Dear Colleagues, Concentration Advisors, and Directors of Undergraduate Studies:

We hope that this message finds you enjoying a safe and healthy summer. 

Thank you again for serving as part of the extensive community of advisors for our students. We are grateful for all of the help and support that you have provided our students, especially over the past five months, and we know that your continued support and expert guidance will be invaluable to our students in the year ahead.

In an effort to ensure that you are informed about the latest updates with student plans for the Fall 2020 semester, we wanted to share with you three messages sent yesterday evening:

• To All Returning Undergraduate Students
• To Incoming First-Year Students
• To Incoming Transfer and Resumed Undergraduate Education Students

These messages provided targeted updates to each student audience about fall courses, pre-registration, and virtual shopping. Key highlights from the messages include:

Courses@Brown

Official course information for the Fall 2020 term is now available in Courses@Brown (CAB). CAB allows students to explore courses, review syllabi, and register for courses. CAB also includes a new search filter that allows students to find courses based on mode of instruction (fully online or hybrid).

New Two-Stage Pre-registration Process

This semester, we will implement a two-stage process to increase the likelihood that everyone can pre-register for their preferred courses before the start of classes. Specifically, we will not have a first-come, first-served system, because we understand that not everyone will be able to push the “register” button at the same time around the world. Therefore, pre-registration will begin with a matching process where all students can submit initial preferences (until Monday, August 10 using their Primary Carts in CAB), followed by an add/drop period (starting Monday, August 17). More details about the pre-registration process can be found in the message to all returning students.

Virtual Shopping and Canvas Access

To facilitate virtual shopping and help maintain social distancing during the quiet period, the first week of courses from Wednesday, September 9 to Tuesday, September 15 will be fully online. Hybrid courses may begin in-person meetings on Wednesday, September 16 for registered students only, but all courses will be accessible to remote participants (including students not yet registered for the course). Students will be able to access the published Canvas site for any course in their CAB Primary Cart until the end of shopping period on Tuesday September 22nd.

Advising Resources

If there is anything we can do to help assist you in your advising, please do not hesitate to ask. The College provides a number of supports, including orientation sessions, targeted communications throughout the year, and additional resources such as the ASK advising platform and Advisor Handbooks. All advisors can also elect to participate in Team Enhanced Advising and Mentoring (TEAM). TEAM is a learning community designed to intentionally support inclusive advising. 

The College will also be holding a webinar for advisors on Monday, August 3 at 1 pm. If you are interested in attending, register and submit questions in advance using this link. You will receive information about additional sessions in the coming weeks.

Thank you in advance for our students. Your close partnerships with them is one of the hallmarks of our shared learning community. If you have any questions, please reach out to college@brown.edu. We look forward to working with you!
 

Sincerely,

Rashid Zia
Dean of the College