Eileen Kraemer, who was recently named associate dean for student academic services in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, wants to make the process of fulfilling degree and graduation requirements for the college’s nearly 14,000 undergraduates seamless and easy to navigate.
Kraemer said that good advising is essential for ensuring that students earn their degrees in a timely manner. She said her primary goal is to more closely integrate the lower-level advising that occurs during the freshman and sophomore years with the departmental-level advising and graduation certification students receive later. Departmental advisers are being given checklists that make major and minor requirements easier to understand, for example, and students are being encouraged to undergo their graduation audit two semesters before they intend to graduate. The goal is to identify and correct any deficiencies, such as a missing multi-cultural course or fewer than 39 hours of upper-division coursework, early to avoid surprises that result in frustrating and costly delays to graduation.
“The earlier that we can identify deficiencies, the more we can improve time to completion,” Kraemer said.
A former departmental adviser, Kraemer served as head of the department of computer science before being named interim associate dean in 2011. In April 2012, interim Franklin College Dean Hugh Ruppersburg made her appointment permanent. In addition to the Franklin College’s Office of Academic Advising, Kraemer also oversees its Office of Transfer Academic Services.
Kraemer continues to teach and do research. She recently taught a sophomore-level programming class.