Vice Provost for Research and Academic Affairs Christopher White would like to announce that after more than five years in the role, Matt Bauer will no longer be serving as the director of undergraduate advising.  Chris would like to thank Matt for all his efforts on behalf of Illinois Tech undergraduate students and for his willingness to work with the Transition Team, during the fall 2016 semester, to migrate the activities to other offices on campus.

All of Matt’s efforts in this role were aimed at improving the persistence and graduation rates of Illinois Tech’s undergraduate student body. Matt’s many accomplishments in this role included a Faculty Channel in myIIT containing an Early Warning System for undergraduate students, as well as information resources for instructors and advisors, such as class picture rosters. Matt also sent email reminders, throughout the semester, to students and their advisors about important dates and actions students needed to take with respect to such things as incomplete grades, missing prerequisites, course repeats and dropping below 12 credit hours. He also built systems and processes to support the Math and Writing Placement exams, and the CHEM124 Waiver Exam.

The Transition Team, which includes staff from Undergraduate Academic Affairs, the Office of the Registrar, the Office of Technology Services, the Academic Resource Center, and is chaired by Carol Emmons, is working with Matt to catalog his full complement of activities, and identify ways to provide the same set of services to faculty, using existing systems (such as Banner, Degree Works, and Blackboard). The transition is not expected to be fully complete until fall 2017.  In the meantime, Chris begs the patience of the faculty with some temporary interruptions in certain services (e.g., class picture rosters may not be available for the spring 2017 semester), and requests that faculty contact him with any questions or concerns.