USU hires new advisers
Steps have been taken to enhance the advising services at Utah State University, by the hiring of four new student advisers and the requirement for the completion of adviser training, said director of Advising and Transition Services John Mortensen.
Mortensen said many other universities have implemented adviser-certification programs, and he would like to see a better system at USU to evaluate the advisers and develop a certification program, along with the continuation of the adviser workshops currently being held.
“I would really like to see the advisers here have some sort of certification on their wall in the future,” Mortensen said. “The ultimate goal is to have specific criteria so that they are all working at a certain level of advising.”
Along with the adviser training, four new advisers have been hired to improve the adviser services as well, who include Joselyn Heiniger for the College of Business, Judy Swaner of the College of Science, Rachel Lewis as a transfer adviser and Krystin Deschamps as the “On Course” program leader, Mortensen said.
Assistant Provost Sydney Peterson said the funding to pay for these improvements and new job positions came from the additional tuition charge voted on last year, as part of the second-tier tuition.
“There were student concerns and it was a top priority for them,” Peterson said after receiving the student input and making the decision to designate part of the funds to advising services.
A third improvement for advising is currently being developed by Deschamps, the new program leader for a student tool to be used in the future known as “On Course.”
“On Course is an online advising tool that, when completely built, will allow advisers to simply type in an advisee’s student number and degree codes, and see how many courses that student needs to complete to graduate,” Deschamps said. “Eventually, students will be able to access this information through the QUAD.”
Deschamps said she thinks this On Course tool will improve the advising process and allow students to take a more proactive and knowledgeable role.
“I think it will help the advisers spend more time engaged in meaningful advising, as opposed to checking off boxes on your degree requirement sheet and the other manual bookkeeping with which they must now contend,” she said. “It will be fast and accurate.”
While the other adviser program improvements are already underway, Deschamps said she is hopeful that the On Course program will be available to students next December.