May 15, 2019 (with UAC)

Meeting minutes May 15 2019 with CID Exec and UAC, Cherry 2002 10 am 

Attendees: Liv Haselbach, Jeremy Alm, James Slaydon, Dan Chilek (CID Exec Committee)
Kayla Holloway, Katrina Brent, Craig Escamilla

Reason: During CID meetings in the early months of 2019 some chairs commented on a few concerns about communication between chairs and the UAC. Liv mentioned this to the Provost who suggested maybe a workshop or other action to look into the issue. However, the UAC et al. have started new procedures this spring that might already address the communication concern. Therefore, it was decided to hold this meeting to review what has been put into place so that the new procedures can be reported back to the CID.
The new procedures and comments as provided by Craig Escamilla et al. are:
• If you have not scheduled an individual department chair meeting with the UAC leadership, please do so ASAP to ensure changes are ready for Fall 2019. UAC administrative assistants have contacted departments to schedule these meetings.
• New Student Orientation
o Piloting incoming students receiving Fall 2019 schedules at their NSO date over Summer 2019
o This should help resolve the issue of students not being able to get advising appointments quickly over the summer
• Communication with Departments
o UAC leadership meeting with each department chair to assess current communication plan and relationship between UAC advisors and department
o Upon completion of these meetings, UAC leadership will look to standardize expectations of UAC advisors for regular communication/at least one meeting each semester with their departments for both groups to share updates to degree plans, course requirements and expectations, and other useful information for UAC advisors to communicate to students
o This additional and standard communication should help minimize UAC advising errors and increase regular communication
• UAC leadership has a preliminary plan, based on department chair meetings completed thus far, to share a list of sophomores who will be transitioning to juniors with departments so departments have advance notice of what students are coming to them
• The UAC has re-assigned an advisor, Leslie Hederman, to serve as the Transfer Student Advocate to assist those students in connecting with their appropriate advisor and other campus resources to ensure a smooth transition into LU. Leslie has been and will continue to reach out to departments for backup advising plans for juniors and seniors between semesters when departmental advisors may be off campus for extended periods. Leslie can be contacted at transferadvocate@lamar.edu with any questions or concerns about incoming transfer students