Faculty and Professional Advisors

This preliminary message lets them know you will be in touch shortly with a plan for their advisement at a distance. It also helps ease their minds that you are there for them.

View the Starfish Scheduler Guide. Starfish has a built-in tool that lets your students easily schedule a time to meet with you virtually based on the parameters you set. They can also access it remotely. It is much more efficient than attempting to schedule via email. If you are in need of broader insight on the Starfish Tool, Click Here.

Decide if you wish to hold your virtual meeting via phone or chat. If by phone, request that students provide their phone number for you to call at the arranged time. You can set your cell phone to block your phone number if you wish to do so. If by chat, download Microsoft Teams to your computer from the Software Center from your WP issued computer (click on icon on lower left corner of your bottom menu bar and you will see it as one of the choices in the pop-up screen). The links below provide more guidance on using and downloading teams. Feel free to share the two links with your advisees:

Relay your availabilities for an advising session, direct students to sign up for a time slot using the Starfish Scheduler, and explain how your advising session will be conducted (via phone or chat). Counsel them on how to be ready for the session:

• Review their degree evaluation, noting classes still needed.

• Draft a list of courses for Summer and Fall 2020, with backups if 1st choices are closed.

• Prepare a list of questions for you.

• Include the following helpful links for their advance viewing:

  • Finding Your Degree Evaluation
  • How to Read Your Degree Evaluation
  • Finding a UCC Course
  • Preparing to Register (Video)
  • How to Register (Video)

  Others that may be helpful are:

  • Changing a Major or Minor
  • Course Repeat Policy

• Ideally, come to the session with their computer open to their degree evaluation page so you can both be looking at it during the advising session.

If you need a refresher on Degree Works, Click Here. Before the session, review the student’s degree evaluation, preparing notes for the meeting. In addition, review your Advisor Dashboard in WP Connect and see if your advisee has a flag in the “Holds” column. Click on a flag to see how many and what kinds. Come to the session prepared to discuss what you see so you can refer them accordingly for assistance, most commonly to the Financial Aid Office who is working hard to assist students to resolve financial challenges proactively.

Have the student’s degree evaluation open on your computer and invite your advisee to do so as well if they can. First engage your advisee on how they are doing at this difficult moment. Note information shared, making referrals to key offices if/as needed (e.g., Financial Aid, Health & Wellness, Academic Support Services, Accessibility Resource Center, all of which are accessible remotely), but most importantly, that you share in the challenge of this difficult time. With respect to course selection, discuss and advise accordingly, but be sure to enter notes into Degree Works so you have a record of what you discussed. If all goes well, provide them their PIN to register, ideally right then when they are with you if registration is open at that time. Invite a follow-up advising session if needed.

Distance advising is likely new for you and your advisees. Place notes into Degree Works, not only on your registering directions, but also anything else about the student that can inform your memory later or follow-up with the advisee or another office for guidance/assistance. If your student no-shows, send them an email noting a missed meeting according to your records and to re-register in Starfish or contact you via email. If you have a concern about a student, please alert the Academic Success Center or follow-up with colleagues who may have the student in their class.

Hopefully you found the above helpful for conducting your essential advising work. Thank you for your partnership in this difficult moment for all of us! If/as you have creative tips and tricks for enabling quality advising, including, but not necessarily limited to, this particularly unprecedented moment, let us know in the Advisement Center through this Qualtrics Link! We want to build and share a list of such ideas. Finally, we hope that the email “flag” alerts you receive on your advisees is helpful for such items as monitoring student registration action, or inaction. We are all working hard to increase student re-enrollment before the semester ends.