Family Guide to Navigating SLU

In this glossary you will find offices and terms used by SLU faculty, staff, and students.
 

First-Year Program specific

FYP: First-Year Program (can refer to the fall semester course or the academic program itself) 

FYS: First-Year Seminar (spring semester course) 
 

Academic Affairs (the division of the university responsible for students' academic experience)

Dean's Office: The Dean of Academic Affairs is the chief academic officer of the university, overseeing the entire academic program, including faculty and academic departments, student advising and support, off-campus study programs, academic integrity, and all other academic matters. The Dean's Office also publishes the Dean's List (students with a semester GPA of 3.6 or higher earn Dean's List honors).

Department (academic): Faculty are organized into academic departments according to their intellectual disciplines (e.g., Psychology, Economics, History, Government, Biology, Art & Art History, Philosophy). Academic departments generally offer one academic major, though some offer multiple majors (e.g., The Economics Department offers both the Economics and Finance majors; the Biology Department offers Biology and Conservation Biology) and some majors are offered jointly by different departments (e.g., the Neuroscience major is offered through a collaboration between Psychology and Biology).

• An academic program is an interdisciplinary grouping of faculty from different departments, which generally offers a minor (e.g., Asian Studies, Peace Studies).

Department chair: Each academic department has a chair (or occasionally two co-chairs) who oversees the department's faculty, course schedule, and other administrative matters. Chairs are available to answer students’ general questions about their fields of study and programs, and to address student concerns about their interactions with a faculty member in the department. The chair is a rotating position filled by a member of the department.

Registrar's Office (the office responsible for overseeing course registration, grades, transfer credit, transcripts, and university academic policies; certifies students for graduation)
 

Student Life (the division of the university responsible for students' experience outside the classroom, in the residence halls and campus organizations and activities)

Residence Life (the office responsible for housing and the overall residential experience)

• OL: Orientation Leader (students who guide incoming students through the Orientation process)
• CA: Community Assistant (students who live in the residence halls and are employed by Residence Life to help support students and to foster community and engagement in the residential spaces; called RAs (Residential Advisors) at many schools)
• RC: Residential Coordinator (professional Residence Life staff who live in the residence halls and oversee the CA staff)
• First-Year Residence Halls: Lee, Rebert, Whitman, Gaines, Reiff, and Priest 
• Upper-Class Residence Halls: These include traditional dormitory-style residence halls, suites, townhouses, and theme cottages.

Student Activities & Leadership (oversees clubs and organizations, student government, and campus entertainment and other activities)
 

Support offices

Academic Advising: Support for all academic needs, from time management to reading and study skills to academic planning and problem-solving

Peer Tutoring: Free peer tutoring for most introductory courses and some more advanced courses

PQRC: Peterson Quantitative Resource Center (provides peer tutor support for quantitative classes, including Math, Computer Science, Statistics, Physics, Economics, and others)

SAS: Student Accessibility Services (supports students with learning profiles that benefit from academic accommodations, including but not limited to students who had a 504 Plan in high school)

WORD Studio: Writing, Oral, Reading, and Design (SLU's version of a writing center – but helps with more than just writing!) 
 

Other offices and terms

APR2: Online student service for course planning and registration, as well as paying student bills. Non-students may access the current course catalog through the Guest Catalog.

CBL: Community-Based Learning (in a CBL component of a class, students work with a community partner program to do a few hours of work per week, which they connect to the content of their course)

Canvas: Our learning management system (LMS). Most faculty use Canvas to post assignments and readings, communicate with students, and manage the course schedule.

Center for Career Excellence (CCE): SLU's career center. Students starting from their first year can work with the CCE on creating or developing their resume, thinking about potential career paths and the skills being cultivated in their academic and co-curricular experience at SLU, finding internships, and connecting with alumni and employers.

Center for International and Intercultural Studies (CIIS): The off-campus study/study abroad office at SLU. Students who plan to spend a semester studying off campus (except on the Adirondack Semester or Sustainability Program) or to take a SLU off-campus summerterm course apply through CIIS. The deadline to apply for either semester of the following academic year is February 1.

Dana: Dana Dining Hall (the main campus dining hall; students may purchase food from satellite dining locations, such as Northstar Café, Spartacus Café, Time Out Café, and the Grab and Go Lunch in Johnson Hall of Science)

• “The Pub”: Northstar Café (ground floor of Student Center)

Dean's List and Latin Honors: Students who earn a 3.6 or higher semester GPA make the Dean's List, an honor students can include on their resume and appear on their Merit Page. Latin honors are awarded to students who graduate with a GPA of 3.3-3.599 (cum laude), 3.6-3.849 (magna cum laude), or 3.85-4.0 (summa cum laude).

FERPA: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects the privacy of a student's academic records. Students can sign an academic information release form, which allows SLU staff to share information with designated individuals. SLU faculty and staff may share information with those who have FERPA rights, but are not required to, and we will not generally do so without a student's permission.

Financial Aid: The office that helps students and families with their financial aid package

HEOP: Higher Education Opportunity Program (a New York State program to support the success of students who come from financially and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds)

ODY: Owen D. Young Library (the main campus library; there are also Launders Science Library and the Music Library)

Sophomore Seminars: Collaborative, mentoring-intensive, project and community-focused classes open only to students in their 2^nd year. Students are not required to enroll in a sophomore seminar but taking one is strongly encouraged. Sophomore seminars are normally capped at 16 participants or less and are offered in a variety of disciplines and subject areas.

Starfish: Our student success platform, where students can schedule appointments with faculty and staff, find different campus services, or ask for help

Student Financial Services (SFS): The office responsible for billing and financial payments

Work-study: As part of their aid package, some students have a work-study component, which means that they need to work to cover a certain specified amount of their bill. Work-study students have priority for many campus jobs, but they are not required to work on campus and many choose to work off-campus during the semester.

General Education requirements 

• HUM – Humanities 
• ARTS – Arts 
• SS – Social Sciences 
• NS-L – Natural Science with Lab 
• DIV13 – Diversity (updated in the 2013 version of our general education curriculum)
• LANG – Language (note that not all language classes count for this requirement)
• QLR – Quantitative or Logical Reasoning 
• EL – Environmental Literacy 

Good communication is crucial to every student's success at St. Lawrence. Student and faculty/staff communication is fundamental, but it is also crucial for students and their families to be in good communication, and under certain circumstances, family communication with university staff may also be appropriate (though it is important that students take responsibility for their own education).

Student-faculty/staff communication

Students have many faculty and staff resources to draw on to support their academic and co-curricular success, facilitate their sense of belonging and wellness, and help them make the most of their SLU experience.

E-mail is the official method of communication at the university, so it is important that students check their e-mail daily and respond to all university messages that require their attention (that is, direct messages to them requiring them to respond and/or take action). Students may contact faculty and staff using their SLU e-mail, calling on the phone, or visiting a faculty or staff member's office (faculty have designated office hours, while administrative offices are open during business hours, usually 8:30-4:30 M-F, sometimes with a lunch closure--all hours should be posted on a department's website).

All of the offices mentioned below have their own websites, and most support services are included in the Starfish "Services" section (Starfish is our student success platform).

• Mentors: Starting with their academic advisor in FYP, students should be developing over their college years a network of mentors whose advice they can seek on academic and non-academic matters. In addition to a student's academic advisor(s), mentors might include a coach, a director of a musical ensemble, a work supervisor, or any other faculty or staff member a student gets to know and trusts. Students should cultivate that mentoring network, so they have at least 5-7 faculty or staff members they can connect with, as they will likely want to seek different kinds of advice from different mentors.
• Faculty: All faculty have office hours, which are included on the course syllabus and/or posted in the class Canvas site. If a student is unavailable during a professor's office hours, they can e-mail the professor to set up an appointment at another time. Office hours are intended for students to get help on any aspect of the course, talk with the professor about a particular area of interest, or otherwise connect with the faculty member. Faculty love working with students, and office hours are one of the valuable opportunities students have available at a liberal arts college.
• Academic support: In addition to faculty, students can get course-specific academic support from the WORD Studio (for writing, oral communication, reading, and design), PQRC (for help in quantitative courses), LRC (for Spanish, French, and German), Peer Tutoring (mostly one-on-one tutoring from a trained peer tutor, available for most intro-level courses and some intermediate-level courses). While the WORD Studio offers support for non-native speakers of English, there is also ESOL support from the Director of ESOL and Multilingual Student Academic Support. Students with academic accommodations (or who might need them) have the Student Accessibility Services (SAS) office.
  • For non-course-specific support, Academic Advising is available to work on time-management, organization, reading and note-taking and test-taking skills, effective study techniques, and all aspects of academic planning and problem-solving. For first-years, the FYP office is an additional resource.
  • For issues related to course registration, transfer credit, add/drop, pass/fail, and withdrawal, students should connect with the Registrar's Office.
• Co-curricular support: For all issues relating to their residential experience, students can work with the staff of Residence Life: the community assistants (CAs) who live in their residence halls, the residential coordinators (RCs) who oversee the CAs and also live in the residences, and the Residence Life office. For issues of belonging and social engagement, from clubs and organizations to volunteer and community-engagement opportunities to Greek life, students can work with Student Activities & Leadership, the Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion, and International Student Services. For help with career planning, internships, connecting with alumni, and more, there is the Center for Career Excellence. And student-athletes can get support from Athletics on all issues connected to or affected by their athletic activities.
• Wellness: The Wellness Education office, Health & Counseling Services, and the University Chaplain are all available to work with provide support for students' overall wellbeing.
• Finances: The Financial Aid office can answer student and parent/guardian questions on a student's financial aid package and works with students on financial aid concerns, satisfactory academic progress (SAP) issues, and other questions about loans, grants, and scholarships. The Student Financial Services office can help students and families understand their overall bill, specific charges, and discuss payment options for outstanding balances. Students can review their bill live in APR2.

Student-family communication

It is important that students share with their family/personal network any challenges they are facing during their college career. This might include academic struggles, but also difficulties connecting socially, mental health and wellness concerns, or anything else. Parents/guardians and other family members can play an important role in offering encouragement and reassurance to their student as well as reminding their student of the many resources available on campus. The information on these pages is intended to help family members understand what some of the resources available to students are.

Open and honest communication between a student and their family is incredibly important. If a student seems reluctant to share information about how things are going academically or socially, here are some times of the semester when it might be beneficial to ask them some pointed questions:

• Week 1-2. Do they have a full schedule of classes that they are happy with? The add/drop period is the first seven days of classes (since classes start on a Wednesday, that means the following Thursday is the end of the add/drop period). If a student has a financial hold, they can still add and drop classes during the add/drop period. Every student should be registered full-time (at least 3.5 units, with four courses (4-4.5 units, or for first-years 4.5-5 units with FYP or FYS included) by the end of the add/drop period. For registration issues, they can work with their academic advisor and the Registrar's Office.
• Week 2-3. Especially for first-years, how are things going socially, and did they attend the club and organization fair? Keep in mind that it often takes a little while to make friends and develop other social connections, so it's okay if they are still finding their place, but they might want to connect with their CA, their academic advisor, or someone else if they are struggling with this.
• Week 3-4. How are classes going? Have they received any grades back yet, and what were they? Have they heard any concerns from their faculty? If they are having a hard time in a class, have they met with the professor in office hours, or been to the PQRC or WORD Studio, or requested a peer tutor? If they are having trouble managing their schedule, or are unsure of their academic direction, have they been to Academic Advising?
• Week 4-5. This is a good time to try to get a sense of whether or not a student is thriving--are classes exciting, are they engaging positively in co-curricular activities, do they have a healthy social life, are they involved in events and activities on campus, are they taking care of themselves (sleeping enough, eating well, managing stress or anxiety effectively, etc.)? Are they missing class/practice/work at all? If things are going off course, this is an important point in the semester for them to connect to resources to help them get back on track.
• Week 8. Did they have any midterm warning grades? Faculty assign midterm warning grades if a student is on course to earn below a 2.0 (a "C") in a class. Students can see these in APR2 under the "Grades" tab. If they have any, have they taken the appropriate steps to get help?
• Week 9-10. Have they planned classes for the next semester and met with their academic advisor to review their academic progress and registration plans? Registration begins in early November and early April for the following semester, and the registration advising period, when students are expected to schedule a meeting with their advisor, takes place the two weeks before registration.
• Week 10-12. How are they doing in the home stretch? Have they organized their time so they can manage the hectic end of the semester while still maintaining their wellbeing? Are there any looming concerns? This is an opportunity for family members to reassure their student that if they are struggling, it is important to be open about it and do some planning and seek support, rather than avoiding any problems.

Family-faculty/staff communication

In most cases, faculty and staff at SLU will not communicate directly with parents/guardians about how their student is doing. An important aspect of a student's development is managing their academic and co-curricular lives in college largely on their own. We offer students lots of support, which we expect them to utilize as needed. The most important role for families in this regard is to encourage students to connect with SLU supports.

We will thus only be in contact with you about your student if we believe there is a serious health/safety/behavior concern (for example, if a student is transported to the hospital for severe intoxication, or if a student is involved in a serious judicial matter) or, on the academic side, if a student looks in danger of academic catastrophe and it appears they are not responding to our outreach and not being forthcoming with their family about their situation (usually, this means that the student is not attending class and/or not turning in work for multiple classes). In any of these situations, you are likely to hear from the Associate Dean for Student Life and Community Standards (safety, conduct issues), Associate Dean of the First Year (first-year students in academic danger or with extreme behavioral concerns), or Associate Dean of Academic Advising (dire academic situation). After a semester is over, family members with FERPA rights will be cc'd on academic standing letters (academic suspension or academic notice).

Parents and other family members may be in contact with us if they are hearing concerns from their student or seeing signs of distress in their student and believe that the student is not connecting to the supports they need on campus. For such communications, it is best to contact the same Associate Deans referenced above. They can then make the appropriate support staff aware of the issues and offer help to the student. Family members may also want to be in touch with us if they would like to better understand a particular policy/procedure/experience their student has encountered, so they can best support their student. For general questions, family members can find answers and call or e-mail through our Parents and Families web pages.

As a parent/guardian or other family member, you have a valuable role to play in helping your student succeed at SLU, which can best be played by offering your student advice and encouragement and helping your student self-advocate and seek the resources they need, rather than trying to do it for them. You can inform yourself about many aspects of how SLU works (that's what this guide is for!) and help them to better navigate their experience, but it is important that they have agency over their own experience and learn to engage with their peers, their professors, and other faculty and staff as the adult professionals they are in the process of becoming.

Here are some of the sources of important policies and procedures, and other information your student (and you) should be aware of:

University Catalog

• This is the official source of all university academic policies and procedures, including graduation requirements. Students are governed by the catalog of the year in which they matriculated (began at SLU)–but note that if a policy changes to become more flexible, students may in most cases elect to follow the updated policy.
• The first section, "The Curriculum" (about 25 pages), contains important university-wide information with which all students should be familiar. The second section, "Courses of Study," covers the majors and minors offered at SLU, including their requirements and regularly offered courses.

Graduation requirements

• These are listed in the first pages of the University Catalog. You can also find them explained in the Advising Toolkit.

Student Handbook

• This is the official source of all residential and co-curricular policies and procedures, including the Student Code of Conduct.

Academic Calendar

• Lists the dates for the start and end of the semester, including final exams, and breaks for the next three academic years
• Note that the final exam schedule for the following semester is available on the Registrar's Office website three weeks after the start of the registration period in the previous semester (by the end of April for the fall semester, by the end of November for the spring semester)

Divisions of the university

• Academic Affairs (headed by Vice President of the University and Dean of Academic Affairs)
  • Dean's Office (including Dean's List, Academic Honor Code)
  • Academic departments and programs
  • Registrar's Office
  • First-Year Program
  • Academic Advising (including Student Accessibility Services, Peer Tutoring)
  • Center for International and Intercultural Studies
  • Libraries
• Student Life (headed by Vice President and Dean of Student Life)
  • Residence Life
  • Student Activities & Leadership (including Greek life, club sports)
  • Health & Counseling Center
  • Wellness Education
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Safety and Security
  • Student conduct and judicial affairs, Title IX
• Admissions & Financial Aid (headed by Vice President for Enrollment Management and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid)
  • Admissions
  • Financial Aid
  • Center for Career Excellence
• Athletics (headed by Senior Associate Vice President for Athletics)
  • Varsity sports teams
  • Intramural sports