UT Center for Students in Recovery, discussion on four-year graduation rates, study abroad symposium.

1. ACA Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
8:00-10:15 am
Texas Union Quadrangle Room (3.304)
8:00 Breakfast and Social Time
Sponsored by the Study Abroad Office (Thank you!)
8:30 UT Center for Students in Recovery
IvanaGrahova and Todd Maison spoke about the UT Center for Students in
Recovery (CSR), a resource and community on campus that supportsstudents who
are recovering from addictions. Ivana and Todd encourage students to engage in
social activities that help strengthen their sobriety and provide a variety of related
programs and resources. The CSR program is a division of University Health
Services, but their offices are located in the School of Social Work. They offer a
variety of 12-step meetings everyday and ask that advisors help make students
aware of this resource. Services are confidential, but some students chooseto
disclosestories about their addictions and road tosobriety. Some individuals may
not want this information shared with others (like a potential employer)andin these
situations they are protected with confidentiality by the program.
http://www.healthyhorns.utexas.edu/csr/index.html
8:40 ACA Treasury Updates
Jay Guevara, ACA Tresurer, reported there is $4,395.00 in the ACA account, as well
as$547.52 in savings. There are 220 people who have completed the ACA
membership application, but not all have paid dues. Please contact Jay to pay your
dues, if you haven’t already.
8:45 Four-year Graduation Rate Survey Results
Nathan Vickers, ACA PresidentElect, thanked the ACA membership for their
participation in the 4-year graduation rate survey during the busy registration time.
He presentedsome of the highlights from the meeting between the ACA executive
board and ACA Advisory Council representatives andProvost Steven Leslieand Vice
Provost Gretchen Ritter. The group discussed various issues related to four-year
graduation rates and some proposals on how improve rates. They discussed
implementing mandatory advising,however, it was noted that, in many
departments, there would be too many students and too few advisors to facilitate

2. mandatory advising. Provost Leslie discussed the use of “e-advising” or other tools
like MyEDU to lessen the number of students coming in and open up advisors’ time
for students in need of more developmental advising. The group also discussed
bottlenecks in many high-demand courses during registration. Limited access to
certain courses can keep students from progressing in their majorand thereby
prolong their stay at UT. The idea of creating consistent looking degree plans
across majors wastossed out for debate, as wasemphasizing a four-year graduation
plan at freshmen orientation. According to the survey, ACA agrees that students
should be allowed to change their major during the course of their academic career.
The group discussed trying to start a conversation with students about sticking to a
four-year plan as early as possible so that they understand the various policies and
requirements for their college and can plan ahead. Nathan reiterated thatseveral
people across campus are working to improve the graduation rates, and that ACA’s
input has been helpful to those making the decisions. The ultimate goal is to raise
the 4-year graduation rates to 71%. Provost Leslie is very interested in and
appreciates ACA’s contributions on how to improve student graduation rates.
Announcements
*The FUNdraising committee invites ACA members to participate in our "Goody
Bag" fundraiser! For every $1 donation, we will deliver a Goody Bag to an on-
campus person you designate. The money collected will go toward the ACA Student
&Professional Scholarship fund. We are also accepting candy donations. Goody
Bags will be on sale at our November 9th ACA meeting.
*The FUNdraising committee invites ACA members to an American Traditions
Potluck on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 from 12:00 – 1:00pm in GSB 5.130.
*Professional Development Day will take place Thursday, Feb 9 in the Student
Activity Center. The PDD Committee is now accepting proposals! The theme for this
year is THRIVE: Transforming, Helping, Resilience, Inspiration, Vision and
Education. Please submit your presentation proposals by Dec 16 -
https://mccombs.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_bxTmrlGeUynCMFS
*The Awards and Recognitions Committee encourages you to recognize someone
you know who does outstanding work by submitting a NACADA advising award
nomination. We need your help identifying those individuals and program across
campus who deserve to be UT's representatives in the national NACADA awards
competition! We're hoping to gather as many nominations as possible this year,
and have extended the nomination deadline to December 2nd.
*Cynthia Gladstone announced the FLAS Fellowship. She sent a message out with
program information to the ACA membership on 11/9/2011.
9:00 Creating Access to Global Education Symposium
Put on by the Study Abroad Office