Tag: Academic Advisors

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Office of General Education SMU in Four Student Academic Engagement & Success

Sharing details of Degree Planner student adoption campaign

Degree Planner, which launched in November, is a new tool that allows Common Curriculum (CC) undergraduate students to plan progress toward their degree and aid SMU in course scheduling and seat planning to permit timely graduation. All CC undergraduate students (except those graduating in May 2023) are asked to complete Degree Planner before fall enrollment begins this spring. While we want all students to establish a degree plan, SMU in Four is targeting a completion rate of 75% by March 20th.

Student adoption campaign details

Beginning next week, CC students will receive regular communications from SMU in Four requesting they complete Degree Planner. We share details of our plans below so you are aware and can encourage their completion via your own means.

Degree Planner can be completed independently within my.SMU. Pre-major students need to plan their general education and graduation requirements (Foundations, Breadths, Proficiencies and Experiences) in Degree Planner to be counted as complete. Declared students must plan their degree course and CC requirements for each declared major in Degree Planner to be counted as complete. In mid-February, minor requirements for students who have declared their minors will begin to automatically populate in their Degree Plan too. Students can then adjust these requirements as they would like.

To incentivize students, there will be three rounds of giveaways. Raffle prizes include $25-50 Starbucks, Amazon, Uber, Visa gift cards, and SMU swag/apparel. Students who complete Degree Planner by 11:59pm on:

  • January 27 (Friday) will be entered in three raffles.
  • February 10 (Friday) will be entered in two raffles.
  • March 10 (Friday) will be entered in one raffle.

Each school’s records office will be asked to contact any undergraduate CC student who does not complete Degree Planner by March 20 to ensure completion before Fall 2023 enrollment commences.

Faculty and academic advisor incentives

Faculty and staff advisors will also receive incentives whose students complete Degree Planner. The advisors who have the highest percentages of their assigned advising load on March 20 will receive a $100 Amazon gift card. Outreach templates will be provided to advisors later this month to encourage their own nudging.

Remaining Degree Planner advisor workshops

Workshops are planned for undergraduate faculty advisors and academic advisors to learn the new Degree Planner. Each session is identical and will be conducted via Zoom. A meeting notice and Zoom link will be sent 1-2 days after completing the registration form. Available workshops:

  • February 8, 3-4 pm (Wednesday)
  • February 9, 3-4 pm (Thursday)

For more information on how to assist students with Degree Planner, please visit the Degree Planner Navigation for Advisors Wiki page. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact SMUinFour@smu.edu.

 

Brittaney Wilson

Undergraduate Degree Counselor; Degree Planner Adoption Team

 

Dallas Forbes

Undergraduate Degree Counselor; Degree Planner Adoption Team

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Office of General Education SMU in Four

New shared Undergraduate Degree Counselors start today

The Office of General Education, Lyle School of Engineering, and Meadows School of the Arts are excited to announce two new team members serving as Undergraduate Degree Counselors effective, today, October 17. 

These new shared positions will support SMU in Four and critical services offered by their respective school records/academic services teams. 

Dallas Forbes ‘16 brings to Lyle and General Education over five years of experience in STEM education within the public school system here in Dallas. She is a proud alum of SMU with a BA in Math and a BA in International Studies. Dallas brings a deep knowledge of how to support the academic success of students and has demonstrated her ability to collaborate across interdisciplinary teams to achieve strategic goals. 

When asked about what she is most excited about, Forbes shared, “I am so honored to be back on campus, this time serving as an Undergraduate Degree Counselor within Lyle. I’m beyond excited to help students take advantage of the amazing opportunities that SMU has to offer. I am most eager to help students merge and organize their career goals with their academic paths. I hope to alleviate some of the stress and anxiety associated with class selection and planning, as well as provide students with best practices to help them succeed in their courses.” 

Brittaney Wilson brings to Meadows and General Education ten years of experience in academic and behavioral health counseling after earning her MA in Counseling and Guidance from Louisiana Tech University.  Brittaney is eager to become a member of the Meadows Academic Services and General Education team so she can engage with the Meadows students, faculty, and staff, using the many academic leadership and counseling skills she has honed in her previous school and private counseling work. 

Wilson shared, “I am delighted to continue my professional growth at SMU. The ability to support the scholars within the Meadows School of the Arts, and the sense of community the staff exudes attracted me to the position.” 

As Undergraduate Degree Counselors, they will:  

  • Serve as a degree counselor to declared majors in their respective schools, advising them on Common Curriculum requirements and major requirements needed to complete their degree;
  • Improve General Education completion rates through group workshops, student solutions, and partnering with various academic entities;
  • Partner with faculty advisors to find solutions to improve graduation rates within the school, implementation, and maintenance of four-year degree plans in the Highpoint degree planner;
  • Support SMU in Four by conducting retention and enrollment data analysis in an effort to support the academic departments within their respective school with strategic course planning.

Please join us in welcoming Dallas (dforbes@smu.edu) and Brittaney (brittaneyw@smu.edu) to the team! 

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Office of General Education

Degree Progress Report changed to better align with Second Language Requirement

Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development professor, Peter Carton, lectures for his class Sports Management Practicum, Thursday, October 14, 2021 in Prothro Hall on the SMU Campus.

The Academic Records Committee made modifications to the Degree Progress Report (DPR) related to the Second Language Requirement (SLR) effective September 28, 2022.

No changes have been made to the Common Curriculum Second Language, the change relates to the manner the DPR reports a student has satisfied the requirement.

As a reminder, the SLR requires that a student complete a second language course in the second semester or higher. From Fall 2020 to Fall 2022, the DPR was set up such that students needed credit for both 1401 and 1402 for the SLR to show as complete. This setup caused many problems because most students at SMU do not take 1401. Rather, they start their language study in a course at the second semester or higher. Under this system, the Department of World Languages and Literatures had to manually award credit for 1401 to all of the students who began in 2nd semester or higher, in order to have the DPR show that the SLR was complete. As a result, many students who had satisfied the SLR had DPRs that showed the requirement as unsatisfied.

To correct this issue, we have reverted the DPR tracking of the SLR to the system that was in place from 2016-2020. Under this system, the DPR requires only the completion of a course in the 2nd semester or higher to show that the SLR is satisfied.  This will improve DPR tracking of the SLR for the overwhelming majority of SMU students.

If you have questions about how to account for the completion of 1401 for student-athletes or other populations, please contact Jay Orenduff, the Second Language Advisor at jorenduff@smu.edu.