Newsletter Fall
2011-12
Reminder: Add Day is Approaching
Just a friendly reminder that the last day
for adding courses and removing incompletes
is this Friday, October 14th. 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.
2011 Catalog Now Online
The new 2011-12 catalog is available online
at
http://catalog.caltech.edu. There have
been a few course changes that we wanted to
bring to your attention. Ch 3b has been
split into Ch 8,
Experimental Procedures
of Synthetic Chemistry
and Ch/ChE 9,
Chemical Synthesis and
Characterization for Chemical Engineering. Both
new courses can be used as an Additional
Introductory Lab. Also, ChE 064 has been
renumbered to ChE 062. And
ESE/Ge 148abc is now ESE 101, 102 & 103. MS
130 & 132 have become MS/APh 120 & 122
respectively.
Academic Changes for 2011
New academic
policies have been implemented by the
Faculty Board for 2011. These policies apply
to the Fall 2011-12 incoming students (and
those who start after) only:
-
The
first two terms of freshmen year
students are limited to 45 units of
academic courses. Students may take up
to 51 units with 6 remaining units to be
used for frontier (“pizza”) courses, PE,
PA, or research.
-
Students
must complete the core requirements
listed in the catalog published in the
first year of a student’s enrollment.
-
Freshman
Seminar program initiated.
-
The two
courses used to fulfill the Advanced
Humanities requirement must be taken on
grades.
-
Foreign
languages cannot be used to fulfill the
Advanced Humanities requirement.
-
The two
courses used to fulfill the Advanced
Social Science requirement must be taken
on grades.
New! Shadow Grades in First Term!
Newly
approved by the Faculty Board, freshmen will
receive shadow grades in first term, both at
midterm and final grade period. We ask
faculty and TAs to please take note and
provide letter grade feedback in the fall
term.
New
Director of Athletics & Associate Director
A
new director of athletics, recreation and
physical education has joined Caltech.
Betsy Mitchell, a former Olympic gold
medalist and world record holder, became
Caltech’s first full-time female director of
athletics and recreation this past summer.
Also new to Caltech is John Carter as the
Associate Director of Athletics.
New (Additional) Associate Dean of Students
The Undergraduate Dean of Students' Office
is adding an additional Associate Dean of
Students, Lesley Nye, to their office.
While Dr. Nye officially joined Caltech at
the start of October, she was able to join
the incoming students at this year's Frosh
Camp. Dr. Nye's focus will be on the
student judicial issues.
College Work Study
This
year all students with Federal and Caltech
Work-Study must register with TECHERlink
to apply for work-study positions. Login to
https://caltech-csm.symplicity.com/students/index.php
to sign up. Once your account has been
created you will start receiving emails for
posted work-study jobs.
To
apply for positions advertised on
TECHERlink please review the attached
instructions. More information about the
Work-Study program is available at
http://www.finaid.caltech.edu/documents/78-1112web-wsbrochure.pdf.
Should you have any questions about you
work-study award, please contact the
Financial Aid Office at
finaid@caltech.edu. For questions on
how to create an account or apply for a FWS
position, please contact Nicole Hicks at
nicolep@caltech.edu.
Clarifying
the Caltech Grading Scheme
As students begin preparing their graduate
school applications, we often get the
question of what Grading Scheme Caltech
uses.
While we do award additional credit for an
A+, our grading scheme is still considered a
four-point grading scale.
UPDATED: The Caltech grading scale is
considered a 4.3 grading scale.
The
Caltech Y Gets a New Home
The Caltech Y has moved into the
Tyson House at 505 S. Wilson.
"This will enable us to celebrate
our 95th year in a new space," says
Athena Castro, executive director of
the Caltech Y. "Wherever we go, we
will continue to provide the high
level of service and the quality of
programs that we always have."
Important Dates
|
|
October 14 |
Last day for adding courses
and removing incompletes |
|
|
October 26 - November 1
|
Midterm examination period |
|
|
November 7 |
Midterm Deficiency Notices
due - 9:00 a.m. |
|
|
November 16 |
Last day to drop classes or
to exercise your P/F option |
|
|
November 17 |
First day of registration
for winter term |
|
|
November 18 |
Last day for admission to
candidacy for the degrees of
Master of Science and
Engineer |
|
|
November 24-25 |
Thanksgiving (Institute
Holiday) |
|
|
December 2 |
Last day of classes and last
day to register for winter
term without a $50 late fee |
|
|
December 3-6 |
Study Period |
|
|
December 7-9 |
Final examinations
|
|
|
December 9 |
End of fall term 2011-12 |
|
|
December 10 - January 3 |
Winter Recess |
|
|
December 14 |
Instructors' final grade
reports due - 9:00 a.m. |
|
|
January 4 |
Beginning of instruction
winter term
|
