9/25/2009		ZUG New Hours of Operation - Effective Jan 4, 2009
9/7/2009		Academic Policy Changes effective Fall 2009
4/1/2009		Transfer Credit Policy Updated for Fall 2009

DATE:      September 16, 2009

TO:          Student Senate           

REASON:  Zug Hours of Operation

Over the past academic year, the offices in Zug Memorial Hall (Registration and Records, Financial Aid, and the Business Office) have been tracking student, faculty, alumni and parental inquiries of each office. Our traditional hours of operation on campus, 8:30 am - 5:00pm M-F, make it difficult for many individuals to take advantage of our services. The same can be said of many students whose course schedules or work responsibilities make it inconvenient for them to visit these offices during our traditional hours.  Most foot traffic and telephone inquiries occur primarily in the early a.m. hours.  Last year, Registration and Records expanded its work schedule to Monday – Thursday 8am – 5pm and Friday 8am – 4pm as a feasibility study.  In addition, the Business Office and Financial Aid staff arrived prior to the advertised campus hours of operation to verify activity levels without advertising the scheduling changes.   Overwhelmingly, early inquiries from students, faculty, parents and alumni responded in kind when contacting each office. 

For these reasons, the offices in Zug will be changing their weekly schedule after returning from Christmas break, Jan 4, 2010.  Our hours of operation will be 8am-4:30pm, which will better align us with class schedules. On rare occasions when holidays or important dates necessitate departures from this schedule, we will operate on an advertised alternate schedule.  These exceptions are posted on our individual office websites and in Campus News in a timely fashion.

We are confident that this change will better serve our entire customer base as well as enable our offices to provide a valuable extension of our services.

Revisions to Transfer Policy

Academic Council and Faculty Assembly approved the following addition to our existing transfer credit policy. It will be effective with the fall 2009 semester.

Students can transfer courses from accredited institutions that are judged by the Registrar and the appropriate department (in the case of courses for a major/minor) to be high quality, involve active delivery methods (ongoing exchange of ideas with an instructor), and are consistent with the mission and program goals of Elizabethtown College. For example, no online independent study or correspondence courses can be transferred.

This means that students will no longer be able to transfer courses of dubious quality from correspondence-type programs such as LSU’s Independent & Distance Learning program. Students who have already had one of these courses approved for transfer will be able to transfer it if they complete the course by the end of fall 2009 and the transcript reflects a summer or fall 2009 completion.