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346 Bancroft Hall, Rock Hill, SC 29733 • 803/323-2209 • 803/323-2568 (Fax) |
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ACADEMIC ADVISING Advising FAQ's and Advising Tips Department of Political Science - Advising Policy Advising
students is an important aspect of the work of all Political Science
faculty and is a responsibility that we take very seriously.
In carrying out this responsibility, we seek to use our time and
professional expertise in the best possible way. This expertise, we believe, includes the experience and
understanding to help students better understand the courses offered in
Political Science and other departments; the relation between these
courses and students’ educational and career goals; and the relevance
of various internships and employment opportunities to students career
and educational goals. We relish discussing such topics with students
because such conversations allow us to make use of our distinctive
knowledge as political scientists in a manner that, we believe, can
greatly benefit students.
However, our experience and understanding as political scientists do not give
us any distinctive expertise keeping track of courses on an
academic
inventory sheet, knowing which course fulfills what
General Education requirement, or understanding an academic audit. Such
responsibilities, we believe, lie with the student or other members of
the University community. The
PLSC faculty considers it to be our responsibility to: · Make
ourselves available to students for advising throughout the semester. We
do our best to keep our regularly scheduled office hours, but because of
illness, appointments with other students, and/or other
responsibilities, we may not be available during the posted hours.
Thus, while we welcome drop-in appointments, we also encourage
students, especially those on tight schedules, to set up appointments in
advance via phone or email. ·
Encourage
students to seek our advice at times other than the several weeks of the
semester prior to pre-registration.
During the weeks prior to pre-registration, lines outside our
offices are frequently long. It is thus often difficult to have
appropriately lengthy, thoughtful, and detailed conversations. · Upon a student’s
request, help her or him better understand educational and career goals. · Upon
a student’s request, help her or him better understand what: ·
Make
available to a student any documents such as her/his transcript and
unofficial audit to which we have access and which we not prohibited
from releasing to the student by statute and/or University policy. ·
Maintain on the Political
Science web page a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) that deal
with many of the most common questions that students have. ·
Make available to
students the names of several seniors majoring in Political Science who
have agreed to discuss the kinds of issues that would be inappropriate
for the faculty to address. Among
such questions are, “What kind of teacher is so-and-so?”
“How hard is this course?”
“Is so-and-so a tough grader?”
“What is this course really like?” ·
Facilitate
a student’s taking responsibility for achieving her or his career and
educational goals. To this
end, we recognize that it may not be necessary for some students to make
an appointment to see us during the customary advising period in the
weeks prior to pre-registration. Thus,
we will clear any student’s advising flag who sends her or his advisor
an email that says: “Dear Professor________.
I don’t need help in choosing my courses and do not need an
appointment to discuss next semester’s schedule. Please clear my
advising flag.” We
consider it a student’s responsibility: ·
To obtain an academic
inventory sheet in your first semester at Winthrop and keep it up to
date. This is probably the
single most important way for you to track your progress towards
graduation, especially before you are eligible for an audit. Academic
inventory sheets may be obtained in the Political Science Department
office or in the Student Services office in Kinard. ·
To
know which courses satisfy what Gen Ed, major, minor, and graduation
requirements. We know this
is not an easy thing to do, especially as the new Gen Ed program is
being phased in. In fact,
just as many students have questions about these requirements, so, too,
does the PLSC faculty. In
such cases, we typically seek guidance from the Office of Student
Services and/or the Registrar’s Office.
Rather than serve as an intermediary between a student and these
offices, the PLSC faculty encourages any student who does not understand
the requirements as stated in the University catalog, the PLSC web page,
or any University document or web page to contact the Office of Student
Services and/or the Registrar’s Office directly.
·
To come prepared to all
appointments. Among other
things, if you wish to discuss your schedule next semester, you must: The
Political Science faculty believes that the above delineation of
responsibilities will help academic advising be educationally productive
and rewarding for both students and faculty. We welcome the opportunity
to fulfill our responsibilities and similarly expect students to fulfill
theirs. Adopted
September 22, 2003. |
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