Overview

The College of Liberal Arts Student Services (CLASS) is composed of fourteen affiliated offices that support students and advising functions for the college. Each office has a separate function and provides different resources to students.

The following document outlines the major duties of the CLASS offices. The person responsible for each of the major functions is listed in parentheses after the description.

Office of the Assistant Dean
Location and Contact information
106 Johnston Hall
(612) 625-3846
claasstdean@umn.edu
www.class.umn.edu/

This office houses the Assistant Dean of Student Services. The responsibilities of this office include:

• Student concerns and complaints
• Oversight of student communities (Mark Taylor)
• Student Scholastic Conduct Committee (Assistant Dean's Office)
• Student Scholastic Standing Committee (Mark Taylor)
• Committee on Appeals for Second Language (Ted Fitch)
• CLA technology fees (Lana Cusick)
• Web infrastructure (Colin DeLong)
• CLASS publications (Rich Sherman)
• Dean's list (Lana Cusick)
• Dean's certification (Lana Cusick)
• Reduced credit load requests (Mark Taylor)
• Academic Progress Audit System (Kristen Cullen)
• Prospective transfer students (Amy Rosenthal)
• Human resources (Assistant Dean's Office & Pat Delvecchio)

• Community Engagement Scholars Program: This program allows students to receive official U of M recognition for public service. Students fulfill service-learning requirements and projects to graduate with special honors.
• Info and advice about volunteering in the Twin Cities: Through personalized advising, CCLC helps students find local volunteer opportunities that are a good match for their interests and goals.
• Service-learning classes: CCLC cultivates partnerships with faculty and nonprofits to develop a diverse array of courses, then helps plug in students. CCLC supports students in these classes through trainings, advising, and classroom presentations.
  
• National Student Exchange: The NSE program gives students a chance to study at another school in the U.S. or Canada for a semester or a year.
• HECUA: These semester-long programs (16 credits) allow students to focus on social justice issues while studying off-campus in the Twin Cities. Students can focus on the environment, arts, writing for social change, or urban studies. (Special summer-term programs focus on civil rights or agriculture.)

• Individual career counseling appointments
• A Resource Room (135 Johnston) where students can get individual assistance or browse books, magazines and educational materials written by CCLC. These materials cover CLA majors, many career paths, grad school options, internships, the job market, and job-search skills.
• Career Courses: Major and Career Exploration (ID 1201) and Career Planning (ID 3201), Law School Exploration (ID 3205), and Internship Reflection (ID 3208).
  
• Job-prep workshops: Resume and Cover Letter Writing, Effective Interviewing, Job-Search Strategies, and more
• Job-search how-tos in print, online, and in person
• Grad-School workshops: Should I Go to Law School?, How to Apply to Law School, Personal Statements
• Pre-law advising, available to all students on the Twin Cities campus.
• Graduate/Professional school information and advising for CLA students.
• Events: Jump Start Your Job Search, Internship Advice, Career Panels, Graduate and Professional School Day, Community Involvement Fair, Exploring Interests and Majors, and many more
• On-Campus Recruiting opportunities for CLA students
• Interest and personality inventories, to help students decide about majors and potential careers (MBTI, SII, Strong)
  
• Personalized resume and cover letter critiques, available without appointment
• Practice interviews online through Webcams.
• Undergraduate Internship Grants, which provides a stipend to CLA students doing unpaid internships
• Recommendation Letters Service (for students applying to grad/professional school)

Individualized Degree Programs
Location and Contact information
345 Fraser Hall
(612) 624-8006
idp@umn.edu
http://idp.class.umn.edu/

The Individualized Degree Programs (IDP) office is the major program office for all Bachelor of Individualized Studies (BIS) degree students and Individually Designed Interdepartmental Major (IDIM) students. The BIS/IDIM advisers have the same duties as other major department advisers, including helping students to plan their major coursework and develop their senior projects, and keeping records of the students in the program.

Rebecca Rassier, the IDP Coordinator, is also the CLA coordinator for the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). She receives all of the liberal arts applications and administers the process by supporting the faculty committee that selects the grant winners.

Student Information Office
Location and Contact information
49 Johnston Hall
(612) 625-2020
sio@class.umn.edu

The functions of the Student Information Office fall into six broad categories: student support, program support (orientation and commencement), technical support, student records, department support, and administration/infrastructure (data, mail/messenger, keys). In the list below, functions are listed by the office’s four primary constituencies: students (new and continuing), student communities, CLASS as a whole, and department advisers. Staff with questions may contact the office coordinator, Lonna Riedinger, or the contact person listed for specific functions. Students will be best served by contacting the front desk rather than a particular staff member.

Services to new students

• Orientation/Registration information for new high school students (NHS), new advanced standing students (NAS), Intra-University transfer students (IUT)
• Advising meetings for Intra-campus transfers (ICT)
• Placement and proficiency testing information (usernames and passwords)
• Problem-solving

Services to continuing students

• Referrals to an advising office
• Problem-solving
• Application for Readmission: returning to school after an absence (Marianne Adelmann)
• Approvals for directed study, independent study, and extra credit (Carol Hondl)
• Placement and entrance proficiency testing (information; username and passwords)
• Application for degree (Carol Hondl)
• Commencement ceremony (Carol Hondl)
• CLA major/minor for students in another U of M college (Carol Hondl)

Services to student communities

• New student folders and papers (Marianne Adelmann)
• Orientation/registration support (Lonna Riedinger)
• Probation review (Carol Hondl)
• Dean's list letters (Carol Hondl or Lana Cusick)
• Entrance Proficiency Test (EPT) and Graduation Proficiency Test (GPT) results (Marianne Adelmann)
• Automatic language credit (Marianne Adelmann)
• Major/adviser coding
• Transfer files between offices
• Leave of absence entry (Marianne Adelmann)
• Degree applications and commencement (Carol Hondl)
• Readmission for degree applicants (Carol Hondl)
• Data support (e.g., high school prep) (Carol Hondl)
• Problem-solving (e.g., PeopleSoft) (Lonna Riedinger)
• E-mail to students (Lonna Riedinger)
• Listservs (Sean Burns)

Services to CLASS

• Updates to CLASS forms (Marianne Adelamnn)
• Data access (PeopleSoft, Language Testing, SecurIDs, datawarehouse) (Marianne Adelmann)
• Factbook (Carol Hondl)
• Keys (Marianne Adelmann)
• Messenger service (Marianne Adelmann)
• Tech support/network administration (Sean Burns)
• U.S. mail services

Services to departments

• Data requests (Carol Hondl)
• Student course reports for NAS (Lonna Riedinger)
• Dean's list (Carol Hondl)
• Degree applications and commencement information (Carol Hondl)
• Portfolio access (adviser coding) (Lonna Riedinger)
• Major/minor codes or subplans (Lonna Riedinger)

Student Communities
All of the CLA student communities perform basic functions that support students throughout their college career. These services are available in all CLA student communities:

• New and transfer student orientation
• Appointments with academic advisers
• Walk-in advising
• Group advising sessions
• Help in choosing a major
• Course planning
• Degree audits
• Planning for graduation
• Degree clearance
• Referrals to University resources
• Petitions for exemptions to deadlines and policies
• Probation review
• Assistance dealing with academic difficulties
• Computers that students may use to check email, look up academic information on the web, or write papers
• Maintaining and updating website content
• Outreach to major departments

The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer. This site is available in alternative formats upon request. Copyright © 2005 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. Site maintained by Student Services staff. Have questions or comments about the site? Email rsherman@class.cla.umn.edu.