Advising office offers text reminders

Cell phoneBy Elena Hines
College of Arts and Sciences staff writer

Dr. James Cousins and the College of Arts and Sciences advising office have devised a new way to reach out to students. The college Advising Text Initiative now provides students with important reminders throughout the semester. Students who text “Broncos” to 313131 receive messages with important dates and deadlines such as the deadline to drop or withdraw from a class, when summer and fall priority registration will begin, as well as a reminder that exam week has a different schedule. 

“Many students, especially freshmen, don’t remember that finals week is different,” said academic advisor Cheryl Peters. Classes that normally meet for 50- or 90-minute sessions are scheduled for two-hour exams, which necessitates the schedule changes.  This may, for example, involve the students needing to show up on a Wednesday instead of a Monday to take their final exam. If students have not paid attention to other forms of communication, they may miss their exams. Faculty and staff generally disseminate information via email and elearning, but students become inundated and not all students “have created the habit of going through email,” Peters said.

“There are other clear benefits to advising text” Cousins added. “The start of priority registration brings students into the advising office in large numbers which can lead to longer than normal wait times. Text reminders will bring students in earlier and distribute demand. When we can alleviate advising bottlenecks, we can better serve our students.”