Policies and Procedures
Policies
Please read the following policies. By scheduling an appointment, you acknowledge understanding of these policies.
Schedule an appointment
- Quantitative appointments are a maximum 1 hour. Writing appointments are a maximum 30 minutes.
- You may schedule up 2 appointments per subject per week.
- We require at least 24 hours’ notice for cancellations, even in the case of emergencies. If you cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice, the appointment will be considered a no-show. You are allowed 2 no-shows per semester. If you have 2 no-shows, you can no longer schedule appointments.
- If you arrive more than 10 minutes late we cannot guarantee you will be seen.
- Academic consultants will not complete your assignments. At no time should you bring a blank assignment (including homework & essays) to an appointment. You may bring an assignment that you have attempted to complete and show the academic consultant where you are having difficulty. If you bring a blank assignment, you will be asked to try to complete it on your own and then make another appointment if you still need help. If this occurs, your scheduled appointment will be considered a no-show. Asking or expecting an academic consultant to complete your assignments is a violation of the Honor Code.
- You must be actively engaged in your appointment. This means you must explain areas of difficulty to the academic consultant, take notes during the appointment, ask questions, and attempt to solve problems/correct your writing throughout the appointment. This also means during online appointments your camera should be on.
- Only your original, school-related items are to be brought to an appointment.
- When working on a group assignment, you may bring only your portion to the academic consultant.
- Academic consultants will not assist students who are disrespectful, knowingly lie, make untrue accusations, threaten, or verbally intimidate staff and students. These matters are taken seriously and will be reported to the Executive Director of Student Affairs.
Procedures
What should I bring?
For writing appointments, bring copies of your assignment, the professor's requirements, and syllabus. You should also bring something to write with and take notes on. For quantitative appointments, bring your textbook, notes, and assignment. You should also bring any materials your professor gave you and something to write with and take notes on. During online appointments you should make sure you are in a place that is quiet and free from distractions and you should have your camera on.
What happens during an appointment?
At the beginning of the session your academic consultant will ask about your assignment and how you are approaching it. Your academic consultant will ask what you would like to work on, so if you already know, you should tell your academic consultant this in the beginning. Typically, you will work on one main concern during an appointment.
During writing appointments, your academic consultant will read through your writing and will discuss strong and weak points of it. Of primary interest are the argument and structure, proper response to a question, development, and whether you state and support a thesis. Other issues such as grammar and syntax are considered secondary. Rather than identifying every error in your writing, your academic consultant will point out patterns of error and will attempt to explain rules that will enable you to identify these errors on your own.
During quantitative appointments, you should explain what you are having difficulty with to the academic consultant and show your attempts to solving problems. Your academic consultant will watch your attempts, identify errors in your approach, and will attempt to explain how to correctly solve the problem or will explain concepts that you are struggling to understand.
At the end of the session, you and the academic consultant should summarize what you have learned and what your next steps will be, including whether to schedule another appointment.
By scheduling an appointment, you agree to all Student Success Center policies and procedures.