To help ensure that CCPS students have access to an advisor before the registration period, the CCPS-UAC will be holding two "Express Advising" days on Saturdays in March. These sessions do not require an appointment and will allow a student up to 15-minutes with an advisor to review program requirements and create a plan to use during the advanced registration period. These sessions are not designed to replace regular academic advising but can help students get the information they need before registration begins. MORE INFORMATION

This year, the GVSU Records office has unveiled a new, university-wide, online registration override request process which will replace the system we have been using in CCPS for the past several years. Now, if a course requires a registration permit, is closed, or prevents registration based on major, class, prerequisite etc., students can request electronic overrides through myBanner. Once the electronic override is entered into the Banner system, the student is able to register. MORE INFORMATION

Please congratulate the following members of the CCPS-UAC staff who have been hard at work with professional development opportunities in addition to their daily responsibilities. These activities help keep advisors connected to the profession and to ensure that CCPS-UAC is on the forefront of what is going on in the world of academic advising!

•Anne London, Senior Academic Advisor and Kathryn Timm, 1st Year Graduate Assistant recently completed book reviews that will be published in an upcoming issue of the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) Journal. The NACADA Journal is a nationally known and respected publication.  It is distributed twice a year to over 12,000 NACADA members, institutions, and libraries nationally and internationally.

Anne London, Review of the book 101 Things to do Before You Graduate.

Kathryn Timm, Review of the book Undergraduate Global Education: Issues for Faculty, Staff, and Students

•Amanda Clark, Academic Advisor and Theresa Lyon, 2nd year Graduate Assistant have been awarded professional development grants from the Michigan Academic Advising Association (MIACADA) to attend the NACADA Great Lakes Region V Conference in Indianapolis in April.

•Amanda Clark, Anne London, and Jennifer McCaul have been awarded individual scholarships from the NACADA Great Lakes Region V Steering Committee. These scholarships will help support the 4 person team from the CCPS Undergraduate Advising Center to attend the 2015 Summer Institute in New Orleans scheduled for June 21-26, 2015. The Summer Institute provides a unique opportunity for the advising team to focus on creating a new advising work flow plan that will allow us to meet unit and university strategic goals related to retention and time to graduation. With the assistance of NACADA experts we believe that this week will be extremely beneficial to our office!

•Amanda Clark and Anne London had a presentation proposal accepted for the NACADA Great Lakes Region V Conference to be held in Indianapolis in April. The presentation, titled When there is nothing left to give: How the practice of self-care can enhance our work as academic advisors was selected by the program commitee "because of its high quality and potential benefit to the membership."

On February 26th the staff of the CCPS Undergraduate Advising Center made contact with over 250 CCPS students who received a university midterm grade report. These reports are made available in myBanner to every student who has earned less than 25 college credits or is on academic review. Our contact is to prompt students to review their midterm grades, provide information about our advising services and workshops, inform them of policies and deadlines, and to provide general outreach for those students who may be struggling academically at this point in the semester. We provide this information to program Unit Heads and coordinators with program specific data as well as the college aggregate data for comparison.

College of Community & Public Service Majors (Aggregate)

Total # students who received Winter 2015 midterm grades: 255

Overall the mid-semester gpas were...

75 students had 3.00 or better
62 students had 2.50-2.99
46 students had 2.00-2.49
72 students had below a 2.00

Jennifer McCaul, Director of the CCPS-UAC was selected as one of the 7 person faculty/staff delegation that traveled to Ghana over spring break week. This experience was designed to enhance the partnership with the University of Cape Coast as well as allow the team to explore and experience parts of Ghana. The delegation arrived in Accra and explored some of the historical and cultural sites and met with members of the US Embassy and Education USA before travelling to Cape Coast to meet with counterparts at the University. Jennifer met with the Founding Dean of the Faculty of Law, as well as professors from several disciplines including: Criminal Justice, Hospitality & Tourism, and Law. Jennifer was also able to connect with Rebecca Williams, a Public and Nonprofit Administration major who is currently studying at UCC this semester. The group than traveled to Kumasi, which is the second largest city in Ghana and the center of the Ashanti region. While in Kumasi, the delegation stayed on the campus of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and visited additional historical and cultural sights prior to returning to Accra. If you have students interested in study abroad consider directing them to UCC who has partnered with GVSU for more than 12 years and have similar departments and structures as CCPS. MORE INFORMATION.

The CCPS Undergraduate Advising Center recently completed our annual School of Social Work Pre-Candidacy Review process. We undertake this process in order to assist students with appropriate registration planning during the advanced registration process. This information can then also be used by the department for planning purposes for the next year.

We review all SSW majors (declared) who have 45 or more credits to help them know if they should be registering for SW courses in the fall and making application for candidacy or if they have requirements remaining they need to complete first. We reviewed 123 student records this year, compared to 157 last year.

We sent messages to the students regarding their status which provides specific information regarding any missing requirements they may have.We put students into one of three categories based on where they are with their progress as follows (# of students):

(39) Likely - It appears that all of the candidacy requirements will be satisfied after Winter 2015 semester. MORE INFORMATION

(66) Maybe - It appears there are a few missing requirements for admission to the School of Social Work in the upcoming fall semester. It’s possible to complete these requirements before Fall 2015 with appropriate academic planning. MORE INFORMATION

(18) Not Yet - it appears that there are more missing requirements than can be completed prior to Fall 2015. MORE INFORMATION