Cornell University Office of the University Registrar

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Faculty Center (Faculty Advisor)

Faculty Advisor has been replaced by Faculty Center as part of the new student administration system implementation. Faculty Center provides a single entry point to the tools you need to advise students and your class information (teaching schedule, class rosters and grading information). Advisors can view the grades, test scores, schedule, addresses, and graduate information of their advisees.

As a university official privy to the student information and records, you are a custodian of this data and responsible for ensuring the privacy of the records and personal information in accordance with all university policy and federal and state laws. The University Policy on Access to Student Information provides guidelines on appropriate use of student's personal information and records.

Please review the updated Student Data: Guidelines for Use

How to Access Faculty Center

Faculty Center is available through the Faculty Center tab on uPortal (http://uportal.cornell.edu). There are tutorials there as well to help you utilize the tools available on the Faculty Center. The direct URL for Faculty Center is: http://facultycenter.cornell.edu. You will need your Network ID and password to access the services.

If you have problems with the Faculty Center service please direct your inquiries to: faculty_advisor@cornell.edu or call 254-4795 Mon.-Fri. between 8:00 and 4:30.

Recommended Browsers

While there are a number of browsers that will work, the short list of CIT supported system/browser configurations includes:

• Windows XP / Internet Explorer 6
• Mac OSX / Safari 1.0 and 2.0

Other system configurations that work include Firefox 1.0 on Linux; IE7 and Mozilla Firefox on a PC and Mozilla Firefox on a Mac. The last three options might require you to adjust your tab settings in the browser to behave as expected.

Using Faculty Center and Student Center in Advising

There are many ways in which an effective advising session can be held using Faculty Center. It is up to the advisor how the advising session is structured, however, some of the variables include:

• whether or not the student has submitted their pre-enrollment requests online through the Student Center (Just the Facts) prior to speaking with you;
• whether or not you have a networked computer and are able to use Faculty Center to view the pre-enrollment request;
• the medium by which you and the student agree on a pre-enrollment request, whether in personal meeting, over the phone or via e-mail;
• the medium by which you and the student agree on a pre-enrollment request, whether in personal meeting, over the phone or via e-mail.

If you have access to Faculty Center...

The student enters their pre-enrollment requests online prior to meeting with you. At the advising meeting, you review the student's course requests together using Faculty Center. If there are no changes, nothing needs to be done. If there are changes, the student returns to the Student Center (Just the Facts), makes the changes and submits them.

If you don't have access to Faculty Center...

The student enters their course requests online prior to meeting with you and prints out the request. At the advising meeting, you review the print-out, making changes as needed. The student can then enter any changes online. You may want them to reprint and resubmit it to you for approval.

How can I ensure that a student sees me before enrolling in classes?

There is no longer an advisor key, but rather an “Eligible to Enroll” flag which behaves differently than the advisor key. With the advisor key a student could still build their schedule in CoursEnroll and you could view it via Faculty Advisor. If you set the “Eligible to Enroll” flag to No, the student will not be able to enter any classes online at all until you set it to Yes. This applies to both the pre-enrollment and add/drop periods.

The colleges have made the decision for the first round of pre-enrollment in the new system that is happening this April, that the “Eligible to Enroll” flag is set to YES for all students, but faculty may go in and change the flag to NO for all their advisees or for individuals.

What if my advisee tells me they’ve entered their requests and I can’t see them through Faculty Center?

The process for entering requests is new for students. There are now three steps to entering a class request:

1. Select a Class (and set Enrollment Preferences);
2. Confirm Your Request; and
3. Finish Enrolling.

The first step puts the classes into a “shopping cart”, however, you cannot view them through Faculty Center until they’ve completed the third step.

Students can still make changes to their schedule after completing the third step. If you can’t see the classes, remind the student to be sure to finish all three steps. If you want them to make changes after that, they can still adjust their schedule until the end of their pre-enrollment period.

How is add/drop different from pre-enrollment?

When a student successfully submits a class online, whether at pre-enrollment time or during add/drop they are in the class. The difference between the two is that when Course Balancing takes place after the pre-enrollment period is over, there is a chance that the student’s schedule will be changed by the college. So pre-enrollment really is just a request. All students must check their schedule at the beginning of the semester as it may have changed from when they pre-enrolled.

Who can do add/drop online?

When a student collects signatures to get into courses on paper, they are not in the courses until they get their advisor's signature and submit the paper. However, the perception is that once the instructor or a representative has signed the form, they are in the course. Until you, as an advisor, choose to let the student in to Add/Drop, they cannot even begin to "collect signatures".

Who can use online Add/Drop?

All registered students do add/drop online. Online add/drop is not available for Extramural students for Spring 2008.