Terraka Garner
Staff Writer
As registration approaches, students and faculty are scrambling to finish out the spring semester on good terms. Staff members in Central Academic Advising are focusing primarily on keeping students informed with their “Be Advised” and “Declare Your Major” campaigns.
Idaho State University’s Central Academic Advising program offers students assistance in planning their schedules in accordance with their degree plan as well as with finding resources throughout campus.
“[Academic Advisers] help me by asking me good questions and then they point me in the right direction and go over my options with me,” said freshman Celeste Penwell. “They set up my classes that I should be in and they help me with my scheduling to make sure I’m not overwhelmed. They also leave me feeling confident when I leave the office because I know that I did my registration correctly and I don’t really have to second guess myself, so I sleep better at night.”
The schedule for the fall 2015 semester is now available in a view-only format online on BengalWeb. Students can access the schedule by clicking on their academic tools tab and by looking under registration tools.
Academic Adviser Nancy Goodman encourages students to plan and register by using the course registration numbers (CRNs) to arrange their schedules before their date of registration.
“The times and the dates are there. The professors are there. Everything is there except for the ability to register,” said Goodman. “You can register by CRN, it’s a five digit number and then at 12:01 [a.m.] the day you register you can just wake up, plug those CRN numbers in, hit submit and be registered in five minutes instead of at 12:01 trying to figure it out.”
The registration start date for freshman, students with zero to 25 credits completed or in progress, is Monday, April 20; for sophomores, 26 to 57 credits, registration begins Friday, April 17; for juniors, students with 58 to 89 credits, registration begins Wednesday, April 15; and for seniors, with 90 or more credits, or graduate students, registration begins Monday, April 13, all at 12:01 a.m.
Students who are on academic warning or academic probation will be limited in the amount of classes they can take.
Students on academic warning may take up to 13 credits.
There are two levels of probation, probation one and probation two.
On probation one a student may take up to nine credits and on probation two up to six credits. If a student does not meet the minimum requirement of a 2.0 GPA during his or her semester on probation two then the student will be dismissed from the university.
Goodman advises all students to make sure to pay off all holds on their account and to constantly check their emails.
Students unsure as to whether or not they have a hold may view them on BengalWeb.
The “Declare Your Major” campaign aims to do exactly what it states, to help students declare their majors. To do this, students need to go to the department of their program. As of this year, a student must also log on to BengalWeb after the major has been declared and approve the curriculum change under the academic tools tab.
“There are three things to do when you go to declare your major,” said Goodman. “You want to declare your major, you want to declare your catalog year and you want to request being assigned an academic adviser. This is sort of your contract with the university.”
Goodman stated that the responsibility of the academic advisers is to take care of the whole student. She believes that students should make it a priority to meet with advisers because she said the students who meet with advisers are typically more successful.
“People who meet with advisers are much more likely to graduate on time, much more likely to be taking the right classes, much more likely to be getting a schedule that they really like because they are doing it early and they’re working with somebody,” said Goodman. “There’s a lot of advantages to meeting with an adviser.”
Advising appointments should be made through Central Academic Advising, located in the Museum Building, or through a student’s department or program.
Central Academic Advising’s office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with walk-in appointments available between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Central Academic Advising can be reached at (208) 282-3277.
