June 2013 ACA General Meeting

A scrumptious breakfast for the June 2013 ACA meeting was courtesy of UT Athletics.  Thanks!

The lovely advising crew from Athletics!

ACA members were treated to a tour of the student Academic Center in the stadium.

After we returned from the Academic Center, Laura Weingarten, Outreach Program Coordinator for the Sanger Learning Center, spoke to ACA about the services provided by the Center.  Those services include tutoring, help with course content, study effectiveness, and help with test anxiety. 

Dr. David Laude returned to speak further on the many new initiatives aimed at improving four-year graduation rates.  In particular, he discussed the new University Leadership Network, a program that will identify at-risk students, provide them funding, and help them develop both leadership and academic skills. 

Last, but not least, committees!  Join one!  They're fun, provide a forum for getting to know advisors outside your own college, and they allow you to get more involved in ACA. 

Member Spotlight: Thomas Fawcett

Hometown: Lawrence, Kansas.

College(s) attended: University of Kansas, UT-Austin.

Degree(s) earned:  BA in Anthropology and Latin American Studies from KU, MA in Journalism and Latin American Studies from UT.

Job Title: Associate Academic Advisor in the Department of History.

What are your hobbies? I love music, collect records, and write about hip hop, soul, funk and world music for the Austin Chronicle. I like to cook, preferably over an open flame in the company of friends. I have a vegetable garden that I try to keep fruitful all year round with varying degrees of success. I enjoy exploring the parks and swimming holes of Central Texas with my wife, daughter and shaggy dog.  Some might say my love of college basketball borders on obsession.

What is your current job at UT?  As my supervisor puts it, my job as an advisor is to be there and know everything. I'm giving that my best shot.

How many years have you worked at UT? I've worked at UT just over a month as an advisor and full-time staff member. As a grad student, I worked as a TA in the Journalism School, an academic mentor in the Athletics Department and volunteered as a DJ for KVRX. 

What is the most challenging aspect of your current job? There is a lot to learn as a new advisor and my current challenge is to cram as much information into my brain as quickly as possible. Also, the mainframe is my nemesis. I'm grateful to have two experienced advisors in my office that I can reach out to for help when questions arise.

What is your favorite thing about your current job? I love being on a college campus every day and surrounded by the energy that exists at UT. I also work closely with honors students in the History Department and  have already been incredibly impressed by their work and intellectual curiosity.

May 2013 ACA General Meeting

  The May meeting featured ice cream!  Thanks to New Student Services for sponsoring our ice cream social!

Appreciating Campus Administrators honoree for May was Marc Musick, Associate Dean for Student Affairs, College of Liberal Arts.  Nathan Vickers accepted on Dean Musick's behalf.

Jessica Bradford of the Awards and Recognition Committee announced the 2012-2013 ACA student scholarship winners.

The student scholarship winners are, from left to right, Elizabeth Barnes, Ayomide Fasalojo, David McDonald, and Jacob Spangler.  Not pictured is Samantha Robles, who could not be at the meeting.

McKinlaye Harkavy, also of the Awards and Recognition Committee, announced the advisor scholarships:

Kristen Anton

Anneke Chy

Gina Higby

Letita Monsey

Our NACADA honorees!  Congratulations!

Alexia Apollo, Certificate of Merit, Outstanding Advising Award--Primary Advising Role

Jinane Sounny-Slitine, Certificate of Merit, Outstanding New Advisor--Primary Advising Role

UTeach-Liberal Arts (represented by Eric Bowles), Certificate of Merit--Outstanding Institutional Program

Cristi Biggs, Assistant Dean of Students for the Office of the Dean of Students spoke on behalf of New Student Services, reviewing for ACA some of the changes in Orientation for this summer.  Also filling ACA in on 2013 Summer Orientation were:

KJ Harris

Kyle Clark

Alex Kappus (and Esmer Bedia seated to the right).

Dr. Madeleine Hsu, Director of Asian American Studies spoke on the key themes of the Asian American Studies major, its interdisciplinary nature, and the importance of the major in the study of a significant segment of US society.

 

 

Candidates for the 2013-2014 officer positions made their campaign speeches.  Jay Guevara (Communication/PR), Sara Schultz (Historian), Alanna Bitzel (Secretary), Jessica Bradford (Treasurer), Matthew Haynes and Kelly Strait (Co-Vice Presidents), and Julia Chinnock (President-Elect) all ran unopposed and were duly elected.  Congrats!

April 2013 ACA General Meeting

April social time was sponsored by the School of Undergraduate Studies.  Many thanks!

President Nathan Vickers and "Appreciating Campus Administrators" honoree David Spight of the School of Undergraduate Studies.  David took the opportunity to talk to ACA about the challenge of improving graduation rates at UT.  He emphasized that this is a chance for advisors to distinguish themselves as crucial to this mission.

Patty Micks of the Signature Course office in Undergraduate Studies spoke to ACA about summer and fall 2013 signature course offerings for first-year students (freshmen and transfers), and for students who are beyond their first year. 

Rebecca Wilcox from the Office of Undergraduate Research promoted the upcoming Research Week and urged advisors to attend and see the variety of research projects undergraduates are involved in.

Phaedra White of the School of Undergraduate Studies addressed ACA on a new initiative known as the Discovery Scholars Program, which will replace the Longhorn Scholars Program.  Current students will continue on with Longhorn Scholars until they graduate, but the incoming students for fall 2013 will be the first Discovery Scholars cohort, and they will all be from the School of Undergraduate Studies.  The program will continue to provide the same kind of advising and resources for this cohort that Longhorn Scholars enjoyed. 

From the Texas Success Initiative (TSI), Joe Schaub explained the state-mandated program of assessing reading, writing, and math for all students in all public colleges and universities in Texas.  Students without sufficient scores on the SAT, ACT or TAKS test will have bars on their records; between 200 and 500 students will come to orientation with a TSI bar and will have to prove their college readiness or take developmental course work. 

Kristen Tommey of Undergraduate Studies spoke briefly about Wayfinder and about the website's role in major exploration.  In particular, she discussed the new applicant portal that allows students considering UT to look at the all of the majors the university has to offer.  According to Kristen, 10,000 of the 30,000 students who applied to UT in 2012 accessed the site.

Julia Chinnock and the call for 2013-2014 ACA officer nominations!  Nominees will speak at the next ACA meeting on May 8.

Nathan Kinsman (left) and Uyen-Anh Dang discussed the A Community for Education (ACE) program.  ACE is an AmeriCorps program that works to improve early childhood literacy in Texas.  ACE employs tutors such as Uyen-Anh to go into the public schools and work with young children on their reading skills.  In return, tutors, who are recent college graduates, receive living allowances, loan forbearance, and at the end of their tenure, more than $5,000 that they can use to repay college loans or toward graduate school.  Currently, the program is hiring 90 new tutors. 

From Jane Shaughness of University Compliance Services: University Compliance Services is hosting, along with the UT Staff Council, UT Staff Ombuds, Human Resource Services, another in our very successful Employee Engagement series this year.  This May 6, 2013 (the first no class day) we will be hosting Robert Prentice, a faculty member in the McCombs School of Business and the founding member of the newly-created Business, Government, and Society department who will talk about “Why Good People Do Bad Things.”  The presentation will be held at 11:00 AM in AVAYA Auditorium.

And in honor of Dr. James Vick: http://www.longhornsp4p.com/