Welcome back everyone from Spring Holiday. I hope you got some good rest and got caught up on things last weekend. We are now in the home stretch to the end of the semester.  Below are a few items of interest to all COM majors and minors…opportunities, registration tips, and honors to our students.

1. Everyone is invited to our annual Communication Honors Ceremony scheduled for Wednesday, April 22 at 3:00 in PSU 312 A, B & C.  At this annual celebration we award all the COM scholarships, induct this semester’s Lambda Phi Eta students, and celebrate the end of the semester. Of course we’ll have some munchies and refreshments. Stop by and see some friends and faculty and celebrate your accomplishments from 2008-2009.

2.  A note from the president of PRSSA:  Cheer on the Springfield Cardinals!

TO: COM students

FR: Leah Almeling

With all the long, hard work we put into our education together, it is time for some fun! The Public Relations Student Society of America is sponsoring Springfield Cardinals PR Night on Thursday, April 23 for the COM department and all of your friends! The first pitch is at 7:10 p.m., but we are also hosting an informal PR meet and greet beginning one hour prior to the game! We have invited our local professional chapter of PRSA to come talk to students interested in the business. And for those over 21, it is two beers for $5 on the patio and Budweiser koozie night for people that get there early!

Tickets are only $9 and available for purchase from Karen Sikes at the COM office in Craig 375 Hope to see you all there. 3.  Need some help with your money (or lack thereof)?  Check out Financial literacy.docx this opportunity.

CONTACT: Leah Almeling (Leah06@missouristate.edu) for more information.

WHAT:  Come and Learn. “The Bear Essentials” needed to Survive!!!!!!

HOW TO: Creating a Spending & Savings Plan–Understanding Your Credit Report–Financing Your Education–Mastering Money Management–Calculating Your Future

WHEN:  Monday, April 27th at 6 p.m. – PSU room 308
Tuesday, April 28th at 6 p.m. – Blair-Shannon Grand Lounge
Wednesday, April 29th at 6 p.m. – Hammons House Basement
Sponsored by:  The Office of Student Financial Aid and Missouri Department of Higher Education (MDHE)

4.  Some additional registration tips:  How goes registration on the new Banner system?

• Contact faculty in advance of registering if the course requires permission.  You should email the person directly using the email link on the class schedule page.
• Remember that most errors refer to pre-requisites or permissions that you  have not yet met or cleared.  If you get an error for program or pre-req that means you do not meet a specific requirement.  If you plan to take a class this summer as the pre-req, you need to register for the summer class first. The banner system will recognize that as meeting the pre- req and you should be able to register for the fall class after that.
• How do you find out how many seats are left? Click on the hyperlink of the course that you want to get into. That link will show you capacity and seats still available.
• Plan your schedule in advance of getting online to register. Use the old style “trial schedule” pdf  that is found on the registration page. Once you  have that done, you can keep checking close levels of courses to see which ones are still available.

Let me know if you have any questions about registration. We are all learning this system together, so remember to plan ahead and be patient.

Kelly