CAA General Meeting Minutes: March 25, 2011

Council of Academic Advisors

General Meeting Notes

03/25/11 – THH 212

10:00am

       I.            USC Pre-Health Center - Kenneth Geller, Director; Gina Camello-Pinto, Associate Director

a.       Purpose of Center

                                                              i.      Provide comprehensive advisement for Pre-health students at USC

                                                            ii.      Develop a curriculum that addresses the Health professions

b.      New Initiatives

                                                              i.      Created a Database for Clinical experiences that provide shadowing opportunities with physicians

                                                            ii.      Re-establish a Committee letter of recommendation service

                                                          iii.      Create a pre-health handbook

                                                          iv.      Create a MYHPA portal similar to myusc specific pre-health planning

    II.            Office of Articulation - Edwenna Werner, Assistant Dean; David Van Dyke, Articulation Analyst; Shelby Kin, Articulation Analyst

a.       Updates to sections of TCR

                                                              i.      summary of work

                                                            ii.      pre-approval

                                                          iii.      Forthcoming - Articulation will be evaluating international transfer work for usc students

b.      USC now accepts on-line courses for

                                                              i.      elective credit

                                                            ii.      subject credit for most courses

                                                          iii.      On-line foreign language or lab science courses must have face-to-face instruction component in order to be considered for credit

c.       Semester @ Sea

                                                              i.      The Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences does not accept semester at seas courses taken in Fall or Spring semesters

                                                            ii.      Course are not considered immersive in nature

                                                          iii.      Courses taken in summer are okay, paper-based pre-approval is required

 III.            Asian Pacific American Student Services - Sumi Pendakur, Director

a.       Asian Pacific American Student Services (APASS) is designed to educate and empower students.  Its core pillars are

                                                              i.      Community

                                                            ii.      Engagement

                                                          iii.      Empowerment

                                                          iv.      Education

b.      A common issue addressed at APASS is career and major choice
Some members of the AP community struggle between family/cultural expectation versus individual choice

c.       APASS offer two key programs

                                                              i.      Peer mentoring – for mentoring and help seeking

                                                            ii.      Connections mentoring program – for career development and alumni connections

 IV.            El Centro Chicano - Billy Vela, Director

a.       El Centro works towards the retention and graduation of Chicano/Latino students at USC.  El Centro provides various programs throughout the year that allow students the opportunity to enrich their leadership skills, cultural identity, and define their role in the USC community

b.      Notable programs

                                                              i.      Latino resource handbook – a how-to and who’s who at USC

                                                            ii.      Weekly E-newsletter – updates on USC community

                                                          iii.      Class reunion – One stop shop information sessions for undergraduates

                                                          iv.      Latino Floors – Housing for students of Latino heritage or interests

                                                            v.      Hosting of students in higher education bound programs in high-schools and middle-schools

    V.            Office of Undergraduate Programs - Dr. Gene Bickers, Vice Provost

a.       Foreign Language - Effective Fall 2011

                                                              i.      USC students are to satisfy the USC Foreign Language requirement by the time they complete 64 USC units

                                                            ii.      If the foreign language requirement is not satisfied by the completion of 48 USC units, a hold will be placed on the student's academic record to be removed by his/her Academic Advisor after advisement session

                                                          iii.      If the foreign language requirement is not satisfied by the completion of 64 USC units, a probation hold will be placed on the student's academic record to be removed by Undergraduate programs

                                                          iv.      A similar policy will apply to transfer students except the initial check and referral to the academic advisor is at the completion of 32 units and referral to Undergraduate Programs is at 48 units.

b.      Upper Division Major GPA - Effective immediately and retroactively

                                                              i.      Only the GPA for coursework applied/used towards a major will be used to determine Upper Division GPA.   This varies from our current policy where all courses attempted are applied to the Upper division GPA

                                                            ii.      Example: A student completes a course for the first-time and earns a grade of C- or less; then repeats the course and earns a higher grade.  The higher grades will be applied to Upper Division gpa

                                                          iii.      The gpa for the initial course will still count for the overall gpa

                                                          iv.      Advisors may run reports for respective populations by selecting the following filter in database

1.      Major GPA  - less than (< ) 2.0