Ep. 3 - Starting the Semester Off Right

Yoties! Welcome to Episode 2 of the CSUSB Advising Podcast! Many of you had questions about how to change your major, how to get on a waitlist and what is a Grad Check. We talk to the Office of the Registrar to answer your registration questions. You also asked about campus resources you might be able to use. We also talk to the Student Assistance in Learning Program (SAIL) about their program and how to apply. Take a listen and enjoy! Go Yotes! 

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Transcript

Matt Markin  
Join us as we bring you the latest advising updates at Cal State. San Bernardino, each episode is specifically made for you the CSUSB students and parents. We provide you advising tips interviews with both CSUSB campus resources and those in academic advising. Sit back and enjoy. Go Yotes.

Star Wildes  
We want to welcome you all. We know that it's the first week of classes for fall 2020 semester. We are in semester, and we just wanted to welcome all our new students. Thank you for coming to Cal State, San Bernardino, and joining us. And we also want to welcome our continuing students. Welcome back. We have amazing guests that will be asking questions of course. This will include deadlines. This will include adding courses, wait listing, and also grad checks. Please help us welcome our special guests from the Office of Registrar Bea Larez and Carlos Ramirez.

Matt Markin  
Bea serves as the assistant director, and Carlos is a registration and information specialist in the Office of the Registrar, also known as OTR. Both have been on campus for many years and are super knowledgeable in their roles and are looked at as the go tos from many of the departments on campus. Bea and Carlos, welcome to the podcast.

Bea Larez  
Yes, good morning.

Matt Markin  
Bea, let's start with you. Now you've been on campus. Did I read the email correctly 30 years?

Bea Larez  
It's more like 35.

Matt Markin  
35. Wow, awesome. So you have super knowledge of the campus processes and procedures all around campus. And Carlos, you've been on campus, not 35 years, like Bea

Carlos Ramirez  
Yeah, not 35, not that experienced.

Matt Markin  
But you've worked on campus for many years and have a really good, really solid knowledge base as well. We're super excited to have you both on the podcast. So let's start with OTR, Office of the Registrar. If a student asked you what the office of the registrar is, how would you answer that?

Bea Larez  
Office of the Registrar has many services that we offer our students. It is sort of like the heart of the university, because everything branches out from the Office of the Registrar. So when students apply to the university, they come in through the admissions office, but eventually they make their way to the office of the registrar. This is where their file, their student file, will be maintained, so everything the student needs to do like register for courses, inquire about repeating a course or discounting a grade, getting Cal State San Bernardino transcript sent somewhere, getting a pause report, understanding what their major is and what the degree requirements are. Then in between and all is the progress to degree, which then leads to graduation, completion of their degree, awarding that degree and submitting the diploma.

Matt Markin  
Nice. So in a way, every student will probably be in contact with the Office of the Registrar at some point during their academic journey at CSUSB, and that might be in person when we're back on campus. It might be in an email or phone call regarding registering for a class. It might be submitting a change of major concurrent enrollment form. It might be submitting a grad check, but your office is a very important part of helping a student from the beginning all the way until graduation.

Carlos Ramirez  
Yes, definitely. I would like to compare the Office of the Registrar to a central hub of student's record where a student can go to review, access, change records, depending on any service that we might provide. But yeah, as be mentioned, you know, students can do something as an address update with us, or, you know, changing their major, asking for one of our most popular ones, which is an enrollment verification for students who are wanting to show proof of enrollment for scholarship reasons to get a good discount from their insurance providers, but yeah, definitely go through admissions first, and then they stick with us throughout their whole career, and we're pretty much again, the archive of other records.

Star Wildes  
That is amazing. And thank you so much B and Carlos for sharing that with us. You and your team are communicating with students on a daily with fall classes starting. What should students be aware of, especially with registration and deadlines?

Bea Larez  
Well, right now, it's about getting the courses that they need, right? So students right now. The biggest question is, how do I get into a class? It's closed, will I have an opportunity to get it? What do I need to do? Because we are working remotely, everything, all our services, had to convert to an online process. So one of the things that we are very proud of is implementing what we call the permission request service. And basically that is like an add, drop, slip, but it's online now, and it's called the permission request or the PR. You like calling it the PR. Students are utilizing the PR to do these requests. So these requests you can do for Closed Class, a simultaneous enrollment. That's when courses are conflicting with each other, because they're scheduled for the same day and time. Course unit overload. We have students who want to take more than the maximum units allowed per term. There's also the swap feature, when they're enrolled in courses and they wish to switch across for another, it's very important that they do not drop and then go and try to attempt to enroll in another. It's very important that they use the swap feature. And I say that because if the course they're they're seeking to get is closed or they're unable to get into it. We don't want them to lose their place in the course that they're in now. So it's very important that they use swap keep that course, in case you don't get the other course right. So it's important that they remember to use the swap feature. So with all that, the PR allows students to also do a swap. If I can get this course, I will swap it for this other course. So we've made a lot of improvements on the PR process, and I believe Carlos and I are very happy with the functions within PR. Now, it's been a long road, but I'm pretty proud of it. I don't know Carlos. I mean, we work with it every day. See it utilized every day, and it's working. Instructors are more likely to look at their requests in a 24/7 period. So I understand that a lot of instructors usually will do all their desk work in the evening. So this helps, because, right? Because students can submit requests after normal business hours, and these instructors are still looking at all their requests that are coming in at the end of the day, after their courses, after they've taught courses is what I meant to say? You know, they're most likely to go on and look at their their workload in the evenings. So what I'm finding is that instructors are actually approving these a lot quicker than they were when it was stopped by my office, and we'll talk about your asset. So it's going to it's going to be busy, and it's going to be crazy, but wait list is another topic that I want to bring up. Wait List has an ending period, and that ending period will be Friday, August 28 and the waitlist period will end on on that day. What? What that means is that if, of course, is wait listed, and there are students on the waitlist, students will not be able to submit a PR request until after the wait list ends. So if you're not already on the wait list, this is what the PR will do for you, is help you submit those permissions. But again, if there are students on the wait list, it will not allow you to submit until after wait list ends. So the wait list engine will run every single night. So if you are on the wait list every night, the waitlist engine will run and try to enroll students who are, I should say, eligible, because every now and then, we'll have students in the on the wait list who aren't eligible for the course. So the wait list engine will recognize that, and if they are eligible, they will go. The engine will go ahead and enroll the student automatically. So if a student is not enrolled, but by Friday August 28 then the student has an opportunity to submit a PR request the following day.

Matt Markin  
So Carlos, Bea was mentioning a lot of terms like wait list, swapping, dropping now that we're on semesters, we've received many questions from students about units, and more specifically, how many units can I register for during the quarter system? The max undergraduate students could take was about 17 units with the fall semester. And from here on out, has anything changed? With the number of units a student can take, especially for undergraduates.

Carlos Ramirez  
Yes, definitely it has changed. For undergrads now their unit cap is 18 semester units, and that's across the board all academic levels. Doesn't change any time of the enrollment period. And for post baccalaureates, in case we have any post bac sharing, it is 15 semester units. So as we mentioned, we do have that permission request, which is awesome, has made everything so accessible and efficient in processing enrollment, there is a specific permission titled unit overload, and that is for the student who wishes to enroll more than the assigned unit cap that they have. But yeah, it has changed.

Star Wildes  
I just want to clarify when you say for just in case, those who are listening may not be aware of what post back means, what post bac means?

Carlos Ramirez  
Yeah, post baccalaureate. So these are students who have already graduated from a four year university and earned a bachelor's, and now coming in to our university, they would be considered our master seeking students, our credential students as well, and we have our doctoral program who would be considered the students as post Bacs. 

Star Wildes  
Thank you so much for clarifying, awesome. And the next question here would be, when students transfer, I know we've we, you know, finished off our orientation sessions. We had a lot of students that were incoming freshmen and also transfer students. So transfer students in the case that they're transferring from another institution, right? So San Bernardino Valley College, or any or, you know, CSU Fullerton or Northridge. But when a student transfers over from another institution, and we've had this question, how does it take for the courses to update on their paws report,

Carlos Ramirez  
That's a good question. We are actually getting a lot of calls right now regarding such. Right now, it's pretty hard to determine an exact timeframe. The reason being is because it's a peak period for admissions, and how we explain to students, it's somewhat of a two step process. Admissions is a department that receives the transcripts. They then have to upload it in a shared database that our department uses to retrieve that transcript and be able to see the actual coursework, whatever timeframe that takes from admissions to to get the transcript and upload it into that database, we then have our data entry unit. They then enter the coursework into articulates, into the pause report. So that whole process from once we're able to access the actual transcript, can take up to two weeks again right now, it's really hard to say. I typically tell students, you know, follow up with admissions, especially if it's been more than a week, to see if they have received their transcript. And again, once it is uploaded and we're able to access it, it will typically take about two weeks for us to enter it in their PAWS report.

Star Wildes  
Thank you so much. So you hear that typically takes about two weeks. And again, please bear with us. As as you know we're going through this. I know some students have mentioned that they that there's a drop box that they've, you know, dropped off their transcripts to please give it some time. As you may know that we do have staff members that go to the campus to pick those up. And again, as we are virtual, and you know, working from home that may take some time. So thank you again in advance for students who are listening or going through that process, for your patience. We truly appreciate it. Thank you, Carlos, for answering that for us. 

Matt Markin  
Now, one question we get a lot as well, especially with star, who is our undeclared advising coordinator is change of majors. What is the process with a student changing their major? And also, is there a difference in how a student goes about changing to a non impacted major versus an impacted major?

Bea Larez  
I'll let Carlos answer this.

Carlos Ramirez  
Yeah, there is a difference, definitely. So we have established a process for students to submit a change or major request via their student center. It's a little bit complicated explain where it's located, but we do have tutorials on our web page. So for anybody who wants to access any information regarding how to submit a permission request or change a major we have tutorials on our webpage, if you just google search from any search engine, CSUSB, Office of the Registar, tutorial so you should be able to access them, but yeah, the process for a student to change a major one is impacted versus one that is not impacted is definitely different for non impacted major. Teachers, and for students who are not seniors or in progress to be a senior and academic level of a senior, they're able to go into their student center and submit that change of major request. And again, that process is definitely, again accessible through their student center and pretty efficient now for the impacted majors, they actually have to access a PDF form from our website, which is called an application for impacted majors. We tell them to print it out, fill it out, and scan it over to the Department of that major right which right now we have psychology, criminal justice, pre social work, pre nursing and our allied health under the kinesiology department as our impacted majors. So the student would need to obtain department approval from those particular programs, from those particular departments. Once they obtain that approval, if the student is not a senior and probably should be a senior, they can go ahead and send it over to our evalinfo@csusb.edu email account, which is part of our graduation unit email account if they are seniors, and this is applicable to all who are wanting to change to impacted or non impacted majors or in progress. To be a senior, they do need to get approval from undergraduate studies so we do have our change of major form accessible online as well. The student would pretty much do the same process as if it would be an impacted major, print out the form, fill it out. Now, if the major isn't impacted, they could then send it over to undergraduate studies, to the ugs@csusb.edu email domain. Once it gets approved, then it gets sent over to us to eval info@csusb.edu like we mentioned in the beginning, depending on the situation, it could be different routes the student will take. So definitely, we would still recommend a student to follow up with us with the Office of the Registrar, just to make sure they're doing the ideal process.

Matt Markin  
And when submitting the change in major, does the office of registrar charge a fee?

Carlos Ramirez  
Currently we're not charging. And I'm not too sure when that's going to change, so I would recommend for students to change their major ASAP.

Star Wildes  
Shout out to all my undeclared students out there listening. And then again, essentially. And Matt knows this, please, if you don't know, as far as you know, if you're debating between majors, please talk to your advisor on there's a Career Center. Shout out to the Career Center. They have amazing programming coming out, workshops, Zoom workshops. So please make sure you reach out to someone will help you, if not. Carlos had mentioned this on any of your search engines, CSUSB Office of the Registrar. Their website is amazing and so many things that you could find out, resources and how to guides, which have been helpful, because I've been sending the How To Guide links to students, very helpful. So kudos to you. Bea Carlos and your team, that's been very helpful. So Bea, if you could tell us a little bit about what a graduation check is and when should students apply or file a graduation check?

Bea Larez  
So a graduation check, we like calling it a grad check, for short, we ask students to file when they're one year from completing a degree requirements. So if you're planning to, let's say, graduate fall of 2021, you would want to file that grad check. Now during the fall 2020 term students who are 90 semester units completed or earned, those are the students who are senior, students who are eligible to apply. Applying for a grad check is very easy. It's on the myCoyote Student Center. It's under my academics, you'll find a link there that says apply slash view graduation check. That's where students will go to apply. They'll have to validate a few things, like their major, their diploma, name and address, and then at the end of submitting that, which is like a takes a whole minute to apply. After they do that, then they'll be assessed the grad check fee. It is $25 for the grad check and $50 for commencement. So it's a total of $75.

Star Wildes  
Again, please make sure, if you have any questions, you could direct the answers will be via their website, if not Carlos, have provided here the email information just in case. Bea and Carlos, this concludes our interview with you both. We are so appreciative of not only your time, but the information you have shared that we were able to share with students and parents. Shout out for parents, to parents who are listening in so thank you so much for. Being here with us.

Matt Markin  
Great interview there from Bea and Carlos. Thank you so much for joining the podcast and answering those questions, and hopefully we'll have you on for a future podcast, because I'm sure students will have some additional questions that the office of the registrar will be able to answer, but just a couple reminders from that interview. This is the first week of the fall semester. So again, like star said, Welcome to the fall semester. To those that are new to Cal State, San Bernardino, and welcome back to those that are continuing. And August 28 is the last day to add open classes for the fall semester. Over your My coyote account, after that point, you'd have to go through a permission request, also known as a PR, which you'll be able to do through your My coyote Student Center. And then also on August 20, the wait list period ends. So if you refer back to B and Carlos interview, they have some great information about the wait list. So up next, we have the Student Assistance and Learning Program. 

Star Wildes  
Yes, we have our special guests from the student assistance in learning SEL program. Kristen Stutz and Victoria Argot join us here as we listen in to important information they would like to share with us. And here we go.

Matt Markin  
First up is Kristen Stutz, who is the director of the student assistance and learning program, and she has been with the program since 2002 as a sale counselor for most of those years, Kristen learned so much from her students, including the fact there was very little money management education and support services in K through 12 and higher education. Armed with many research questions, Kristen returned to school and recently just graduated with a PhD in personal finance planning from Kansas State University. In her dissertation, she explored student loan decision making, and she plans on continuing research in college student financial decision making with the goal of helping sail and other equity programs offer meaningful personal finance, planning, education, resources and programming. Kristen, hello and welcome. 

Kristen Stutz  
Oh, thank you so much. I'm happy to be here. 

Star Wildes  
Thank you. And we have another special guest, amazing, Victoria Argot, who is from the SAIL program. So Victoria serves as the counseling supervisor for student assistance and learning SAIL program. She recently celebrated her fifth anniversary with cell Victoria is proud to work with the SAIL program and its students. Being a first generation college student herself, she can relate to first generation student population. Victoria is an alum from CSUSB, graduating as a dual major in psychology and human development. As a cell counselor, she knows her experiences does not represent the collective experience of all first generation students. She believes that all her students hold a unique story. She always is eager to listen with both empathy and respect, honoring their space and individual voice. Her mission is for her students, who will hardly know that they are not alone in their college journey. Welcome Victoria and thank you so much for joining us.

Victoria Argot  
Thank you so much star and Matt. I'm really excited to be here today.

Matt Markin  
And this is going to be fun, because Star also used to work for SAIL.

Star Wildes  
Yes, oh my gosh. Shout out to my SAIL family, I not only used to work for cell but I am a cell alumni. So I am just so honored and blessed that I get to and have worked with both of Kristen and Victoria. So Sel is near and dear to my heart.

Matt Markin  
So let's jump right in. So Kristen, let's start with you. For those who don't know, and especially like, let's say a student comes up and asks, Hey, what is a sale program? How would you describe that to a student or a parent?

Kristen Stutz  
When we describe the SAIL program, like at orientation and things like that, a lot of times we make we we give the analogy that sale is like, perhaps AVID, you know, if they're coming out of high school, to kind of, you know, describe what we do and give them something to kind of anchor our services on sale is a trio program. And TRIO programs are a family of federally funded programs that serve first generation students as low income students and students with disabilities, and it's a pipeline that starts in middle school and goes through graduate school. And sale is CSUSB Student Support Services Project, which is the trio name at CSUSB, and we serve undergraduate students, and so we're we'd like to be a home base for our students. That's what I always tell students as well. So we provide wraparound services. Every student is assigned a sale counselor. Victoria is one of the marinas the other, and that is their key person in sail. And we work with students to achieve whatever it is that they want to do, like in Victoria's bio, I loved it. She talked about the unique stories, and they have unique goals and and dreams. And so we're lucky enough to have the time to work intensively with them, to help support them on that journey. And so we have, I'll break up our services, and we'll probably pepper them in as we go along, but into two main camps, we have our academic support services, and that's typically we have two staff members that do academic coaching, one focusing on stem and one focusing on general and writing. And then we also, just recently, and we partnered with tutor.com so that we could offer virtual tutoring 24/7 so we make that available to our students. So that's and then we do a lot of workshops and writing labs and things like that, for for students on the on the academic side, and then Victoria and Marina are in charge of our counseling and guidance services, which encompass a lot of different things. Probably what you would you do the most is academic intensive, academic planning, graduate school planning, academic advising, but career counseling, personal counseling, many more.

Star Wildes  
And Victoria, I know that Kristen had covered some of the resources, you know, academic counseling and all of that. Can you tell it? Can you elaborate a little bit more about on that as far as the type of resources that the SAIL program offers to students?

Victoria Argot  
Once that I would like to add is also graduate school preparation? Yes, because for us when, when we work with a student, we really, like Kristen said it's very wrap around, very holistic thinking about the student and what their needs are. So what in our first meeting? A lot of times when I'm meeting a new student, one of the first questions I ask is, aside from their name, of course, is what they hope to do after they graduate from CSUSB, because for me, I like to see the big picture, right? Like if we know what your end goal is, then we know what steps to take, what experiences you need, that we need to connect you with, so that you can be prepared to pursue those goals. So if you're wanting to, you know, later on, go into an MFT field. What experiences can you do now as an undergrad to help you prepare for that career? So even when we're selecting that, if I use that same example, a psych student who's wanting to pursue that career path, you know, then we make suggestions of electives that they can take, that can serve as a good platform for the graduate program that they're wanting to pursue, having them be involved in research, you know, perhaps working with a community program that's going to serve a population that's similar to the population they're going to want to work with once they're in that career field. So it's very much thinking about what their end goals are, and then doing all those pieces now as an undergrad to have them be prepared to move on to that goal. So also career planning, right? Because it's a lot of times it's it is interwoven, right? A graduate school and career so again, just thinking about what their goals are, their aspirations, and really also helping them to as of right now. You know, as students are learning remotely, there's also a lot of challenges that they're facing, right and you know, we try to think of ways in which we can support them, hear their feedback and and come in and really help them. I know some students have expressed just the stress and anxiety that comes of of just, you know, working at home, and what can we do? And we try to do workshops to help them, you know, do time management, a things to prepare as you're doing online courses. That's something we did almost immediately as we moved, you know, to online learning. Our counseling intern Cynthia put together a great presentation for them to know a how do you, you know, access Blackboard? How do you, you know, do use the functions within Blackboard to keep on top of your studies? So just thinking about the things that they need, and sometimes it might be things that they don't express, but we really like, okay, let's, let's show it to them. And then they're like, Oh, I didn't think I need this, but I'm glad you guys offered it, you know, should we try to be as proactive as we can as well, to really, you know, give them as a comprehensive, you know, support as we can.

Matt Markin  
So now that students know about a lot of the different resources and how great the SAIL program is, the question that's going to come up now is, well, what are the eligibility requirements for the program? And an even bigger question is, can I still apply for the program?

Kristen Stutz  
So as I mentioned, you know, as a trio program, our and in our federal funding mandate is that we serve students that are either so they just have to be one of the three that I'm gonna mention either a first generation college student. And our definition is that neither parent or caregiver has a bachelor's degree, so if they have an associate's degree or some college are still considered a first gen according to our definition. So either a first gen student, and the vast majority of our students are first gen and we're really proud of that So, and that's the probably the main way that students join sail, is through first gen status, and then also or be a low income student. So basically what that means that it's a little bit complicated, but if a student is not a first generation college student, we have federal income guidelines that we can, you know, look to see if we can, we can classify them as low income, and then that could qualify them for the program. Or the third qualifier is be a college student with a disability, so as long as they meet one of the three, they're able to join sale and and we're first come, first serve. We were funded to serve 335 students, but we we serve definitely more than that. And when we have openings, we just, we have a like a wait list, we just, and if a student's eligible, we contact them, and it's first come, first serve, and we will be admitting students in the spring semester. I have to get used to saying that the spring semester, and we just had our orientation yesterday. We think we are full for the fall, but don't hesitate. We tell students, don't hesitate to get on our interest list, because if we see that there's a space, we're going to keep going down the list, and we will stay in touch with you to keep you know. Let let students know their status. 

Star Wildes  
So, and that's great to know that you guys have an interest list. So even though you know, program will not be accepting any students you know based on the numbers. Now that there's an interest list for students who may be interested in joining, that's awesome. So I know that we are within the fall semester. Everything is going virtually for now. But what advice do you have for students taking courses virtually, or another way to ask is, What challenges have some of your students express, and are there avenues that  SAIL or CSUSB can help.

Victoria Argot  
I'll say this the challenges have been many, and in a large spectrum, I've had students that have to, you know, have shifted a lot of pieces in their personal life. They might have been affected directly from covid. They had a family member who was sick. You know, their work schedule has intensified because they are an essential worker. I've had students who have lost, unfortunately, employment because of covid. There are students who just have difficulty accessing some of those basic pieces that they need, like a computer. So what we try to do is do as much as we can to be knowledgeable about the resources in campus or even outside, and having them connect with with with those services, to try to get as much as they can, you know, letting them know about the laptop lending program, letting them know about the basic needs program the den, because just basic needs that they need covered so that they can be in the best space to be successful for us, in sale, you know, connecting them with tutor.com that is a service that is operated by Princeton Review. So they are tutors that are vetted and are really good, and the offering of tutoring subjects is very vast. So luckily, that's one piece that our students have really benefited from doing tutorials on just how to use Blackboard, because there were a lot of students that weren't as familiar again, because we were in person, and a lot of instructors, you know, complete their their courses and what we we think traditionally and now, this forced a lot of students to move online and and, you know, again, a lot of students have had challenges just juggling the new format. And, you know, not being as familiar with using a laptop daily to do all their assignments. So that has also been, you know, another piece that students have struggled. But I think the biggest advice for those students is just knowing that you know their sale, but there's also so many programs out there willing to help them. They just need to not be afraid to ask those questions and reach out for that support, because there's so much faculty wanting to be of support and help their students. There's advisors like you you know, star and Matt, you know, and other offices, and just knowing that there's a wealth of people wanting them to be successful, you know, and that they just need to ask and will be there, you know, to support in any way we can. And I know there's a lot of offices doing such big work, like the office of the register, that, you know, that was a tough job, changing a lot of processes online, but the campus is really moving forward, doing as much as they can, so knowing that to not be afraid, to to reach out to someone. If that person doesn't know directly, don't worry. They will connect you with that person you need. So even don't feel like, oh, I have to not I don't even know who to contact, so I'm not going to contact anybody. Just try someone and trust me, they will. They are so wonderful and kind. They will direct you to where you need to go, you know. So just not being afraid to ask for that support, because people are there to support you, I would say it's the biggest and you know for sure.

Matt Markin  
So even anyone that starting a student, that starting out, that might be nervous, it's like, hey, there's a lot of resources that, whether it's sale or CSUSB as a whole, is offering. And a lot of times, students can go to the CSUSB homepage, and then click on the Virtual Learning link that's at the top there, and then on that page, there's a long list of different resources that are available for students. So the flip side of that question would be, if we have students that have had some challenges, and there's definitely help for them, have any of your students expressed successes that they've had taking online classes.

Victoria Argot  
I would say, most certainly there have been, there's students that of mine. So I had students that would struggle finding classes because they would work, traditionally, seven to five job. Now that we moved online, they're like, Oh, I'm loving, you know, I'm getting, I'm actually taking on more classes, because I like this online format. I can, I feel I'm more balanced, you know, whereas before, I was working and then having to physically be on campus. Now they're finding, actually, there's quite a few that have expressed that they've liked that format. And it's, it's, I've been seeing it with those students that really were working those 40 hour, you know, a week jobs. So I know that there's been a lot of successes there, and those students in that instance, were going to have their graduation delay a little bit just because of how much they can take on. But now they're like, hey, this format is working for me. I'm taking a few extra courses. So they're actually this has put them a little bit on track to to be graduating on time. So I have seen that too, which is, you know, I was like, Hey, I'm happy for them with that. You know, there's in, you know, within everything there, we're trying to do our best and find, you know, what's good. But I would say that would be one success. I know for those students that this has been a good, a good platform.

Star Wildes  
So cool. And that's great. Great to know. You know that there are students that are successfully going through this, the change, and then just catching on and finishing successfully. That's awesome. So I know you know, and talking about online courses and take an online course and know this is me, uses Blackboard right for students, especially those starting out, they may have heard the term synchronous and asynchronous. Can you explain to us, when you explain this to your students, or to students in general, what would be a way that you would let students know as far as the term synchronous and asynchronous? 

Kristen Stutz  
I think that these terms, as we all know, are being thrown around in our new normal, and it can be get really confusing too, because they're so similar, kind of along the same lines as subsidized, unsubsidized, right with student loans. But a synchronous course is one or the synchronous part of a course. Some courses can be both, have both elements, but a sync the synchronous element of a course is the live portion, so it's happening in real time. So perhaps your faculty member has scheduled a live class via zoom at a certain time during the week, and so that would be the synchronous portion, where the asynchronous portion would be the portion of the course that you don't have to attend at a certain time or in a live format. So perhaps you're watching a recording of a lecture, or you're going through the modules. And so, yes, some courses are all synchronous, all asynchronous, or a combination of the two.

Matt Markin  
And as we wrap up this interview, I mean, you've given a lot of great information, a lot of great tips, how can if a student has a question. An incoming student, or someone that's continuing that wants to join sale or even for those that are in the sale program right now, how would they get in contact with the sale program? Can you give us some information about where they can email, call, or maybe find you on social media?

Kristen Stutz  
I'll start with our office contacts, and then our director of social media, aka Victoria, r dot will can add the social media piece. So right now, probably the best way to contact sale would be to email us at sale@csusb.edu, that email goes to various people. And since you know, we're all you know, home, offering all of our services virtually. That gets to a person pretty quickly, and then they can decide, you know, who needs to respond and who's the best person to respond given the inquiry. We also are answering our phone live and so. But because it's, it's linked through the internet, it's not always as reliable as email, right? But it, but it, you know it, if you need someone right away, that's another good place to go. And our phone numbers, 909-537-5921, but I would, I would suggest the email, because I think that that'll get you a faster response sometimes.

Victoria Argot  
So as far as social media, this summer, a you know, we're taking a little bit of a break, but we're coming back full force. This week, we're doing a lot of staff introduction videos, because, again, we want to make sure students get to know all of our staff members, what they do, how they can receive support. So that's coming up soon in our social media, again, we're trying to use our platforms as best as we can to have students still remain connected with us and know that we're here to support them. Our handles recently changed, so now for Facebook and Instagram, the handle is the same, which is @sail.trio.csusb. And part of it is that we wanted to make sure that if others are searching us, they can know that we're so associated with trio, which is which is cool. And we have a lot of TRIO programs in the community here in Northern California, so I know they sometimes refer their students once they are admitted to CSUSB. So having them connect with us so but also our website is another resource, which is csusb.edu/sale that is our website that is available. And we also are doing more to build our YouTube channel as well. We're going to have a lot of more how to tutorial videos for our students. So how to access our sale organization page, how to set up a appointment with your sale counselor, how to complete your contacts with the sale program. So we're going to have a lot of, a lot more of that information available on YouTube, so just doing our best to utilize the great resources that are out there, so that, again, we can just build that connection with our students. And that's one of the awesome things that have come from, you know, working remotely us, you know, trying to build more of those those systems in so that students definitely have that information at their disposal. But like I said, this week, we're coming back full force.

Star Wildes  
Yes, and you guys are amazing. So I mean, we're taking notes over here on from our end. Thank you so much. That basically concludes our our session with you, both Victoria and Kristen, it's been a pleasure having you here with us. And not only that, but sharing this information for students. Shout out to our students, listening to ourselves, students also, parents, shout out to the parents listening and everyone out there again, thank you so much, and thank you for joining us. Thank you.

Victoria Argot  
Thank you so much for having us. We appreciate it.

Matt Markin  
Another fantastic interview there with the sale program. Thanks again for Kristen and Victoria for joining us on the podcast and just a little update for the SAIL program. They wanted us to let you know as students, that because SAIL is a federally funded program, students must either be a first generation college student, a low income college student or college student with a disability, and be a US citizen or permanent resident. Students can know if they meet this criteria, if they are eligible to receive federal student financial aid, such as a Pell Grant and or direct student loans. So if you have a question about your potential eligibility for SAIL, they welcome you to contact them directly, and they'll help you determine if you meet the criteria. But Star, we're at the end of Episode Two of the podcast, but we have Episode Three coming up.

Star Wildes  
Yes, we do. Matt, we. Are so excited as we team up with our College of Natural Sciences advisor and special guests. You don't want to miss out on this information about majors, information about College of Natural Sciences, so please join us, Matt. We're excited that's coming soon.

Matt Markin  
Definitely. And so that'll be coming out in September, and that'll be Monday, September 14, and then we also have our fourth episode that'll be coming up on September 28 so two episodes in September. We're super excited. We're hoping that you're enjoying the podcast. So don't forget to subscribe to our podcast, whether you're on Apple podcast, Google or Stitcher. You can also find our episodes on the homepage of the CSUSB advising website, csusb.edu forward slash advising. Thanks again for joining us on Episode Two. We look forward to seeing you on episode three. See you in September. See you all soon.