Fitchburg State College The Leadership College "Leadership Through Diversity" 2000-2001 Student Handbook October 2000 Dear Colleague, Attached, please find your copy of the 2000-2001 StudentHandbook. This year's handbook takes on a new format, in that the daily planner has been removed. The Academic calendar with important campus activities and holidays can now be foimd in the yellow pages section at the back of the book. The Handbook contains valuable ormation about campus departments, ii\f services and polices. Even though it has been on-line since September, we regret this hardcopy arriving at this late date. ishes for a successful year ahead! Dr. Michele M. Zide Interim Dean ofStudaitf Affairs 21 Student Kesources 32 Student Involvement 54 Student Code of Com 57 Student Discipline S) 79 Financial Matters 85 Campus Services 94 Campus Policies 119 FSC Yellow Pages Dear Students, It is my hope that this Student Handbook will provide you with all the information necessary to enhance your educational experience at Fitchburg State College. FSC provides a wide variety of services, programs and activities that are designed to help you make the most of your educational opportunities within the classroom and encourages you to respond to opportunities outside of the classroom. Services provided include educational, career and personal counseling and testing, career planning and placement, academic advisement, study skills and tutoring, services for students with disabilities, financial aid, health care, varsity, intramural and recreational sports, campus center and student activities, the Student Government Association and campus living. By taking the initiative and becoming involved in campus life, you will not only enhance your personal growth and development, but you will be contributing to the quality of the FSC College Community. Best wishes for a successful academic and fulfilling year of community involvement and personal growth. Sincerely, Michele Moran Zide Interim Dean of Students & Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs III 3 INTRODUCTION History of FSC In 1930, the State Normal School was authorized to offer a Established in 1894 by an act of bachelor's degree in practical the Massachusetts Legislature, arts, and in 1931, when it the State Normal School in became the State Teachers Fitchburg opened in temporary College at Fitchburg, four-year quarters in the old school degrees were offered in all levels building on Academy Street. of education. Formal graduate There, Principal John G. courses were added in 1937. Thompson, aided by a teaching staff of three, and having a library In 1960, the College became the of some two hundred volumes State College at Fitchburg, and and an operating budget of was empowered to award $11 ,500, implemented a two-year degrees in disciplines other than teacher training program that had education. In 1965, its name was an enrollment of forty-six women. officially changed to Fitchburg In December 1896, the school State College, which today offers moved into its new building and 24 majors in 18 academic took charge of the Day Street and departments to its 2,500 full-time Highland Avenue city buildings, and 2,000 part-time students. Its which became State Schools of campus, which has expanded Observation and Practice. from a single structure on High Street to thirty-two buildings on Several years later, the Edgerly ninety acres, has become the School opened as an eighth educational center for the grade model and practice school, Montachusett area. Programs for and in 1910, it became one of the the adult learner, through its first junior high schools in the Graduate and Continuing United States. The following year, Education Division, which had its a practical arts teacher-training beginning in 1915 with an course for men, the first of its undergraduate summer session, kind in the country, was instituted operated under the auspices of and male enrollment increased the State Division of University dramatically. Extension. University Extension offered the Master's Degree in 1935 and offered the first evening courses in 1954. The Leadership recreation center is opening this year. That project is the capstone College of an extensive town-gown effort to renovate the college Fitchburg State College has come neighborhood and link the college to be recognized as one of the with Fitchburg's Main Street. finest colleges of its kind in New England. A top faculty, innovative The college combines a strong academic programs, attractive liberal arts education with grounds and warm atmosphere courses that provide practical ; combine to create an applications in the real world. The extraordinary all-around Liberal Arts and Sciences j educational experience. program emphasizes such crucial | skills as writing, critical thinking, The college has been designated listening, speaking and by the Board of Higher Education i quantifying. While the focus of as the Leadership College. Under i the college's outstanding faculty the leadership of President Michael P. Riccards, who joined is on teaching and advising, i scholarly writing and research are Fitchburg State in the fall of very much a part of their ] 1995, the college has earned | academic lives. Many have acclaim for a series of innovative i published books, and in the last new initiatives, including a few years two have been named ] guarantee to employers that j Fulbright Scholars. The faculty- graduates of the college will j student ratio is 1:15. Nearly all possess the skills they need to i succeed in the workplace, a new students participate in the college's ! extensive internship program, merit scholarship program, and ; which offers real world one of the country's few experience and a head start on structured three-year bachelor's ] the job search. Fitchburg State degree programs. \ was also among the first to have | The college has completed an a fiber optic network and now extensive $2.75 million operates 14 computer technology upgrade. Every laboratories, some focused on : classroom, residence hall room such fields as graphics, business, and office is now linked to an nursing, technical writing and ! electronic communications geography. "Smart" classrooms network that delivers Internet in every academic building allow access, electronic mail, voice faculty to use the newest mail and other services. In technology in their presentations. addition, a new $12 million The college has long been a Organization of FSC leader in the education of future teachers, and operates a Fitchburg State College is laboratory school where comprised of 16 academic departments supporting an undergraduates earn teacher undergraduate day student certification, take classes, conduct observation and work with population of approximately 3000 schoolchildren and teachers. It is students and a staff of nearly 550 administrators, faculty members one of the few state colleges accredited under the new and support personnel. The standards of the National Council College is divided into five areas: for Accreditation of Teacher Academic Affairs, Advancement, Facilities, Student Affairs and the Education. Treasurer's Office. Decisions regarding academic policy, In recent decades, Fitchburg State has earned a reputation for student life and planning are decentralized. Responsibility for excellence in other fields. Nursing majors, for example, study in one the formulation of policies and of the oldest and most respected regulations lies with a network of programs in Massachusetts. interlinking governance bodies Communications Media students including student, departmental, have access to a fully equipped administrative and all-college committees. television studio, unparalleled darkroom facilities, seven The President and other state-of-the-art Avid digital video editing systems and an equipment administrative officers who are laboratory that allows them to responsible to the 11 member make the world their lab. The list Board of Trustees determines goes on: one of the finest medical major administrative, financial technology labs in New England; and college-wide policies. laboratory and greenhouse facili- Ultimate authority is vested in the ties to perform cell and tissue Massachusetts Board of Higher cultures and advanced Education, the members of which are appointed by the Governor of biochemical analyses; field locations to study natural the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. habitats; zoological and botanical specimen collections; and the Montachusett Economic Center, where students can work with non-profit agencies and businesses. All College Student r: Committee Representation on t The All College Committee (ACC) Committees offers students the opportunity to r participate in making the policies SGA appoints and/or that govern student conduct, recommends students to serve on determine academic progress and many other College groups and graduation standards and change committees including those listed and develop curriculum. The ACC below. Contact SGA for more is composed of three students, information. five faculty members and three AIDS/HIV Task Force administrators, all with equal voting power. Students may apply Athletic Council to serve on the ACC or one of its Butler Grants Campus Center Advisory Board committees by contacting the Student Government Association Campus Safety College/Neighborhood Council (SGA). Disability Services Students may submit proposals Food Service to the ACC individually or as Harrod Lecture members of recognized student Health Services Advisory Board organizations. Any member of the Honorary Degrees Human Relations administration, staff or faculty may also submit proposals to the SGA and its committees ACC. Student Conduct Board Student Organization ACC Standing Committees are as Committee Substance Awareness Task follows: I •Academic Policies Force • Curriculum • Student Affairs I