Newsletter Fall 2009-10
Reminder: Add Day is Approaching
Just a friendly reminder that the last day for adding courses
and removing incompletes is this Friday, October 16th. Please
remember to bring your add cards to the Registrar's Office by
5:00pm on Friday.
Annual Notification of FERPA
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) affords
students certain rights with respect to their education records
and the Institute is required to notify you of this. These
rights include:
·
The right to inspect and review their education records within
10 days of the day the Institute receives a request for access.
·
The right to request an amendment to their education records
that they believe are inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in
violation of the student's privacy rights under FERPA.
·
The right to provide written consent before the Institute
discloses personally identifiable information from the student's
education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes
disclosure without consent.
·
The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of
Education concerning alleged failures by the Institute to comply
with the requirements of FERPA.
Additional information regarding FERPA including the Public
Notification of Directory Information can be found on the
Registrar's website at
http://www.registrar.caltech.edu/ferpa.htm.
Contact Information for the Great California Shakeout
On
October 15, the Caltech community, along with millions of other
Southern Californians in homes, schools, businesses, government
offices, and public places, will participate in the Great
California ShakeOut earthquake drill. At 10:15 a.m. that day,
everyone is encouraged to drop, cover, and hold on in simulation
of a magnitude-7.8 earthquake on the southern San Andreas Fault.
Be sure your contact information is up to date on access.caltech
so you can be reached in case there is a real emergency!
Class Lotteries for Winter Term Registration
Just a reminder that registration for winter term will take
place beginning November 19th and an email reminder
will be sent closer to the date. At this time we know that
lotteries will be held for three sections of Ch 3x which is open
to current freshmen and sophomores only.
Calling All Siemens Scholars
Are you a Siemens Scholar and interested in volunteering at the
next Siemens Regional Finals to be held at Caltech November 20
and 21? If you can assist please email Heidi Bloks in the
Caltech Public Events Office at
heidi.bloks@caltech.edu. 
Change in Institute Requirement for Biology
There has been a change to the Institute requirement concerning
Bi 1. Either Bi 8 OR Bi 9 are now acceptable
substitutes for Bi 1 or Bi 1x for students with a strong
background in biology. Previously students were required to
complete both Bi 8 AND Bi 9 in order to satisfy
the Bi 1 requirement. In addition, students who earned a 5 on
the AP Biology exam may also petition the biology option
representative to take a higher-level biology course of nine or
more units to fulfill the biology core requirement. Contact
information for all the option representatives can be found on
the Registrar’s Office website at
www.registrar.caltech.edu
New Option and New Minor
The new 2009-10 catalog is available online at
http://pr.caltech.edu/catalog/. We have a new option in
Bioengineering that applies engineering principles to the
design, analysis, construction, and manipulation of biological
systems. Students will select one of four tracks in devices,
mechanics, synthetic biology, or a self-guided track. Each
track culminates in a design lab that features the design and
construction of a novel experimental system appropriate to the
track. For all of the details please consult page 185 in the
online catalog.
Also new in 2009-10 is a minor in Geology and Planetary
Sciences. This minor is intended for non-GPS undergraduates who
wish to take a minimum of 6 GPS courses. Requirements include Ge
11ab, one course of either Ge 11c or Ge 11d, and 27 units of a
100-level or higher GPS course. Questions can be directed to any
of the option representatives in GPS.
Parent Contact Information
The Development Office at Caltech wants to keep in touch with
your parents. To make sure they are invited to Caltech’s many
special events and programs and receive all the Caltech news and
information available, please add your parents to the mailing
list at
https://irsecure.caltech.edu/webforms/student_info/index.php/.
REGIS Tips
Section Changes:
REGIS allows you to try to switch sections of a limited
enrollment course without losing your initial seat in the course
during open registration. Rather than dropping the course and
trying to add it again, please click the EDIT link under the
course. Select the new section you would like to move to. The
system will present you with a message
“Section
Change! If your desired section is full, your seat in your
current section will be retained.” Hit the SAVE button again.
If a seat is available, your enrollment will be switched and you
can see the new section number assigned on your schedule. If no
seats are available in the new section, a message of “Seats
Full!” will appear and you can hit CANCEL to retain your seat in
your original section.
OMs:
There is no time conflict checking in REGIS for Organizational
Meetings (OMs). If you think you are getting a time conflict
with an OM, please check further in your schedule and don’t
assume it is the OM causing the conflict. Many times it is a lab
or recitation section.
