Author: Dustin Grabsch

Categories
Cox BBA Academic Advising & Records Lyle Office of Undergraduate Advising & Student Records Meadows Student Academic Services Professional Advising SMU in Four Student Academic Engagement & Success University Advising Center University Advising Center

Transition to Professional Academic Advising at SMU

The following message was sent to all faculty and staff on April 22, 2025 regarding SMU’s transition to professional advising. 

—-

Dear Faculty and Staff,

As part of our ongoing commitment to student success, SMU is transitioning to a professional academic advising model for all undergraduate students. This shift, recommended in SMU in Four, our Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), was outlined in the Year-Three Progress Report (2023–2024) as a key strategy to enhance retention and timely degree completion.

The professional advising experience will be phased in based on a student’s major declaration date or term of matriculation to SMU:

  • Continuing undergraduate students who declared their major before June 1, 2025 will experience no changes in their academic advising through graduation.
  • Undergraduate students declaring a major after June 1, 2025, and all students admitted for Fall 2025 and beyond will transition to the new professional advising structure. Both pre- and declared majors will be advised by:

More school-specific details on this transition will be shared with school faculty and staff in late April. We will also launch a new landing page at smu.edu/advising to direct students, faculty, and staff to the correct professional advising unit. Remember, undergraduate students can look up their assigned advisor on their my.SMU Student Dashboard. We appreciate your partnership in ensuring a smooth implementation that benefits both students and the SMU community.

Thank you for your continued dedication to student success.

Best,

Dustin K. Grabsch, Ph.D.
Co-Director, SMU in Four

Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Education & Academic Success

 

 

Categories
Office of General Education Student Academic Engagement & Success

Reminder: Engage Dallas’ Place-Based Community Engagement Symposium Call for Proposals are now open

Greetings,

We are excited to extend an invitation to the 4th Annual Place-Based Community Engagement Symposium hosted by Engage Dallas, in collaboration with Residence Life & Student Housing, the Office of Social Change and Intercultural Engagement, the Office of General Education, the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility, and the Center for Teaching Excellence. This year’s theme is Thriving Together: A Place-Based Approach to Combating Isolation through Connected Communities.

Our theme explores how intentional, place-based community engagement fosters meaningful connections and a sense of belonging. By centering relationships, collaboration, and local contexts, we aim to address social isolation and strengthen the ties between campus, city, organizations, and community. Through shared learning and action, we seek to build more engaging, resilient, and connected communities where everyone can thrive through community engagement.

This two-day event will occur on November 5th, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm (Bishop Arts Theater Center) and November 6th, 8:30 am – 3:30 pm (SMU Campus)

RSVP Today

Call for Proposals 

We welcome session proposals from community leaders, nonprofit professionals, Faculty, and students interested in sharing innovative place-based engagement strategies. Our symposium will consist of the following session types:

  • Breakouts 
    • Breakout sessions provide an opportunity for smaller, in-depth discussions, fostering learning and discussion. Sessions last 50 minutes and feature a 40-minute presentation and a 10-minute question-and-answer period.
  • Champion Talks
    • Champion Talks are quick, impactful, fast-paced stories intended to educate, uplift, and inspire our audience. Sessions last 20 minutes and feature a 10-minute presentation and a 10-minute question-and-answer period.
  • Posters

Poster sessions will feature visual presentations on both research and sharing topics. Student posters are highly encouraged.

Focus Areas

Our focus areas are designed to provide a structured yet flexible framework for presenters to begin thinking of possible presentations and our attendees to map a curated symposium experience. This year, our focus areas are:

  1. Campus-Community Connections: Fostering Meaningful Partnerships 
    1. Focus: Strategies for building sustainable, reciprocal relationships between higher education institutions and local communities to combat isolation.
    2. Example Topics: Service-learning initiatives, community-based participatory research, university-community resource sharing, and cross-sector collaborations.
  2. Improving Connection: Building Belonging on Campus and Beyond
    1. Focus: Creating physical, digital, and social environments that cultivate connection and reduce loneliness.
    2. Example Topics: Engaging pedagogy, student-led engagement initiatives, the role of campus design in fostering belonging, and digital communities for remote/hybrid learners.
  3. Personal and Collective Well-being: Strengthening Social Resilience 
    1. Focus: Approaches to enhancing individual and collective well-being through community engagement.
    2. Example Topics: Mental health initiatives, intergenerational engagement, the impact of storytelling on social connection, and grassroots efforts for social support.
  4. Reflective and Experiential Sessions
    1. Focus: Sharing experiences of loneliness, overcoming organizational and interpersonal isolation, and community building.
    2. Example: Interactive Workshops, activities that model community-building practices, guided reflection circles, embodied connection activities, creative expression for connection, civic reflection discussions.
Proposal Deadline

The proposal submission deadline is April 30, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Acceptance decisions will be sent by May 5, 2025.

Submit Your Proposal

About the Place-Based Community Engagement (PBCE) Symposium
The PBCE Symposium is a gathering of thought leaders, academics, community leaders, and nonprofit professionals from SMU and the DFW area. This event is designed to explore the transformative potential of community engagement within specific geographic contexts. Our goal is to delve into the strategies and innovations that have the power to catalyze positive change within communities, with emphasis on campus and community collaboration and sustainable, mutually beneficial relationships.

About the SMU Engage Dallas Program 
Engage Dallas is a place-based community engagement initiative via SMU’s Residential Commons to address community needs focusing on South and West Dallas. The initiative is a long-term, university-wide commitment led by students to partner with local residents, organizations, and other leaders to positively impact the community. There is equal emphasis on campus and community impact stemming from the initiative. This symposium allows us to share, expand and further develop the work of Engage Dallas, as well as invite other SMU faculty and staff to consider new and innovative ways to support community engagement efforts in Dallas.

Categories
Office of General Education Student Success & Retention University Foundations

SMU awarded $10,000 Civic Pluralism in the Core Curriculum Grant from Interfaith America

SMU expands Common Curriculum offerings with new courses on civic pluralism 

Southern Methodist University is proud to announce that it has been awarded a $10,000 Civic Pluralism in the Core Curriculum Grant from Interfaith America for the 2025–2026 academic year. This grant will support the development of two new courses, Societies, Communities, & People and The Ethics of Service, which will be integrated into SMU’s Common Curriculum Civic and Individual Ethics (CIE) and Community Engagement (CE) proficiency and experience requirements for all undergraduate students. 

The grant, awarded to a collaborative team from the Office of General Education, the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility, and the Department of University Foundations, underscores SMU’s ongoing commitment to cultivating leaders who engage with diversity, promote ethical reflection, and navigate societal challenges with empathy and insight. 

Societies, Communities, & People will explore the intersections of community, society, and ethical engagement, while The Ethics of Service will critically examine ethical dimensions of community engagement and service work via Engage Dallas. Both Department of University Foundations courses will equip students with the knowledge and skills to engage in meaningful dialogue across differences and contribute to civic life. 

The courses will also incorporate resources from Interfaith America’s Learning and Action Bridge (LAB), including the Pluralism Texts Bibliography and Story Circles Activity, ensuring that students engage with diverse perspectives through readings, reflection, and real-world applications. 

Faculty development and course design will begin in Spring 2025, with the courses launching by Spring 2026. This initiative aligns with SMU’s strategic goal of preparing ethical, globally minded leaders who can navigate an increasingly pluralistic world. 

Categories
Office of General Education

Engage Dallas’ Place-Based Community Engagement Symposium Call for Proposals are now open

Greetings,

We are excited to extend an invitation to the 4th Annual Place-Based Community Engagement Symposium hosted by Engage Dallas, in collaboration with Residence Life & Student Housing, the Office of Social Change and Intercultural Engagement, the Office of General Education, the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility, and the Center for Teaching Excellence. This year’s theme is Thriving Together: A Place-Based Approach to Combating Isolation through Connected Communities.

Our theme explores how intentional, place-based community engagement fosters meaningful connections and a sense of belonging. By centering relationships, collaboration, and local contexts, we aim to address social isolation and strengthen the ties between campus, city, organizations, and community. Through shared learning and action, we seek to build more engaging, resilient, and connected communities where everyone can thrive through community engagement.

This two-day event will occur on November 5th, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm (Bishop Arts Theater Center) and November 6th, 8:30 am – 3:30 pm (SMU Campus)

RSVP Today

Call for Proposals 

We welcome session proposals from community leaders, nonprofit professionals, Faculty, and students interested in sharing innovative place-based engagement strategies. Our symposium will consist of the following session types:

  • Breakouts 
    • Breakout sessions provide an opportunity for smaller, in-depth discussions, fostering learning and discussion. Sessions last 50 minutes and feature a 40-minute presentation and a 10-minute question-and-answer period.
  • Champion Talks
    • Champion Talks are quick, impactful, fast-paced stories intended to educate, uplift, and inspire our audience. Sessions last 20 minutes and feature a 10-minute presentation and a 10-minute question-and-answer period.
  • Posters

Poster sessions will feature visual presentations on both research and sharing topics. Student posters are highly encouraged.

Focus Areas

Our focus areas are designed to provide a structured yet flexible framework for presenters to begin thinking of possible presentations and our attendees to map a curated symposium experience. This year, our focus areas are:

  1. Campus-Community Connections: Fostering Meaningful Partnerships 
    1. Focus: Strategies for building sustainable, reciprocal relationships between higher education institutions and local communities to combat isolation.
    2. Example Topics: Service-learning initiatives, community-based participatory research, university-community resource sharing, and cross-sector collaborations.
  2. Improving Connection: Building Belonging on Campus and Beyond
    1. Focus: Creating physical, digital, and social environments that cultivate connection and reduce loneliness.
    2. Example Topics: Engaging pedagogy, student-led engagement initiatives, the role of campus design in fostering belonging, and digital communities for remote/hybrid learners.
  3. Personal and Collective Well-being: Strengthening Social Resilience 
    1. Focus: Approaches to enhancing individual and collective well-being through community engagement.
    2. Example Topics: Mental health initiatives, intergenerational engagement, the impact of storytelling on social connection, and grassroots efforts for social support.
  4. Reflective and Experiential Sessions
    1. Focus: Sharing experiences of loneliness, overcoming organizational and interpersonal isolation, and community building.
    2. Example: Interactive Workshops, activities that model community-building practices, guided reflection circles, embodied connection activities, creative expression for connection, civic reflection discussions.
Proposal Deadline

The proposal submission deadline is April 30, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Acceptance decisions will be sent by May 5, 2025.

Submit Your Proposal

About the Place-Based Community Engagement (PBCE) Symposium
The PBCE Symposium is a gathering of thought leaders, academics, community leaders, and nonprofit professionals from SMU and the DFW area. This event is designed to explore the transformative potential of community engagement within specific geographic contexts. Our goal is to delve into the strategies and innovations that have the power to catalyze positive change within communities, with emphasis on campus and community collaboration and sustainable, mutually beneficial relationships.

About the SMU Engage Dallas Program 
Engage Dallas is a place-based community engagement initiative via SMU’s Residential Commons to address community needs focusing on South and West Dallas. The initiative is a long-term, university-wide commitment led by students to partner with local residents, organizations, and other leaders to positively impact the community. There is equal emphasis on campus and community impact stemming from the initiative. This symposium allows us to share, expand and further develop the work of Engage Dallas, as well as invite other SMU faculty and staff to consider new and innovative ways to support community engagement efforts in Dallas.

Categories
Student Academic Engagement & Success

Guidance for academic advisors: Temporary pause of the Common Curriculum Human Diversity graduation requirement

Students sitting at table with notebooks.

In light of the February 14, 2025, Dear Colleague Letter from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the University has decided to temporarily pause the undergraduate Human Diversity (HD) requirement in the SMU Common Curriculum for students graduating between May 2025 and August 2025. This pause is intended to provide time to thoroughly review the requirement and evaluate whether revisions are necessary.

Undergraduate students whose expected graduation terms were between May 2025 and August 2025 as of Friday, February 28, who had not or were not expected to have the requirement satisfied by the end of May 2025 have been waived.

Students who meet the HD requirement via course or individual will be documented as having satisfied the condition on their Degree Progress Report (DPR). For instance, if a HD individual activity or an HD-tagged course was completed successfully, it will be reflected.

If HD is incomplete by the end of Spring 2025 and the student is expected to graduate during the pause, it will appear waived for graduation. A sample DPR below shows the explanatory text for the waived requirement.

DPR HD requirement line

These DPR updates went live on my.SMU on Wednesday, March 5, 2025. Students will be notified via email on Monday, March 10, 2025. If faculty and academic advisors discover errors with an affected student’s DPR, please submit a DPR Issues/Requests to the Office of the Registrar.

It is important to note that this is not a permanent change. No modifications to the Human Diversity requirement will be made without appropriate faculty approval. The pause is being enacted to ensure that faculty have the necessary time and space to deliberate on the matter fully. Therefore, academic advisors are encouraged not to modify advisement practices for students graduating after August 2025 at this time.

Should you have any questions about this guidance or student’s expected graduation has been updated to be within the pause period, please contact the Office of General Education.

Categories
Academic Center for Excellence Academic Development of Student-Athletes (ADSA) Academic Development of Student-Athletes (ADSA) Academic Skill Development Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center Disability Accommodations & Success Strategies First-Generation Initiative Hilltop Scholars Honors and Scholars Mentorship Mustang Scholars National Fellowships National Fellowships Office of Engaged Learning Office of General Education Pathways to Industry President’s Scholars Rotunda Scholars SMU in Four Student Academic Engagement & Success Student Academic Success Programs Student Success & Retention Tutoring University Advising Center University Foundations University Honors Program University Testing Center Writing Center

All SAES offices to close February 11 from 2 – 3:30 pm for division meeting

The Division of Student Academic Engagement and Success will gather for our semesterly division meeting on Tuesday, February 11.

To permit full participation by all division employees, we will temporarily close all offices from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

We will return to normal business operations thereafter. Thank you for your understanding and we apologize for any inconvenience in advance. If you have any questions, please email academicsuccess@smu.edu.

Categories
Office of General Education

Engage Dallas Book Club registration now open

As a key partner office to Engage Dallas, the Office of General Education would like to amplify a professional development opportunity for faculty and staff.

We are excited to invite you to participate in our next Engage Dallas Book Club, hosted in collaboration with the SMU Budd Center. This spring our featured book is How to Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi.

“Ibram X. Kendi’s concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America–but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. Instead of working with the policies and system we have in place, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.”

Grab your lunch and join us on Zoom as we discuss ways to pursue antiracism in Dallas and how we can recognize and grow through our own biases.

4th Thursday of the Month

12:00-1:30 PM—Virtual
  • February 27, Chapters 1-4
  • March 27, Chapters 5-8
  • April 24, Chapters 9-13
  • May 22, Chapters 14-18

Register by February 14

Categories
SMU in Four Student Academic Engagement & Success

Enhancements made to undergraduate Degree Planner tool in my.SMU

Enhancements have been implemented in Degree Planner, which has resolved several course-sharing issues previously reported by students and academic advisors.

With the launch of Degree Planner 2.0, SMU did not have the option to adjust when course sharing was evaluated. This led most students, especially newer students with several remaining requirements, to see their Common Curriculum requirements grouped together upon opening their plan. In addition, Degree Planner auto-selects courses that it determines would benefit students, particularly those that fulfill multiple Common Curriculum requirements.

With this enhancement, Degree Planner will no longer constantly evaluate course sharing and will only evaluate it once a student selects a course. Requirements will default to appearing individually unless a student specifically selects a course that fulfills multiple. This means the tool operates regarding course sharing in much the same way as Degree Planner 1.0 but with all the speed and improvements of 2.0.

It is possible that Degree Planner may still auto-select courses for individual requirements, but the SMU in Four team has not encountered anything as extreme as what it was doing prior to this enhancement. We also have a continuing issue open with our vendor: reducing the number of times Degree Planner auto-selects courses.

Overall, this is a significant enhancement and has resolved the issue we have received most frequently with the tool.

Thanks go to several team members in the Registrar’s Office and the Office of Information Technology for implementing these enhancements. As a reminder, undergraduate students will be required to submit an updated Degree Plan by Saturday, March 1, according to the Academic Calendar. 

Categories
Office of General Education Student Academic Engagement & Success

Office of General Education staff honored with national awards

The Office of General Education has two staff members who were honored with national awards during the fall semester.Brittaney Wilson, General Education and Academic Appeals Coordinator, was selected as a 30 under 40 Sawubona Class Recipient with the American College Personnel Association’s (ACPA) Pan African Network (PAN) within the Coalition on Multicultural Affairs.

This award honors 30 individuals of African heritage in higher education who embody the network’s core values. “Sawubona,” a Zulu greeting, means “I/We see you.” Brittaney will be recognized in the Campus Partnership and Collaboration category at the PAN Open Business meeting in February during the ACPA 25 convention in Long Beach.Melina Padron, Senior Advisor in General Education, was bestowed the NASPA’s NOW Professional Recognition, which recognizes the exceptional contributions of new professionals and graduate students within NASPA. Each year, participants are selected based on NASPA Pillars, Integrity, Inclusion, Innovation, and Inquiry, as well as a fifth category of Impact.

Melina was awarded under the Inquiry area based on her efforts on two original empirical research articles related to university academic testing within the United States.

Congratulations to Brittaney and Melina for their phenomenal contributions to campus partnerships at SMU, which led to these national recognitions.

Categories
Student Success & Retention

Join us for 2023 – 2024 Exit and Leave of Absence Survey Results presentation

SMU students enjoy carnival style games on day three of Perunapalooza, Wednesday, September 9, 2020 on the Main Quadrangle of the SMU Campus.

The Exit and Leave of Absence Surveys are our student-oriented questionnaire that tracks external attrition, whether formal exit or for a Leave of Absence, and supports the SMU in identifying key drivers of student satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and attrition. Student Success and Retention facilitates the collection, analysis, and dissemination of findings to the campus community.

Lisa Miller, Director of Student Success and Retention, and Jay Guillory, Success Coach from the Office of Student Success and Retention, present results from the 2023 – 2024 exit and leave of absence survey results.

Monday, December 16th

10:00 – 11:00 AM

112 Junkins Building

RSVPs are encouraged; walk-ins are welcome. Student Success and Retention can also provide analysis relevant to your division, area, or office. Learn more about this service offering.