Standards for Advising Notes & Reports

These standards are meant to help Slug Success staff users (particularly those in an advising role) know when to complete an “Appointment Summary Report” versus a “Note,” as well as how to handle uploaded documents.

Advising Reports vs Notes

There are many benefits to documenting all student interactions in the platform, including:

• To create an electronic student record that is accessible by other staff on campus,
• To allow for enhanced collaboration between those interacting with the student,
• To provide a more holistic view of how that student is navigating their college experience, and
• To allow for robust reporting on all interactions with your students.

In the Slug Success system, users can document student contact in two primary ways: Appointment Summary Reports and Notes. The type of student interaction will dictate the appropriate method for documentation. If you are documenting a student appointment (either scheduled, drop-in, or no show), you should use Appointment Summary Reports. If you are leaving a general comment, you should use Notes. Additional information on each type of documentation is included below. 

A general rule is to use the “Appointment Summary Report” for documenting all advising contact/transactions with students (in-person, on the phone, via email, etc.) and for documenting forms, letters, and other transactions that impact a student’s progress (such as change of college form, major qualification form, bar letters with readmission conditions). “Notes” may be used for anything else, such as a student's preferred name or details that may not be related to a specific appointment or contact. The majority of documentation in the Slug Success system will be done via “Appointment Summary Reports.”

Note that the appointment “reason” will be used for reporting both locally and at the campus level, and can be used for things such as assessment of adviser workload related to specific tasks. For this reason, as well as advisers’ ease in locating important information in the system, it is important that we are consistent in our use of appointment reasons. 

ATTENTION PEER ADVISORS! Your first line of text on the advising summary report must say, "Peer Advisor: Your Name." If you are uploading a document, this should come after the word "ATTACHMENT." If there is no attachment, these will be the first words of your advising summary report.

Uploading Documents

Since you will be using the “Appointment Summary Report” for documenting forms and letters, this section provides some guidance on which forms to upload and how.

1. Include the word “ATTACHMENT” as the first word of the “Report.”

2. Select the appropriate appointment reason(s) (see table below for more information). In some cases, you may choose to “edit” an already filed report to add an attachment (for example, if the student returned a form to you later which was discussed in your appointment).

3. Indicate the meeting type. If not a meeting with a student in-person, via email, or by phone (e.g., they dropped it off to your front desk or it’s a letter you generated), indicate that.

4. Name the attachment [Student ID_form name/qtr] before uploading.

5. Write your comments about the situation/action.

6. Make sure the attachment uploaded.

7. Save the “Report.”

DO NOT upload the following documents.

• Medical documentation

• Readiness to return communication from the health center

• DRC accommodations

• Late or retroactive W notations when containing sensitive information

• Bar appeals if they contain sensitive information

• Major declaration appeals if they contain sensitive information

• Academic integrity notation

See below in the FAQs to read how to easily find attachments in the system. 

FAQs

If I receive a phone call or email from a department/instructor/campus unit pertaining to an important academic need of a student, how do I document this in Slug Success?

This should be documented in a “Note.” Provide details about who, when, and what. In the case of email, you may copy and paste the email (with sensitive information redacted). Be sure to include an appropriate note reason.

If I receive a phone call or email from a parent/other person outside the university pertaining to an important academic need of a student, how do I document this in Slug Success?

This should be documented in a “Note.” Provide details about who, when, and what. In the case of email, you may copy and paste the email (with sensitive information redacted). Be sure to include an appropriate note reason.

When I respond to a student’s advising question via email, how should I document it in Slug Success?

Email advising should be documented in an “Advising Summary Report.” You may copy and paste the email into Slug Success. Be sure to include an appropriate appointment reason and indicate that this was an email meeting type. Alternatively, you may choose to save the email as a PDF, then attach it to a report with email as the meeting type.

How do I handle sensitive information that can’t be shared electronically?

Consider first whether there is a business need for your office to retain the information; in some cases simply documenting the decision (for example, “W approved after review of medical documentation”) is adequate, without retaining the documentation.

In cases in which it is important to retain the documentation, you will need to have a paper file for such things. Indicate on the electronic Report: “See paper file for additional information.”

Please note that as a campus, we are engaged in ongoing conversations about how to handle sensitive information to protect student privacy, but at the same table maintain an efficient workflow for advisers. The information on these pages will be updated as new decisions are made and processes are developed.

How do I easily find attachments in the Slug Success System?

It is only possible to add attachments to advising summary reports and notes. In order to find them at a later date, you can conduct a text search of your reports. The steps are as follows.

1. Click on “Reporting” on the side menu.

2. Click on “Appointment Summaries” from the list of Advisor Reports

3. Enter the name of the file/attachment in the “Search Summary Text” field. If you don’t know the name of form then search on the student ID in the same field.