NEW STAFF STAFF LEAVING STAFF PROMOTIONS Meredith Dawson - Student Employment Coordinator Melissa Guerra - Scholarship Coordinator Birthdays
Summer Kokic
- Nov. 1
Gordon Brannon - Nov. 2
Angie Flores - Nov. 3
Monica Juneau - Nov. 4
Pavielle Chriss - Nov. 18
Kerry Schneidewind - Nov. 19
Jessica Dixon - Nov. 20
Angela Mejia - Nov. 22
Adrienne Montgomery - Nov. 23
Jackie Wilborn - Nov 26
Monica Gomez - Nov. 28
Jean Porter
- 10 years
Paulette Caraway - 5 years
Lydia Babbit - 4 years
Colleen Franklin - 4 years
Nancy Skockdopole - 2 years
Stanley Stubblefield - 2 years
w/DES
Enrollment Services Highlights
ImageNow Regional Users
Conference
SMU in Plano - held an Open House for Collin County residence on the
weekend of Halloween. Summer School and Transfer and Transition Services
were present to talk with families about these two programs. The event
attracted not only trick or treaters but individuals interested in the offerings
at the Plano and main campuses.
The kids attending the Open House
loved the SMU Pennants as much as the candy.
TxBUC$ - held its annual conference in Corpus Christi this year.
Even with the rain, participants gained from their attendance. Angela
Mejia, a member of the Student Financial Operations unit in Student Financial
Services (SFS), share great information on collecting past due balances.
In the current economic climate, SMU depends on the SFS staff to keep the
cash flow current.
Security Briefing - Enrollment Services held its annual update on data
security. For those not in attendance, material was made available and a
quiz was given to document their participation. So far our staff is making
As in data security.
Mandatory Health Insurance - a few more details - with enrollment for
spring in progress, the Web site related to Mandatory Health Insurance is live.
A few points that may assist you if you receive questions: Krista Pruitt
is the contact in the Memorial Health Center. Students receiving Financial
Aid may not receive additional aid for health insurance. Health insurance
is part of their budget awarded for 2009-10. U.S. students taking 9 or
more credit hours and International Students taking one or more hours must have
health insurance. Once a student has enrolled, s/he will have access to
the Health Insurance Web site, though which s/he can provide proof of insurance
to waive the SMU student insurance. Students who do not have proof of
insurance will be billed for the mandatory policy after the Drop/Add period.
Set Ups - not a new exercise program in Enrollment Services - for all new
academic program are facilitated by Enrollment Service. The various areas in Enrollment
Services work with schools and departments setting the program up in ACCESS.SMU.
This fall the Module Leads worked with Kate Livingston, Director of SMU in Plano
to offer the J Term. This exciting program offers undergraduates the
opportunity to take 3 credit hours during the winter break. Go to the SMU
in Plano site for more information.
Display at Mother's Club
Luncheon
VIPs -
Very Important Ponies
Some of our VIPs this month are:
Eartha Walls - thank you for helping my daughter this morning. I was totally confused and your assistance was greatly appreciated. Thank you. Happy Parent
Gretchen Voight - I want to send you a brief hearty congratulations on the new December Graduation fair. John Hall
Teena Joshi (OIT), Curt Herridge (OIT), Stanley Stubblefield, and Damon Wilkins - Thank you for your help with Friday's Imaging Users Group conference. The room setup worked out well for presentations, lunch and the round table discussions. Thanks again for making the conference a successful one. Joe Papari
Summer School Office - [Kathy Rowe's] report [to the Steering Committee] is excellent evidence of setting objectives and achievement targets, reviewing findings, putting action plans into place, and closing the loop. I cited it as an example recently of great administrative IE documentation. Marty Sweidel Thank, Kathy. It looks like you're on track with this, and it's important. In reviewing the meeting minutes [Summer School Steering Committee] I'm impressed with what you've lined up already. Tom Tunks
Stephen Forest - someday I need to meet Stephen Forrest. He is like a demi-god of data! Stephanie Dupaul
Stephany Coleman - thank you for assisting Andrew Snow in Alumni Relations with the concerned alumnus. You turned this around and Andrew appreciates your responsiveness.
Joe Papari - Thank YOU for all you did to organize and host the regional ImageNow user groups meeting at SMU. You've been a GREAT advocate for our imaging system. Joe Gargiulo Many thanks for coordinating/hosting this group meeting . . . having a local imaging users group is a great idea. It is a very cost effective way to share knowledge and have some professional development. John Hall
John Hall - thank you
[Bonnie Wheeler] for your email of support for John Hall. The Registrar's
Office stood ready all along to do whatever needed doing to present diplomas.
Tom Tunks
Transfer and Transition Services
The University’s Transfer Initiative
Mission Statement says that SMU will be an institution that values, actively
recruits and retains high quality transfer students. To sustain this mission,
the Office of Transfer and Transition Services was created in the spring of 2009
to assist areas on campus who support transfer students, serve as an advocate
for both prospective and current transfer students at SMU, and raise the
awareness of transfer students in our community.
Working with Admissions and the Registrar’s
Office, goals were established to better serve the transfer population, which
include:
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Director of Transfer and Transition
Services, Nancy Skochdopole, reports that significant progress has been made
toward meeting these goals. The Admissions and Registrar’s Offices, working
with the academic deans’ offices, are averaging a turnaround time of 5 days,
including weekends, from the time a prospective student’s application is
completed until the student is notified of an admissions decision. More
importantly, once the student is notified, s/he is informed not only of what
work will transfer to SMU, but also how the work may be applied to an SMU
degree.
Progress is also being made in the area of
articulation and how we communicate with our feeder schools. A new articulation
agreement with Dallas County Community College District has been drafted and
more agreements with other schools are planned. Additionally, new GEC guides
for Dallas, Tarrant and Collin County colleges have been printed and
distributed. Plans are underway to formulate new major guides for prospective
transfers in each of the undergraduate schools as well.
The ALEC has been a wonderful partner in
identifying the stumbling blocks for new transfers and designing workshops to
address these issues. Also, working with the ALEC, outreach was made to all
transfer students appearing on the Academic Early Warning list and Mid-Term
Deficiency list informing them of the many resources available to them at the A-LEC.
Lastly, to provide earlier access to
advising for transfer students, a Transfer Open Advising Day was held for all
admitted fall 2009 transfer students in May. All undergraduate academic
advisors at SMU convened in Blanton and advised close to 100 transfer students.
Many advisors reported that earlier contact with these transfers made for an
easier AARO advising session. On November 23, a mini Transfer Open Advising
Session will be held for students planning to enter the University as transfers
in spring 2010.
All of these initiatives were accomplished
through the collaborative efforts of many areas across SMU. There is much more
work to do but Nancy says she looks forward to assisting all areas in better
serving our transfer students.
Become more transfer friendly by improving the transferability and, most
importantly, applicability of transfer credit for prospective applicants. Improve
articulation with feeder schools through articulation agreements and equivalency
guides for GEC and majors. Ensure
the transfer admission process is friendly and timely.Make
certain the transfer credit evaluation process is efficient and timely.Guarantee
SMU is affordable to transfer students compared with its competitors.Provide
a seamless transition to SMU through A-LEC and programming Communicate
with the SMU community about importance of transfers and the transfer initiative
by telling the “transfer story”
Important Dates
Quotation of the Month
SMU Trivia
Question
Answer This and That
Jerrod Harrell - named chair of the Professional
Judgment Committee in Financial Aid. Jerrod is the Enrollment
Resources liaison with Financial Aid. Congratulations, Jerrod. Gretchen Voight - recognized with the President's
Award at the 2009 Texas Association of College Registrars and
Admission Officers (TACRAO). In the presidents remarks she explained that
this award is not presented annually but is presented when there is a member whose work with the
association is out of the ordinary. Gretchen has been active in many
aspects of TACRAO all three years of her membership and has been such a member. Congratulations,
Gretchen. Ethel Wise - To my surprise, I received a call about
Ethel Wise (retired from SMU Registrar's Office) and what a wonderful ambassador she was for SMU. The caller
continued for over five minutes with her praise of Ehtel's spirit and love for
SMU. She also mentioned Sam Radcliffe who is in Hamon Library. It
turns out the my wife Cherly and I knew Sam's dad, and gave him an Irish Setter
when Sam was a teenager. The caller has a daughter here and just felt
compelled to let us know about Ethel and the good work she was doing. I
thanked her for taking time out of her day to call. John Hall Summer 2010 is HERE!
The Summer School Office (SSO) begins to
work on the next summer's program at Family Weekend. Because attending
any of the many summer school option takes planning, SSO talks with parents
about including a summer program in their student's four year undergraduate
plan. Many moms and dads asked questions about SMU
in Taos, the Education Abroad offerings, and courses on the main campus.
The parents see summer school as a way for their academically ambitions students
to manage a double major, adding a minor, or seeking two bachelor's degrees.
One mother told of her business and pre-med son who also had a music minor.
His 18 credit hour course load was challenging. By working with his
advisor, she was going to see if the family could lighten his load through a
course or two in the summer. The summer school staff was out sporting their
new logo and look distributing "clappers" with information about the three
summer programs. The weekend was a great success as it has been in the
past. The staff thinks they distributed information to over 1,000 family
members encouraging them to think SUMMER! Family Weekend 2009
Mark your calendar
December 8th
Nov. 26-27 - Thanksgiving Holiday
Dec. 1
- Last Day to Withdraw
Dec. 9 - Last Day of Instruction
Dec. 10 - Reading
Day
Dec. 11-17 - Examinations
Dec. 18 - Residence Halls Close
Dec. 19 -
Graduation
Dec. 21-25 - University Holiday
Jan. 1 - New Years Holiday
Genius without education is
like silver in the mine.
Benjamin Franklin
In the 1960, the Squires was a male spirit organization composed
of 3 members of each of the NIC Fraternities. For two or three years, they had a
full-sized horse that one of the member rode at football games.
