Special Academic Programs and Opportunities
Academic Programs
Academic Advising
ONE OF THE MAJOR WAYS in which the University expresses its concern for the academic development of each student is in the program of academic advising coordinated by the Office of the Vice President and Academic Dean. Each student is assigned an advisor in his or her major field of interest. Students who have not decided upon a major or teaching option are assigned a temporary advisor until a choice is made.
These students should first work with their academic advisor for discussion of the programs at Concord University and what may or may not be appropriate for them. The Counseling Center can provide testing to help determine a student's aptitude in different academic areas. When one or more programs are identified, students are encouraged to approach faculty in these areas for more information. Students expecting to complete program requirements in a timely fashion should declare a major before they have completed 60 credit hours.
Provision is made for the change of advisor, if this is necessary, by consulting the division office in the student's major area. The advisor is the student's major contact point with the University. Questions concerning curriculum, regulations, course selection, change of major, and academic achievement should be taken to the student's advisor. Personal or social problems of a more general nature can be taken to the student's advisor for referral to the appropriate University or community service. See section on counseling, page 189.
Planning a Course of Study
Graduation from Concord University requires a minimum of 128 semester hours credit. A semester hour is equivalent to a class meeting once a week for a semester; a course carrying three semester hours credit, therefore, normally meets three times a week in one-hour class periods throughout the semester. A semester is approximately sixteen weeks in length. Most courses are three semester hours, some with laboratories are four-hour courses, and a few courses carry a different number of hours credit. This number is found in parentheses at the end of each course title.
A normal course load for Fall or Spring Semester would be four or five courses totaling about fifteen or sixteen hours credit. Sixteen hours taken over eight semesters would complete the total of 128 hours in four academic years without summer study. It is not just any 128 hours that is required, however, but the total including all the specified courses required for the degree being sought. Most degree programs can be completed within 128 semester hours; certain combinations of majors and minors, or teaching fields, may require more hours.
Many students find it necessary to take courses in one or more Summer terms in order to complete their requirements within four calendar years. Seven credit hours may be taken in each of the two terms offered each Summer session.
Concord University reserves the right to prescribe not only the courses required for a degree, but the order in which those courses may be scheduled by a student. This is because a college education is regarded as a whole, the parts of which should be developed in proper relationship one to another, not simply as a random collection of credit hours.
Definition of Terminology
The following terms may be helpful to students in their program planning.
MAJOR: Under the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, or Business Administration degrees, the student's non-teaching field of primary academic emphasis. The courses may fall within a single department or may overlap several departments for a comprehensive major.
MINOR: Under the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, or Business Administration degrees, the student's non-teaching secondary academic emphasis.
TEACHING FIELDS: Under the Bachelor of Science in Education degree, the student's program of courses in a specific field or fields required for teaching in the middle and/or high school. One or two fields may be selected.
SUBJECT SPECIALIZATION:
Under the Bachelor of Science in Education degree, the student's specific specialization taken along with a core program for teaching in the elementary and/or middle school.
EMPHASIS: In some degree programs, the student selects a non-teaching area of emphasis, along with the required basic courses.
Evening Classes
The University offers a number of its regular campus courses at night. The schedule of courses for any semester will indicate which courses will meet in the evening. Students successfully completing these courses are given residence credit, if they are fully admitted to the University. Regular students may take evening classes as part of their full schedule. For those taking less than full course loads, including persons enrolled only for single courses, part-time fees prevail as described on pages 193-194.
Workshops
Workshops on and off campus may be scheduled, depending on the needs expressed and the availability of Concord faculty for such service. Workshops occasionally are scheduled as courses on campus, for which college credit is given to those properly enrolled. They usually carry one to three hours of credit, and may not be taken for credit in that subject more than once. Non-credit workshops may be arranged for particular purposes, in consultation with University officials. All workshops are subject to approval by Concord University, and they must follow the regulations of West Virginia's Higher Education System. Workshops carry the number 225.
Public Service Learning Internships
Each fall and spring semester, the West Virginia higher education system sponsors a number of off-campus student internships. The majority of these are in State government offices in the Charleston metropolitan area. They are a full semester in length, and are designed to familiarize participants with the activities and responsibilities of West Virginia's public agencies. Students accepted into the program receive financial support during their internships and are awarded up to fifteen hours of college credit upon satisfactory completion of the internship requirements. Further information may be obtained through the Registrar's Office at Concord.
Honors Courses
The Honors Program provides opportunities for students with records of high achievement to further enrich their Concord education. Participants are encouraged to take a more active part in shaping their own education, both in the classroom and outside, by enhancing some of their courses for honors designation, by making more extensive use of the opportunities for independent study and research which the University already provides, and by discovering the richness of the resources offered by our area and our faculty through extracurricular programs and activities designed especially for Honors students. Participants in the Honors Program also have the opportunity to live in specially designated "academic emphasis" areas of the residence halls.
Students who have successfully completed the Honors Program will receive the designation "Honors Graduate," which appears on the student's transcript and diploma, and are acknowledged at commencement.
Successful completion of the Honors Program entails the following:
1. Formal Admission. The student must complete an application for admission to the Honors Program, which must be approved by the Honors Coordinator. Ordinarily, incoming students are eligible for admission if they have a score of 26 or higher on the ACT composite (or, for transfer students, an equivalent score on the SAT), and a grade point average of 3.5 (on a 4.0 scale) or above on course work in high school or at another college, but the committee may refuse applicants it deems unsuitable or it may admit applicants who do not meet the usual requirements. Students already enrolled at Concord are eligible for admission if their cumulative Concord grade point average is 3.5 or higher. No student will be admitted to the Honors Program who has earned more than 78 hours of credit toward graduation from Concord.
2. Academic Requirements. The student must successfully complete 13 hours of Honors credit. This credit must include HON 101, HON 401, and 9 hours of regular courses enhanced for Honors designation through the completion of an Honors Project.
HON 101 is an interdisciplinary, one credit course; all students admitted to the Honors Program are required to enroll in this course in the first semester of their participation in the Program, or the next semester if the classes are filled.
HON 401 is a three-hour "capstone" course, interdisciplinary in nature, centered around a theme or topic (e.g. a contemporary social issue, or the role of technology in society, or art and/or literature and history), open only to Honors students within one year of graduation.
Any student who is in good standing with the Honors Program and who has completed at least one semester at Concord may attempt an Honors Project in any class in which the student is enrolled. The student wishing to attempt an Honors Project must contact the Honors Coordinator for initial approval and assistance with project development. The student, and, if necessary, the Coordinator will then present the proposal to the faculty member teaching the class for advice and his/her final approval. The project must be completed by the end of the semester. The faculty member teaching the class will have full responsibility for evaluation of the completed project, but the project will be separate from the calculation of the regular course grade. If the project has been satisfactorily completed, the letter H will be placed on the student's transcript along with the course grade and the student will receive Honors credit for that course's credit hours (e.g. a three credit course will yield three hours of Honors credit), provided that the grade for the course is B or higher. No Honors designation or credit will be awarded for courses in which the course grade is lower than B.
3. Academic Performance. After completing 30 or more hours of Concord course credit, the student must have achieved and must maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher in all courses taken at Concord.
4. Extracurricular Programs. Each Honors student is expected to participate in a majority of the programs and/ or activities provided for Honors students each semester. The number of such offerings will vary from semester to semester.
Independent Study
Independent Study courses are designed to allow students to pursue independent research projects in specialized areas other than, and beyond the content material of any other specific course listed in the Catalog. The purpose of the independent study is to encourage individual research initiative and independent study habits. No independent study course, therefore, will be used to substitute for any other course listed in the Catalog, or to satisfy course requirements other than independent study itself. Although each independent study course is tailored differently, to suit individual departmental and divisional differences, all individual study courses will meet the following minimal requirements:
Before undertaking an independent study, a student must present a written proposal outlining his or her study project and his or her anticipated research methods to an appropriate Faculty member. The proposal will be evaluated by a committee consisting of this Faculty member and at least two persons, drawn from the appropriate discipline, or disciplines, and created for that particular independent study project. The committee must approve the study proposal before the student is allowed to register for the course. This same committee will be responsible, upon completion of the independent study, for evaluating the project, and assigning a final grade for the course. Divisional and/or departmental chairpersons will be required to keep a record of the activities of each committee.
Beyond these minimal requirements, responsibility for the administration of independent study courses, including the make-up and manner of selection of each committee will be the prerogative of the appropriate division or department.
Applications for Independent Study may be obtained from the Divisional Chairpersons. Procedures to follow are listed on the applications.
Dean's List
The Office of the Vice President and Academic Dean publishes a list of full-time students who were registered for a minimum of 12 credit hours and have attained a grade average of 3.5 or above at the end of each regular semester.
Accreditation
Concord University is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, 30 North LaSalle Street, Suite 2400, Chicago, Illinois 60602-2504 (telephone 1-800-621-7440). Programmatic accreditations are held with the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and the Council on Social Work Education. The Teacher Education Program is approved by the West Virginia Department of Education. The University is a member of the National Association of Business Teacher Education.
Off-Campus Program
In accordance with the Standards for Off-Campus Instruction, adopted by the West Virginia higher education system, Concord delivers a number of its classes at off-campus sites throughout its service region. The principal recipient of Concord's growing program off-campus is the Beckley/Raleigh County area.
Concord has been delivering Business classes to the Beckley area since 1976. Over the years the University expanded its offerings there to include Education and Social Work. In Fall 1991 Concord appointed a full-time Director to coordinate its offerings in Beckley. Concord also began to provide general studies classes in Beckley to support its upper division offerings. Since Fall 1991 Concord's Beckley enrollment has continued to grow, as have the number of classes and the services offered.
Concord officially opened its Beckley Center in downtown Beckley in January 1992. With support from the main campus in Athens, the Beckley Center offers a variety of student support services tailored to the needs of the adult and part-time student. These include financial aid counseling, career education and job placement assistance, academic advising, placement testing and registration services.
In the area of Adult Education and Career Counseling, the Beckley Center's services range from career counseling and academic advising to skills testing, resume writing, interviewing skills and job search assistance, and access to Concord's extensive career placement network.
Off-campus courses qualify as resident credit for Concord students, and satisfy the Standards for Assuring Quality in Off-Campus Credit Instruction, adopted by West Virginia's higher education system in January 1992. These Standards include: a) the same admission, assessment, and placement standards as those which apply on-campus; b) a substantive mix (as close to 50%-50% as possible) between part-time and full-time faculty to ensure standards of academic quality; and c) the same course prerequisites, student assignments, number of instructional hours, degree of library and laboratory use, and other features of improved student performance as are required on-campus.
The University offers credit for courses sponsored by West Virginia's higher education system that are presented on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network. Inquiries or requests concerning television courses should be made to the Associate Vice President. The television courses cannot be used to duplicate or substitute for any program course requirement. They can only be used for elective credit.
Out-of-State Academic Programs