In this issue:
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Classes will be held on election night
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Engage! search is live
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Student Adviser Records release form
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New advising process for student-athletes
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Reminder: SCEP policy forums
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Liberal education: Did U know?
Classes will be held on election night
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 marks the date for national elections and many University of Minnesota students will be participating in this process. All day and evening classes will be held on this date as scheduled. Faculty and instructors are expected to make reasonable accommodations for those students who can only vote during class time.
Students who require an
accommodation or who will be late
to, or absent from, class in order to vote must speak with their
instructors in
advance of that date.
If you have any questions, please contact Tina Falkner at rovic001@umn.edu or Sue Van Voorhis at vanvo002@umn.edu.
Thank you for helping facilitate this process for our students.
Engage! search is live
The Engage! search is now live.
This search helps University of Minnesota undergraduates connect with
meaningful experiences outside of the classroom. Students can use the
search to discover opportunities that will help them pursue their
interests and aspirations, and complement their academic experiences.
The search is also available to prospective students,
graduate students, and members of the public who are interested in
learning about engagement opportunities across the University of
Minnesota system.
The Engage! search was introduced to all students who
attended Welcome Week.
If you are interested in promoting the search on your
departmental or collegiate Web site, visit the the Engage!
search communications toolkit.
Student Adviser Records Release form
There is a new enterprise-wide form for all campuses and
colleges that allows students to grant their University collegiate and
departmental student services staff, academic adviser, and/or faculty
adviser permission to release information held in their records to a
third party (e.g., parent, spouse). This form deals with the
information held in the adviser or student services staffs' files that
is not currently covered by the Parent/Guest Access Web application.
For more information about this form and the procedures
governing it, please read the update
provided at the August Registrar's Advisory Committee meeting on
this topic and scroll to the "Student Adviser Records Release training"
agenda item. You can also access the procedure and the online and print
versions of the release form on the ASR Extranet at http://asr.umn.edu.
If you have questions about the form or the procedure,
please contact Julie Selander at goode021@umn.edu.
New advising process for student-athletes
The previous Year Long Plan for
student-athletes is being replaced with a Four Year Graduation Plan.
All student-athletes will be required to use Graduation Planner to
create a four year plan in order to register for their classes.
Graduation Planner was introduced
to incoming student-athletes in PSTL 1086. One of their required
assignments is to complete a graduation plan. Advisers and students
will verify the plan together; the plan will be signed by the student's
college adviser, and the student will return the form to their athletic
adviser.
If you have questions about this
process, please contact Erin Swanson at meier120@umn.edu.
Reminder: SCEP policy forums
The Senate Committee on
Educational Policy (SCEP) will be holding public forums on the
Twin Cities campus during the fall semester. These forums will allow
members of the University community to comment, question, and air
concerns about proposed changes to the educational policies.
The forums will be held at the following times and locations:
October 6, 2:30-4:00 p.m., 180
Hubert H. Humphrey Center (West Bank)
October 15, 1:00-2:30 p.m. 324 Coffman (East Bank)
After the forums, the subcommittee
that has been working with the policies will review the comments, make
changes where appropriate, and bring the final policies to SCEP for
their approval and subsequent transmittal to the Senate for approval in
the spring.
If you have questions about the
policy review, please contact Tina Falkner at rovic001@umn.edu.
Liberal Education: did U know?
What has changed: Communicating our commitment
Creating effective liberal education is everyone’s responsibility. The new liberal education requirements approved by the Twin Cities Assembly in April 2008 are clearer and more rigorous and place greater emphasis on helping students understand why we have liberal education and what educational benefits these requirements provide. What can each of us do?
- We can help students understand what these courses are trying to accomplish and that they have demonstrable meaning to the world outside the University. Liberal education makes better engineers, better medical students, and better citizens through an emphasis on building critical thinking and communication skills across disciplines.
- We can be explicit about the value of LE courses, rather than referring to them as a checklist to get through. We can also emphasize liberal education as a component of a four-year degree that should stretch students to achieve breadth outside of their major and be distributed throughout their four years. Taking LE courses throughout their time at the University can help provide a diversity of experience and perspective to their studies as their intellectual capacities and ideas evolve and change.
- We all play an important role in helping students understand the meaning and value of liberal education as a part of their degree. And to do that, we need to be clear about these goals and embrace and articulate them broadly and passionately.
For more information on the new Liberal Education curriculum, please visit: https://www.myu.umn.edu/public/cle.html