Due to the COVID-19 crisis, academic advising has come up with new online availability resources for students looking for educational assistance.
Alicia Espinoza, an associate director for the Academic Advisement Center, said students have access to the appointment scheduling online system.
“They can schedule their own appointment,” Espinoza said. “When they go online, they will see they have three options to either schedule a phone advising session, a Zoom session or an email session.”
Based on the medium the students choose, there will be a prompt asking students any particular questions they have for the adviser to know the type of assistance needed, she said.
“Our sessions are one hour in length,” Espinoza said. “Given the mediums that we are using, it takes a little bit longer to connect and … we want to make sure that we allow ample time.”
She said advisers need time to properly assist students with any resources needed in the session and to handle any technical issues that may occur.
Espinoza encourages students to be aware of who their assigned academic advisers are and to contact them via email for easier assistance.
Asked about how many virtual meetings the department has had during the pandemic crisis, Espinoza replied, “Just the few days that we started, it was like a 135 in total when we first got started. … We have been booked. … Most of our advisers have full calendars every day [and] back-to-back appointments.”
She said there is an increase in the number of meetings, phone calls and emails to the department.
Leslie Jones, executive director for Student Academic Success, told The Rider the call center’s phone system is experiencing difficulties with the increase of student calls.
Jones suggests students who get an error message during their phone calls to send an email to academicadvising@utrgv.edu and notify it of the problem and specify the help they need. She also said not to be frustrated because they will respond and are already looking to fix the problem with the phone system.
“We are working with IT on putting a new software that will hopefully correct that issue,” Jones said.
Stephanie Manzanares, a criminal justice senior, said she had a 20-minute Zoom meeting with Academic Adviser Jose Flores.
Manzanares said the process of setting up a meeting was easy. She signed up through the ASSIST application, EAB Navigate, and the adviser sent her a Zoom link an hour before the meeting started. The adviser was punctual when he entered the meeting at the exact time it was scheduled.
“I already had questions prepared, so I knew what I wanted to talk about,” Manzanares said. “The adviser actually helped me really nicely. He went out of his way to find out things for me, and he gave me contact numbers of whatever I needed and he explained everything really clearly, too.”
She said she was trying to apply for graduation in the fall.
“This meeting was very helpful,” Manzanares said. “I think it also depends on the adviser. I’ve heard [from] other friends that some advisers don’t really help them. But I think, like, students should also have questions … prepared to ask.”
Asked about her thoughts on the new online academic advising approach, Espinoza replied, “This shows us that we can still accomplish our task. … Advising cannot and will not stop.”
