Letters and Science reorganizes student services

A new structure for student academic services should make it easier for undergraduates in the College of Letters and Science to get the services they need.

The College of Letters and Science Office of Student Academic Affairs (SAA) underwent the overhaul during the past year and the new plan went into effect over the summer. SAA staff developed the blueprint around three areas key to student life:

• Academic and career advising, located primarily on the ground floor of Ingraham Hall, consists of programs designed for academic and career advisory support for students. Coordinated by assistant dean Kathryn Simmons, services range from help for students unfamiliar with the demands of college life to career advising to services for students not decided on a major.
• The L&S Policy Group and General Deans Staff, administered by assistant dean Christopher Lee and located in the old Business School Library, 70 Bascom Hall, administers and develops college policy, and interprets it to students.
• The Enrichment Group, responsible for a wide array of programs to deepen, strengthen and enhance the undergraduate educational experience, includes undergraduate research and honors opportunities, diversity programs for students of color and others, leadership training for students, mentor matching and more. Coordinators for the group are assistant dean Consuelo Lopez Springfield and classified supervisor Debbie Bushey.

Letters and Science associate dean Judi Roller says this new structure should make more sense to the students using it. “The previous structure functioned with 15 department heads reporting directly to the associate dean. We think this new structure is more coherent and understandable,” she says.

Roller says the college will be evaluating the effectiveness of the new organization in coming months. For more information about Letters and Science Student Academic Affairs, call (608) 262-2466; or visit: http://www.lssaa.wisc.edu/.