This information is intended to convey College of Optical Sciences traditions, common practices, procedures, and policies, and supplement the enrollment, academic and degree completion requirements of the University of Arizona Graduate College. It is your responsibility to know and comply with the College of Optical Sciences and Graduate College policies. The reference manual is organized alphabetical by topic and includes links to appropriate web sites with more information. If you have questions, please email the Graduate Academic Advisor in the Academic Programs Office, room 403.
Building Keys and Keyless Building Entry: Graduate students will be provided with keyless building entry. After obtaining your Cat Card and enrolling in courses you will need to complete a Key Request Form and submit it to the Accountant’s Office, West Wing room 641. For building entry, the Associate Dean of Academic Programs must give approval by signing the form. For lab or office key entry, the student’s major professor/supervisor must sign the form. Bursars Office at the University of Arizona: The Bursar's Office is responsible for providing student account information, receiving payments for tuition, registration fees and miscellaneous campus charges; collection of delinquent accounts; and delivering refunds and financial aid proceeds. The Bursar’s Office is located in the University Services Building, 888 N. Euclid Avenue. The University of Arizona offers a Tuition Payment Plan fall and spring semesters. For questions about your student account, funding awards, or scholarships email the Senior Manager of Academic Programs , room 403. Note: To avoid repayment of the tuition waiver, registration deduction and student health insurance premium, Graduate Research Assistants and Graduate Teaching Assistants must officially graduate, according to Graduate Degree Certification, prior to resigning their position. This can happen anytime during the semester, as long as the official graduation occurs before resignation. The definition of “official” graduation is submission of all degree completion documents to the Graduate College Degree Certification Office. The CatCard is the single, common and recognizable identification card for people who are affiliated with the University of Arizona. Amongst other uses, it is required to obtain keyless Optical Sciences building entry. In addition the CatCard is used for: identification and status, library card, recreation center card, meal plan card, photocopying and printing services, vending machine purchases, paying for parking at Campus Garages, and small dollar purchases at the UA Bookstore and U-Mart Convenience Store. Change of Class Schedule, Dropping and Adding Units: Unlike undergraduates, graduate students are able to make changes to their class schedule up to the last day of class. To make changes students must complete a Change of Schedule Form. Changes include switching to an audit, and dropping a course replacing the course with theses or master’s report units. Note: An audited course does not meet unit enrollment requirement for students receiving funding. Graduate Research positions require enrollment in 6 units. If you are receiving other forms of financial aid, you should confirm the number of units required each semester. Change of Degree Program, PhD to MS: PhD graduates students who wish to change to the MS program must complete a Change of Program Form and submit it to the Academic Programs Office, room 403. The form is available in the Academic Programs Office, 403. The University of Arizona and College of Optical Sciences celebrates graduate degree completion twice a year, in December and May. Students completing degree requirements in August have the option of attending either the May or December event. The College of Optical Sciences' Pre-Commencement Ceremony and Breakfast is held prior to the UofA Commencement Ceremony. Invitations and information is emailed to anticipated graduates in mid-October and mid-March. Diplomas are not given out at Commencement. Diplomas are ordered individually for each student after the final degree audit of their academic record is completed. You should receive your diploma about four weeks after the Commencement Ceremony. The diploma will be mailed to the address you have listed on student link as your 'permanent' address. If you do not want it sent to your 'permanent' address you should create a 'diploma' address and it will be mailed there instead. Diplomas are printed and mailed from out of state; therefore students are not able to pick them up here on campus. If you are complete degree requirements early in the semester and need to provide proof of your degree, upon request to the Optical Sciences' Degree Certification Auditor at the Graduate College. Communication and Contact Information: The primary means of communication with students is email. Be sure to set up your optics optics email account. Please be sure to check your email regularly. In addition to email, each on-campus College of Optical Sciences’ student will be assigned a mailbox at Optical Sciences. The mailroom is located on the 4th floor, room 426. Please remember to submit new contact information (email address, mailing address, campus location, telephone number) to the Academic Programs Office! You will also need to update any change in contact information in Student Link. Comprehensive Exam, Written and Oral: This guide explains the procedures and policies governing the conduct of the Comprehensive Examination for prospective PhD candidates majoring and/or minoring in Optical Sciences. Its contents are supplemental to, and in accordance with, the procedures established by the Graduate College. Deviation from these procedures and policies shall be made only in special cases where the Associate Dean, Academic Programs, deems such deviation appropriate. The Comprehensive Examination, which consists of a written and an oral exam, is intended to test the student's general fundamental knowledge of the fields of the major and minor subjects of study. The Written Comprehensive Exam is offered each semester, fall and spring. For dates of the exam contact the Graduate Student Academic Advisor. The written exam will be given in two sessions held on consecutive days, with each session being 3.5 hours in duration. Six questions will be given in each session and students are required to answer all questions. Written Comprehensive Exam PhD students in Optical Sciences who have completed 32 or more units of graduate course work (excluding dissertation units, but including transfer credits, if any) are eligible to take the written comprehensive exam. For most students, this will be at the beginning of their third year of full-time study. The major-subject written portion of the Comprehensive Exam is a comprehensive, closed book, written examination. Students may bring only pens and pencils and food or drinks with them into the exam room. All other materials, including paper, cell phones, and palmtop/laptop computers are prohibited. Optical Sciences will provide pencils, paper, calculators and refreshments. A Written-Exam Committee consisting of members of the faculty and appointed by the Associate Dean will administer the written examination. The written exam for each student will consist of questions drawn from material given in the required Optical Sciences core courses taken by the student. The Written-Exam Committee will select 12 questions, two from each required core course the student has taken in the areas of electromagnetic waves, geometrical optics, quantum optics, physical optics, solid-state optics, and photonics/image science/applied optics. Exam questions may be solicited from the entire faculty. However, all questions included in the exam must be approved by the respective core course instructors as being appropriate given the material taught in the core courses. Questions will be designed to be answered in about 30 minutes. The Written-Exam Committee will coordinate the grading of the exam. In order to help standardize the grading, the committee will establish a numerical scale that defines the various levels of student performance. The Written-Exam Committee will be responsible for determining whether or not a student passes or fails the written examination based on the performance of each student in answering all 12 questions on the exam. If the committee is unable to make a decision, it may request that the matter be considered by the full faculty at a special meeting. Unless the committee recommends otherwise, a student will be allowed to repeat the written examination only once. The committee may also recommend that a five person oral exam committee be used for students whose performance on the written exam is deemed marginal. During the examining and grading process the student's identity will not explicitly appear on her/his exam papers. The Academic Office will assign an identification number to each student and only this number will be placed on the exam papers. Each student's written examination answers will be passed on to the student's oral comprehensive exam committee with instructions to particularly examine the student's knowledge in those areas where the student's knowledge and understanding appears to be weak. For students whose major and minor subjects are both in Optical Sciences, a passing grade on the major-subject written exam will automatically satisfy the minor-subject written exam requirement. For students whose major subject is not in Optical Sciences, the written comprehensive exam will be given during the second session of the major-subject written exam. The administering committee is the same for the major-subject written exam. The written comprehensive exam for each student minoring in Optical Sciences will consist of four questions, one from each of the four Optical Sciences classes (B or higher grade required) taken by the candidate for their minor course work. Students whose major subjects are other than Optical Sciences will not be required to perform at the same level as the Optical Sciences majors taking the exam, nor must they demonstrate proficiency in all four categories. At least 9 of the 12 units must be courses for which Optical Sciences is the home department. Two Optical Sciences faculty members are required to be part of the student's oral comprehensive examination committee. Students whose major departments allow them to have a split minor may do one portion of the split minor in Optical Sciences. In order to satisfy the requirements to have a split minor in Optical Sciences a student must satisfactorily complete with a grade of B or higher six units of Optical Sciences course work for which Optical Sciences is the home department. One Optical Sciences faculty member is required to be part of the oral comprehensive exam committee. Each student shall be notified by mail of the outcome of the written comprehensive exam and shall be provided with copies of his/her graded exam papers. In addition, copies of his/her exam papers shall be provided to the Optical Sciences members of the Oral-Exam Committee prior to the oral examination. This section includes information primarily applicable to students who are majoring in Optical Sciences, although portions of it also apply to students who are minoring in Optical Sciences and majoring in other departments. The oral portion of Comprehensive Exam requires the student to respond orally to questioning by a committee of examiners. Students may expect to be questioned in the six general categories of optics: Electromagnetic Waves, Geometrical Optics, Quantum Optics, Physical Optics, Solid State Optics, and Photonics, Image Science, or Applied Optics. The oral exam is expected to last two hours, but not to exceed three hours. This exam is given individually at scheduled times during the remainder of the semester that follows the fall and spring written exams. The student will be scheduled to take it during the same semester as his or her successful completion of the major-subject written exam. The Oral-Exam Committee will normally consist of four or five faculty examiners, depending upon the recommendation of the Comprehensive Exam Committee. If the student has chosen to minor in another department, there will be five examiners, three from Optical Sciences, and two from the student's minor department. The Associate Dean of Academic Programs will select the faculty examiners. In making selections, the Associate Dean will consider any recommendations for committee members made by the student and/or the student's major professor as well as the student's program of study and the suggestions of the student's minor department. He will then propose a committee of examiners to the Dean of the Graduate College who official appoints the committee. The Associate Dean of Academic Programs will designate one member of the Oral-Examination Committee to be the committee chair. This individual is normally not the student's faculty advisor. The chair is responsible for ensuring that the examination is conducting according to current Optical Sciences policy. If any significant deviations from the approved procedures occur, or if any aspect of the examination seems inappropriate, the chair should ask to recess the examination and excuse the student so that corrective measures might be discussed. One of the faculty examiners will be designated to be the recorder for the exam. This individual is not normally the student's faculty advisor. It is the responsibility of the recorder to certify that the conduct of the exam is consistent with the policies of the Graduate College, to conduct the balloting at the completion of the exam, and to report results. Each member of the committee is expected to be present at the exam and to remain throughout the exam. Each examiner shall come prepared to ask questions from at least one of the general categories of optics and shall attempt to avoid excessive overlap between his or her line of questioning and that of the other examiners. The questions should be stated clearly and concisely, and should be designed to determine the depth and breadth of the student's knowledge rather than to demonstrate the examiner's expertise. The examiner should make certain that the student understands the question, realizing that what is clear and obvious to the examiner may not be clear and obvious to the student (possibly only because the student has not had time to think about it). A particular line of questioning should be restricted to no more than 15 or 20 minutes in order to give the student an opportunity to respond to questions pertaining to other categories. If the time spent on one line of questioning does become excessive, the committee chairman should intervene and suggest that the questioning be shifted to a different category. This also applies for students minoring in Optical Sciences and majoring in other departments, except that they are not expected to demonstrate knowledge in all of the categories of optics specified for the Optical Sciences majors. The voting is conducted by secret ballot, and the votes of all the examiners have equal weight. The major and minor subject written exams together shall have approximately the same weight as the oral exam. Each examiner shall vote his/her conviction with respect to the student's performance on the entire Comprehensive Examination, not merely the performance on the oral exam. Also, the examiner should base his/her evaluation of the oral exam on the student's overall performance-not simply on the student's responses to the examiner's own questions. However, if the Oral-Exam Committee determines that the student is indeed deficient in one or more of the established categories, he/she should not be passed regardless of overall performance. Other factors that should be considered in making the decision are the student's course work, research capabilities and publications. There is only one official ballot, usually following a discussion of the student's performance (and sometimes following one or more straw ballots), and all examiners are required to mark their ballots either pass or fail. One negative vote will not cause the student to fail the exam, but two negative votes will. An abstention is counted as a vote for failure. If the balloting results in failure, the committee must make a recommendation regarding reexamination. If their recommendation is to allow the student to repeat the exam, the committee should also make a recommendation regarding the written portion of the reexaminaton: they may recommend that all or part of the written examination be waived, or that the entire written examination be required. The Oral-Exam Committee shall also recommend an approximate date for reexamination. A reexamination may then be given with the approval of the Graduate Council. Note: The final decision shall be either to pass the student or to fail the student. Conditional pass or conditional fail decisions are not allowed. In either event, however, the student should be given any counseling deemed appropriate by the committee, e.g., weak areas, study recommendations, etc. Note: Students should not plan to serve refreshments during their oral comprehensive exam. A light refreshment and coffee will be provided by the Academic Programs Office. Graduate students must meet the Continuous Enrollment Policy. Masters and Doctoral students hired on an assistantship must be enrolled in at least 6 units. Auditing a class does not count toward meeting the unit requirement. Students are not required to be enrolled during 1st or 2nd summer semester unless they are graduating in August. If you are unable to enroll in fall or spring semester, to maintain your student status, you should submit a Leave of Absence. If you fail to meet the continuous enrollment policy and do not register, you will need to reapply to the Graduate College and be approved for readmissions by the Associate Dean of Academic Programs. Students with scholarships or financial aid may be required to be enrolled in more than 6 units. Students completing their degrees for August deadlines must enroll in at least 1 unit of 900 level during either 1st or 2nd summer semester. Students must be enrolled in the semester of degree completion. Generally, PhD students funded as Graduate Research Assistants, Associates, or Teaching Assistants meet full-time status by enrolling in 6 units of graduate level courses. However, students receiving other types of funding such as fellowships or financial aid should verify with the funding source how many units are required to maintain full-time graduate student status. Notice for International Students: Please check with the Office of International Student Programs to be sure you are in compliance with your visa status obligation since you may be required to be enrolled in additional units to maintain your full-time student status. You should checking your I20 expiration date and if necessary begin the renewal process in plenty of time to maintain continuous employment as it can take 6 months or longer. If you desire a student cubicle, you must submit a cubicle request. Cubicle space is not secure and Optical Sciences is not responsible for stolen or lost items. Storage lockers are available on the 1st floor, first come first served. Students are responsible for providing their own lock for the lockers. The Dissertation Proposal Exam is a departmental oral examination for prospective Ph.D. candidates majoring in Optical Sciences. It is intended to determine whether the student's dissertation research topic is of an appropriate nature and scope, and whether the course work and other studies undertaken by the student in their area of specialization has adequately prepared them for their proposed dissertation research. Successful completion of the exam is required before a student's Advancement to Candidacy form will be approved and submitted to Degree Certification. After the student has completed the exam, the Academic Office will prepare the form and submit it to Degree Certification. When the student's Advancement to Candidacy is approved by the Graduate College Degree Certification Office, candidacy fees will be charged to the student's bursar account. Ph.D. students who have passed the written and oral comprehensive examination and completed at least 32 units of graduate course work are eligible to schedule the dissertation proposal exam. For most students, this will be near the end of their third year of full-time study, but in any event it may not be later than one year prior to the completion of the student's final oral dissertation defense exam. The exam is typically expected to last one to two hours. The exam is an oral examination based on a 3 to 5 page dissertation proposal paper or a detailed PowerPoint presentation prepared by the student. This proposal should consist of a dissertation research plan that outlines the scope of the proposed research and clearly explains its background and motivation. The research described in the proposal should be selected in consultation with the student's dissertation faculty advisor. While the research plan describes the likely scope and content of the dissertation, and may set some nominal expectations for the research, ultimate approval of the actual dissertation research rests with the student's faculty advisor, together with the dissertation committee members. The committee consists of the student's dissertation faculty advisor plus two additional members nominated by the student in consultation with his or her faculty advisor, and approved by the Associate Dean of Academic Programs. The university requires that at least two members of the committee be tenure or tenure-track faculty in Optical Sciences. Once the committee is chosen and a date for the exam is set, the Academic Office Graduate Academic Advisor will schedule a room and prepare the necessary paperwork. Each committee member is expected to be present at the scheduled exam time and to remain throughout the entire exam. The exam should begin with a 20 minute presentation of the proposed research, followed by questioning from the dissertation committee. Each committee member should have previously reviewed the research proposal, and should come prepared to ask questions that will probe the background knowledge of the student in the proposed research area as well as more detailed questions regarding the research itself - its scope, methodology, probability of success, back-up plans, etc. At the end of the exam, the student will be asked to step out of the room and the committee will decide by majority vote to make one of the following recommendations: 1. The dissertation proposal is acceptable and the student is ready to advance to candidacy. 2. The dissertation proposal is acceptable but the student must complete the following courses and/or background reading material before the student may advance to candidacy. 3. The student must revise the dissertation proposal and retake the dissertation proposal exam. Final PhD Oral Examination Requirements: You must be enrolled in the semester you complete your degree. In agreement with your major faculty advisor choose a committee consisting of 3 members, two of them have to be tenured or tenure-track faculty from OSC, the third member can be an “outside” person if approved by the Graduate College in advance. If you decide to have an “outside” person on your committee, a Special Member Form will need to be submitted to the Graduate College. Speak with the Graduate Academic Advisor in the Academic Office, room 403 regarding completion and submission of the form. Once you have chosen your committee, and received a commitment from them for a final exam date, please notify the Graduate Student Academic Advisor in the Academics Office. A conference room will be reserved, an Exam Notice distributed and Notice of Final Oral Exam will be submitted to the Graduate College Degree Certification Office. Degree Certification requires at least 1 week notice of your exam for preparation of the PhD Final Oral Exam Packet. For your reference dissertations are housed in the Fred Hopf Library. For dissertation formatting requirements visit the Graduate College Theses and Dissertation Manual. You will find instructions for submitting your dissertation electronically. You should also submit your dissertation electronically for a format check. Please plan to submit a printed unbound copy of your dissertation to the Academic Office, room 403, for inclusion in the library. We will have the library copy of your dissertation bound. Students are asked to provide light refreshments during their final oral exams. Coffee making supplies will be provided by the Academic Programs Office, 403, upon request. The student should pick up coffee making supplies prior to the exam. The student is responsible for cleaning up the conference room following their final oral exam. Most conference rooms are equipped with audio visual equipment for your oral presentation. Please be sure to confirm the conference room has everything you need. You can reserve an LCD projector and lap top from the Academic Office, room 403. The last step before leaving the Optical Sciences is to fill out a Clearance Form. This form needs to be taken to various offices at OSC to be initialed prior to your departing OSC. After you obtained all the signatures, the form needs to be submitted to our Payroll Office, room 421. Grades, Grade Replacement Opportunity and GPA: Only grades of “B” or “A” are accepted toward meeting degree completion requirements. Prior to graduation students may repeat, only once, a graduate level course in which they received grades of “C”, “D”, or “E”. The department, course number, and grading type (i.e., letter grade versus S, P, F) of the repeated course must be identical to those of the course to be replaced. If you wish to retake a class for a higher grade you will need to do the Grade Replacement Opportunity (GRO). Graduate students must maintain a GPA of 3.0. Students who have a cumulative GPA of less than 3.0 will be placed on academic probation. Students whose GPA is below 3.0 for two consecutive semesters will be converted to non-degree status by the Graduate College. Graduate College Theses/Dissertation Waiver: The Graduate College Theses/Dissertation Waiver is a waiver of non-resident tuition only. Students classified as Arizona residents are not charged non-resident tuition. Students on appointment as a Graduate Research Assistant/Associate or Graduate Teaching Assistant/Associate already receive a waiver of non-resident tuition as a benefit of the appointment. To be eligible for a Graduate College Theses/Dissertation Waiver, students must be enrolled at the University of Arizona for not less than one (1) and not more than six (6) units of 900level units only, and not be using university resources (e.g. libraries, computers, labs, faculty time) to any significant extend, except for exams, final defense and some advising. Eligibility is limited to 4 semesters. Special permission from the Associate Dean of Academic Programs is required for awards exceeding the 4 semester limit. The maximum value of a Graduate College Theses/Dissertation Waiver is for 6 units. To apply for a waiver, contact the Graduate Student Academic Advisor in the Academic Office. The deadline for an approved waiver is one week in advance of the Bursar’s Office tuition payment deadline. Immunization Requirement and Health Insurance: Before newly admitted graduate students can register they must submit proof of measles and rubella immunizations to Campus Health. Graduate students are required to enroll for student health insurance in the fall semester. For students who enroll in the fall semester, you will be automatically enrolled in spring semester as soon as you complete your registration for spring semester classes. Note: Graduate students graduating in May who enrolled in the spring semester health insurance are covered through mid-August. Students complete health insurance enrollment in Student Link. With Professor approval the Graduate College Policy allows one year for completion of incompletes. Students must negotiate an incomplete and the length of an incomplete with the professor. Courses graded with an "I" will automatically revert to an "E" at the end of one year. With approval of the professor/instructor incomplete extensions to allow extra time may be granted, but a Petition must be signed by the professor/instructor and submitted to the Graduate College before the end of the semester. For assistance in submitting a Petition contact the Graduate Student Academic Advisor in the Academic Programs Office, 403. It is the student's responsibility to communicate with the professor to meet the requirements and deadline to be issued a grade for an incomplete. Up to 6 units of approved independent study may be applied toward the PhD degree completion requirements. Before enrolling in Opti599, Independent Study, complete an Independent Study Proposal Form and submit it to the Academic Programs Office, 403, for the Associate Dean’s approval. Once approved you will be registered for Opti599. Job Announcements are distributed via email to the JobSearchers listserv. Simply send an email to be added to the JobSearchers listserv. Employment opportunities are also posted on the College of Optical Sciences' web page and announced in the weekly newsletter Watt's Up. Students on the JobSearchers listserv will also be notified of information sessions or recruitment interviews scheduled by our Industrial Affiliates attending the annual Industrial Affiliate Workshop in February. Ph.D. students majoring in other disciplines may elect to minor in Optical Sciences by completing 12 units of approved Optical Sciences course work with a grade of B or better, passing a written examination based on that course work, and having two Optical Sciences faculty members on their comprehensive oral examination committee. Study plans for students wishing to minor in Optical Sciences must be approved in advance by the Associate Dean for Academic Programs, room 403. In general, approval will be only given to plans in which at least 9 of the 12 units are courses for which Optical Sciences is the home department. Opti 604, Independent Study and transfer courses will NOT be accepted as part of the minor course work. Students whose major departments allow them to have a split minor may do one portion of the split minor in Optical Sciences. For a split minor, students must complete 6 units of course work with a grade of B or better, pass a written examination based on that course work, and have one Optical Sciences faculty member on their oral comprehensive examination committee. All six units of course work must be in courses for which Optical Sciences is the home department. Written Comprehensive Exams are scheduled in the fall and spring semester. For dates, contact the Graduate Academic Advisor in the Academics Program Office at the College of Optical Sciences. PhD students are asked to complete and submit the Doctoral Plan of Study prior to taking the written comprehensive exam. The Ph.D. Plan of Study requires 54 units of course work (2 of which are lab units ending in suffix "L"). In addition, at least 18 units of 920/dissertation units are required, but are not listed on the Plan of Study. Students should project their future course work to total 54 units. Upon completion of their degree, if necessary, a Change of Study Plan will be submitted to delete or add course work not on the original plan. Approved transfer courses are listed in the transfer section of the Plan of Study. Completed Plans of Study should be submitted to the Academic Office, room 403, for approval and processing to Degree Certification at the Graduate College. A student who elects to withdraw from the University by dropping all classes after having paid registration fees must initiate such a procedure by contacting the Dean of Student's Office. A withdrawal may not be initiated after the last day of classes of any semester and must be completed before the beginning of final examination period. If a student is requesting a Medical Withdrawal and would like a tuition refund, he or she must contact Campus Health and provide medical documentation. If a student withdraws for medical reasons and is beyond a refund period, medical documentation is not required. Progress Interviews & PhD Qualifying Examination: Optical Sciences requires every graduate student have a progress interview with the Academic Programs Office Graduate Student Academic Advisor once every year. The purpose is to discuss the student’s goals, keep track of his/her progress toward degree completion, flag potential or actual problems, and help avoid difficulties in the future. Interviews normally last between 15-30 minutes. Yearly progress interviews should be completed by spring break. To schedule a progress interview stop by the Academic Programs Office, room 403, or email the Graduate Student Academic Advisor to schedule an appointment for your progress interview. After the interview, a short report will be written and filed in the student's file. The Associate Dean of Academic Programs will scan these reports to address any problems that may require attention. The College of Optical Sciences does not administer a Qualifying Exam to newly admitted PhD students. To meet the University of Arizona Qualifying Exam requirement, new PhD graduate students are asked to meet with a faculty member of their choice during their first semester. This is not an exam, but an informal interview to discuss student goals, evaluate academic background and preparation, discuss course work and research plans, and flag any potential problems. Each student is responsible for choosing a faculty member to meet with. The faculty member needs to write a short report to the Academic Programs Office. The report will be placed in the student's file. Dr. Shoemaker will also scan these reports and try to address any problems that may require attention. The interview normally lasts 15 to 30 minutes. Student Link is a password-protected service that allows you to access your personal information and student account balance. When accessing Student Link you will need your Student ID Number and PIN. Your PIN on your official University of Arizona Certificate of Admissions. It is important you verify your student account information before the payment deadline each semester. You should verify your account balance each time you change your course schedule. Your account balance must be paid in full by the payment deadline date each semester in order to avoid late payment penalties. Additional penalties are charged on the Census Date-the 21st day of each semester. It is a policy of the College of Optical Sciences that each graduate student will serve as a teaching assistant for at least one semester during the student’s academic program. This policy will not be strictly enforced except in cases of insufficient number of qualified volunteers to support the classes requiring teach assistants. The procedure for obtaining a position as a teaching assistant is to enter name, email address and course desired on the list posted in the Academic Programs Office. The posting of the list will be announced via email at the end of each semester. Generally, PhD students will be given priority over MS students. All else being equal, earlier volunteers will be given priority over later volunteers. Exceptions may be made by the Associate Dean of Academic Programs on a case-by-case basis. Approved courses for transfer are listed in the “transfer” section on the PhD Plan of Study. The official transcript must be submitted to Degree Certification. All transfer courses must be approved by the Associate Dean of Academic Programs during the students first semester. Generally, 12 - 18 units of appropriate graduate courses may be transferred from other universities with approval. International students should submit a Transfer Evaluation Form and submit English translated transcripts to the Graduate College Degree Certification Office for Graduate College evaluation of course work approved by the Associate Dean of Academic Programs. The form is available in the Academic Office, room 403. To obtain wireless internet access you must first register your computer.
University of Arizona Campus Resources and Links Bursar's Office. Student accounts, questions about tuition payments, etc. University Services Building, Room 104; 621-3232; bursar-web@listserve.arizona.edu Campus Health. Check-ups, pharmacy, psychological services, etc. Highland Commons, 1224 E. Lowell St, Northwest corner of Highland and 6th Street, 621-6490 Career Services. Career counseling, job postings, interview skills & resume writing. Student Union Memorial Center, Room 411; 621-4224; careerservices@arizona.edu CAPS. Counseling and Psychological Services offering counseling to students to help them cope with personal and family problems. Licensed professionals provide treatment for anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, family problems, food and body concerns, alcohol and drug concerns, and other life crises. Campus Health, 621-3334. Child Care & Family Resources. Provides consultation appointments to assess needs and issues, customized referrals, sick child and emergency back-up care, elder care, financial assistance Curriculum and Registration. Class registration, grades, transcripts, forms, policies; Administration Building, room 210; 621-3113; reghelp@email.arizona.edu Degree Certification. Graduate College Degree Certification Office monitors academic accomplishments, assures University and Board of Regents degree requirements are met, assists in obtaining correct forms and signatures and files exam results keeping you on the right path to graduation. Administration Building, room 316; 621-3609 http://grad.arizona.edu/degreecert/ Disability Resource Center. Facilitates full access for disabled students, faculty, staff, and visitors through the provision of reasonable accommodations, adaptive athletic and fitness programs, assistive technology, etc. 1540 East 2nd Street; 621-3268; uadrc@email.arizona.edu Financial Aid Office. Student loans and work study. Administration Building, Room 203, 621-1858; askaid@arizona.edu Housing. Off-Campus Housing provides weekly updated off-campus housing, roommate notices, and Tucson utility contact information International Student Programs & Services. Represents and advocates for international students, provides liaison with academic and other departments as well as state, federal, and foreign agencies; provides immigration and tax advising. 935 North Tyndall Avenue; 621-4627 Legal Services. ASUA provides free, confidential legal advice for students from a trained attorney MAP. Motorist Assistance Program assists vehicle issues including jump start, flat tires and accidentally locking keys in car. Provided free by Parking & Transportation. 621-AUTO OASIS. Works to reduce campus incidences of sexual assault and relationship violence. Old Main, room 228; 626-2051; thaag@email.arizona.edu Ombudsperson. An Ombudsperson can help you deal with problems you might have with the University. Provides informal means of problem resolution if you have University-related dispute. President’s Office, Administration Building, room 712; 626-5589 Parking & Transportation. Provides parking options and promotes transportation alternatives and shuttle routes Residency Classification. Instructions for obtaining Arizona Residency for tuition purposes. Education, room 122; 621-3636 S.A.L.T. Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques. SALT Center provides enhanced, for-fee services for students with documented learning disabilities. 1010 N. Highland Avenue; 621-1242 UofA Police Department. 1852 East First Street; 621-8273; For emergencies dial 911 Women's Resource Center. Organization devoted to providing resources and information about women’s issues. Located among the ASUA offices, 3rd floor of the Student Union next to the bookstore; 621-3919 Veterans Services & Deferment. Offers information and services related to the Montgomery GI Bill benefits from the Department of Veteran Affairs. Administration Building, room 313; 621-9501
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