Advising Information

Faculty Responsibilities

The College of Arts and Sciences views advising as a critical faculty responsibility and all tenure-track faculty members are expected to advise students. As such, advising is a considered an important component in all retention and promotion decisions. Although advising is an individual endeavor, all CAS faculty are expected to adhere to the responsibilities described in UWRF Faculty Senate Adviser/Advisee Agreement (FS 97/98 #27). These responsibilities include:

• Meeting with new advisees in order to become familiar with their educational and career objectives.
  
  
• Meeting with advisees at least once each semester to develop a plan of studies, help interpret catalog statements regarding requirements, schedule courses, and evaluate progress toward meeting academic and career goals.
  
  
• Reading advisees' grade reports and keep files with all pertinent information sent by the Registrar (uniform standards of confidentiality and security regarding files must be maintained).
  
  
• Directing advisees experiencing academic difficulties to appropriate sources of assistance.
  
  
• Encouraging advisees to obtain information about extracurricular on-campus activities, organizations, internships, scholarships, as well as career opportunities and graduate programs.

Training/Collaboration

Each program/department in the college has established a mechanism for training advisers and all faculty members are actively encouraged to attend advising workshops offered on campus. All CAS advisers receive formal or informal training in the use of the Degree Audit Report DAR which allows students/advisers to view all courses required in a program of study as well as the progress being made towards completing the requirements. Advisers working with secondary education majors do so in close collaboration with the College of Education and Professional Studies Dean’s Office to help ensure that students are aware of all general education, major, and education-related course requirements with the goal of helping students graduate in the most timely manner.

Recognition

Since 2002, the College of Arts and Sciences has recognized outstanding advisers in each of the three college divisions (Arts and Humanities, Sciences and Mathematics, Social Science). The photos of the most recent winners can be found on the CAS Awards Wall located on the first floor of the Kleinpell Fine Arts Building. The display also contains plaques with the names of all previous winners. Since 2000, the University has also recognized a UWRF Academic Adviser of the Year for the campus and several CAS faculty members have won this award.