Last month, College of Fine Arts Academic Advisor Samuel Banford was awarded Advisor of the Month by the University of Utah Academic Advising Center.
Advisor of the Month is an award in which academic advising staff across campus can give their peers recognition for their ability to go above and beyond in their roles and with students.
From the nominations:
Samuel did magnificent work throughout the whole summer, but especially in August, to ensure the CFA Advising Team was prepared for every single Utah Bound Orientation session. Every day, he meticulously prepared a spreadsheet with the information we needed about the incoming students. He checked for their acceptance in closed majors, reviewed their existing credits, and recorded any notes from previous interactions with them into an easily accessible and legible sheet.
In addition to making sure the whole Team was prepared, Samuel advised new students with his usual degree of equanimity and good humor.
I appreciate the work all of my colleagues do to help our students, but Samuel goes above and beyond to make life easier for the rest of us as well.
Andrew Grace, academic advisor
Many majors in the CFA require an audition or interview before students can be declared or begin Major classes. Samuel’s hours and hours of work ensured that the communication around un-auditioned students was proactive and intentional with faculty, directors, and advisors. Samuel is so skilled at making data and details easy to ready, clear, and pretty. Samuel is an incredible advisor and really went above and beyond these past couple months to ensure an exceptional advising experience for students.
Rae Luebbert, Academic Advisor
In addition to the usual summer advising responsibilities and Utah Bound Orientation responsibilities, which include advising students, giving the CFA presentation, and maintaining accurate and timely advising notes, Samuel also created and maintained what the CFA Advising Team affectionately calls "The Pretty Sheet." The Pretty Sheet is a spreadsheet that includes 1) the CFA students attending UBO; 2) previous requirements fulfilled; 3) registration holds, if any; 4) for the performing arts areas, whether or not they have passed their audition; and 5) if they met with a CFA Advisor previously, and relevant notes.
Maintaining the Pretty Sheet required Samuel to review the academic records of over 350 incoming CFA students, including their academic advising notes, transfer and concurrent enrollment courses, AP exams, and first-year writing assessment and math placement scores. When necessary, he contacted external offices to request that registration holds be lifted (such as Admissions). For students who had not auditioned or interviewed, he connected students to the appropriate performing arts unit. Each time the Pretty Sheet was updated, Samuel shared those updates with the members of the CFA Advising Team.
Samuel's work was outstanding, detailed oriented, and incredibly helpful. His willingness meant that the members of the CFA Advising Team could "rest" a little and/or focus on other parts of UBO, advise continuing CFA students, respond to the questions of incoming students and their supporters, and CFA academic unit needs.
Liz Leckie, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs