Academic Regulations

The WCC curriculum integrates the materials that constitute the major subjects of the liberal education in a way that illumines their meaning and shows their relevance to one another. As a consequence, all students in the program take the same courses in a predetermined order, and all are required to attend full-time.

Successful completion of the entire set curriculum, consisting of 141 credits of coursework is required to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts. Three of the 141 credits consist of the Senior Thesis and Oration (TRV 401–402). A minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 is also required.

Enrollment

Admitted freshmen are enrolled on the date when Wyoming Catholic College receives the student’s Commitment of Attendance form and required deposit. Re-enrollment for returning students occurs when the College timely receives the annual Re-Commitment of Attendance form.

Registration

Enrolled students are officially registered for the academic year when all required forms are completed and signed by the student and received by the Registrar. These forms include, but are not limited to, proof of health insurance, health information update, Registration form, Acknowledgement of Access to Educational Records, Acknowledgement and Assumption of Risk and photo release. In addition, students and parents must complete and sign the Payment Plan and Promissory Note and all WCC loan documents, if applicable. In addition, there must be no unresolved disciplinary or academic problems.

Academic Advising & Tutoring

Wyoming Catholic College has a set curriculum and course load for every student for all four years and thus needs no assigned advisors. The Academic Dean and the faculty are readily available to students for consultation and counsel about any difficulties they may be having. Additional tutoring in any subject can be arranged for students who request it; at times students may be required to seek tutoring. In general, it is the student’s responsibility to seek out help from professors, rather than waiting for it to be offered.

Don Rags

About mid-way through each semester, each freshman and sophomore student meets with his teachers as a group to receive positive and constructive comments about his academic performance. The Academic Dean may choose to meet with freshmen and/or sophomores to discuss various aspects of the intellectual life and of their academic progress. In place of Don Rags, juniors and seniors are expected to ask about their standing with their professors.

Practica

Wyoming Catholic College occasionally offers Practica in theology and sometimes other disciplines. More information on these practica may be found in Part V below.

Although the College sees it as intrinsically more important that students acquire good habits than that they achieve high grades, grades are given to help record the student’s academic progress and to provide graduate and professional schools with the information they need to assess applications for admission.

Grading System

Wyoming Catholic College uses a 4.0 grading scale. Letter grades, including pluses and minuses, are awarded for courses; the grade of “A+” is not given. The chart below indicates numerical equivalents for letter grades, as well as a description of how the grades are to be understood.

A student’s GPA for each semester, as well as the cumulative GPA, is recorded on a report card and on the student’s transcript. At the end of each semester, grades are sent to each student and to his or her parents, according to the agreement signed by the student. If a student or the student’s parents have any outstanding debts to the College, the student will not be allowed to re-register or to obtain a transcript.

Academic Honors

A student earning a semester GPA of 4.0 is placed on the President’s List; 3.7 or higher is placed on the Dean’s List; 3.5 or higher is placed on the Honors List.

Graduating with Honors

Students graduate with honors if they achieve the following cumulative GPAs: cum laude for a GPA of 3.5 or above; magna cum laude for a GPA of 3.7 or above; summa cum laude for a GPA of 3.85 or above.

Class Preparation

Both the preparation of a text by careful reading, and its treatment in the classroom, are ordered to a deeper understanding of the truth. Students should allot as much time as necessary to prepare the assignments.

Class Attendance

Class attendance at Wyoming Catholic College is mandatory. At his own discretion, a professor may choose to accept work missed due to an absence. Each course syllabus specifies in detail the impact of absences on the grade for a given course.

Further, the College sees class attendance as an important component of community life at the College. Therefore, if a student misses more than two weeks of a given class for any reason, he or she will have to appear before the Disciplinary Committee which will then determine whether any disciplinary action needs to be taken, including probation or dismissal from the College.

The Lecture Series is an essential part of the College curriculum, and attendance is mandatory. Students are required to sign the attendance sheet at each lecture.

Authority of Professors

A professor may exclude or suspend from class a student acting in a disruptive or unbecoming manner. If there are repeated violations or the incident is sufficiently serious the matter will be referred to the Disciplinary Committee for action, which could include expulsion.

Academic Probation

The minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 required to graduate is based on a judgment that a student who does not, to a certain determinate extent, grasp and retain the materials learned in class is not in fact successfully completing the College’s integrated curriculum. Hence, a freshman, sophomore, or junior whose semester GPA falls below 2.0 will be put on academic probation for the following semester. If such a student fails to attain a semester GPA of 2.0 or higher for any semester in which he is on academic probation, he will be dismissed from the College. In order to be taken off academic probation, that student must raise his cumulative GPA to at least 2.0. If the student does not raise his cumulative GPA to at least 2.0 within two consecutive semesters, he will be dismissed from the College. For seniors, a minimum semester GPA of 2.0 for each semester of senior year is required in order to graduate from the program.

Academic Failure

Normally, a student who receives an F in any course will not be permitted to continue at the College. In certain cases, the Academic Dean in consultation with the faculty may allow a student to make up the F by retaking tests or completing missing work in order to obtain a passing grade. The instructor of the course, in consultation with the Dean, will determine the exact nature of the assignments or tests needed to fulfill the requirements for a passing grade. Students in this situation must complete all assigned work either during the Christmas holidays or during the first month of the summer vacation. A student who fails multiple courses will not be given an opportunity to make up the grades.

Appealing Grades

Students who receive a letter grade of C– or below for a course have the option of formally appealing their grade, if they have discussed the grade with the course instructor and not come to a satisfactory resolution. The student must contact the Academic Dean within three weeks of the reception of the grade. The student appealing the grade has the responsibility of providing evidence to support the claim that the grade should be higher. The appeal, with evidence, will be considered first by the Academic Dean, and, if he judges it necessary, by the Academic Council.

Incompletes

If a student is unable to complete the requirements for a required academic course by the end of the semester, he may ask the instructor for an incomplete, and the instructor, in consultation with the Academic Dean, may at his discretion grant the student one month from the last day of the semester to complete the work. Incompletes are granted only in dire circumstances, such as a serious illness. If after one month the coursework is still incomplete, a student will receive the grade he has earned for that course.

Withdrawal

A student may voluntarily withdraw from the College before completing seven weeks’ worth of classes. The transcript will show “W” for each of that semester’s courses. A student who thus withdraws is entitled to receive a refund of payments already made toward the remainder of tuition, room, and board.If a student withdraws after the seventh week of classes but before completing the twelfth week, he will receive “WP” or “WF” on the transcript for each of that semester’s courses, indicating whether he had a passing or a failing grade at the point at which he withdrew. A student who has withdrawn after the seventh week will not be entitled to a refund for tuition, room, board or fees for that semester.A student is not permitted to withdraw after the twelfth week of class. Should he leave the college at that point, his transcript will show an F for each of that semester’s courses.

Reapplying to the College

A student who fails to meet the terms of academic probation, suffers dismissal due to one or more failing grades, or withdraws may inquire about reapplying to WCC. Such cases will be reviewed by the Director of Admissions, the Academic Dean, and the Director of Student Life. A student who left because of a failure to meet academic probation would reapply to begin anew the semester in which he first earned probation; thus, two full semesters would need to be repeated.

Repeating a Semester

When a student repeats a semester for any reason, all the new grades, even if lower than before, will replace the previous grades on transcripts and for the purposes of GPA calculation. Students who are permitted to repeat a year are required to take all classes, including the outdoor trips. A student mentor will be provided to help the student with his schoolwork in his repeating year.

At the center of WCC’s mission is the formation of the mind. Teachers use written and other assignments to discover whether a student understands a certain truth or possesses certain intellectual habits, and then they teach based on what they have discovered. Any attempt to defeat these assignments by deceiving the teacher about what work the student has done for himself constitutes intellectual dishonesty. Because it is an offense against truth itself, and because it attempts to prevent teachers from teaching, such dishonesty is a direct attack on the common good of the College: as far as it lies in his power, the student who cheats or plagiarizes opposes the reason for WCC’s existence. Moreover, any commendations or benefits the cheater or plagiarist gains through his grades are effectively stolen, and in some cases stolen from others who should rightfully have received them.

Teachers expect that students will help each other in the initial brainstorming stage of an assignment, and so they are not deceived when students help each other in this way. Students also commonly ask one another to read an essay draft to check for clarity and persuasiveness. However, it is wrong to do any of the following:

• To submit an essay written in whole or in part by another student as if it were your own, or to copy another student’s homework and submit the work as if it were the product of your own labor;
• To use or download an essay from the internet, then quote or paraphrase from it, in whole or in part, without acknowledging the original source;
• To restate verbatim or paraphrase another author’s work or to reproduce the substance of an author’s argument without acknowledging the source;
• To take work originally done for one instructor’s assignment and resubmit it to another teacher;
• To cheat on tests or quizzes through the use of hidden notes, viewing another student’s paper, revealing or receiving test or quiz answers through verbal or textual communication, sign language, or other means of storing and communicating information.

Any action of this sort will result in failure of the assignment. Repeated acts of intellectual dishonesty will normally entail expulsion from Wyoming Catholic College.

St. John Paul II’s Apostolic Constitution Ex corde Ecclesiae (1990), which established binding norms for Catholic institutions of higher education, speaks of academic freedom in the following way:

Catholic teaching and discipline are to influence all university activities, while the freedom of conscience of each person is to be fully respected. Any official action or commitment of the University is to be in accord with its Catholic identity. (Part II, Art. 2)

Freedom in research and teaching is recognized and respected according to the principles and methods of each individual discipline, so long as the rights of the individual and of the community are preserved within the confines of the truth and the common good. (General Norms, Art. II, §5)

At Wyoming Catholic College, students enjoy to the full the same rights of intellectual inquiry, and bear the same responsibilities of conscience, as do their teachers. In every way the College’s curriculum and campus life are ordered to the flourishing of its members in the love of truth and the living out of authentic freedom.

Records Policy

The academic transcript and its contents as required by law, as well as alumni contact information, will be maintained upon a student’s departure in good standing. Dismissal records are also maintained. All other files will be destroyed five years after the date of graduation or departure.

Student Access to Records

Students will have supervised access to all their records. Records are kept with the Registrar. Access to the student files is permitted to those who have a legal right and who demonstrate legitimate cause to the Registrar.

Transcripts

To obtain a transcript, please fill in a Transcript Request Form and submit it to the Registrar for processing. Transcripts will not be released for any student that has an outstanding obligation to the College. Outstanding obligations include, but are not limited to: tuition; overdue library books and fines; return, repair, or replacement of OAP equipment; airport shuttle fees; work study shortfalls and other fees. Due to privacy considerations, transcripts will not be faxed. Recording errors should be brought to the attention of the Registrar.

Transcripts from other institutions submitted to Wyoming Catholic College become the property of the College and will not be reproduced or mailed to other institutions, agencies or individuals as an official transcript. Students must request such transcripts from the institution from which those transcripts were originally issued.

Certifications of Enrollment

Certification or Verification of Enrollment for insurance, employment, scholarships or other purposes, may be obtained from the Registrar. The Registrar can also fill in and sign forms for good student discounts, loan deferments, etc.

Wyoming Catholic College admits students of any race, color, religion, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded to or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, hiring and employment practices, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.