Time to catch up

Express advising is over, registration is (sort of) over, and we have had a week long break. Now the office is much calmer, and at the beginning of this week I almost didn't know what to do with myself.

But then I realized that I had plenty to do! I had some emails that I still needed to follow-up, so I tackled that first. This presented "one of those moments" to me when I more closely examined an email that had been forwarded to me from the math advisor. One of my students had emailed her with a question, and in the process of their exchange, the student mentioned that he had never received credit for a course that was a prerequisite for his current course. She told him about how problematic this was because it could affect his chances of being accepted to his desired major. She also said that I must not have talked to him about this since he hadn't done it. That set off some alarm bells for me and I almost panicked...

...Fortunately, I had written it all down during summer registration. I wrote that he should register for the prereq course unless he earned proficiency credit. A wave of relief washed over me...what if I had made such a bad mistake that it prevented a student from being able to apply to their desired major?! I followed up by email with the student, and I think everything will work out. This was a definite learning moment that solidified the necessity of taking lots of notes!

I also spent more time this week discussing situations with colleagues. I really enjoy talking with everyone in the office because they give me solid advice and sometimes reinforce my own ideas about how to approach new situations. For example, I spent a great deal of time yesterday meeting with another advisor who had previously met with a seemingly troublesome student from another department. She filled me in on what happened in her meeting and what her concerns were, and I was nervous to meet with this student but she helped me to anticipate what the meeting might be like. The student did not show up to our appointment, but came in later to schedule another appointment with me for that same day, and did not come to that appointment either. Supposedly he is coming in Monday, but since he has "no-showed" repeatedly, he will have to meet with a director. I think the appointment would have been a very solid learning moment for me, but at least my conversations with the other advisor showed me that it's a good idea to expect the unexpected (or at least, the highly unusual student situations).

Other than that, I performed the usual administrative tasks, such as sending a newsletter and gathering information for my next newsletter. I also spent some time learning about some tidbits that I did not know, such as when students need to re-take a math placement test and the final exam policy for more than 2 exams in one day. It was a very informative week!