The Faculty of Arts & Science is introducing a new digital platform, the Student Advising Service (SAS), which will enhance the advising experience for both students and staff. Phase one of the SAS implementation, roll-out to staff, is underway this fall — and it’s going to significantly change the way staff help students.
SAS will allow staff to better manage advising appointments, refer students to helpful services, and access a knowledge base of wayfinding information, including U of T policies, processes, and the various resources available to support student success.
“We are very excited to introduce advisors across the Faculty to the SAS,” says Lisa Feng, Faculty registrar and director, academic services. The launch of this new platform is made possible because of the meaningful contributions of A&S staff through their participation in the many phases of this project.”
We know everyone in A&S is committed to supporting our amazing students and the foundational launch of the SAS is our first major milestone in achieving the transformation to the student experience we envision.
Staff training on the platform has already begun. With access to comprehensive training and resources, staff will learn how to interact with the platform and how to leverage the information to deliver the best guidance for students.
“We know everyone in A&S is committed to supporting our amazing students and the foundational launch of the SAS is our first major milestone in achieving the transformation to the student experience we envision,” says Feng.
Training for this program is done completely in-house. Staff from the Office of the Faculty Registrar are training end-users from the various units across the Faculty to improve the advising experience.
“I am very excited about the ability to see right from every student’s SAS record if they’ve previously had advising appointments, access commonly referenced University data, and see any past email exchanges advisors deemed important,” says Se (Carol) Ye, student services advisor and SAS staff trainer. To have all this information in one place will help everyone assisting the student save time and effort from searching through various office folders and inboxes for past advising notes and emails.”
The SAS, powered by Salesforce, is a University-wide initiative sponsored by the Office of the Vice-Provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education and implemented by the Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration unit. Currently, the SAS is being implemented across two Faculties, A&S and the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, with more divisions expected to come on board in the next few years.
Welcome Services was trained in August, with plans to train college registrar staff starting Oct. 3, followed by academic unit advising staff training in February 2024. Once staff training is complete, phase two of the SAS implementation, the student-facing portal, will begin with plans to be available in summer 2024.
For more information about the Student Advising Service, visit the SharePoint page for staff, or contact your unit lead.