October 2012 ACA General Meeting

Thank you to the Texas Parents for sponsoring breakfast!

Social time.

Appreciating Campus Administrators: ACA honored Vice Provost Gretchen Ritter for her service to students and to advising on campus.

ACA President Nathan Vickers presented Dr. Ritter with her certificate of appreciation.

Susie Smith (left) and Holly Gardovsky represented Texas Parents.  Texas Parents, in one form or another, has quietly been helping parents help their students cope with campus life since 1948.  Housed in the Division of Student Affairs, Texas Parents provides parents with information to pass on to their students, publishes a monthly newsletter, and participates in such activities as Family Weekend and Family Orientation.  

Samuel Moore and Vicki Keller spoke about the Certificate in Scientific Computation.  It is an 18-hour certificate that prepares students to use "high-end computing resources in applications research and development."  The program has drawn interest from prospective employers.

Ben Armstrong and Dr. Jay Morrison joined us in order to discuss Student Veteran Services.  Dr. Morrison is a psychologist who works on campus specifically with military veterans.  Given the growing number of veterans at UT, Mr. Armstrong wanted to emphasize the care that should be taken with this high-achieving group of students, and he elaborated on the services available to them on campus, and the complications they must navigate in order to make sure they comply with federal requirements so that they receive their financial support.  Always feel free to refer them to SVS (475-9771 for Mr. Armstrong, and 232-2677 for UTVA Outreach).  Dr. Morrison suggested that advisors may be able to help identify student veterans with problems or issues and made useful suggestions on how to work with veterans.

Our final speaker of the day was Bianca Cusimano (bianca.cusimano@austin.utexas.edu) from Longhorn Internship Connection.  The "Connection" is a tool to help students find internships appropriate to their interests.  The majority are summer internships, but the database does include some long-semester possibilities as well.  The site provides information not only on internships available, but it also includes feedback from students who have held these positions.  Eventually, the program will be student-run and move from Dean of Students to Student Government.

After brief announcements from Lisa Valdez on FIG updates and Sarah McKay of the Awards and Recognition Committee on this year's NACADA award nominations, the meeting adjourned.