Advising Groups Configuration Window

The Advising Groups Configuration window allows you to configure attributes used in creating or building Advising Groups where one advisor is the primary advisor and the remaining are backup or team advisors. This Advising Group can then be assigned to students using manual or batch processes.

Although the Advising Groups functionality is available in both the Advising and Registration modules, where it is available and how the functionality behaves is determined by configuration settings you enter on this window.

Advising Configuration Defaults

Enter the Advising Year and Term to be updated for each advisor-advisee relationship.

When a new relationship is created or the synchronization process is run, the Year for each relationship is updated. When the Year changes, a new row is created in the Advising History table.

When a new relationship is created or the synchronization process is run, the Term for each relationship is updated. When the Term changes, a new row is created in the Advising History table.

This checkbox is used to update the advisor-advisee relationship for new students with the entrance year/term from the Student Master table. If the entrance year/term are not present in the Student Master table, the Advising Year and Advising Term will be used for the update.

Advising Groups

The options in this group are determined by whether the Use Advising Groups checkbox is selected. If the checkbox is not selected, no columns are available for select configuration values. If this checkbox is selected, you must select at least one of the radio buttons in the Use Advising Groups In group box and populate the Entrance Year/Term or Active Terms (or both) in the Active Advisees Defined by group box.

When this checkbox is selected, all other checkboxes and radio buttons in this group box become available for your selection and the Assign Advisees tab is available on the Advising Groups window. In addition, the right-click Assign Advising Group option can be made available on the Student Division and/or Advising tabs on the Student Information window in the Registration module by selecting the appropriate checkboxes in the Use Advising Groups in group box.

Select this checkbox to make the Advisor columns view-only on the Student Division tab on the Student Information window in the Registration module. This view-only option protects the Advising Group from being overwritten by a single advisor but still allows the assignment of Advising Groups. If this checkbox is not selected, a warning message is displayed when an override of an Advising Group with a single advisor is being attempted.

If this radio button is selected, the Assign Advising Group right-click option is available ONLY on the Student Division tab in the Student Information window in the Registration module. When the Advising Group Synchronization process is run, only the advisors on the Student Division Master and, if selected, Student Term Summary Division tables will be updated.

If this radio button is selected, the Assign Advising Group right-click option is available ONLY on the Advising tab in the Student Information window in the Registration module. When the Advising Group Synchronization process is run, only Advising module tables are updated.

If this radio button is selected, the Assign Advising Group right-click option is available on both the Student Division and Advising tabs in the Student Information window in the Registration module. When the Advising Group Synchronization process is run, both Advising and Registration tables are updated.

If this checkbox is selected, you can identify the specific columns to be used for filtering the groups when assigning the Advising groups manually.

Active Advisees Defined By

If your institution plans to use the automated synchronization process, you must select the appropriate terms in the Entrance Terms and/or Active Terms drop-down lists. When terms are selected and the Advising Group Synchronization process is run, only the active advisees identified by these terms are updated. You can use the ... button to open the Select Terms window.

You can select multiple year/terms to identify the Entrance Terms from the Student Master table to be used to select active advisees.

You can select multiple year/terms to identify the Active Terms from the Student Term Summary Division table to be used to select active advisees.

Active Selection Valid Date

The dates indicated are used to determine the period for which the Active Advisees or Active Terms is valid. The automatic synchronization process will not run after the indicated End Date. The calendar icon (

) is available for your convenience in selecting the appropriate dates.

Enter or select the beginning date to be used for Active Terms. This date is not used in the synchronization process.

Enter or select the ending date to be used for Active Terms. If the date entered has already passed (i.e., less than the current date) when the window is opened, the following message is displayed: "The Active Advisors selection has expired. Please make changes to the term selection or update the end date."

This date should be a date between the Start and End Dates and is used to determine when a message is displayed to alert you to the approaching End Date and that you may want to change the terms and/or dates. If the End Date has passed or is the current date when the window is opened, the following message is displayed: "The Active Advisees selection will expire on <End Date>."

Group's Manual Assignment Controls

If the Allow Filter checkbox is selected, you can identify specific columns to be used for filtering the groups to be used when the Advising Groups are manually assigned. When you manually assign Advising Groups, only those groups that have filter values matching values on students' records will be available for you to select.

Each column has a drop-down list of filters for your assignment. You cannot duplicate any of the values. If you do so, the following message is displayed: "Duplicate value(s) entered. No duplicate value allowed in Group Assignment Filter."

You cannot have "empty" columns between columns. For example, if column 1 has a filter, you cannot assign a filter to column 3 until you assign a filter to column 2.

If you change a filter value that has already been used on the Advising Group Definition table, the following message with a YES/NO prompt is displayed: "Previously assigned values to the groups will be cleared. Do you wish to proceed?" If you select YES, the filter column you are replacing will be set to NULL in the Advising Group Definition table.