Advisor Resources : Student Organizations : Wilson Commons Student Activities : University of Rochester

Advisor Resources

Advisor Expectations

How are organizations grouped and advised?
There are three types of undergraduate student organizations that are recognized on the University of Rochester River Campus by the College of Arts, Science, and Engineering. These include: Residential Life groups, College Student Organizations, and Fraternity & Sorority Life, Each has its own recognition and evaluation process.
Each of these types of student organizations are required to have an advisor designated to help them navigate policies and procedures, and provide resources and support for their activities.
UR staff designated to serve as an advisor must be identified to the Senior Associate Director of Wilson Commons Student Activities.
Mandatory Expectations of the Advisor:
- Advisors must attend bi-annual trainings hosted by the Senior Associate Director of Wilson Commons Student Activities
- Must attend and be responsible for the content distributed at the weekly student organization advisor meetings coordinated by the Senior Associate Director of Wilson Commons Student Activities
Role of the Advisor:
- Establish clear and reasonable expectations with officers/executive board members/student organizations
- Regularly meet/communicate with student organizations to discuss: Past events, upcoming events, officers/executive board, transitions/elections, membership, leadership issues, and other factors contributing to student organization’s success.
  - Communication and meeting frequency should be based on their resource type. Lower resource groups could require less communication, or it could be done via email instead of face-to-face, etc.
- Monitor student organizations’ programming processes
  - Reservations
  - CCC activity registrations
  - Contract procedures
  - Catering/permits
  - Final Approval/deny student organization registered events
  - Work with service providers on event progress
  - Physically attend events as needed
  - Monitor activity reflections and give final approval
- Provide guidance to organization to ensure University policies and procedures are being met.
- Work together with officers/executive board, and other university personnel to ensure overall success of student organizations
- Connect students with proper resources, departments, etc.
- Remind student organization officers/executive board and members that they are students first, and that should be their first priority.
- Check on the well-being of student leaders and connect them to appropriate resources as it pertains to mental/social well-being.
- Help E-BOARD evaluate successes/mistakes in order to move forward as a stronger organization
- Regularly communicate with advocate(s)
- Send business manager to Student Organization Finance Office (SOFO) for finance related questions/concerns
- Navigate travel policies including domestic and international
- Responsible for submitting calendar updates for the weekly advisor meeting
- Post and fulfill required weekly office hours
- Participate in fall and mid-year Leadership Training (whether you attend or present.)
- Accurately completing the Advisor feedback section for SOAR or other evaluative processes
- Responsible for bringing up any advising issues or challenges with service providers at the weekly advising meeting

Advocates

Who can be an advocate?
Student organizations are welcome to utilize an advocate for their organization. Advocates can be a UR community member who has an expertise or specific skill set which will be beneficial to the organization. The Advocate does not perform the work of the advisor, but rather is an additional support person the organization succeed.
What is the role of an advocate?
- May provide mentorship and departmental resources to assist student organizational success
- May provide contacts for networking opportunities in area of expertise
- May provide support to Advisor:
  - Check-in with the Advisor to see how you can be helpful.
- Work closely with the Advisor towards the success of the student organization
- Provide access to department-controlled spaces
- Help promote the student organization within the department, other faculty, and students
- If concerned that proper University policies or procedures are not being met, contact the advisor.
How advocates can be successful:
- Have expertise in the content/field related to that student organization
- Regularly communicate with the organization’s Advisor

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Activity Registration

Advisor To-dos

When you receive an activity registration, please check both the Page 0 and Form Submission for accuracy.

Page 0

Anything (other than the items listed below) the event standardization team will review for accuracy from a systems perspective.

What
- Event name
- Description
- Event type
When
- Start date/end date
- Start time/end time
- Please make sure your student organizations do not create their own recurring events in this section. Do not approve it to move forward if this is done. Send it back to the student to be updated.
Where
- Type
- Location name should never be blank.
- TBD should not be checked if they have a location/reservation
- Who can see the event location should not be set to “Only display the location to those who are registered”. Registration is not required for any student organization events.
Photo & Flyer
Not required, but if they are uploaded, please review for accuracy and content

Form Submission

All of the of the questions within the form submission must be checked! Please make sure that organizations click their accurate organization type. Some college student organizations select "WCSA" which causes inaccurate workflows. If things are missing, do not send it forward!

Based on Page 0 answers, you as the advisor should have idea what service providers are needed, if it’s a fundraiser, if they selling tickets, etc. Please double check that all service providers are in the workflow.

Things to think about

Are the food questions accurate?
Do the AV/Furniture set ups make sense?
Does this event require Tickets and do the Ticket prices make sense?

If you think something is missing, put in in Requires Modifications so that the student can make updates/changes. Service providers should not get inaccurate or missing information.

Things that Advisors Put In Requires Modifications For
- Any change to the Activity Registration Form Submission will require Advisors to change the status to “Requires Modifications
- Event Location
- Start Date/Time and End Date/Time
Requires Modifications Chat Template
Your submission has been placed into Requires Modifications so that you can make updates.
To edit your submission, please navigate to the “My Activity Menu” on the left-hand Menu and select “My Surveys/Forms”. Once you have completed your updates, select “Resubmit”.
Following these steps will ensure that your submission status is reset to “Pending Approval” which will indicate to reviewers that it is ready to be reviewed again.
Things that Event Standardization Will Change
All changes that are to be made by event standardization should be entered in the Workflow Chat so that we are aware of the change. Any changes to the event if it is a recurring event should be handled by Event Standardization. This is because we will have to propagate the change to all the recurring events if they are already created
- Event Name
- Event Description
- Event Type
- Event Coordinator
- Team Members
- Zoom Links
- Photos/Flyers
- Access/Display Options and Visibility
- Registration Options

Once you have reviewed, please rename the chat if you are the first person in the chat.

The event standardization team will put in language that the event is approved and that the organization should complete an activity reflection.

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