QUESTION: StudentsA1

Students are assigned to faculty advisors.  Faculty advise students on career planning and accounting elective course choices.

Advising in the department is accomplished through in-take advising with the Department Chair.  Students are helped to select the appropriate major program, assigned an advisor with whom to meet each quarter and as needed, and told about the email list, student association, and meetings (usually Fall and Spring) for majors and minors.

Advising assignments are flexible and may change as a students interests develop.  Faculty collaborate to help students develop an appropriate program, including such opportunities as internships, research projects, field schools and study abroad.

Student advising is divided between units according to discipline and when necessary alphabetically to more evenly distribute advising duties among all the faculty.   There are two exceptions. These are: Visual Arts-Teaching majors are advised by the art educator; the chair advises graphic design students during their first two years of study, the remaining two years advising is provided by the graphic designer.

Aviation students receive extensive advising.  Each student is assigned an Aviation Advisor according to their last name. Every quarter, during the university's designated advising week, every students meets with their advisor to discuss a myriad of issues including their course of study, prerequisites, general education requirements, upcoming quarters, course selection and options. During advising appointments students are given permission numbers used to register for all Flight Technology courses. For the past several years advisors have seen about 35-45 students each during advising week.  Advisors are also available to discuss careers, internship opportunities, and provide recommendations to employers and others. 

All tenured and tenure-track faculty take part in undergraduate advising.  In some cases, the department secretary who has initial contact with students, directs students looking for an advisor to a faculty member.  Students must select an official department advisor when they apply to the major.  The department secretary keeps records on students and their advisors.  Faculty typically advise students who are interested in their area of expertise.  Students must meet with an advisor prior to being admitted to the major.  The department also serves students by advising for professional programs including pharmacy, medical school and teaching.  A student handbook is available through an advisor or in the department office.

Graduate student advising is carried out by the student’s faculty mentor, members of their thesis committee, and by the Graduate Program Coordinator.  All faculty serve as members of thesis committees.

Faculty are given a list of advisees each quarter by the department secretary.  They are trained on the use of SAFARI by the secretary.  They are trained on advising by an experienced advisor.  All new faculty attend a department orientation before they begin teaching which contains some advising information.

The department has an extensive advising system for students. Students in all department majors and minors are required to meet with an assigned advisor upon admission to the program. Prior to that pre-major advising is available, as well as a one-credit class (COM 189, Communication Orientation) which is a prerequisite to applying for a major. Another course, COM 489, Portfolio Assessment is required of all students graduating in a major. The department takes advising very seriously, and tries to do it well. 

January, 2008
Advising Policies and Services

The department believes that advising is a major component of the success of the program.  To that end, pre-major and major students are required to be advised every term.  As part of this advising process, pre-major students develop a graduation plan and have progress toward meeting the entry requirements reviewed each term.  Students who are not making significant progress can then be advised in a proactive manner.  In any case, during the term in which they plan complete entry requirements, students must submit a formal application to the department office.  This application is reviewed at the end of the term after grades are posted.  Students that fail to meet the entry requirements, are dropped from more advanced courses, and asked to meet with the department chair to review their situation and discuss future plans (which may include redoing an entry course if appropriate).  Once students are accepted to the major, they interact with one of the full-time faculty members.  Faculty are assigned to advise students in focus areas that correspond with their professional expertise.

Advisor Preparation

Even faculty that have been active advisors prior to arriving at CWU need training to succeed in a new system.  By departmental policy, faculty in their first year at CWU are set up with an advising mentor in order to develop a set of advising procedures and files and to develop an understanding of our departmental programs.  These faculty will advise jointly with their mentor throughout their first year.  Commencing in their second year, faculty move to independently advise students and take on an average advisee load.

Student Handbooks and Other Advising Information

Please refer to the following web sites:  Undergraduate Handbook - http://www.cwu.edu/~cs_dept/UgHandbook.html; Information for Prospecitve Students - http://www.cwu.edu/~cs_dept/UGHprospect.html; Information for Current Students - http://www.cwu.edu/~cs_dept/UGHcurrent.html; Advising Information - http://www.cwu.edu/~cs_dept/advisors.html.

The DOE provides for advising by full-time faculty members, which enables students to formulate a program of study to meet their individual needs and desires. All students receive advising upon expressing their intent to major or minor in economics. After initial advising, individual degree plans are formulated for the remainder of the student’s tenure at CWU. Career orientation and flexibility are stressed when formulating programs of study. A report, Jobs for Economics Students, is prepared by the DOE and made available to our students. All members of this department take advising seriously. In order to distribute the advising load equitably, we create an Advising Schedule each quarter. This allows us to be available to students so that there is at least one faculty member who is always available to advise students during the times when we expect a higher density of student visits. We take pride in such availability to our students. Periodically, we also publish a list of our majors and minors. This allows colleagues to share this information and begin a process of redistribution of loads when the loads become inequitable. The collegiality of this department is such that most individual members step forward with suggestions for sharing arrangements, without the chairperson having to take any initiative beyond the generation of this document. 

Not only do faculty members maintain formal office hours, but they have an open door policy and are willing to help students throughout the day. Faculty members integrate their research findings into their economics lectures. 

Student advising at the undergraduate level occurs through program structure. All students meet with an advisor in order to declare their major and/or minor. The student chooses which of the program faculty will serve as advisor. That faculty member then using the advising information developed by their program to assist the student in developing their course of study. 

It is a similar process at the graduate level. All students decide on an advisor at the time they complete their Course of Study. They meet with that person through the completion of their studies or until they choose another faculty member to serve as Chair of their committee.

Students are advised by program coordinators. This system allows us to keep accurate records of student progress and to feed into the scheduling process information about student needs that will help us decrease time to graduation. Students are also informally advised, however, by all faculty. 

FCS Education
Office hours are posted on office doors.  Faculty try to accommodate students with both morning and afternoon hours.  Faculty also have an open door policy. 

Family Studies
In order to declare a specialization in Family Studies, students must have completed FCSG 205, ENG 101 and ENG 102.  Students may be admitted as a pre-major until all those requirements are satisfied.  All family studies students are expected to meet with an advisor each quarter prior to registration.  Advising files are maintained in FS faculty offices.  New student advising involves career and academic advising, including the development of a four year program of study.  FS advising documents are included in the appendix.

Fashion Merchandising
The new FM tenure track faculty member provides eight office hours for student advising each week.

Recreation and Tourism
The RT faculty provide a minimum of 13 hours of advising service per week.

Interior Design
The ID faculty members provide five office hours for student advising each week.

All Dept faculty have advising responsibilities to students and are required to maintain office hours for advising purposes.

Faculty advising responsbilities are explained and discussed in Dept meetings.
The Dept has a faculty guide to advising.

We pride ourselves on the accessibility our students have to their professors and the quality of the advising we offer. Faculty and office staff are available to students in need of advising on a drop in, or scheduled basis. 

When a student applies to be a geography major, the completed application is forwarded to the Chair, along with that student’s CAPS report, which is their academic transcript currently on record with the Registrar’s office.  The department chair then meets with each student in a formal interview setting.  At that time, the student’s academic record is examined and any deficiencies discussed with the student.  Likewise, the diagnostic essay that is part of their application to the major is read by the Chair, who then discusses with each student what their interests are, and what their future career possibilities might involve.  If a student has maintained the currently required GPA of 2.25, and there are no glaring problems in any geography coursework they may have already taken, then they are admitted to the major, and an official faculty advisor is tentatively assigned to that student based on shared interests or other advantages in helping students to charter a chosen career direction.  

Every faculty member in the department takes advising very seriously, and expects to meet with assigned advisees at least once each quarter.  It is during these meetings that we are able to conduct individual assessment of each student’s progress, to address any areas that need improvement in student academic performance, and to take a reading of any changes in career directions expressed by each student as they make their way toward graduation from CWU.

UPDATED FEBRUARY, 2008 
All of the tenure-track faculty and some of the full-time non-tenure track faculty participate in advising undergraduate majors. 

There is a plan in place to distribute new majors among the faculty advisors after students have taken GEOL 210 and GEOL 320, gateway classes that are required for all undergraduate majors. Dr. Carey Gazis and Dr. Lisa Ely principally advise Environmental Geological Sciences majors.  Dr. Beth Pratt-Sitaula advises the Earth Science majors, with assistance from Nick Zentner. The remaining faculty advises BA and BS geology majors. 

Because a number of geology classes are sequenced, advisers typically help students develop a three or four-year plan so that students understand the order and the specific quarter in which they will take particular classes. 

All of the tenure-track faculty are members of the Graduate Faculty and actively serve as major advisors for graduate students. In most cases, a graduate student’s committee chair acts as his/her principal adviser for course work and all other academic issues. 

All department personnel are kept abreast of undergraduate and graduate curricular changes (including those in the allied sciences in the undergraduate programs). This information is reviewed and updated as needed at department meetings. The chair reviews the curriculum and advising responsibilities with new faculty.

To meet classroom objectives, the history department provides extensive mentoring and advising services to our students.  Faculty are available every day for mentoring students from general education courses to the masters thesis.  Several faculty have acted as McNair Scholars mentors and mentors on other scholarship awards.  The faculty also provide extensive advising services for career development and placement. 

Each student electing to undertake a major within the IET department is assigned an advisor based on their particular interest.  An advisor meets with each student for an initial counseling session where the course of study, prerequisites, general education requirements and careers are discussed.  Each quarter students meet with their advisor to plan upcoming quarters and discuss course selection and options.  Faculty members also provide advising services for employment, scholarships, career choices and provide recommendations to employers and others. 

Faculty are available daily to provide advising support to all students. Each major in our department is assigned an advisor familiar with their degree program; students are encouraged to meet with their advisor formally at least once a quarter. Informal advising occurs daily in the classroom, the offices, and the hallways. Additionally, students in majors other than ITAM often seek advice from our faculty.

New faculty are not given advisory duties during their first quarter; for the rest of their first year, new faculty are assigned 5-10 advisees and perform their advising functions in conjunction with the department chair.

2.	Each faculty member is responsible for advising duties once a student declares an LAJ major. Students are referred to Academic Advising Services regarding General Education issues. Due to the large number of majors and the limited number of full-time faculty members, the advising load of each LAJ faculty member is extremely high (50-70 majors each). On-campus, much pre-advising and routine scheduling are done by department staff. 

Students desiring the BS Business Administration degree must earn at least a 2.25 GPA in their major coursework and a 2.25 in their upper-division coursework, in addition to the university’s GPA requirement of no less than 2.0 overall.  In spring 2005, the Department of Business Administration voted to raise the preadmission coursework minimum grade point requirement to 2.50.  This increase from the CB standard of 2.25 was implemented in an effort to improve the quality of students graduating as business administration majors.  We found that students with a preadmission GPA below 2.50 tended to expend more CB resources in three ways:
-by repeating coursework numerous times until a satisfactory grade was achieved
-by requiring extensive advisement both by the faculty and by the Pre-Major Advising Center and
-by not graduating despite the best of efforts of faculty to work with them.

All full-time faculty in the department take on the role of advising students.  This is part of the standard instructional responsibilities of faculty; tenure, tenure-track and annual contract faculty.

The Department secretary can help students with placement in lower division general education courses and can help arrange meetings with the Department Chair or an academic advisor.
When students are ready to declare a major they meet with an academic advisor in their program area.  This advisor explains the program requirements and helps the student plan their schedule. New advisors are initially guided by experienced advisors when first taking on students.
Informal advice is given by all faculty.  This can be advice concerning the next mathematics course to take or even advice about applying for scholarships and graduate school.
Students in the Actuarial Science program are given career placement advice and the academic advisors often arrange for businesses to conduct student interviews on campus for summer internships as well as full time appointments.  At least once a year there is a leader from the actuarial science industry invited to campus to give a talk about career opportunities in this field.

To provide effective advising for students of department and degree expectations and to help each to succeed.  Effective advising for music majors and minors is valued in the Music Department.  Upon acceptance into a music degree program, faculty assume an immediate role in advising students. In addition, required classes MUS 104 and MUS 304, taken in the first quarter of enrollment, address general needs of freshmen and transfers, respectively.  These are assessed with SEOIs and office staff oversight.

1.  Department Chair is present at all summer orientation sessions for incoming freshman and transfer students, meets with all students and gives advisement.

2.  All freshmen majors and minors are required to take MUS 104, Introduction to Musical Studies, in their initial quarter in residence in the fall.  This course encompasses the curriculum of UNIV 101 and other advising content specific to the music major programs, and includes several class sessions in which department chair meets with all sections for advising purposes.

3.  All incoming transfer students are required to take MUS 304, Introduction to Musical Studies for Transfer Students in their initial quarter in residence in the fall.  Advising is a substantial component of the curriculum of this course.

4.  All Music Education majors must have a private advising session with the faculty undergraduate Music Education specialist before the Music Education major declaration form can be submitted.

5.  Composition/Theory majors are advised by the composition specialist on the faculty.

6.  Bachelor of Arts majors and those with guitar as a major performing area are advised by the department chair.
7.  Music Business majors are advised by the faculty Music Business specialist.

8.  Performance majors are advised by their applied instructors.  Those students studying with adjunct instructors are assigned T.T. faculty advisors whose specialty is close to their performing area. 

9.  Student teachers are observed twice during their student teaching experience by Music Department faculty, and receive advising on their work.

10. The undergraduate and graduate music handbooks are available on the department web page. Much material of an advising nature is in these handbooks.

11. The department Associate Chair is designated as the advisor for any student who seeks resolution to any kind of problem having to do with their experiences in the department.

12. The department Chair is available at any time to meet with students seeking resolution to problems outside the Associate Chair’s scope.

Faculty members mentor students through the academic process through advising, involvement in student-faculty research projects, review sessions, and through programmatic clubs and organizations. 

Health Programs:  School Health Education Major -- The School Health faculty advises these students through personal contact.  Please see the attached advising packet for additional samples of advising.  Public Health Major -- The Public Health majors are advised directly by faculty who teach in Public Health.  An introductory major handbook has been developed and is used by all Public Health advisors.  In addition, an Internship Manual has been developed and is give to all Public Health majors at the beginning of  their senior year.  Copies of both of these documents are attached.

Physical Education

Food Science & Nutrition:  Faculty meet regularly throughout the academic year to discuss advising issues.  Students are generally assigned advisors based on their last names.  Printed advising information is regularly reviewed by faculty, available to faculty on the shared network drive, and handed out to students as needed.  The student Nutrition Science Club is a significant avenue for faculty to provide group advising.

Para-medicine:  Pre-paramedic students are assigned a faculty member as an advisor and check in with them as needed on their progression toward meeting requirements for applying to the program.  Meetings are as needed.  Students accepted into the program are required to declare as paramedic majors and since we have only two faculty members who teach the core courses, students have regular access to their advisor during the academic year.

Exercise Science:  Students initially meet with the program coordinator to discuss career aspirations and determine program suitability.  Following satisfactory completion of program pre-admission courses, students are provided with a 2-year academic plan that is based on quarterly offerings of specific classes and the pre-requisite structures in place.  Students are assigned a faculty advisor and are advised to meet with this advisor on a quarterly basis.  All students are required to belong to the Exercise Science Student Club.  Prior to embarking upon the culminating internship experience, students must first be cleared by the program director as having satisfactorily completed all course work required in the major.

Graduate Programs:  N/A

All TT faculty advise students. New Faculty learn advising from other faculty members. Faculty are readily available to advise students during office hours or on a scheduled basis. Students are free to choose any adviser from among the faculty, with the goal of matching faculty and student interests and specializations (e.g. Western and Eastern traditions; Philosophy and Religious Studies). 

The Department Chair typically serves as the initial advisor to students (a requirement for students to enter the Physics program is to first meet with an advisor).  As students progress through the program, they have the opportunity to select their academic advisor.  All tenured, tenure-track and full time non-tenure track faculty advise students.  Majors are required to meet with their advisor each quarter to discuss progress towards meeting major outcomes (as required for their portfolio) and to plan the next quarter’s schedule. 

Faculty are informed/prepared for their duties through meetings with the Chair, Department meetings and their participation on University committees (Curriculum, General Education and Faculty Senate).

Faculty members also teach the STEP and UNIV 101 courses.  Through these courses, they serve as the initial advisor for the student.

-Students receive ad hoc advising by coming into the Department, and usually visiting with the Department Chair, or by individual discussions with faculty members. Throughout the year, we also participate in new student orientations, transfer orientation, and the Career Centers Major Fair.
--Advisors are given copies of dept. materials and Univ. advising handbook, and receive information and training in dept. meetings.

-As far as major advising is concerned, prior to students being accepted into the major, they complete a Major Declaration (and Advising) Form wherein they list the core and elective courses they’ve already taken, along with a rough plan as to when (and what) they will take for their remaining courses. (Form is attached or pasted below.) They then ask for an advisor, or one is assigned to them. One copy is given to the student, one to the advisor, and the Department keeps one on file. This form then forms (no pun intended) the basis, along with the CAPS report, of strategy for the student’s academic career.  Students are expected to meet with their advisor periodically.

The Chair also currently sends out an email in Fall Quarter to all majors with senior standing reminding them to review their CAPS report and meet with an advisor over the last two quarters. A reminder is also made during the Senior Assessment course, taken in the last or second-to-last quarter before graduation, though admittedly that may be too late for some.
Jan. 08

(January 2008)
• Students interested in a psychology major can arrange for advising sessions with a faculty member of their choice or they can come to the department office for assignment to an advisor appropriate to their interests. All undergraduate majors are assigned a faculty advisor at the time of application for admission to the program. They are required to meet with the advisor and obtain a signature verifying that meeting prior to formal acceptance to the major. We have no formal advisor training. 

• The Advisement Committee is a standing committee of the department. It has developed a set of printed materials to accompany our advisory meetings with students. This set includes a course worksheet, major declaration form, faculty research interests summary, career guide, and undergraduate handbook. These materials are also available on the department web site at http://www.cwu.edu/~psych/ugbook.html 

• Our senior capstone course includes graduate school planning and career advising sessions. 

• All graduate students meet for an orientation session at the beginning of their first quarter. They are assigned an individual advisor and are closely guided through the graduate curriculum. Our graduate handbook is available on the web at http://www.cwu.edu/~psych/gradhandbk.doc. 

We have a sound record of academic advising in the department.  Many students who decide to drop their original course of studies by switching to a program with our department have indicated our reputation for advising was a key consideration in their decision.  While all faculty members are required to take on advisees, we do not assign students to faculty members.  Rather students are expected to seek out the faculty member with whom they have the best rapport.  This means some faculty carry disproportionately greater numbers of advisees, and students may begin their advisement under the tutelage of one faculty member and move on to a second or a third as their needs and interests change.  The role of the faculty in advising is two-fold.  First to ensure that the student’s interests are best served through the pursuit of one of our programs as opposed to other academic units, and second, to guide the student through their chosen major or minor.  Advisement does not stop at the office door; faculty members also announce changes in course availability and make recommendations about other related courses with each class they offer throughout the year. 

Faculty and teaching assistants are available to advise students during daily office hours or on a scheduled basis. In addition, the department sponsors an “advising week” the week before pre-registration each quarter. All faculty are available for scheduled advising appointments and all majors are required to meet with their advisors during this week. In addition, our faculty serves as advisors to our graduate students throughout the year. Several advising sessions are held during our summer institute for graduate students. 

Aside from the traditional advising sessions, our faculty members serve as mentors for many of our acting and design students. Many of our students are invited to work as designers in the Central Theatre Ensemble’s season of plays. Several faculty members mentor the students through the design process needed to stage these plays. Also, this mentoring extends to working with those chosen to compete in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival at both the regional and national levels as acting, design, playwriting or criticism award competition nominees. It is the goal of the Theatre Arts department to provide a mentor for each student involved in this regional and national competition.