MEMORANDUM
TO: Engineering Undergraduate Students
FROM: Richard Wesel, Associate Dean
Office of Academic and Student Affairs, Samueli Engineering
DATE: September 28, 2019
RE: SEE YOUR FACULTY ADVISOR
Dear Student,
As the first week of fall quarter begins, I want to remind you of the faculty advising program within Engineering. This program makes it easy for you to meet with a faculty advisor each quarter. All but a handful of the thousands of Engineering students took advantage of this system last year, and survey results from those students indicate more than 94% had a positive experience.
I am writing you now to emphasize three main points:
1. It is easy and takes only ten minutes to meet with a faculty advisor during the next two weeks (the second and third weeks of fall quarter).
2. It is worthwhile. You can gain valuable information by doing this.
3. It is required, and there is a significant penalty if you fail to have this meeting during the current academic year.
Let me address each of these three points in detail:
It is easy. You can meet with your advisor at any time they are available, but the easiest times are those posted by your advisor. Each quarter all tenured and tenure-track Samueli Engineering professors, except those on sabbatical, post and email at least three hours of meeting times for their undergraduate advisees. (These times are usually during second or third week of the quarter.) You should receive an email this week or earlier that invites you to fall quarter advising.
To view your faculty advising information, login to MyEngineering and in the “My Profile” block, click on the “My Advisors” link. The link https://my.engineering.ucla.edu/user/advisors takes you directly to that page. Here you will find the posted meeting times for your advisor and an archive of his or her emails inviting you to visit during their posted times.
What if your professor did not post times or the times they posted conflict with your classes? Please note that you can meet the faculty-advising requirement by meeting with any tenured or tenure-track faculty advisor in your department. You have the ability to immediately change your official faculty advisor at the “My Advisors” page. Even if you do not change your official advisor, any faculty advisor can check you off as an “unofficial advisee” if you provide them with your UCLA ID number.
The “My Advisors” page provides all of the posted meeting times for all of the faculty advisors in your department. These times are available when you click on “change my advisors”. If meeting with your assigned advisor is difficult, simply pick a professor with a time that works for you and go see them.
An FAQ link with answers to common questions about faculty advising of undergraduates is at https://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/faqs-undergraduate-students/#faculty-advising-questions-2. If you have questions about faculty advising, check it out. If the FAQ page does not answer your questions, email James Washington, who handles administration of faculty advising. His email is advisor_checks@seas.ucla.edu.
It is worthwhile. Your faculty advisor knows a lot about careers in your major, undergraduate research opportunities in your department, how to get into graduate school, and in general how to succeed as an engineer. Your faculty advisor may end up writing a letter of recommendation for you or helping you with advice as you make difficult life or career decisions. Your advisor can be an important resource, but only if you meet with them.
Faculty advisors provide advice on a variety of topics as discussed above. However, see a counselor in the Academic and Student Affairs Office http://seasoasa.ucla.edu/ at 6426 Boelter Hall for course requirements, academic regulations, or to plan your schedule to graduate on time.
It is required. You are required to see a faculty advisor at least once every academic year. If you do not meet with your advisor during fall and winter, and you fail to meet with an advisor during the first three weeks of spring quarter, a hold will be placed on your records during the fourth week of spring quarter.
A hold will prevent you from making any changes to your academic schedule. You will be unable to add or drop courses. You will be unable to enroll in fall courses until the hold is removed. To remove the hold, you will need to meet with your faculty advisor. Note that this may be difficult since the official advising period will be over when the hold is placed. Avoid all this hassle by meeting with your advisor before the deadline during the regularly scheduled times.
I hope that you will take full advantage of the faculty advising resource. It only takes a few minutes. It can be very beneficial for you. It is a required activity, at least once a year.
Warm Regards,
Richard Wesel
Associate Dean
Professor of Electrical Engineering
Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs
UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science