What is Cultural Credit?
The Cultural Credit program is an extra credit program conducted by the Communication Arts Department and the public relations workshop as a service to the university. Cultural Credit originally was only awarded for events held in the Fine Arts Building. The program has expanded to incorporate other approved events held on the Athens campus.

Instructors can choose whether they will accept the Cultural Credit cards as extra credit for their classes. Not all extra credit offered on Concord’s campus is Cultural Credit. Just because Cultural Credit is offered at an event does not mean that a student is guaranteed extra credit for the class of their choice. The decision to give extra credit for Cultural Credit events is left up to the individual instructor.

How does it work?
Verification cards are given out before all Cultural Credit events and collected after the events. The verification cards are then sorted and distributed to faculty through campus mail around midterm and on Reading Day.

Students are given one card per event and instructed to only list one instructor’s name on the card. If two names are listed, the card will be given to the instructor whose name appears on the card first. If a student engages in disruptive behavior during an event, (i.e., talking, playing with electronic devices, snoring, etc.) Cultural Credit will be denied. Students who engage in this kind of behavior should assume that their card will not be forwarded to the instructor listed on their card. Students must be present for the entire event in order to receive credit for attending the event. In other words, students who arrive late or leave early will not be eligible for Cultural Credit. To ensure eligibility, students should arrive at least 10 minutes before the start of any event and must return the card to a Cultural Credit worker immediately following the event’s conclusion.

What events are eligible for Cultural Credit?

Cultural Credit is available for events held on the Athens campus that benefit students. The events may expose them to a new art form or provide them with new information. In the past, Cultural Credit has been available for Artist Lecture Series events, Film Society showings, and various on-campus speeches.

Not everyone wants cultural credit to be offered at their events. Recently there have been a number of concerts where Cultural Credit has not been offered at the request of the person/people in charge of the event. The performer is always given the right not to have Cultural Credit available at their event.

While there are many fine cultural events available beyond the Athens campus, Cultural Credit is not available at events that occur off campus for several reasons.

1. Workshop students and Concord personnel do not have control over these areas/facilities making them unable to run the program as required.

2. It is not appropriate, feasible, or safe to require workshop students to travel to off-campus locations in order to administer the Cultural Credit program.

3. It would be logistically impossible for the public relations workshop to cover the number and variety of cultural events available to students in the surrounding community.

4. Individual instructors have traditionally offered their own (i.e., administered by each individual instructor) extra credit for off campus events. These instances are not affiliated with the Cultural Credit program.

Can Cultural Credit be offered for my event?

Maybe.

If you are planning an event that promotes intellectual development on the Athens campus that is open to all Concord students, and you would like it to be considered for eligibility for the Cultural Credit program, please contact Jenni Radford at 5302 or jradford@concord.edu three weeks before the scheduled event. The earlier Ms. Radford is contacted the more likely it is that eligibility can be determined and personnel can be assigned in time to cover the event. Sometimes requests to provide Cultural Credit are not granted because there is not enough advance notice or because sufficient student workers are not available.