The monthly meeting of the Academic Advising Council (ACA) covered the following topics: 1. Mario Guerra and Sejal Shah presented on the new Early Academic Warning System which will notify students via email and Blackboard of their academic status. 2. Joe Wilcox discussed changes to student financial aid due to state budget cuts, including millions already lost and more at risk of being cut. 3. Emily Van Duyn presented on academic service learning courses that connect classroom learning with community experience. 4. Wendy Boggs announced four ACA scholarships available for students and staff.

1. ACA Monthly Meeting Minutes<br />Wednesday, March 9, 2011<br />8:30-10:00am<br />SAC 2.302 Legislative Assembly Room<br />Building Relationships<br />8:30Welcome<br />8:35Early Academic Warning System<br />Center for Teaching and Learning: Sejal Shah, Mario Guerra, Karron Lewis<br />LAITS Advisors Toolkit: Tim Fackler<br />Mario and Sejal explained the early academic warning system is a new initiative to inform students of <br />their academic status and connect them to available resources to discuss it: Academic Advisor and Professor. The system will notify students via an email and colored indicator on Blackboard. When they log into Blackboard, they will see their academic status in their courses illustrated through one of these colors: red, yellow, green. Red reflects a problem or failing status, yellow a concern, and green satisfactory/no concern. This system is in phase 1 and will launch this summer. In the future they may add more risk criteria.<br />Faculty who choose to use this system will be able to log into Blackboard, filter students by color and send communications to students and/or their advisors. Students will all see this academic warning system color coating when they log into Blackboard. Sejal and Mario explained they don’t have a comprehensive list of student/advisor assignments and would like one in order to program this into the system. ACA members explained some colleges have assigned advisors listed in Advisor’s Toolkit, but this is not very accurate.<br />Mario and Sejal welcome any and all feedback regarding this system as they are soliciting it from faculty also. They want to make this sytem as useful and practical as possible for all individuals using it. Feedback is welcome now or at any point in the future:<br /> Mariog@austin.utexas.edu<br />sejal@austin.utexas.edu<br />Some feedback given to Mario and Sejal from ACA membership:<br />They should meet with department faculty advisors and academic advisors to explain and discuss

2. Suggestion to have color coating appear in advisor’s toolkit

3. Suggestion to incorporate absence/failing notification into this systemMario and Sejal explained that a future goal is to incorporate the absence/failing notifications into this system.<br />9:00Student Financial Services<br />Joe Wilcox, Financial Aid Officer and Scholarship Coordinator<br />Joe explained some of the major changes to student financial aid funding, as a result of state and University budget status. He began with some updates:<br />Beginning with summer 2012, the FAFSA priority deadline is March 15th. OSFS decided on this date with consideration for the feedback of ACA members.

4. FAFSA completion Workshops for students (staff welcome to attend to learn):