The Student Government Association hosted its open forum on October 14th from 6-7 p.m. The forum provided results about a recent survey sent out by academic advising, as well as updates about the spring semester. 

Academic Advising recently sent out a week-long survey from October 7th – October 13th regarding how they felt about academic advising and what they knew about it. The majority of students knew who their academic advisor was, and reported satisfaction given this knowledge. They also provided a section in the survey for department improvements, concerns, and comments. A few students mentioned that their advisors changed a lot, and had missed opportunities due to late response from their advisor. Another mentioned that they liked the scheduling, and how manageable it is online.

The department would still love to hear more feedback, so if there is anything that you would like to see or suggest, please email academic.advising@cuchicago.edu. To make an online appointment with an academic advisor, peer tutor, or writing coach, please visit https://cuchicago.mywconline.com. 

Dr. Dawn mentioned that the cafeteria will be renovated. Their goal is to make it look more inviting, and it will look slightly different. Unfortunately, due to Covid, the progress in the plans was previously shut down. Recently, plans were re-opened, and they are back on for January!

Dean Gebhardt mentioned that they have had great success this fall with their app for on-campus students/faculty for checking symptoms. Everyone has been doing great with social distancing and wearing masks around campus, and she encourages us to keep it up! She also encourages us to keep our guards up and to do our best to keep ourselves and others safe as the colder weather is approaching. People will be inside instead of outside, so it is best to remain careful.

There were talks about next semester and if we will still be online. Next spring, there will be an option for certain courses like art, music, and theater to be on campus. You still have the option to be remote if desired, but it is known that people miss in-person lectures so that is why this ‘Hyflex’ option is available. Professors, if they choose, can try out the Hyflex option for their performance classes. They will also try for student athletes to come back so that they can practice and compete on campus. 

With art, music, and theater returning to campus, the science department feels that they should be on campus as well, to access the labs. Megan Jacobsen, natural science major said, “It’s really frustrating, we need in-person experience as much as art students, it is possible for them to do it at home, but it is not possible for us to do labs at home.” Chemistry major, Frances Gachalian said, “It’s hard to apply things that we are learning, we’re just learning theories not testing experiments.” Without a doubt, every student is struggling with e-learning right now, and while Hyflex can help some students get back on campus, it would be extremely helpful if science students can get back to access our labs. 

Graduation was talked about, as it was asked if it was possible to do a split graduation over zoom, where each department could have be in a different zoom room. It is something that can be done possibly for Spring 2021, as it is known that Covid is not going away anytime soon and the university knows that they need to come up with some alternatives. 

Hopefully, 2021 graduates will be able to have some sort of ceremony, whether it be outdoors or on zoom. 

By: Vicky Carrasquillo