NEW STAFF
Mary Ann Frye - Bursar's Office
Federico Munoz - Bursar's Office
Jeremy Parrish - Bursar's Office
Tiffany Hawkins -
Permanent P/T - Bursar's Office STAFF LEAVING
Nada El-Sayed
- Registrar's Office STAFF PROMOTIONS Birthdays
Leslie Day
- Oct 5
Hilary McIlvain - Oct 7
Lori Atkinson - Oct 9
Barbara Waters - Oct 10
Stan Eddy - Oct 15
Veronica Decena - Oct 25
Sharla Coursey - Oct 26
Melissa Stanford - Oct 26
Colleen Franklin - Oct 30
Joe Davis - Oct 30
Marc "the ghoolish" Peterson -
Oct 31
Penny Griffin
- 7 years
Walter Jimenez
- 5 years
Yaw Bonsu - 5 years
Courtney Barrett - 3 years
Enrollment Services Highlights
Constitution Day
Enrollment Services participated in
two celebrations of Constitution Day. First was a reenactment of the
signing of the Constitution in the Hughes-Trigg Commons. Federal law
requires all institutions of higher education receiving federal financial aid
recognize September 17, commemorating the day the document was signed.
Two SMU Financial Aid staff members join two "colonials" at the event.
Colonial, Meredith Dawson, Colonial,
and Melissa Guerra.
Later on September 17, Nancy
Skochdopole and Deanie Kepler invited student veterans to an Ice Cream Social in
the Blanton Building. Nancy and Deanie are on campus contacts for
veteran's services through Enrollment Services and the Dean of Student Life
Office. This informal setting allowed veteran students to meet one another
and to meet staff.
Transfer and Transition Services
Year two of the office of Transfer
and Transition Services introduces a new student organization to the SMU campus
- Transfer Mustangs. Twenty undergraduate transfer student attended the
organizational meeting for the group. They affirmed the need for the
organization and elected officers. Second year transfer student Veronica
Winans became the organization's president. The group also brainstormed
ideas for the group. Advisor Nancy Skochdopole told students, "this group
is yours to make what you wish."
think SUMMER?
The SMU Summer School office began
work on Summer 2011 just weeks after the opening of the fall term. Working
with promotion of J Term, SMU Abroad, and SMU-in-Taos, information was provided
to families attending Family Weekend. SMU Abroad offered an information
session introducing the theme "Go Beyond." A compact audio disc of music
from the Mustang Band and the Meadows Symphony was given as favors at the
Mother's Club luncheon and those attending the Dad's Club BBQ were given
coasters with the logos of the four programs.
This year the Summer School office is
asking students to think outside of the regular terms - fall and spring -
bringing attention to the non-traditional programs through SMU Abroad,
SMU-in-Taos, J Term, and the three summer terms on the main campus.
Anniversaries
VIPs -
Very Important Ponies
Some of our VIPs this month are:
The Bursar Tech Team ROCKS! - the new eBilling and ePayment system through NelNet Business Systems is wonderful. We have dreamed of online, real time student account information and you have made it happen. Families as well as staff using it will be thrilled. Congratulations!
Tali Koerner and SMU Integrated Marketing for their work on the new Admission website. Eight members of the Integrated Marketing team shared their particular expertise, but special thanks goes to Tali, who worked tirelessly throughout the project and was up at 1am reviewing the final pages. All the best, Ben Alexander.
Gretchen Voight, Cate Hamilton, and Paley Wu - This new Academic Ceremony Symbols & Traditions web site developed by Gretchen, Cate, and Paley is a terrific compilation. Good work team. Bonnie Wheeler
Shahnaz Khaja - Thank you so much for everything you do!! You have been so instrumental with our new employees and helping us accomplish our basic business needs. I really do appreciate you.
Byron Lewis - Thanks for responding to our request for the calendars so quickly and for providing the updated territory list. It should be a good and busy year for all of us.
Mitzie Goff - Thank you for staffing the service counter on Saturday morning during the Admission Information Session, Stephanie [Dupaul] reported that she felt that this made a big difference.
Paley Wu - I don't know if anyone has told you this lately, but you're AMAZING. Thank you for always fixing our web problems promptly and with a smile! I'm not sure what RO would do without you. Thank you for all you do!
Laura Ries - you are
awesome! Thank you for responding so well to my requests to delete imaged
documents. Academic Ceremonies
Never Rests
Commencement may be nine months away, but that does not mean that this is
downtime in Academic Ceremonies. Gretchen Voight, Director of Academic
Ceremonies and Assistant Registrar, continues to enhance information regarding
academic ceremonies at SMU each year. This summer and fall, Gretchen with
Cate Hamilton and Paley Wu added a wonderful new section to the ceremonies
website, "Symbols and Traditions." This site allows the accesser to learn
about the origin and meaning of regalia and SMU's use
of academic dress. In addition the site explains Gonfalons, the Lantern,
the Mace, the President's regalia and medal as well as the various SMU seals.
In addition, Gretchen brought recognition to SMU's ceremony traditions through
the website
http://gradmemory.wordpress.com/ a site used by ceremony professionals to
share ideas. In
preparation for December Graduation, Academic Ceremonies sponsored the
Graduation Fair in conjunction with the SMU Bookstore. Graduates could
order regalia, class rings, invitations, announcements, and sit for a
professional graduation photograph in Cap and Gown. Participating
graduates were entered in a drawing if they visited representatives of all the
vendors present. Put
December 18, 2010 on your calendar for the December Graduation Ceremony. DES en Espanol As
reported in the September Newsletter, Enrollment Services is speaking Spanish.
Each area has an initiative to provide more Spanish language sites making the
web a better resource for our Spanish speaking families.
Undergraduate Admission will provide a number of pages in Spanish so that
families can better navigate the admission process. Financial Aid and the
Bursar's Office are translating their Frequently Asked Question into Spanish and
will provide some "uTube" type videos in Spanish. The Registrar's Office
has the Google Translator on its pages. Viewers can select from 27
languages.
Important Dates
Nov. 5 - Last day to
drop
Nov. 23 - Last day to
withdraw
Nov. 24 - no classes
Nov. 25-26 -
Thanksgiving Holiday
Dec. 6 - Last day of
instruction
Dec. 7 - Reading Day
Dec. 8-15 - Final
Examinations
Dec. 18 - December
Graduation
Quotation of the Month
SMU Trivia
Question
Answer Transfer Admission As Undergraduate Admission hit the skies in
search of the first year class of 2011, Transfer Admission and the Office of
Transfer and Transition Services has hit the road around the metroplex.
Area Community and two-year College are hosting College Fairs. With
the multiple campus of the Dallas and Tarrant County Colleges, as well as
Collin and Navaro, staff are crisscrossing to share information with
prospective students. In some cases, students are participating in
Mustang Express Decisions in which as student can receive provisional
admission for the spring term contingent on his or her final transcript. This year the staff is armed with a wonderful
binder of information which provides "Quick Connects" for each college, for
general education, and for veterans. Quick Connects are one page, front
and back, that outline admission procedures and requirements, information on
academic programs, and a reverence list of course conversions designed for each
specific college. Prospective transfer students can easily match their
course work with requirements at SMU. This has provided information to
students not available on site in the past. One staff member remarked,
"this is great. I had a student identify as a veteran. I was able to
give him our Quick Connect with all the information he needed." Thank you Goes a Long Way SMU's practice of assessing progress of first
year students in time to provide academic support, requires faculty to report
grades at mid-term in the fall and spring. This year, Anthony Tillman,
Assistant Provost and Retention Officer, sent thank you e-mails to faculty
reporting deficiencies for first year students. Faculty responded with
simple, "You are very welcome." to "Thank you, Tony. It's part of my job."
to "What a good idea to communicate with instructors this way!" and "I think it
is critically important and I am concerned about my students." John Hall
stated, "Many thanks to everyone for making this happen. It was a nice
team effort, with nice results." Hall thanked Tony for sponsoring the
thank you notes and Shahnaz and Paley for getting the notes to the faculty.
Hall as always is looking for enhancements for
next time -- suggesting additional personal touches to show appreciation for
this important but time consuming effort by the faculty.
Mark your calendar
December 8, 2010
Nov. 1 - Enrollment
begins for Spring 2011
There are two kinds of
brave [people]. Those who are brave by the grace of nature, and those who
are brave by an act of will.
Norman Mailer
A follow up question regarding Dallas College. What was Arvilla Bryant's
role for Dallas College?
Covering the Metroplex!