Your Input is Welcome: New Joint Senate/Administration Initiatives
The Faculty and Professional Staff Senate welcomes your input as to future initiatives in collaboration with the administration. Please feel free to offer your suggestions.
I would like to see Advising for at least certain smaller programs (not General Studies and Liberal Arts, but programs like my own, Deaf Studies etc.) looked at separately, to see if they should be handled differently than for perhaps other programs. For example, I have students come for advising whatever their GPA, whether they are assigned to me or not, whether they are technically "evening" students -- and that's because they know they need specialized advising in order to best choose courses for sequencing and so on. But unfortunately, there are always those who do not know it's best to come for this kind of advising, and as a result, they are not in courses that are best suited for them, in terms of sequencing or course load. For example, the Art programs are exempted from MassTransfer. Although it says it is an optional program, since its on DegreeWorks, understandably, students can get confused about whether they need to follow the Mass Transfer requirements. A general advisor doesn't necessarily know that of course, and I am finding students being advised into courses they do not need as a result. For my program at least, I would like to find a solution to Advising that requires all majors in the program to see an Art advisor. This is done for all Art and Design majors at UMassDartmouth and at MassArt. I'm not sure if it is at all general practice for the other community colleges, but it is at the 4-year schools for art and design, I am sure because of the recognition of the specialized advising needs for these programs.
Revisiting workloads for program directors is important in this climate wherein duties are constantly added, programs expanded with additional students and faculty.
As a new collaborative project, can we look at overall campus accessibility--web, physical, student, safety (emergencies) community, etc. Access needs to be a culture and seen beyond the lens of student services (as is the charge of ODS). How can we, as a college, foster a culture that views this need in everything we do. For example, when construction occurs and roadways are blocked, facilities should automatically think of people coming to campus who are blind or using wheelchairs, or have other mobility issues. Instead, it is left up to someone (usually ODS) to "find" out about these issues and then inform the students. The process is getting better, but there is much to be done to change the culture. Thank you for this opportunity to make a suggestion.
We probably need to distinguish between "advisement" and "schedule building." The latter is what typically occurs at BCC's locations outside of Fall River and on evenings/weekends. I wonder how similarly sized CCs (those with external campuses/centers/satellites) address this?
I would like to see Advising for at least certain smaller programs (not General Studies and Liberal Arts, but programs like my own, Deaf Studies etc.) looked at separately, to see if they should be handled differently than for perhaps other programs. For example, I have students come for advising whatever their GPA, whether they are assigned to me or not, whether they are technically "evening" students -- and that's because they know they need specialized advising in order to best choose courses for sequencing and so on. But unfortunately, there are always those who do not know it's best to come for this kind of advising, and as a result, they are not in courses that are best suited for them, in terms of sequencing or course load. For example, the Art programs are exempted from MassTransfer. Although it says it is an optional program, since its on DegreeWorks, understandably, students can get confused about whether they need to follow the Mass Transfer requirements. A general advisor doesn't necessarily know that of course, and I am finding students being advised into courses they do not need as a result. For my program at least, I would like to find a solution to Advising that requires all majors in the program to see an Art advisor. This is done for all Art and Design majors at UMassDartmouth and at MassArt. I'm not sure if it is at all general practice for the other community colleges, but it is at the 4-year schools for art and design, I am sure because of the recognition of the specialized advising needs for these programs.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Marisa. I'll pass along your suggestions.
ReplyDeleteHT
Revisiting workloads for program directors is important in this climate wherein duties are constantly added, programs expanded with additional students and faculty.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your suggestion.
ReplyDeleteFor a new collaborative project, how about working together on a long-range plan to reverse the current full- to part-time faculty ratio?
ReplyDeleteAs a new collaborative project, can we look at overall campus accessibility--web, physical, student, safety (emergencies) community, etc. Access needs to be a culture and seen beyond the lens of student services (as is the charge of ODS). How can we, as a college, foster a culture that views this need in everything we do. For example, when construction occurs and roadways are blocked, facilities should automatically think of people coming to campus who are blind or using wheelchairs, or have other mobility issues. Instead, it is left up to someone (usually ODS) to "find" out about these issues and then inform the students. The process is getting better, but there is much to be done to change the culture. Thank you for this opportunity to make a suggestion.
ReplyDeleteWe probably need to distinguish between "advisement" and "schedule building." The latter is what typically occurs at BCC's locations outside of Fall River and on evenings/weekends. I wonder how similarly sized CCs (those with external campuses/centers/satellites) address this?
ReplyDelete