Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Holiday Party!!

It's that time again! Time to join our ACA family in celebrating the winter holidays. Please join us at Austin's Pizza from 3pm - 5pm on Wednesday, December 16th for all the food, fun, and KARAOKE you can handle!

Please RSVP online here: Evite

Friday, December 4, 2009

Argosy Spotlight: Transfer Students

Transfer students make up a significant proportion of UT's student body. As advisors, we are aware that transfer students encounter some unique challenges as compared to freshmen. To help transfer students adjust to UT, efforts have been made by individual advisors and advising offices. The Argosy would like to recognize the following two transfer student initiatives.

ACC/UT Networking Forum
In late September, ACC's Eastview campus hosted the third annual ACC to UT networking forum. The event has been coordinated by staff from both ACC and UT. Sue Holzaephel, an advisor in the College of Education, has been the primary leader from UT. As in previous years, advisors and staff from other areas of student services got together to discuss current issues concerning students transferring from ACC to UT. The event has traditionally consisted of a presentation from UT's Office of Admissions, a roundtable discussion, and a marketplace that features tables of information from various UT majors/colleges and student service offices. In the past, the marketplace was only open to ACC and UT staff, however, this year ACC students from all campuses were invited to attend. Over 100 ACC students attended and those helping to coordinate the event agreed that the marketplace was a huge success. The ACC/UT networking forum has traditionally only been held once per year. Based on the success of this semester's marketplace, the event coordinators have decided to host another event in the spring semester. The spring event will only consist of the marketplace although both staff and students will be invited to attend. Stay tuned to the ACA listserve for more detailed information on the date for the spring marketplace event.



New Transfer Student Initiatives Committee
Although it is not an official ACA committee, this fall Sue Holzaephel launched the UT Transfer Initiatives Committee which has set out to address the needs of transfer students. The committee has already met a handful of times during the fall semester and plans to continue meeting during the spring. These initial meetings primarily consisted of brainstorming sessions where the committee discussed current resources available to transfer students and initiatives that could be developed to better the overall experience of current and future transfer students.

As noted by Sue, one of the first tasks at hand is to define exactly who makes up this transfer student population and identify the issues and problems faced by this group of students. As such, the committee has decided to form a transfer student panel which will consist of transfer students from all over the university. It is hoped that this transfer student panel will meet with the committee during one of the first spring meetings.

If you would like to join this committee or have some ideas on how to address the needs of transfer students, contact Sue Holzaephel (sgamel@mail.utexas.edu).

Friday, November 20, 2009

R.O.A.D. Webinar: Reaching and Retaining Students - Advising Undecided/Undeclared Students for Success

Earlier this week, our very own David Spight, Assistant Dean for Advising in the School of Undergraduate Studies, and Kathleen Shea Smith, Assistant Director for the Advising First Center at Florida State University, led a webinar discussion on undecided student advising. Nearly 200 institutions of higher education from across the country registered for this NACADA webinar. The talk focused upon Virginia Gordon's Exploration Process Model, which encompasses the evaluation of self, majors, careers, and decision-making practices. Highly recommended resources for exploratory advisors include: Career Advising - An Academic Advisor's Guide (Gordon); College Majors Handbook (Fogg, P.E. Harrington, T.F. Harrington), Selecting a College Major - Exploration and Decision Making (Gordon, Sears); Fishing for a Major (Machado); and Roadtrip Nation - A Guide to Discovering your Path in Life (Marriner, Gebhard, Gordon).

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Welcome to the new ACA blog!

Dear ACAers--

I am looking forward to continuing our theme of “Educating Educators” for the reminder of the year. I feel that we have already learned so much this year about how our profession is changing and growing nationally, about trends in higher education, about policies and practices at UT, and about each other. I’m excited about things to come in the new year and feel confident that our organization will continue to play a crucial role in our development as advisors and professionals in student affairs.

In everything we do this year, myself and the Executive Committee will be keeping the theme of “Educating Educators” in our mind. Looking forward, this will include informative monthly meetings, organizing events through ACA Committees that are geared toward both social and professional development, representing our organization with professionalism and passion, and allowing ample opportunities to network--both professionally and personally--with each other.

Thank you again for the opportunity to help take our great organization to the next level over the next year.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday,
Patty Micks
ACA President


Argosy Spotlight: R.O.A.D. Committee

R.O.A.D. (Resources for Ongoing Advisor Development) is a committee that remains active year around. From brown bags to webinars to workshops, this committee serves to provide professional development opportunities to the ACA community. So far this semester R.O.A.D. has sponsored two events: a NACADA webinar, The Role of Academic Advising in Student Persistence, and a Suicide Prevention Workshop conducted by the Counseling and Mental Health Center.


At the workshop participants learned about the scope of college student suicide, the warning signs of suicidal thinking, the available resources for support on campus and in the community, and how to connect students who are thinking about suicide to mental health professionals.

Upcoming events: NACADA Webinar "Reaching and Retaining Students: Advising Undecided/Undeclared Students for Success" on Wednesday, November 18 from 1-2:30 pm in BAT 5.108.

How can I get involved? Please contact Antoinette Stanley-Hart and J.P. Regalado for more information.