Office of the Registrar

This is your first chance to get to know your new advisees and to prepare them for registering for classes later in the day. Lots to do in 30 minutes; you may want to plan on a follow up meeting to cover some of these topics.

• Get to know each other. You can talk about their hometown, high school achievements, what they’re most excited about, and/or what they’re most worried about in coming to Reed, for example.
• Discuss your role as the adviser and agree on expectations for the advising relationship (e.g., responding to emails, reaching out when facing challenges, accessing grades).
• Prepare for registration and course selection:
  • Encourage students to approach course selection with curiosity rather than simply to fulfill requirements.
  • Liberal arts @ Reed. Explain how and why our curriculum is structured as it is: distribution requirements, including Hum 110, that provide breadth, and majors, minors, and thesis, that offer depth. How does one fulfill the various requirements? Explain prerequisites, waitlists, and overrides.
  • Sketch out four-year plans: Do they have a major in mind? Is studying abroad a priority? Is learning a language or a specific skill (i.e., technical or artistic skills)? 
  • Encourage students to take PE/CE courses in their first year highlighting that students are required to take 6 quarters of P.E. (2 may come from community engagement) to graduate.
  • Review course selections for fall and spring, be sure they have alternatives if courses are full.
  • Explain registration process.
  • Provide advisee with their new SOLAR PIN (found on your advising list in IRIS) so that they can register.
• Challenges and opportunities.
  • All college students encounter academic and social challenges. Discuss how to treat these as growth opportunities rather than shameful setbacks or signals that they don’t belong. This can help students be resilient, persistent, proactive, and keep challenges from spiraling out of control.
  • Help students understand the many support resources available to them (e.g., tutoring, faculty office hours, the Student Hub). Emphasize that getting help does not denote weakness, rather, as adults, we expect them to notice when they need help and proactively seek it out.
  • Normalize common college experiences by openly discussing imposter phenomena, the challenges of making friends in a new environment, constructive ways to deal with loneliness and isolation, the benefits of getting involved in co-curriculars, etc.
• Encourage students to connect with the Center for Life Beyond Reed, Student Engagement Office, and SEEDS to explore Portland, connect with community on and off campus, and discover opportunities during summers, breaks, and beyond.

Your continuing advisees have already registered courses for the upcoming semester or year (depending on whether you are meeting them in spring or fall). It can be helpful to reach out to them a week or two before classes start. Some topics you may wish to discuss with them:

• How do they feel about last semester/year? Where did they feel successful? Where do they want to improve or do differently? How they might do so, and what resources  might they tap in support of those efforts, e.g. faculty office hours, tutoring, academic coaching, Spring Symposium, and the student hub.
  • This can be a good time to remind some advisees that all college students encounter academic and social challenges, and to encourage them to treat these as growth opportunities rather than shameful setbacks or signals that they don’t belong. This can help students be resilient, persistent, proactive, and keep challenges from spiraling out of control.
  • It can be useful to emphasize that getting help does not denote weakness, rather, as adults, we expect them to notice when they need help and proactively seek it out.
  • Normalize common college experiences by openly discussing imposter phenomena, the challenges of making friends in a new environment, constructive ways to deal with loneliness and isolation, the benefits of getting involved in co-curricular activities.
• How are their academic interests developing? What are the various directions these interests might lead? This may be a good moment to explain how and why Reed’s curriculum is structured to ensure breadth and depth of study in the liberal arts.
• Ask about changes or additions they want to make to this semester’s schedule (e.g. PE classes or regular classes). Encourage them to check the course catalog for ideas. They will need their new SOLAR PIN (found on your advising list in IRIS) to make these changes. 
• Remind them that if they end up on a waitlist, they should actively monitor their email so that they can take a seat when it is offered.
• Have they thought about summer plans? Encourage them to do so and to connect with the Center for Life Beyond Reed, Student Engagement Office, and SEEDS to explore Portland, connect with community on and off campus, and discover opportunities during summers, breaks, and beyond.

The check-in following week 4 comments may take place via email, or, if salutary, in-person. Use email templates as appropriate.

• For all students:
  • Point them to the Academic Calendar, for deadlines to drop or withdraw from a class
  • Direct them to Resources: Academic Support, Health & Counseling, tutoring
  • Describe Reed’s grading policy, week 4 and 8 comments, highlighting how they can serve as feedback for future growth.
  • Note that if they’re interested in future Study Abroad programs, they may want to book a meeting with you soon to start considering their options.
• If you meet in person:
  • Reflect with them on their first month at Reed and direct them to resources. e.g. What has met your expectations? What surprised you? Any disappointments or frustrations? What’s your favorite thing to do outside of class? Have you been able to get all of your textbooks?  Would you like support in meeting expectations in one or more of your classes?
  • Confirm the next meeting in advance of November registration if applicable.

Review week 8 grades and comments in IRIS for all advisees and use email templates as appropriate. If week 8 grades are unsatisfactory, request a meeting.

• Highlight that grades and feedback can serve as a catalyst for future growth.
• Encourage advisees to access resources when struggling: talk to their instructor, meet with a tutor, or make use of other useful campus resources. You may want to help them take the first step by having them book an appointment or send an email during your meeting.
• If they want to withdraw from a class but are receiving financial aid, they should connect with the Financial Aid office to learn the implications of the withdrawal and make an informed decision.

In-person or email are both good options for the week 11 check-in.

• Check on progress: “what are you most excited about, what are you most worried about?”
• Consider that your advisee’s areas of interest may be changing. If so, use the "What If" function in ATLAS to explore how a Biology major changes to Political Science, for example.
  • Use the course catalog to plot possible paths through the curriculum if needed.
• Ask if they’ve accessed faculty office hours or other support services so far. If not, ask whether they’ve wanted but found challenges in doing so or if they didn’t see a need.
  • If they wanted to access resources but didn’t, problem-solve with them about how to push past their barriers to access, including helping them think about what they would say. 
  • If they did not see a need, discuss how using faculty office hours or other campus resources may benefit them.
• Students considering modifications to their spring schedule may want to explore the sample first year schedules in the Academic Advising Handbook.
• Remind them to mark their calendars with add/drop/withdrawal deadlines.
• Review spring course selections, including spring semester PE 103 and 104.
• Provide new SOLAR PIN (found on your advising list in IRIS) to make spring changes if applicable.
• Schedule a January/February meeting for after spring classes begin.

Students may drop a class on the student registration portal SOLAR during the add-drop period without specific permissions. Beginning the third week of the semester, students need their advisor’s approval to drop a course via SOLAR.  After discussing the drop with their advisee, Advisors set a DROP PERIOD Override in IRIS for the specific course the student intends to drop. (Link to instructions) Once the student drops/withdraws, the registration system generates an email notifying the course instructor and the advisor that the course has been dropped.

At the end of each semester and after grades are recorded, the faculty as a whole reviews the progress of all students. Should it be determined that academic action is warranted, students and their advisers are notified. Students who receive an academic action are to meet with their advisers to discuss their academic status. They may also be required to develop a progress plan. Advisers are expected to support students in this task. In addition, it is often helpful for students to meet with a dean in student life to discuss strategies for improvement, and support services such as tutoring, counseling, or academic support workshops.

Students must seek approval to drop below the minimum required 3-unit semester course load by using this form. The form requires signatures from the adviser, Student Life, International Student Services (as appropriate) and is submitted to the Registrar.  When a student inquires about dropping below full-time, you should explore the implications of that choice with them so that they can make an informed decision. Dropping below full time is likely to slow their progress toward their degree and may have other implications for insurance coverage, financial aid, etc. If they do not know one or more of the implications, help them connect to the relevant departments to gather info before making a final decision.

Continuing students are often reassigned during the summer due to faculty going on leave, students electing to make changes, etc. If you get a new advisee who is a continuing student: 

• Check their documents in IRIS as you would a new student. 
• Familiarize yourself with their grades and whether they’ve previously taken any leaves. 
• Arrange a meeting early in the semester and use any of the talking points that are relevant from other meeting check-lists above.

New students starting at Reed in the Spring semester are generally transfer students from other institutions. The Office of Academic Support will reach out to faculty individually requesting advisers and subsequently making assignments. All the standard advice for advising new students applies to this special group. In addition, it will be important to do a bit of “homework” first to learn more about what credits these transfer students have already earned elsewhere and what classes they’ll need at Reed to make appropriate academic progress. 

• Contact Ben Bradley in the Registrar’s office for a transfer credit evaluation.
• Consider whether you have additional questions about what your transfer student will need to do to make appropriate academic progress and consult with colleagues and the Registrar’s office as needed.

Additionally, refer to the Advising Check-list under “new/incoming student Orientation-week meeting” for a guide on how to conduct those meetings.