The advising system is set up so that the student always has access to assistance, but the College emphasizes that a student's education is ultimately his or her responsibility. The student is expected to pay attention to requirements, deadlines, and other guidelines available in this book and in other college materials.

Academic Integrity
By enrolling in an academic institution, a student is subscribing to common standards of academic honesty. Any cheating, plagiarism, falsifying or fabricating data is a breach of such standards. A student must make it his or her responsibility to learn conventions of attribution, so that the student does not use words or works of others without proper acknowledgment. Ask for in-class discussions of such questions when complex issues of ethical scholarship arise.

Degree Progress and Decision-making
It is the student's responsibility to be aware of his or her status as a degree candidate, and to utilize the advising team to certify progress for graduation. To help make this certification clearer, the student may use the transcript cover sheet on file in the Registrar's Office, which is updated at the end of each term. A student's primary advisor also receives an up-to-date printout each term.

Contracts and Signatures
When a student signs his or her course registration form, the student has made a commitment to those courses or other credit units. The student will owe tuition to match that registration, and the student's transcript lists the titles of those courses, whether or not credit is earned. Add/Drop forms must be filed by the deadlines set for each term in order to make changes to course registration.

All financial obligations must be cleared (or loan payments made current) with the College before a student may receive a diploma or have a transcript sent. Lost library books are also considered financial obligations to the College.

Proposal Writing
COA places almost no limits on what you can study, but places on you the burden of justifying what you want to do. Therefore, the ability to write proposals is a key to the freedom to design your own curriculum. This thinking/writing step is intentionally built into the process of COA independent work. The requirement to present a proposal forces you to clarify your learning goals and to plan how you're going to meet them. Use advisors to help plan independent work in the context of your overall program.

Proposals for final projects and various petitions and appeals are handled by Review and Appeals Board; proposals for internships go to Internship Committee; and Group Studies are addressed by Academic Affairs Committee because they become formal additions to the curriculum offerings. These review committees rarely turn an idea down entirely and finally, but often ask for refinement or clarification of the idea. Because the groups of students and staff are reviewing whole sets of term proposals at once, they can ask for a common standard of adequacy in proposing. Look under headings for each of these options for step-by-step instruction. Broadly, every proposal contains three parts: goals, methods, and plan for evaluation. Be realistic. Where do you want to be in ten weeks? How will you know whether you got there or not?

It is normal for any project to undergo minor changes as it progresses. You must make sure your sponsor/evaluator approves of any changes, but you are not expected to file a revised proposal unless your plans change so radically as to produce a different kind of product or an extended timetable.

Deadlines
A persistent struggle exists at COA between the desire for open-endedness and flexibility and the practical need for structure. So what we do is to try to distinguish between necessary structure and arbitrary rigidity, to set realistic deadlines, explain reasons for them, and enforce appropriate consequences of missing them.

Some deadlines at COA operate on external rules and "real world" consequences: grant proposals, federal financial aid applications, consideration of job applicants by advertised application deadlines. Some operate on limits of internal practicality so that college administration can proceed smoothly: preregistration and registration with dollar penalties for lateness; "No Credit" on transcripts when work is simply not finished. Some are determined by absolute time limits: the last evening during which an instructor can read your paper before handing in evaluations, the last committee meeting of a term during which a proposal can be considered.

But other due dates depend on consideration of the needs of colleagues and co-workers. It's ecological to respect them.

Course/Teacher Evaluations
At the end of a course, a course/teacher evaluation from each student is required by the Personnel Committee. Forms which are distributed in classes ask questions regarding course organization, idea synthesis and clarity, class-teacher rapport, importance of the course to the COA curriculum, and specific recommendations for future classes. These forms are extremely important in evaluating teacher performance. They provide a written history of faculty work critical to accurate assessment of teaching success.

The College asks that course evaluations be submitted to the Office of the Chair of the Personnel Committee. They are held until faculty evaluations of students are in, then they are passed to the Personnel Committee for use in continuing reviews of faculty work and in periodic reviews for contract renewal. Faculty members are expected to read course evaluations, but do not have access to them before writing eval-uations of students. The Academic Dean may also read these course evaluations.

Students with Disabilities
College of the Atlantic makes every effort to provide accommodations for students with disabilities who are otherwise qualified to participate fully in the college's regular academic program. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, upon request by a student and upon receipt of documentation of disability, the college is expected to assess a disability and determine if there is a reasonable means of providing accommodation. Often a student and instructor can negotiate an individualized learning situation. Other times, a more extensive response is necessary.

In any case, it is the responsibility of an incoming student to 1) make the request for accommodation and 2) submit documentation of disability as well as evidence of ability to meet graduation requirements in the regular college curriculum. Such information must be part of the admission process and remain part of the academic record. See the Director of Admissions and Student Services for consideration of such requests.