Student Support Services
Student Support Services
General Considerations
Section 9.1
Essential Components
The program:
- Offers assistance to students in the development and achievement of academic and career goals,
- Helps students design and implement an academic plan,
- Has mechanisms for supporting learning and retention of chemistry students from diverse backgrounds and underrepresented groups,
- Offers support services that provide current information to students seeking employment.
Successful Practices
Services are available to:
- Create opportunities for students to build relationships with each other and form a community of learners that offers academic support and a sense of belonging,
- Provide information about a broader scope of academic studies that may serve to offer employment options within a variety of fields,
- Help students develop educational goals and guide their professional development.
Aspirational Goals
The program encourages and supports study groups, peer tutoring, ACS student chapters, student internship programs, student research, or student teaching assistant programs.
Services are available to:
- Create student networking opportunities as a means to enhance students’ successful matriculation, transfer, job placement, and achievement of career goals;
- Guides students’ professional development through confidence building, networking opportunities, and career planning.
Faculty Mentors
Section 9.2
Essential Components
- The institution supports faculty mentoring efforts.
- The program supports initiatives to engage students from underrepresented populations.
Successful Practices
- The institution compensates or gives release time to faculty for serving as a faculty mentor.
- Faculty mentors encourage interested students to consider career options available in chemistry.
Aspirational Goals
Faculty mentors:
- Guide students towards additional mentors in industry, academia, government, nonprofits, or other employers
- Motivate student participation in summer research programs, cooperative educational experiences, and internships.
Academic, Student, and Career Support
Section 9.3
Specific types of student support services include, but are not limited to:
- Advising staff who work with the faculty to enable students to achieve their academic and professional goals.
- Staff specialized in helping students with career and transfer resources.
- Academic and personal support for students with physical, communication, learning, and other disabilities.
- Tutorial services for students to improve their study skills and become more effective learners.
- Open, reliable access to technology, such as computers.
- Programs and organizations to support and engage targeted communities of students, such as student clubs.
- Programs that increase the participation of underrepresented groups.
- Assistance for students in acquiring financial aid.
Essential Components
- The institution offers support services that help students move toward attaining their goals.
Services are available to:
- Provide current information regarding the completion of certificate, degree, or for transferring to a four-year institution or graduate program.
- Meet the needs of the student body and aligns with the institution’s mission.
- Provide academic advising, tutoring, career and transfer resources that support diverse student populations.
Successful Practices
- The institution uses discipline-specific academic and career advisers to promote familiarity with chemistry and chemistry-related programs and to facilitate articulation with 4-year college programs and industry.
Services are available to:
- Advise students about course prerequisites and completion of all required courses.
- Inform students of transfer requirements to higher education or entry to the workforce.
- Track student completion of required chemistry, mathematics, and other sequential courses for academic goal achievement.
- Encourage the formation of student led groups that engage with DEIR activities and provide them with appropriate space.
Aspirational Goals
Services are available to:
- Encourage students with strong interest or abilities in chemistry to continue their education in the chemical sciences.
- Provide chemistry majors opportunities and applications for transfer scholarships.
- Liaise with two-year and four-year college faculty in order to help students develop educational plans within the curriculum for successful academic transfer.
- Collaborate with community employers to design educational plans within the curriculum that foster successful employment.
- Provide access to the various support services outside normal business hours for non-traditional students.
Transfer Students
Section 9.4
Essential Components
- There is regular communication with transfer institutions to ensure coordination of curricula and allow for seamless transfer of two-year college students.
Successful Practices
- The program has articulation agreements in place with receiving institutions.
Services are available to:
- Offers a variety of academic support services to transferring students.
- Advises transferring and chemistry-based technology students of the courses to take to satisfy their academic goals.
Aspirational Goals
Services are available to:
- Helps students prepare for the challenges inherent in transferring to new programs and environments.
