Academic Forgiveness
After an enrollment lapse of four or more years from Lamar State College Orange and after completing successfully (2.2 average) 24 semester hours of coursework, a student may petition to disregard a maximum of two entire successive semesters of work taken previously at Lamar State College Orange. The petition shall be filed with the Registrar and approved by the Dean of Student Services.
When approved by the Dean of Student Services, disregarded coursework shall not count in determining the student’s grade point average for academic progress or graduation; however, the work shall remain on the transcript with an appropriate notation and shall be used in determining honors. Once a degree has been conferred, a student may not use the academic forgiveness for any courses used to award the degree or to calculate the cumulative grade point average.
Academic Honesty
The College does not tolerate cheating or plagiarism. Cheating involves either giving assistance to another student or receiving assistance from another student during a quiz, test, examination, or another individual assignment unless the instructor has explicitly permitted such assistance.
Plagiarism means “to take and use as one’s own the writings or ideas of another” (American Heritage Dictionary). Before submitting any paper for any course at the college, the student must acknowledge each source used consciously, whether published or unpublished. Even an idea presented in the student’s own words but consciously taken from a source must be acknowledged. In addition, quotation marks (or indenting) must set off phrases or longer passages copied verbatim. Each instructor will explain any special means required to avoid plagiarism in his or her field.
The assignment of grades is the responsibility of the instructor. Thus, if the instructor determines that a student’s work has been intellectually dishonest, the instructor may award the student an “F” for the course or for the specific task determined to have been dishonestly accomplished. Such action will be preceded by a meeting with the student to provide an occasion for refutation, explanation, or mitigation. In cases where the faculty member and student cannot reach an agreement, and after consultation with the division dean, the student may make a written appeal to the Executive Vice President/Provost for Academic and Student Affairs within five school days of the meeting with the faculty member.
The faculty member’s charge must include an academic penalty, the most severe being removal from the course with a grade of “F.” Additionally, LSCO may propose an institutional sanction in repeated or blatant cases of academic dishonesty. A student involved in an appeal of an intellectual dishonesty case has the right to remain in class until a decision is made.
Academic Probation
Students are expected to make satisfactory academic progress toward their degree objectives. A “C” is the minimum satisfactory grade and a “C” average (2.0 GPA) constitutes satisfactory performance. The cumulative grade point average is based only on course work at Lamar State College-Orange for which the student earns the grade of A, B, C, D, or F. The marks of Q, W, NG, XC, or U are not counted as hours attempted in figuring the cumulative grade point average.
A student is placed on probation after the first long semester in which a student’s institutional cumulative GPA falls below 2.0. Students on academic probation whose institutional term GPA is a 2.0 or higher will be allowed to continue on probation until the institutional cumulative GPA reaches 2.0 or higher. Students on academic probation must see an academic advisor to be advised and registered for classes each semester until they are off probation. If, after one semester on probation, a student fails to raise their cumulative GPA above 2.0, the student will be limited to enrolling in 7 credit hours during subsequent semesters until the cumulative GPA reaches 2.0 or higher.
Academic probation is assessed at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters.
Change of Major
Students wishing to change their major must meet with their Advisor and complete an online change of major form. The form is made available to the student after meeting with an Advisor. Changing curriculum/major may impact eligibility for financial aid, scholarships, and veteran funds. Students receiving any type of financial assistance should contact financial aid before changing their major.
Changing Schedules
Once classes have started, all section changes add, and drops must be approved by either the advisor, the division dean, Advising and Counseling Center personnel, or the Registrar. A course may not be added after the first week of a long semester or the first two days of a summer session.
Class Attendance
Students must attend classes regularly and punctually to achieve their educational objectives. Therefore, instructors shall formulate and state in course syllabi attendance policies that best support student success. The College would prefer that faculty keep an accurate attendance record throughout the course.
When an instructor intends to use class participation as a grading criterion in a course, it shall be so stated in his/her course syllabus in objective measures. While attendance may be reflected in the instructor’s evaluation of a student’s class participation or affect a student’s performance on other graded material or skills, attendance (or lack of attendance) in class should not be used as a sole criterion in determining a student’s grade in a course.
The Office of Student Services maintains a list of college-sponsored extra-curricular activities. Instructors may or may not approve college-sponsored student absences. Instructor-approved absences entitle students to make up exams and written assignments without penalty.
Students with absences approved by the instructor for LSCO-sponsored activities should present properly completed college-sponsored absence forms to their instructors before the absence, if possible. If this is not possible, students should present the forms as soon as they return to class.
Students may request the Office of Student Services to notify faculty members before or during an extended absence due to personal or family illness, accident, hospitalization, etc. This notification does not require the instructor to regard the absence as excused; however, it does explain to instructors why a student is absent and when he/she will return to class.
Classification of Students
Students are classified as freshmen, sophomores, and post-baccalaureate. To determine eligibility to hold certain offices and for other reasons, officially enrolled students are classified as follows:
Freshman: Has met all entrance requirements but has completed fewer than 30 semester hours;
Sophomore: has completed a minimum of 30 semester hours with 60-grade points;
Post-baccalaureate: holds a bachelor’s degree but is not pursuing a degree program.
Course Numbering
Lamar State College Orange uses the state-approved Texas Common Course Numbering System for all academic courses. Each academic course has a letter code and/or numerical code. The letters are an abbreviation for the subject. For example, ENGL indicates an English course. Most courses meet three hours each week and have a credit value of three semester hours. Each number contains three or more figures:
- The first number indicates the rank of the course: 1, freshman-level; 2, sophomore level.
- The second number indicates the number of semester hours of credit.
- The last number(s) indicates the order in which the course normally is taken.
Applied music courses are numbered so the second number indicates both semester hours of credit and the number of private lessons each week.
Eligibility for Extracurricular Activities
An extracurricular activity is understood to be any non-class-related activity representing the student body, a student organization, a department or division organization, or any such activity representing the College.
Any full-time student not on disciplinary or scholastic probation who is officially registered is eligible to become a candidate and/or to hold student office. In some cases, part-time students are also eligible to hold office. Any full-time or part-time student not on disciplinary or scholastic probation is eligible to represent the College in any extracurricular activity provided the student has a grade point average of at least 2.0 for both the whole of college work completed at Lamar State College Orange and for the preceding semester.
To establish eligibility, two six-week summer terms may count as one semester.
Transfer students have the same eligibility as freshman students until the completion of one semester at Lamar State College Orange.
Full-Time Student Status
During the fall, spring, and summer semesters, a full-time student is enrolled for at least 12 semester credit hours of courses, including both credit and college prep courses. Full-time status may be required of some students, depending upon financial aid or scholarship status. Some students are also required to be full-time if covered under parental health insurance.
Maximum Course Loads
Every college course is assumed to involve a significant amount of non-contact hours for out-of-class student learning and reflection. In accordance with Texas Administrative Code (TAC), Title 19, Part 1, Chapter 4 and to assure the quality of student learning, LSCO students are not allowed to carry more courses in any term (that is, regular or shortened semester), than would allow them to earn more than one semester credit hour per week over the term. For example, in a five and one-half week summer term, students should not generally be allowed to enroll for more than six semester credit hours.
The normal maximum course load in a long semester should be 15 semester hours. Course loads over 18 semester hours shall require approval by the Provost/Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs.
Minimum Class Enrollment
The College reserves the right not to offer any courses listed in the class schedule if fewer than 10 students register for the course.
New Courses
To meet changing educational requirements, the College reserves the right to add any needed courses at any time without regard to the listing of such courses in the catalog.
Observance of Religious Holy Days
A student who misses an examination, work assignment, or another project because of the observance of a religious holy day will be allowed to complete the work missed within a reasonable time after the absence. The student may not be penalized for these excused absences unless the student fails to complete satisfactorily the missed assignment or examination within a reasonable time after the excused absence. The student notifies the instructor of each class scheduled on the date that the student would be absent for a religious holy day. Arrangements must be made with the instructor in advance. This policy does not apply to any student absence which may interfere with patient care.
A “religious holy day” means a holy day observed by a religion whose places of worship are exempt from property taxation under Section 11.20 of the Tax Code.
Semester Hours
The unit of measure for credit purposes is the semester hour. Two or more hours of laboratory work are counted as equivalent to one classroom hour. For laboratory work that requires reports to be written outside of class, two clock hours are usually counted as one semester hour.
Suspension and Reinstatement
A student who has been on academic probation for two consecutive semesters will be placed on academic suspension if the student fails to maintain a 2.0 institutional term GPA. A student who has been suspended may return to LSCO after sitting out one long semester.
Veterans’ Satisfactory Academic Progress
The Veterans’ Administration must be notified of unsatisfactory progress the second semester a student has not completed classes with a 2.0 grade point average. Veterans should contact the Veterans’ Affairs Office, (409) 882-3317, for additional information.
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