Summer 2008

RU Newsletter for Abingdon Students

Class Registration for Summer 2008

The Schedule of Summer 2008 Classes in Abingdon is posted on this website. Students are strongly encouraged to register for summer classes on-line at http://www.radford.edu/~tlc/studentregistration/studentregistration.html . 

Students  can also phone in class registration to the registrar's office at (540) 831-5271 if unable to register via the website.  Please contact the RU Site Director's office in the administrative  suite at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center at (276) 619-4314 or 4315 if you have questions about class registration. 
 

Reminder to Students Who Applied for Admission as a

Non Degree-Seeking Student

No more than 6 credit hours taken as a non degree-seeking student may be transferred to a Radford University graduate degree program (See catalog, p. 15). It is imperative, therefore, that students admitted as "Non Degree-Seeking" complete all admissions requirements, including MAT or GRE testing, before completion of non degree-seeking coursework exceeding 6 credit hours. Upon completion of all requirements for full/regular admission, a petition for change in admission must be completed by the student and submitted to the College of Graduate and Extended Education. This petition form can be accessed at http://www.radford.edu/~gradcoll/current_students/petprogch.pdf.

Please discuss your admission status and any remaining full/regular admission (degree-seeking) requirements with the RU Site Director at the Abingdon office. 
 

  
K-12 Educator's Request Form for
  Reduction in Tuition

Virginia K-12 educators are eligible for a tuition discount of $40 per credit hour.  In order to receive this discount, teachers must submit a tuition reduction form (with principal's signature) to RU at the beginning of each fall semester of enrollment.  The tuition reduction form is available for printing at http://www.radford.edu/~gradcoll/current_students/forms_applications.html.
 

Upcoming Events...

New Cohort Scheduled to Form in Fall 2008

 The next Counseling and Human Development cohort is scheduled to begin classes at SVHEC in September 2008. Prospective students should contact Gerald Blankenship, RU Site Director at SVHEC, for information about Radford University's graduate programs in Abingdon.  Phone: (276) 619-4314; e-mail: gblankenship@swcenter.edu.  Interested students should apply to the RU College of Graduate and Extended Education as soon as possible in order to secure membership in this cohort.

Message From Gerald Blankenship

RU Site Director

Class Registration/Withdrawal

I trust that you are having a great spring semester with Radford University at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon.  Please feel free to contact me at (276) 619-4314 (office), (276) 698-5130 (mobile), or gblankenship@swcenter.edu if you have questions about your degree program or if you need my assistance in any way.  I believe that your efforts in acquiring a graduate degree from Radford University will have a most positive impact on your future, and your success in achieving your goals and dreams is of paramount concern to me.  I'll be glad to assist you in any manner that I can.

Since coming on board in May 2004 as RU Site Director in Abingdon, I have enjoyed meeting you and offering you my assistance with the many issues you face in your graduate studies.  Many of the obstacles you and I have to deal with involve tuition, class registration, recordkeeping, and related administrative concerns.  As you might imagine, a university the size of RU requires that great care be taken by all of us as we attempt to follow degree guidelines and RU policy and procedures.  The fact that we are participants in "extended education" makes this task a little more difficult, as we cannot merely walk across campus for a quick visit to the Registrar's Office or the Financial Aid Office.  I appreciate the patience you have shown as we have attempted to correct mistakes or clear up areas of confusion in your program, and, again, I am always anxious to hear from you if you need my assistance.

One of the areas that requires care and diligence on our part is the class registration process. It is imperative that students exercise great care when either registering for or withdrawing from RU classes. 

In the paragraphs that follow, I will attempt to review proper procedures for the registration processes.

Class Registration:

Abingdon students typically register for classes in one of three ways:

1) ***by registering online at http://www.radford.edu/~registra/Web_Registration.htm#register.  Your RU PIN number is required for this procedure. (You received your PIN number with your acceptance letter. Contact the Graduate College at (540) 831-5724 if you have misplaced your PIN number.  The RU Site Director at SVHEC does not have access to these confidential PIN numbers.)
2) Through RU instructors who register the entire cohort for next class(es) in the program sequence
3) By contacting the registrar's office at (540) 831-5271

***Registering online requires great care.  When registering online, Course, Section, and Index numbers must be entered absolutely correctly.  In the past, Abingdon students have inadvertently registered for classes taught on the RU campus because they entered an incorrect Index or Section number during the online registration process.  This has resulted in the necessity to file Academic Petitions and has also caused problems in the areas of tuition billing and financial aid.

Before registering for Summer 2008 classes online, please view the RU Summer 2008 Schedule of Classes at the link below:   

Schedule at a Glance

Here you will find the entire schedule of RU courses to be offered on the Abingdon campus.  Locate the course(s) you plan to take and enter the correct Index, Course, and Section numbers during the online registration process.  Following this procedure will eliminate the many problems we have experienced in the past in regard to online class registration.

Classes offered by RU at the Higher Education Center in Abingdon may also be accessed at https://campusonline.radford.edu/ru_stuff/registrar/course_related/fall/openfall.html on the RU Registrar's page.  Many students who have used this page in the past, however, have failed to scroll down to the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center portion of this page (listed alphabetically under S) and have consequently registered for graduate classes taught on the RU main campus.  A safer bet, in my opinion, is to obtain registration information from

Schedule at a Glance

Withdrawing from One or More Classes but not All Classes:

Abingdon students occasionally have a need to drop a class from their semester schedule, particularly when they have inadvertently registered for the wrong class, when personal circumstances change, or when changing RU degree programs altogether.  Following the RU withdrawal procedure below will assure students of timely processing of their request and avoidance of confusion in regard to financial aid and tuition billing.

The student must secure a withdrawal slip from the Registrar's Office, have it signed by the instructor of the course from which he/she is withdrawing and by the student's academic adviser, and then return all copies to the Registrar's Office. The withdrawal is not complete until the signed slip has been returned to the Registrar's Office. I can assist you in faxing/returning the withdrawal slip to the registrar.

Students must contact the Student Accounts Office in Walker Hall (540-831-5417) to initiate a request for a refund of tuition if they drop a class or classes prior to the census date and if the reduced class load qualifies them for a tuition refund.

A student who drops a class prior to the conclusion of Schedule Adjustment (census date) will receive no grade. A student who withdraws from class after Schedule Adjustment (census date) but before the end of the 12th week of the semester (or 80% of a Summer Session) will receive a grade of "W." Caution: A grade of W will impact your GPA!  A student who withdraws from class after the 12th week of the semester (or 80% of Summer Session) will receive a grade of "F."

Remember:  The census date (last day to drop a class with full refund) is May 16, 2008 for the Summer I session, June 27 for the Summer II session, and May 23 for Summer III session.

If a full-time student withdraws from all classes, but at different times during a given fall or spring semester, the individual withdrawals are changed to a University withdrawal.

Additional information about withdrawing from classes may be viewed at http://www.radford.edu/~registra/withdrawal_and_readmission.htm and please contact me if I can assist you in the withdrawal process.

*******************

I apologize for using so much space in this newsletter for technical (boring) information, but I think knowledge of the procedures above will make life a little easier for you.

In the future, please contact me if you have news or items of interest for this page.  I'll try to get them online.

Thanks for reading!
Gerald Blankenship, RU Site Director