Newsletters:
December 12, 2001
Hello CUES members,
Happy holidays to all. We are all busy with the end of the year
activities and I wanted to bring everyone up to date on events
related to CUES in Ottawa. The Commission for Advising Undecided/Exploratory
Students business meeting held October 12, 2001 was attended by
over 75 members. I reported on the two
objectives from last year that have been accomplished.
-
Establish a comprehensive web site to be a resource for
members. A steering committee was formed last year to work
on this goal, George Steele, Jean Martin, Mike McKay, Sarah
Hammond, Tom Kenyon and Ruth Hussey. This site is now up and
running and the committee will continue to update the information
and to add new resources. Anyone with suggestions for items
to include can contact any member of the committee. This web
site links from the NACADA homepage under Commissions.
-
Develop a list serve for our membership. The following information
was distributed on how to sign up to be on the CUES list serve.
Send e-mail to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.ksu.edu with this command
format in the message:
SUB N-UNDECIDED Your Name
You don't have to give your e-mail address, because the
list serve software will get it off the From" line in the e-mail header.
list serve will generally send a message asking you to confirm your
subscription request, and will then send a notification/welcome
message when you've been added to a list. Note that you can subscribe
to any open lists on your own. If you try to subscribe to a closed
list or to one that has limited subscription, list serve will send
a notice with further information.
We discussed the role of commission liaisons to the Regions and
are in the process of updating our volunteers for that position.
Below I have included an overview of that position and if you
are interested in being a liaison or on a team for your region
please send me an e-mail.
Overview:
Commission Liaisons to Regions serve as critical links between
NACADA regions and commission chairs. Ideally, liaisons will be
sought for each of NACADA's geographical regions for each commission.
If more than one person is interested, a regional team could be
formed. The regional liaisons/teams within each commission will
engage in discussions with each other and with other members of
their region to continue NACADA's support of commission-related
activities.
Position responsibilities could include the following:
1. Engage in e-mail discussions with colleagues from other
regions to share trends and innovative approaches to commission
activities at regional conferences, and to discuss potential solutions
to common issues.
2. Encourage regional conference attendance and solicit
proposal submissions from regional colleagues.
3. Participate in regional liaison forums at regional and national
conferences.
4. Provide representation of commission at regional conference
and consider hosting commission meeting or roundtable as regional
conference programs permit.
5. Provide annual report to commission chair (with copy to regional
representative) on commission-related activities that occurred
at regional conference. Recommend quality regional conference
presentations or formats for possible inclusion in national conference
program.
6. Submit items regarding regional commission activities for
inclusion on commission web site.
7. Serve as a resource for commission chair and regional representative
on potential long-term issues, such as special projects and potential
budget requests.
8. Assist commission chair with the national conference proposal
review process. Similarly, assist regional representative with
review of regional conference proposals.
9. Coordinate efforts of regional team if more than one commission
member is identified from region.
10. Communicate with regional representative regarding commission-related
issues/ proposals at least one month prior to conference proposals
deadline. Commission liaisons to regions report directly to commission
chair and indirectly to their regional representative.
These are suggestions and not mandates so do not be intimidated
by the long list and consider being part of a region team.
We then broke into four groups with a facilitator to discuss
practices, problems and strategies when advising undecided/exploratory
students. Participants gave very high evaluations to this format
and mentioned many times the value of sharing ideas and connecting
with others in similar situations. We had some very interesting
discussions on topics such as learning communities, interest houses,
first-year seminars, peer mentoring, choosing a major and the
relationship to career planning, monitoring academic progress,
and use of technology. Roundtable discussion appears to be an
excellent way to use the time at National Conferences set aside
for Commission meetings.
CUES sponsored six conference sessions in Ottawa that I hope
many of you were able to attend. A special thanks goes to those
presenters: Jane Emery and Robert Campbell - "Academic Advising
and Career Planning: Any Connections?", Mary Taylor-Johnson
- "Understanding Student decision Making", Thomas Kenyon
-"Choosing Your Major: From Frustrated and Overwhelmed to Making
a good Decision", Jennifer Mayhall and Linda Taylor - "Applying
a New Voice to the Undecided Student", Barbara Miller
and Stacy Woycheck - "Predicting the Future of Exploratory
students: Can We Do It?", Laura Brown, Karen Feldbaum, Johanna
Matyas, and Julian Parrott - "Live and Learn: Advising Exploratory
Students in Residential Communities".
The regional conferences are coming up soon and I hope that CUES
sessions will be well represented. I also recommend that region
liaisons facilitate roundtable discussions at their regional conferences
and will give me reports on activities there.
Best wishes for the New Year.
Ruth Hussey, Chair
Commission on Advising Undecided/Exploratory Students
