Snow week

This week has been much slower at DGS than the previous few weeks. Not only did I have fewer student appointments, but many of the students who did have appointments with me did not make it to our meeting. Our office was also closed on Wednesday when classes were canceled, so this week has been an interesting change of pace.

Many of my appointments this week have consisted of students wanting to add or switch classes. Of course, the deadline to make these changes was Monday so I have had to remind most students about that. In some cases they can fill out paperwork to add a class after the deadline, but then we have to talk about whether they would be too far behind in coursework now that we are at the end of the 3rd week of the semester. These conversations are always challenging.

Most of us have finished up our first round of meetings with students on probation so there has been a lot of discussion among coworkers about the logistics of those meetings (what are the deadlines, what is the difference between these advising agreements, when do you add or remove a hold on a student's account). It's interesting to hear everyone's take on the sequence of probation meetings - each advisor has a slightly different approach to facilitating the designated meetings. Another topic of discussion has been about what to do when some students on probation never come to the required meetings despite the series of stern emails. I have been told that several students usually come in for fall registration because they can't register due to the hold on their account. I'm sure we will talk more about how to handle those situations when they come closer.

I mentioned this a long time ago, but my biggest source of nervousness is still parent phone calls! I haven't had any yet, but with such an expanded roster this year I'm sure it will happen. So far what has helped me prepare for this is reading other advisors' notes from when a parent called and talking with them about how they addressed the conversation.

Like I said, this was a slower week. Perhaps next week will pick up and I will have more specific items to reflect on.