Student Success Center

The Student Success Center (SSC), directed by the Vice Provost, supports the academic achievement, personal success, and professional aspirations of our students. The academic assistance and resources provided through the SSC include academic advising, tutoring, test proctoring, help with study skills, time management strategies, accessibility services, and accommodations. Faculty members should direct students to the SSC if they have questions or concerns regarding the assistance or resources provided through the SSC.

Career Development

      Career Services provides opportunities for students to gain real-world career-related experiences and helps to prepare students for their job search. Career Services assists students by providing help with résumés, interviewing skills, career assessments, internships, graduate school support, and networking. Career Services also supports involvement in student life and collaboration with faculty, staff, and alumni as essential components of the career development process. All students seeking employment are encouraged to access the “Raven Walk” networking platform.

Academic Advising

Each student is assigned an academic advisor upon matriculation. Faculty are expected to take their responsibility as advisors seriously. Training is provided for new academic advisors. Specific training for majors in the department is provided by the department chair.

Office Hours

One of the best ways for a faculty member to assure out-of-class contact with students is to post office hours and be available during those times. Faculty members should set aside, at a minimum, five hours a week for office hours; to the extent possible those hours should be at different times throughout the week to allow students more options. If a faculty member wishes to set aside time for class preparation, it is recommended that these times not include office hours. If a faculty member knows in advance that she or he will not be able to keep posted office hours, students need to be made aware of this and a note posted on the instructor’s office door stating such.
The use of Navigate360's “Appointments” feature is an easy and handy way to have students schedule appointments with a faculty member. It is also helpful because this system reminds students of upcoming appointments and it is easy to cancel an appointment if either the instructor or student needs to do so. Faculty are encouraged to make use of this service.

Advice to Students 

Faculty members should make certain they are accurate when giving advice to students concerning matters clearly indicated in the College Course Catalog handbooks, or in pronouncements from the various offices of the College. Such matters may include dropping courses, changing course sections, making up examinations, etc. When providing advice or recommendations to a student regarding degree planning, it is often helpful to keep a record of this. The “Notes” in Navigate360 provides the ideal place to do so. This note is then available for reference for the faculty member, the student, and others who have access to the student’s Navigate record.

Most student dealings with the Office of Academic Records and Registration have deadline dates. If the faculty member does not know the deadline date in a particular instance, please check with the Office of Academic Records and Registration before giving the requested advice. Most deadlines are published in the official College calendar, which is available in Canvas > Faculty Forum > General Information. The Registrar also sends out regular emails with reminders about deadlines.

Absences from Class - Students

If a student has three successive absences in a given class, this should be reported using the Navigate360 Alert system. Ordinarily, students should not be withdrawn from a class unless a written notice to this effect is supplied to the students when they are at or near the maximum number of absences and the next absence will result in their withdrawal from the class. Issuing a Navigate360 “Alert” is the recommended way to alert a student about excessive absences.

In the case that a student has to leave campus for a defined period of time by policy of the College (such as for a highly contagious disease such as measles), the instructor has the responsibility to allow the student to make up missed work (the means are at the discretion of the instructor; for example, revised due dates, distance learning, an  incomplete, or some other means).

Field Trips

All forms for all field trips are available on Canvas > Faculty Forum. If the field trip is for one day or a part of a day, these completed form are to be submitted to the Vice Provost for Student Success Center. This includes trips that are short off-campus trips where the class does not leave Atchison, Kansas, and are only for a minimal period of time. If a class time is changed due to a field trip, please notify the Registrar in advance.

Field trips requiring students to be absent more than one day/overnight must be approved by the Senior Vice Provost to ensure compliance with College policies. Approval should be obtained from one week to several months in advance of the trip depending on the length and distance of the trip. Please complete all the necessary forms well in advance of the planned trip—whether local, in the U.S., or abroad.

If an instructor desires to offer academic credit as part of an extended field trip, this option needs to be discussed with the Senior Vice Provost. The instructor will need to present the following:

1. Name  and number of course
2. Desired number of credits
3. Course description
4. Schedule for the course including number of hours per day, assignments, readings (to help determine credit hour compliance), including any "pre-trip" or "post-trip" class meetings, assignments, etc
5. Cost per credit hour for the course, in addition to cost of the trip
6. If general education requirements are being requested, follow additional guidelines here under "Approval of Courses to Meet General Education Requirements." 

Courses cannot be "advertised" as being offered for college credit until they have received approval in writing from the Senior Vice Provost. If granted, final approval will be shared with the Registrar, department chair, as well as the instructor.

Petition for a Major and/or Minor

A student who wishes to declare a major or minor uses the Petition for Acceptance to a Major (or Minor) Program form available online at “Registrar’s Office” Canvas course. (All faculty and students should have access to this as one of their “courses” in Canvas.) The student meets with the chair of the department to obtain the chair’s approval. Upon acceptance into a major, the student is assigned an academic advisor in that department as recommended by the chair. Advisors are urged to remind students to file a petition as soon as a major is decided.
Students must have a major declared before reaching 80 hours completed. If a student fails to declare a major by this time, she or he will not be allowed to register or make any other schedule changes until a major is declared. If there are extenuating circumstances and a student is unable to declare a major by this time, s/he may receive an extension from the Registrar.

Application for a Degree

A student who plans to receive a degree must file an application for the degree with the Registrar by the deadline specified in the academic calendar. The application for degree is to be completed on RavenZone by the candidate. Upon submitting the application, the student is assessed a $100 graduation fee. Any student who fails to submit an application by the published deadline will be assessed a $50 late filing fee in addition to the $100 graduation fee. 

Waiver of Degree Requirement

A department chair may request the waiver of a departmentally required course for a student if a substantial reason exists for making an exception to a requirement in the student's major field. Online forms to waive a requirement or to substitute a requirement are available on Canvas > Faculty Forum > Academic Forms. Paper forms are not accepted.

If a student wants to waive or substitute a general education requirement, she or he needs to know that this type of substitution or waiver is not given lightly, and waivers, in particular, can only be granted in truly exceptional circumstances. The process of seeking a waiver or substitution starts with a student meeting with the Senior Vice Provost or the advisor consulting with the Senior Vice Provost to determine the feasibility of such a request. Department chairs are not able to waive or substitute general education requirements.

Only substitutions and waivers that have been explicitly approved by the Senior Vice Provost or the Provost and then noted in a student’s Degree Audit (“My Progress”) in RavenZone or on RavenZone will be considered as official. Advisors and Department Chairs should not wait until the last minute before graduation to secure waivers or exceptions.

Advisors should not tell students that “this will count” or “you should be able to get a waiver for that” or give students any reason to misconstrue what they are being told. Everything must be in writing. It is recommended and very helpful to put recommendations and advice in the “Notes” section in Navigate360. This serves as a reminder for the faculty member, the student, any future advisor, and the Registrar’s office. Undocumented exceptions to degree or other graduation requirements may not be accepted during the degree audit process.

Withdrawals from the College 

When a student withdraws from the College, the Director of the Student Success Center will notify the pertinent administrative offices of the College. The Office of Academic Records and Registration will then notify the faculty in whose classes the student is enrolled and the student’s academic advisor. In accordance with Federal law, faculty must provide the last date of attendance for the student who has withdrawn.  This is to be done in a timely manner using Self-Service as directed by the Registrar. Note that, as such, the College does not require faculty to take attendance, but faculty members must be able to report this last date of attendance accurately. An accurate last date of attendance is necessary for financial aid purpose and other reporting to the U.S. Department of Education.

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