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It's that time of year again folks. Fall is in the air. Stores are crowded with kids stocking up for back to school. The air is a bit cooler, that sense of optimism and excitement for seeing old friends hangs on the breeze . . . .
And I'm stuck in Open Registration.
SOAR, for our new members, is Student Orientation And Registration. Every semester I have to do my time in Open Registration, helping first time students get registered for classes. It's difficult; they are usually very picky or demanding about classes and class times that simply aren't available because they're all filled up.
This year administration decided to do something different. Instead of having the program faculty sit in the "Pit" and register all comers, or even register new students based on declared majors (which often change), they decided to have us do actual advising for the students. This means we sit with the students and help them plan out a two semester schedule of classes, with alternatives if something isn't available. The students then go to another area where staff help them use WebAdvisor to self register.
This is how advising SHOULD be done. But even when you're doing the right thing the right way doesn't mean you're immune from suck. Hence . . . .
SOARing with Turkeys, the Fall 2013 edition
Thinking outside the box
They put me and two other faculty (one PT, one medical assisting, I'm nursing) in a large lecture classroom with copies of all the forms we'd need. When the students got out of orientation, the allied health majors were herded into this classroom. Faculty were on one side, the students on the other. We called them to us one at a time for advising.
Remember, this is a large lecture class. It has three sections of seats, with two wide aisles separating them. I'm in the section to the right. The students are in the section to the far left. One of my colleagues was advising in the middle section.
I call a student over from the far left for advising. Does she simply walk down the wide aisle to the front of the class and over to me (I'm to the front, she was to the rear of the classroom)?
No. She walks halfway down the aisle and cuts behind a row of seats . . . the row my colleague was advising another student in. She has to squeeze behind them to get by and get to me. The only conclusion I can reach as to why she did this is it WAS the shortest distance between two points (she could do basic geometry at least). But it wasn't the easiest or fastest way.
I weep for my profession. I really do. This was a pre-nursing student.
No transcripts
We were told the students would all have their placement scores, so we would know what classes to advise them to take. About a third of them either didn't have them, thought they didn't have to take them, or didn't have to take them but didn't bring their transcripts from whatever school they were transferring in from.
It's hard to tell a student what class to take if you 1) don't know if they meet entry requirements, or 2) don't know what they've already taken.
We would send those students to the other room where they actually had computers to look up their scores. The lady running registration then told us we had to do it. We had no computers to do it with. It made for a mess.
One student who had to go find her transcripts wanted me to wait until she got back. I told her I would have to move on to someone else; I couldn't just sit around while she figured it out. She got really pissy about it . . . "you're supposed to be helping mmeeee!"
Yeah, well, I will. When you bring me the paperwork that allows me to help you.
Blowin' in the wind
The classroom the students used to actually register doen't normally have any computers in it. So they brought in a laptop cart with laptops.
This really worried me. We have 30-40 students crowded around; it would be easy for a laptop to do a disappearing act. I said something to one of the staff.
Her reply was she had some work study students to keep an eye on things.
So I bumped up to the lady who runs registration. Her reply was the same, and to add, "this is the way we've always done it and nothing has happened."
Which completely ignores the fact we've had laptops stolen from classrooms and offices before.
I told the lady that if I would not want to work under those conditions. What I didn't tell her was, if I'm ordered to work in that area under those conditions I will refuse to do the job unless I am given a written statement I am not responsible for the laptops. I'm not paying for a stolen laptop because administration is too cheap to invest in some cable locks.
And I'm stuck in Open Registration.
SOAR, for our new members, is Student Orientation And Registration. Every semester I have to do my time in Open Registration, helping first time students get registered for classes. It's difficult; they are usually very picky or demanding about classes and class times that simply aren't available because they're all filled up.
This year administration decided to do something different. Instead of having the program faculty sit in the "Pit" and register all comers, or even register new students based on declared majors (which often change), they decided to have us do actual advising for the students. This means we sit with the students and help them plan out a two semester schedule of classes, with alternatives if something isn't available. The students then go to another area where staff help them use WebAdvisor to self register.
This is how advising SHOULD be done. But even when you're doing the right thing the right way doesn't mean you're immune from suck. Hence . . . .
SOARing with Turkeys, the Fall 2013 edition
Thinking outside the box
They put me and two other faculty (one PT, one medical assisting, I'm nursing) in a large lecture classroom with copies of all the forms we'd need. When the students got out of orientation, the allied health majors were herded into this classroom. Faculty were on one side, the students on the other. We called them to us one at a time for advising.
Remember, this is a large lecture class. It has three sections of seats, with two wide aisles separating them. I'm in the section to the right. The students are in the section to the far left. One of my colleagues was advising in the middle section.
I call a student over from the far left for advising. Does she simply walk down the wide aisle to the front of the class and over to me (I'm to the front, she was to the rear of the classroom)?
No. She walks halfway down the aisle and cuts behind a row of seats . . . the row my colleague was advising another student in. She has to squeeze behind them to get by and get to me. The only conclusion I can reach as to why she did this is it WAS the shortest distance between two points (she could do basic geometry at least). But it wasn't the easiest or fastest way.
I weep for my profession. I really do. This was a pre-nursing student.
No transcripts
We were told the students would all have their placement scores, so we would know what classes to advise them to take. About a third of them either didn't have them, thought they didn't have to take them, or didn't have to take them but didn't bring their transcripts from whatever school they were transferring in from.
It's hard to tell a student what class to take if you 1) don't know if they meet entry requirements, or 2) don't know what they've already taken.
We would send those students to the other room where they actually had computers to look up their scores. The lady running registration then told us we had to do it. We had no computers to do it with. It made for a mess.
One student who had to go find her transcripts wanted me to wait until she got back. I told her I would have to move on to someone else; I couldn't just sit around while she figured it out. She got really pissy about it . . . "you're supposed to be helping mmeeee!"
Yeah, well, I will. When you bring me the paperwork that allows me to help you.
Blowin' in the wind
The classroom the students used to actually register doen't normally have any computers in it. So they brought in a laptop cart with laptops.
This really worried me. We have 30-40 students crowded around; it would be easy for a laptop to do a disappearing act. I said something to one of the staff.
Her reply was she had some work study students to keep an eye on things.
So I bumped up to the lady who runs registration. Her reply was the same, and to add, "this is the way we've always done it and nothing has happened."
Which completely ignores the fact we've had laptops stolen from classrooms and offices before.
I told the lady that if I would not want to work under those conditions. What I didn't tell her was, if I'm ordered to work in that area under those conditions I will refuse to do the job unless I am given a written statement I am not responsible for the laptops. I'm not paying for a stolen laptop because administration is too cheap to invest in some cable locks.
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