granted an exception to the Reinstatement Rules:
a) they are candidates for graduation, with an application on file in the Registrar’s office;
b) they expect to graduate within the next 3 terms;
c) they have strong support from their Head Advisor;
d) they have 1.95 – 1.99 GPA with one term to graduate; OR
1.90 – 1.99 GPA with two terms to graduate; OR
they have been absent from the University for one year.

ASC Presentation: ACT – Academic Standing Committee

We had Regan Kaplan from Financial Aid talk with us about SAP and PACE. She started off with saying that they are “excellent at being confusing”. Most of what Regan talked about is included in the attached PowerPoint but there were some updates that are important.
– Link to SAP for Advisors to come
– Financial Aid is frozen at 100% refund deadline

PowerPoint: SAP and PACE for Academic Advisors 2015

Judy Dahlem, assisted by Mickey Reynolds came in to share a little about the world of Transfer Credit and how Advisors and Admissions can work together to provide students with the best transfer credit articulations possible.

Currently, Admissions does all of the transfer credit articulation by hand (may be changing soon) with International Admissions and the Bend Camps doing their own. The entire database of all articulated courses is housed in the Banner Page: SHATATR. They are also open to the public via our Single Course Search Tool, the Oregon Equivalency Page, and the Bacc Core @ Oregon CC and Hawaii DPP page.

Courses will not be evaluated to Writing Intensive or DPD courses – there is a transfer petition for that.

The rest of the time was spent answering questions from advisors – Judy wanted to follow up on one question specifically. IGETC  does clear the lower division bacc core requirements just as the AAOT does.

Questions and for any clarification around transfer credits, advisors can contact Judy Dahlem at Judy.Dahlem@oregonstate.edu

In this Question and Answer Session with the Academic Counselors from Academics for Student Athletes, Academic Advisors got and  the opportunity to hear about the challenges our Student Athletes face, how to best support them in balancing Academics and being an Athlete and what services are being provided to Student Athletes.

The Academic Counselors are there to help and advise students mainly on maintaining NCAA eligibility. They are also there to help student athletes achieve in the classroom as well as on the field. Student athletes need to balance practice schedules, games, class time and exams and this is many times where Academic Counselors start to enter the academic advising world.

One thing the Academic Counselors provide is Night Time Studying. It is a time for Athletes that are doing well, that are struggling and tutors to come together and work on the academic side of the equation. It has lead to an environment that fosters student athletes that understand the benefit of academics.

As advisors, we also invited the Academic Counselors to use MyDegrees when they feel it is necessary. The hope is that this will allow Counselors and Advisors to be a united front.

Academics for Student Athletes
3rd floor, Beth Ray Center

We were joined in the MU with Drew, Patricia, Clare and Mark who are all from various offices within ASOSU Student Services. ASOSU is the OSU student elected government, with the Student Services department housing services to meet student needs. On a daily basis ASOSU Student Services, advocates for students and is also a testing ground for new services and programs.

Programs and Services:
– SafeRide: On call service to transport student within the Corvallis area. 13,000 individual trips in Fall Term 2014 with 80% to/from campus

– Student Legal Services – Access the Law: Assists student with any off-campus disputes. Deals with anything and everything from breaking the law to landlord/tenant disputes. Sees 200-230 students a term. Can provide services from consulting to appearing in court. Also helps International students with VISA referrals.

– Office of Advocacy: Deals with on-campus disputes. Mainly counsels and outlines options to students in grade appeals and academic dishonesty. Also helps students (mainly international) understand and deal with any issues that may arise from cross cultural understanding.

– HSRC – Human Services Resource Center: Located in Snell 203 the HSRC helps students with Food and Housing Insecurity. Variety of services and the ability to refer students allows from 6500-7000 points of service every year. Food pantry, Mealbux, Insurance Subsidy and Emergency Housing and just a few services that are provided.

Overall, ASOSU is here to help and advocate for students. They also make it part of their charge to educate the campus community and to advocate on campus to ultimately change policy. More information can be found at the ASOSU website: http://asosu.oregonstate.edu/

SafeRide: http://asosu.oregonstate.edu/saferide
Student Legal Services: http://asosu.oregonstate.edu/book/student-legal-services
Office of Advocacy: http://asosu.oregonstate.edu/advocacy
HSRC: http://studentlife.oregonstate.edu/hsrc

This Advisor Coffee Talk we were joined by Tay Edwards and Earlee Kerekes-Mishira from Disability Access Services. They came to share a variety of information on what DAS does, to who they serve, how we can best work with them and what to listen for when talking to students.

Did you know that DAS served over 900 students in the 2013-2014 school year? And that those students are spread out over a myriad of different disabilities, from temporary to permanent and lifelong?

Tay and Earlee covered the Registration Process, some terms; including ‘Reasonable Accommodations’ and how student go about receiving their accommodations.

Tay and Earlee also opened the floor for the advisors to ask their questions.

Tay and Earlee’s Presentation: Disability Access Services

Breakdown of DAS staff and focus:

Martha Smith, Director – Graduate Students, Deaf and Hard of Hearing, learning disability testing
Email Address: Martha.Smith@oregonstate.edu
Phone Number: 541-737-3669

Earlee Kerekes-Mishra, Manager of Intake, Retention & Transition – Student veterans, student on the autism spectrum, transfer students
Email Address: Earlee.Kerekes-Mishra@oregonstate.edu
Phone Number: 541-737-4986

Juliana Recio, Access Services Advisor – Student housing, service and therapy animals, ADD/ADHD
Email Address: Juliana.Recio@oregonstate.edu
Phone Number: 541-737-8523

Tay McEdwards, Manager of Access Services – Ecampus, temporary injuries, student athletes
Email: Tay.McEdwards@oregonstate.edu
Phone Number: 541-737-8582

Barbara Forrest-Ball, Program Manager – Deaf and Hard of Hearing, ADD/ADHD
Email Address: Barbara.Forrest-Ball@oregonstate.edu
Phone Number: 541-737-3670

For more information Contact DAS:
Disability Access Services (DAS)
Kerr Administration Building A200
ds.oregonstate.edu, disability.services@oregonstate.edu
(541)737-4098

The last session of Advisor Coffee Talk for Fall Term was a two hour interactive and informative workshop provided by Judy Neighbors, PhD. Judy comes from CAPS and is also the Sexual Assault Support Services (SASS) Coordinator. This session really focused on how to create a Meaningful Relationship with our students and also why it is important to have these relationships.

This workshop was far from a lecture or presentation – Judy was able to integrate her wealth of knowledge into an interactive conversation that us, the advisors, were able to control. The advisors in attendance were able to ask questions about students and scenarios and Judy would walk the group through the concepts and tactics that she uses when building meaningful relationships.

Some of the topics covered:
Empathetic/Mindful Listening
How to make a student feel they are the center of relationship and conversation
What makes a good mentor/bad mentor
Remembering perspective – Meeting students where they are at
How to talk to apathetic or combative students
How and when to validate feelings

The presentation: Meaningful Relationships
Judy Neighbors, PhD
Psychologist
SASS Coordinator
CAPS