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October 2009 Newsletter

Dear All,

We have, this week, passed the half way point of the semester. How time flies.

I always think that the second half of the semester feels even more accelerated as your student moves through a number of distinct cycles; registration, Thanksgiving break, and then finals. We have just passed a significant deadline – Monday October 19th, was the last day to drop a semester long course or change the grading process for a class to the credit/no credit option. Hopefully, students made the correct decisions in either changing or maintaining their schedules for there is now no easy option in altering a schedule. If a student does encounter some difficulties in a course during the last 8 weeks of the semester they need to quickly discuss the situation with the course instructor and, very importantly, speak with their academic advisor to discuss strategies and options.

Students should be able now to check their own personal registration times and dates for Spring courses. The early registration period officially begins November 2nd and runs through November 20th (although in reality, it doesn’t end until the 10th day of the Spring semester.) Each student is assigned a specific time to register and that time is based upon a priority system connected to, primarily, the number of credit hours a student has completed. Seniors, for example, are given priority whereas first semester students are usually the final group to be given a registration time during the early registration period. Some groups such as Honors students, students with disabilities, and student-athletes, are given priority registration times.

DGS advisors are finding their appointments schedules filling as students come on in to discuss their course interests for the Spring semester. Some advisors will be fully booked especially as we get closer to the early registration period. We try to provide additional opportunities for students to meet with an advisor through our advisor on call program plus we do move in to a drop-by advising process for the last 7 days of early registration. During drop-in, express advising, students can simply swing by the center to meet with their advisor (although there is often a long wait) or the first available advisor (shorter wait). Our goal is to accommodate all students who want to meet with an advisor. Although it is important for students to remember, and for you to also be cognizant of the fact, that each student really has had over 7,000 appointment opportunities to meet with an advisor prior to drop-in advising.

As students think more deeply about their courses and major explorations we hope they also think more on about their role across campus, the community, and into broader contexts. About 200 students in one of our GS 101 sections were recently able to interact with former Illinois governor Jim Edgar. Gov. Edgar spoke eloquently about leadership and the need for students to get involved. This is a key component of a college education. From its inception, American higher education was seen as a pillar in the great experiment in democracy. Founding fathers from diverse political persuasions and philosophical underpinnings believed that to be successful the nascent American democracy had to have an educated populace and a number of the founding fathers looked to higher education to become the democratic and economic "engine" of the young republic. It should come as no surprise that Thomas Jefferson wanted to be remembered as not the author of the declaration of independence, but as the founder of the University of Virginia. Jefferson was devoted to the ideal that America needed a public higher education to develop and educate an informed citizenry but also as an investment in the nation's independent economic development. James Madison argued that, “A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but the prologue to a farce or a tragedy.” To be successful, therefore, the new nation needed a dynamic, philosophically and practically educated populace, a population that was willing to engage in the public sphere. Should we expect anything less from our group of students this Fall? I don’t think so.

As always, if you have any concerns or any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at jparrott@illinois.edu.

Cheers now,
Julian