To: Foreign Language Faculty
From: Dudley Marchi, Associate Head
Re: Departmental Reminders

• Course Syllabi:  All course syllabi should be posted on the WWW.  Email your students the week before classes begin, welcome them to the course, direct them to your on-line syllabus, and ask them to print a copy and bring it to the first day of class. 

• Course Policies:  Have a clear policy at the beginning of the semester on make-up exams & quizzes, attendance, and penalties for late work.  Let students know the day and time of the final exam at the beginning of the semester.   For students who have a scheduling conflict and cannot take the final exam on the designated day and time, their make up exam should only be given after the day of the final, and not before.  If there are circumstances that require the student to take the exam before, the instructor needs to provide an alternate exam, or give the student the grade of LA [Late] and administer the exam at the start of the following semester.

• Prerequisites: For lower-division courses please distribute and check prerequisite sheets to make sure that the student should be in your class.   Students with a grade of either 'F' or 'U' for the prerequisite course should not be allowed in the class.  Students may not take the prerequisite course for 'Audit.' Explain to students that it is a violation of the University Honor Code to misrepresent their level of proficiency and also to their disadvantage.  It is important for students to be in the right course.  Please review prerequisite sheets during the first week of classes, hold onto them until the end of the semester, and then turn them in to the main office - they will be kept on file for two years.  For upper-division courses in French, German, and Spanish: follow the same procedures as for lower-division courses. Please verify that all students are registered for the correct grade status in your courses.

• Placement: Some students place a bit below the cut-off level on the placement test and request if they can move up to the next level.  I tell them that the decision is at the discretion of the instructor and to inform the instructor after the first class.  In some cases, I may send them to you with a short note and a recommendation.  Generally, if the student appears to be motivated about language learning, and has had previous training, I may place them in a higher level than indicated on their placement test. Only placement tests with a raised seal from the FL Lab, Sat-II, or AP tests are valid.   Students in FL* 101 courses who have never studied the language are not required to take the placement test.

• Students in 101 Courses: The majority of the students in our 101 courses have had one, two, or more years of study in the language, but have placed into FL 101.  Any student who has already studied the language of the class and has not taken the placement test, should do so immediately.  There are some students in FL 101 who are true beginners.  We need to accommodate these students too. (1) Please identify them during the first week of class; (2) Suggest a MWF section; (3) Early in the semester, have them see you during your office hours to go over some basics and to get them acclimated to the language; (4) Recommend the Undergraduate Tutorial Center; (5) Make them aware that they may have to work a bit extra to succeed in the course.

• Students in 201 Courses:  Students in CHASS and Management, students minoring in a language, and French and Spanish majors need to take FL* 201 for a grade.  Therefore, please check your 201 class rolls to see whether a student is taking the course for Credit Only or Audit.  If they are in the above categories, they must change their status from Credit Only or Audit to Letter Grade. Changes are not permitted after the grade status deadline.  A lot of time can be saved and extra paperwork avoided if we verify our students' grade status early in the semester.  Note:  English Majors need FL* 202 for a grade and class rolls should be checked accordingly.  For all courses beyond FL* 202 -- if students are registered as Credit Only, it is a good idea to ask them if the course is counting for any type of requirement -- if so, then they should change their status to a Letter Grade. Please be attentive to this policy.

• Class Rolls: Please check your class rolls often [available on-line] during the first few weeks of classes and especially after the late registration period is over:  (1) Students may not remain in a class if they are not on the class roll. Students may present a case of extenuating circumstances to you, but we cannot allow students to remain in a class for which they are not enrolled; (2) Students may remain on a class roll, although they are not attending the class.  In this case, please email the student after the first day of classes and let them know this so they can drop the course. If the student does not drop, then please go to the Main Office during the first week of classes for a disenrollment form to have the student dropped from your class roll.  Otherwise, if they have not attended class, but show up on your grade roll, you must give them the grade of 'F.'
  
  
• Code of Student Conduct: There have been an increasing number of honor code Violations over the past few semesters. Please be vigilant and ask students to familiarize themselves with the Code of Student Conduct if they have not done so. When a situation arises, please document what happened, refer to the following: FLL Student Development / Academic Integrity, and then discuss with me.
  
  
• Students with Disabilities: There are some students with disabilities in our classes who may have a difficult time learning a foreign language.  Such disabilities could be learning, hearing, visual, or other. Please let me know if you have any such students so we can work together, in collaboration with the Office of Disability Services, to ensure their success.  We have information regarding working with LD students.  For specific inquiries you may also contact Dr. Cheryl Branker, Director of the Office of Disability Services.  Please also refer to NC State's current policy on students with disabilities.

• Handbook: In regards to grading, incompletes, audits, credit only, etc., please consult when necessary the web version of the Handbook for Advising and Teaching, especially Chapter Five. It contains the essential information regarding university grading and other regulations: http://www.ncsu.edu/provost/hat/current/index.html 

• Incomplete Grade: The grade of IN [Incomplete] is a temporary grade and should be given only in cases in which the student has done most of the course work, yet because of an interruption of work due to a documented medical, family, or personal reason, cannot complete the course work by the end of the semester.  Making up a final exam, a quiz or two, or handing in a final paper are the types of work that can be made up.  The instructor of record needs to complete this work with the student.  The work must be completed during the following semester or the 'IN' automatically turns into an 'F.'

• Academic Progress Reports:  You may submit on-line, at any time during the semester, an Academic Progress Report to students who are not performing well in your class.  This is an excellent way to allow students to know their status in a course so that they may make the necessary adjustments. Students' advisors also receive this report.

• Grade Change:  If you are intending to initiate an grade change form (orange sheet): (1) please see the Student Services Assistant for the form and to discuss the reason for the change; (2) Associate Head must approve and sign; (3) if the change is for a grade other than 'IN' or 'LA,' it must be forwarded to the Associate Dean of CHASS for approval. Students should never have this form in their possession.

• Credit Only: If a student takes a course for Credit Only, s/he must have a grade of at least C- (70%) in order to receive the grade of 'S.'  Please note that students in the College of Management and CHASS must take FL 201 for a letter grade, and not for Credit Only, in order to fulfill graduation requirements.  Students minoring or majoring in a language must take all courses that count toward the minor or the major for credit, with at least a C- or better, and not for Credit Only.  Please remind students of this.

• Audit: If a student would like to audit your course, s/he must register as an auditor.  Students may not attend a class if they have not paid a tuition bill and registered for a course.  Please have a clear understanding with auditors at the beginning of the semester what is expected of them to receive the grade of audit (AU) for the course.

• Late Drop: If students wish to drop a course after the deadline, please do not send them to the Department.  They must go to the Dean's office of their college. If a student comes to you with the yellow "Schedule Revision" form, asking you to sign the middle portion and approve a late drop, please do not do so.  In such a case, please write a student progress report (attendance, exam, quiz, homework, participation, etc.), sign, and attach it to the form.  A student progress report form is available on our web page under "Departmental Forms." At that point the student needs to go to the Dean's office of his/her college for the decision to be made.  For students in CHASS, there is an additional form for the student and instructor to complete, available in the CHASS Dean's Office [106 Caldwell].

• Independent Studies: Independent studies are reserved for students who wish to pursue a special topic that is not part of our regular course offerings. The student should meet regularly during the semester with the instructor and the work completed should be equivalent to that of a regular course. For those of you sponsoring an Independent Study project (FL 298 or FL 498), the forms are available in Room 117.  Please be sure that the form has a complete description of the project, a bibliography, a summary of the final form of the project, and how the final grade will be determined.  The independent study must be approved by Associate Head.  At the end of the semester, please report the student's grade to the Student Services Assistant in the main office and it will be submitted to Records and Registration.

• Study Abroad: If students request information about study abroad, please direct them to the Study Abroad Office.

• Home page: Please familiarize yourself with the department's home page when you have a chance.  Quite often the answers to students' questions are there.

• Graduating Majors: For those of you teaching upper-level courses, please announce to students that, for those intending to graduate in a given semester, they need to see the Associate Head during the first two weeks of the semester in order to process their graduation paperwork.

• Computing Support:  Should any problems arise with the functioning of your computer - please email Debora with the specifics of the problem and she will forward it to the CHASS technical support unit. 

• Please attend to the following to help the department operate smoothly:

• Email is the primary method of communication on campus and should be checked every day or two.  You should tell your students that the best way to contact you is by email -- this avoids phone tag and also provides a written record of your communication with students.

• If you have a specific need to communicate to Debora, the best way is by email.  She receives a lot of various requests on a daily basis and this helps her to keep track of them so that she can assist you as efficiently and effectively as possible.

• Check your voice mail at least every few days.

• Have your office hours stated on your voice mail.

• Do not use the "call to secretary" option on your voicemail. 

• If you cannot keep your office hours on a given day, please leave a note on your door.

• Students call the main office or me if they are having trouble getting in touch with an instructor, so it is important to keep open the lines of communication with your students.

• If possible, let students know their grade average for the course by the last day of class (a breakdown of participation grade, quizzes, exams, papers, etc.).  Students sometimes contact the department after grades have been reported to question their grade, often because of a misunderstanding of their standing in the course entering the final exam, especially regarding their class participation grade, and point deductions for absences.  Please keep a detailed record of your students' grade breakdown in case a student challenges a grade at semester's end.

• If you leave town soon after submitting grades, please leave a number with Faye or Debora where you can be reached if necessary.