Commission News
Commission for Undecided/Exploratory Students
Business Meeting, October 7, 2000
Orlando, Florida
Cues Commission business meetings have been held at each national conference
since 1994 and have continued to be well attended.
Outgoing commission chair, Sharon Farrett began the meeting by reviewing
the goals of the commission:
Goals and Objectives of CUES
a. To promote membership in CUES.
b. To recruit CUES members to present programs at regional conferences
and
the National Conference in October.
c. To recruit CUES members who will submit articles for publication
in the
newsletter and journal.
d. To develop a CUES member handbook.
e. To develop a CUES Web site
f. To share information about successful programs and strategies with
Members.
Sharon than introduced Ruth Hussey, incoming commission chair.
Ruth presented plans for the future, which center on establishing a comprehensive
web site to be a resource for members. A steering committee was formed
to work on this goal, George Steele, Jean Martin, Mike McKay, Sarah Hammond,
Tom Kenyon and Ruth Hussey. George Steele has started developing
a web site that the committee will build upon.
To generate ideas for the web site, we broke into four groups to discuss
the needs and wants of the members. The following are examples of
the ideas:
1. Models for advising exploratory students
2. Tracking trends
3. Assessment
4. Use of technology
5. Connections between major and career
6. Undecided adults
7. Best practices
8. Group advising
9. Policies on being undeclared
10. Recent research
11. Mandatory advising
12. Mentoring for new advisers
13. Needs of sophomores/major changers
14. Web links for students
Ruth asked for an update on the volunteers to be regional liaisons for
CUES. Currently the liaisons are:
Northeast Region 1: Judy Hartling, Springfield College, Judy_a_haftling@spfldcol.edu
Mid-Atlantic Region 2: Carol Eigenbrot, Rowan University, eigenbrotc@rowan.edu
Mid-South Region 3: Dorothy Muller, East Carolina University, mullerd@mail.ecu.edu
Southeast Region 4: Joyce V. Rhodea, Tuskegee University
Great Lakes Region 5: Johanna Matyas, Kent State University, jmatyas@kent.edu
No. Central Region 6: Pat Mason-Browne, The University of Iowa
So. Central Region 7: Rich Robbins, Washburn University
Northwest Region 8: Susan M. Foster-Dow, Gonzaga University, foster-dow@gu.gonzaga.edu
Pacific Region 9: Anne Hein, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, ahein@ccmail.nevada.edu
Rocky Mtn. Region 10: Gay Golfer DiGregorio, Colorado State University
Canada: Virginia Barrett, Memorial University of Newfoundland
I hope these liaisons will be very prominent in promoting programs related
to CUES at their regional meetings in the spring and provide the membership
with summaries of these programs as links on the web site.
The CUES membership continues to grow, we are now at 1233 members.
Commission
on Undecided/Exploratory Students (CUES)
3 - year Evaluation
(1994-1997)
1. Contributions
to NACADA publications
a. NACADA Newsletter
Commission Chair submitted
regular Commission reports to the newsletter.
b. NACADA Journal
"Students Decided and Undecided
About Career Choice: A Comparison of College Achievement and Student Involvement"
(Spring 1995) by Willard Clark Lewallen
"The Irrational Nature of
Choice: A New Model for Advising Undecided Students" (Fall 1996) by Robert
M. Bertram.
c. Monograph
The Commission felt that
it was wise to delay publication of a monograph since the National Resource
Center for the Freshman Year Experience published a monograph, "Issues
in Advising the Undecided Student" in 1994. Several chapters in the monograph
were written by CUES members and it was a very comprehensive resource.
We felt it was important to identify some different issues to address so
that there would be some demand for a new monograph. A committee has been
formed and some possible topics have been identified. The Chair hopes to
have the Chair-elect devote more time to this during the next year.
2. Solicit programs for
national and regional conferences
a. National Conferences:
Beginning in 1994, members
were encouraged via annual mailings and the newsletter to submit conference
proposals. I was gratified by the number of proposals reviewed for each
of the last three national conferences. I only wish more of them had been
selected for inclusion. There were some disappointed CUES members who had
submitted excellent proposals. I realize that conference planners only
have so much time to allot for programs and that there are many commissions
to represent. I do feel the membership has generated some fine programs
and, based on my observations, they have been very well attended (standing
room only in most cases).
b. Regional Conferences:
Regional CUES representatives
have been identified for each NACADA region. We are beginning to form "regional
teams" in some regions. I correspond with the representatives prior to
regional conferences. The intent is to have the representatives or teams
be
responsible for hosting a roundtable or presenting a program at their regional.
They are also responsible for reporting what sessions were presented that
would be of interest to CUES members. I then try to follow-up and encourage
the presenters to repeat their programs at a national conference. I also
highlight certain programs of particular interest in my mailings to the
entire membership.
3. Informing Commission
members
a. CUES Commission business
meetings have been held at each national conference since 1994. The challenge
is to keep the members "on task" in terms of the purpose of the business
meeting. When you get a bunch of colleagues together who all work with
undecided/exploratory students, there is a strong desire to spend the time
sharing information rather than planning commission activities! We do manage
to accomplish something during each meeting, however.
b. Regular newsletter submissions
have served to inform the membership about CUES activities, to recognize
members who have contributed something to the commission, and to solicit
programs and articles.
c. Semi-annual mailings (one
in January and one in July of each year since 1994) have allowed me to
elaborate on information presented in the newsletter, to summarize national
conference information, and to solicit information for special projects
(see Special projects).
4. Present papers at conferences
of organizations other than NACADA
I have not specifically requested
CUES members to share this information, but I will include this in future
communiqués. I have concentrated my energies on soliciting programs
for our regional and national conferences. I do know of one member who
presented a program about peer advising and the undeclared student at the
Mid-Western Conference on Peer Advising this past spring. With a membership
this large, I would expect that there have been others as well.
5. Participate In NA CA
DA a wards programs
While many members have been
involved in commission activities, we don't yet have anyone who stands
out as someone who meets the award criteria. I will include this as an
agenda item for the Kansas City Conference.
6. Publications in journals
other than NACADA's
Again, our focus has been
on generating publications for our own journal. Members have been encouraged
to share if they have been involved in these activities and I will continue
to do this.
7. Special projects
At the 1995 National Conference,
members expressed a desire to learn more about programs in existence that
were experiencing success with undecided/exploratory students. The Commission
sponsored a survey to "Identify Established Programs and Techniques that
have Proven Successful" with undecided/exploratory students. The survey
was included in the January 1996 mailing to all members. Sixty-one members
responded and the results were summarized and sent to the membership in
the July 1996 mailing. A more comprehensive report was distributed at the
National Conference in Washington and, by request, to CUES members who
read about the survey in the newsletter and who wanted a copy of the comprehensive
report. My budget would not have supported a mass mailing of this, but
I did send out several in response to individual inquiries. A copy of the
survey is attached.
Submitted by Candace McLaughlin,
Chair, Commission on Undecided/Exploratory Students