Although students are just about halfway through their current slate of courses, most are well into the process of choosing their classes for spring 2013. As a faculty member, you are well aware of this as you work to squeeze in advising appointments over the next few weeks.
In an effort to assist you in your role as an academic advisor, the CAS Academic Advising Center, now located in the Center for Student Services at 100 Bay State Road, would like to make you aware of two new resources.
1) Student Notes
The Student Notes function is now available under “Advisor List” on the Faculty Link. Faculty will be able to record and read notes about students with whom you have an advisor/advisee relationship. Students will not be able to view student notes, but it is good practice to record your notes as if a student will have the opportunity to read them in the future. A guide to Student Notes is included on the Faculty Advising link on our updated web site (see below).
2) Updated Web Site
CAS Academic Advising has an updated web site that includes a section designed to help you in your role as advisors. The faculty/staff “portal” is accessible only by CAS faculty and includes information and links that advisors report they access most frequently. This will always be a work in progress, so please do not hesitate to send us your ideas and suggestions.
In addition to advising season, this time of year could also be considered “stress” season, as students work to find a balance their academic work load, co-curricular activities and personal lives. Faculty members are well positioned as advisors and teachers to notice when a student has trouble maintaining a proper work/life balance and begins to suffer from some degree of distress. If you are ever concerned about a student who shows such signs of being overwhelmed by stress, please do not hesitate to contact the CAS Advising Center at 617-353-2400 or casadv@bu.edu for help and guidance. An on-call advisor is available from 8:30am to 5pm every day to respond in a timely fashion to inquiries from students, faculty and staff. We also strongly encourage you to check out the Behavioral Medicine site devoted to helping faculty recognize and respond to students in distress.