Advising, general communication issue to be fixed with OneCarolina
We appreciated the recent news story and editorial on advisement. Indeed, current advising practices vary widely across campus which can be very frustrating for students. We share your excitement about the Darla Moore School of Business’s adoption of an online system for scheduling advising appointments and want to let you know what the university is doing to make improvements in this area for all of our students.
Online scheduling for advising appointments has been going on in some colleges for more than two years. Currently six colleges do this: Public Health, Mass Communications & Information Studies, Education, HRSM, S.C. Honors College and Business (the newest to adopt this approach) with very positive feedback from students, staff and faculty. Furthermore, the online checklists that some colleges require students to complete prior to their appointment ensure that students are prepared to choose courses and even make plans for leadership experiences or USC Connect participation.
Our office has decided to adopt a common online advisement scheduling system campuswide in which all colleges participate so that when students change majors or colleges, they won’t have to learn a new sign-up system. We have initiated the purchasing process for the necessary software, and we expect to complete it this spring. All colleges that do not currently have online scheduling capabilities will move to the selected system initially with the rest following gradually as their current contractual software obligations expire.
Another issue that has been raised by students concerns the ease of communication with advisors by email. The fact that some colleges are not on the common email system can sometimes make it difficult to locate faculty and advisor email addresses. To facilitate this process, we have decided to relocate all colleges to the common email system. We moved Engineering and Computing to this common system last fall, and we are moving Pharmacy, Music and S.C Honors College this spring.
“Change of Major” deadlines and practices vary across campus, making it hard sometimes for students to move out of one college and into another. This spring, we are adopting University-wide protocols to deal with these issues, utilizing the new One Carolina system in the process. Our goal is that no student feels academically “stranded” at any time on our campus. Finally, every semester we have a “town hall meeting” on advising. Our spring 2013 Undergraduate Studies Forum on Advising will take place on Tuesday, April 16, at 11:30 a.m. in the Russell House Theater. Please come hear more and share with us your perspectives and suggestions. Together we can make Carolina better for everyone!
—Michael D. Amiridis, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
—Helen Doerpinghaus
Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Studies