
			STAR Upcoming Events Using PeopleSoft for Advising Tuesday, 2/26 LRC 734 Presented by Tammy McCracken & Charlene Eastridge Understanding FERPA (Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act) Thursday, 3/20 ISC 220, 2:00 p.m. Presented by Rita Woltz, VCCS Council The NEW Early Alert System Tuesday, 4/29 ISC 220, 2:00 p.m. Presented by Tammy McCracken and Kim Morton Archives February 18, 2008
	Know Your Advisees Good advising is something that requires a time commitment from the faculty member. Much of that time can be attributed to actually conversing with and making recommendations to the student. However, a frequently overlooked principle of effective advising is the amount of time put into preparing for the advising appointment. Advisers should spend ample time reviewing each advisee's file before a meeting. Advisers should also take academic policies into account and consider how these policies may apply to each advisee. Most colleges and universities make academic policy changes during the course of a year. Taking notes during advising sessions is an excellent way to get to know advisees. Complimenting an advisee for making it through a difficult semester or “that horrible math class” will indicate that an adviser hears and actually cares about an advisee's performance. By taking notes during the advising session, an adviser is more likely to remember specific details about each advisee and speak about those details at the next advising appointment. In many circumstances, name recognition is enough for an advisee to feel comfortable with his or her adviser. Many institutions now offer online access to photographs of advisers' current advisees. Advisers should take advantage of such technology. These photographs will allow the adviser to work at memorizing their advisees by name. Although this may seem like a trivial issue, students (like other people) want to be remembered and not treated as if they are numbers. Name recognition is an important method to use to combat students' feelings that advisers do not care. (The Mentor, 10/3/07)

	Utilize people soft SIS system to look at the students college record. This can be found by going to the VCCS custom menu on the left side of the page. Then click VCCS student inquiry. All you need is the students EmpID (ID), social security number (national ID), or first and last name to get to the information. Once your student is found, (Processing), there are loads of information there to help faculty advise. There are several tabs that faculty can look through. The most helpful in our area is the students progress of course work up until this point. The tab provides course name, grades, GPA, just about everything you need. The great thing about this is you can advise over the phone to students if needed as long as you have computer/internet access. This has been the most helpful tool for me. Beth Wright Not sure how to do this? Come to tomorrow's STAR training! Do you have a Tip to share? Email it to the Student Success Center!

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