This week on Chronversations: Brian Marth fills in for registration and helps students with advising.

TRANSCRIPT:

0:10: Welcome back to the Chronicle Conversations. 

 0:12: I’m your host, Aaron Guzman. 

 0:15: For campus news this week, Associate Provost of Academic Services Brian Marth filled into an advising position during registration week due to layoffs that the college experienced. 

 0:27: Marth talks about his experience filling in for registration week and his experiences helping students. 

 0:33: My favorite part of my job is meeting one-on-one with students. 

 0:35: I think for many students, they were prepared, but then they were thrown a curveball if something was closed, or they’re taking a substitution. 

 0:43: I think for other students there, there’s many students who’ve jumped on Zoom and they’re like, “I don’t even know where to start.

 0:47: Like, what do I need?”

 0:48: And so I think, I hope, that as someone in the provost’s office and working with advising, that we can find ways to help students be more engaged and be more prepared and feel more like they’re ready to go when it’s time to register. 

 1:02: Marth also talks about the challenges that he faces with advising and registration, as well as the challenges that many others face at the college. 

 1:10: I think I’ve also realized, like, advising is a tough gig. 

 1:13: There’s a lot of people in this office who are working really, really hard to try to help students as much as they possibly can. 

 1:20: So I’m really kind of grateful for the work that people in this office do in partnership with all the people. 

 1:25: There’s a lot of people outside of advising that are working really hard too. 

 1:27: Faculty are answering questions, department heads and schools are answering questions. 

 1:32: So, people are trying their best to help students from an advising point of view. 

 1:35: We are really trying very hard to pitch in and help each other out. 

 1:39: So I’ve been meeting

 1:40: with a lot of students from all of the different programs if they’re just like, “I’ll talk with anybody who can help me.” And I know my boundaries. 

 1:46: Like, I know when I’m like, you know what? 

 1:48: I got to connect you with an expert. 

 1:50: We want students to feel like there’s more people that you can go to to ask for help, and they have access to your records, and they have the training to understand your degree audit in those records, right? 

 2:00: For other ones, like in the School of Communication and Culture, you get 3 amazing people, but really, they’re doing snack and chat and just being like, are you aware of registration?

 2:07: How is life? 

 2:08: How are you doing? 

 2:09: Have some snacks, sit down, let’s talk. 

 2:11: They probably could give you some advice, but they’re not pulling up student records and looking at degree audits. 

 2:16: But there’s got to be a lot of other people and, you know, it takes, it takes the village, as the saying goes, right? 

 2:20: So we want you working with the faculty who teach your classes. 

 2:24: Keep reaching out to them. 

 2:25: If they’re not your faculty fellow and they’re not your academic advisor, those, that’s what’s most critical, if those faculty really know your story. 

 2:31: That’s all for this week. 

 2:33: Make sure to stay up to date with campus and metro news at columbiachronicle.com. 

 2:38: And sign up for our newsletter at columbiachronicle.com/newsletter. 

 2:42: Don’t forget to check out our new Three C’s podcast where we give credible information to the Columbia community. 

 2:48: I’m Aaron Guzman. 

 2:49: Thanks for listening. 

Copy edited by Angel Marie Guevara