Potential grads: check in with counselors

By David Kassis
The Collegian

Everyone knows someone who got stuck at school for an extra semester or two because they took the wrong classes, but Student Success Services is here to make sure that happens as little as possible.

When it comes to taking the right classes for general education and their major, students have many resources available to help them choose what to take. Under the umbrella of Student Success Services, students can find help in advising, the learning resource center, the education opportunity program, the testing office and university migrant services.

“There are tons of advisers on campus for all majors,” said Dean Christensen, an academic counselor with Academic Enhancement Services. “Everyone in this office is highly concerned with helping students succeed and be successful.”

According to Christensen, one of the best ways for Fresno State students to start off on the right foot is to attend Dog Days, an orientation session for new students, before their first classes begin. “It’s a huge program, nearly 90 percent of new students attend,” Christensen said. “There is a heavy emphasis on degree requirements and course selection.”

Another tool to help students stay on track is the road map program, which was introduced in fall 2005. The program requires all departments to have a four-year road map for students posted online.

Students who came in fall 2005 or later are required to have their road map checked by the completion of their 75th unit.

If students are still unsure about exactly which classes to take, Christensen hopes they will come into the office of advising services if they are undeclared, or talk to an adviser in their major department.

Students are encouraged to meet with their faculty adviser at least once per semester before registering for classes.

“We encourage students to make an appointment with us because we are the department for the undeclared,” Christensen said. “The advisers here are highly trained, and that includes student-peer academic advisers. We take pride in being very diligent and careful.”

Kathleen Molina, also an academic adviser with Academic Enhancement Services, works with probationary and disqualified students, but hopes to avoid most from ever reaching that point. “We have programs here to help students be successful, but it is really a campus-wide endeavor,” Molina said.

When it comes to keeping Fresno State students on track to graduate, Christensen feels that academic advising is one of the most important things the university does. “We have all heard the horror stories of a student who finds out they have missed some classes,” Christensen said. “We hope to minimize that with mandatory academic advising.”

Gary Rice, a Fresno State journalism professor and counselor, said many of the students who are forced to endure another semester can only blame themselves.

“For some students it’s precise, it’s only a matter of signing off,” Rice said. “And then there are others who are astonished to find out that they won’t be graduating this semester or next semester.”

Although Rice said these students are the minority, he said it does happen and it’s because of poor planning.

“They didn’t keep up. They were missing key, required classes,” he said. “These are the people that went through here [college] and did not see a counselor.”

Wendy Alexander, who received her bachelor’s degree in photojournalism in May 2005, said her graduation issues weren’t from poor planning but from a problem with the Evaluations Office.

The Evaluations Office is responsible for determining transfer units for students. It also processes degree applications and awards baccalaureate degrees.

According to the Fresno State Web site, evaluations should mail a student a DARS report, which plots a student’s academic progress, “prior to or during the first semester of enrollment.”

Alexander transferred to Fresno State in 2002; she said she didn’t receive her DARS until her senior year.

“Although I signed up to graduate, I found out I needed two units to graduate,” she said.

She attended summer school to make up the two units, but having to do so cast a negative light on her spring graduation ceremony.

“To me graduation didn’t feel right,” Alexander said. “How can you be excited about something that is not quite real yet?”

Rice said such occurrences do happen but are rare. Overall, he said students should just “grit your teeth and do it.” They need to map out their college years, he said, and see a counselor from freshman year on.

“Part of planning is getting advice early,” he said. “It’s good for students to look a year or two ahead.”

Maria Miranda contributed to this report.

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