Resources for Advisors and Students

Advising Handbook

Advising Handbook: 2025-2026

Instructions for Faculty Self-Service

Instructions for Student Self-Service

Override Instructions

Links:

Student Contract

Tutorial Proposal

Course add/drop (students *only for use after the first week of the semester)

Guidelines for Academic Advising

Each semester, faculty advisors and students check progress towards graduation requirements. Detailed graduation requirements by cohort can be found here
Faculty advisors are expected to meet in person on a regular basis with their advisees. The “advising days” set aside on the academic calendar are opportunities to do so.
Beginning early in a student’s career, be sure to talk with them about plans beyond simply their coursework. Study abroad, internships, and other similar activities can be crucial components of a student’s education, and they also take some planning and preparation.
Review the Mid-Semester Progress Reports for your first- and second-year advisees. Advisees with multiple concerns should engage with our Student Success Program.
In the fall semester, be sure that advisees who will need to do January ISPs are working on their plans, especially first-year students.
The Civic Literacy Requirement depends upon the year in which the students began studying at NCF. Details can be found here.

Minimum Units on Contract

Each contract must contain at least three units of educational activity that will be evaluated for transcript entry both before and after contract renegotiation. Students must maintain enrollment in at least three units throughout each contract. For this purpose,

One module-length (or module equivalent) course, tutorial, or IRP is equal to 1/2 unit
One full-semester course, tutorial, or IRP is equal to one unit

A contract reflects full-time status and normally includes four units of educational activity. This allows some flexibility for the advisor and student in case of contract renegotiation. If the advisor agrees that it is appropriate, extraordinary activities (such as a senior thesis) that require significantly more work than a single full-time unit may be divided into multiple units (with each unit receiving a separate evaluation).

Student Support Resources

On-Campus Resources (that you can recommend to your student advisees)
Health and Wellness concerns:

Health Services at the CWC: no out-of-pocket costs for general medical visits; trans-care available; by appointment is best (ext 4254); services available Monday and Wednesday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday 1-5 p.m., Friday 8 a.m. to noon.
After Hours Care – call the nurse advice line at ext. 4433
Mental Health Services at the CWC: individual by appointment (ext. 4254) and group sessions available; appointments for emergencies are available immediately during working hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

Academic and Skill-building

Schedule an appointment with a Student Writing Assistant (SWA) at the WRC (www.ncf.edu/academics/writing-program/contact-writing-program/)
Visit the Academic Resource Center for help with math, chemistry, physics, statistics, and computer science. The QRC is located in the Academic Resource Center in Cook Library at the west end of the first floor
The Office of Student Success (Joe Moore, Associate Director for Transition & Family Planning: [email protected]) helps students with study skills, test prep, and time management.

Accessible Learning Center (ALC):

If your advisee needs accommodations for disabilities, have them contact the Accessibility Learning Center (ALC) here.

Internships

The Center for Career Opportunity and Engagement has information on how internships can be added to student contracts.

Contract Renegotiation

After the student submits the contract to the Office of the Registrar, the student may revise it in consultation with the sponsor, a process called “contract renegotiation.” Educational activities may be added or dropped, and the certification criteria must be revised accordingly. The sponsor must endorse the changes. Students and advisors should be mindful of the add/drop deadline dates each semester.

Adding/dropping a class can have financial aid implications, and students and advisors should be up-to-date on current financial aid policies, which can be found here.

AA Degrees and Transfer Credits

Students who have earned an Associate of Arts degree through the Florida College System receive credit for three contracts, one Independent Study Project, and 15 units upon entry to New College. They also receive credit for having completed all LAC or CYC requirements.
Because of the compressed time frame in which transfer students operate, both they and their advisors should be particularly mindful of deadlines and AOC requirements. Be sure to verify the circumstances of transfer students.
See the following for Faculty Handbook language on earning an AA degree at NCF: Associate in Arts (A.A) Degree.

Academic Warning, Academic Probation, and Academic Dismissal

For more information on student academic progress, consult the Faculty Handbook section: SACS REVIEW.

A student receives an Academic Warning following either:

One unsatisfactory ISP.
Failure to complete three satisfactory ISPs by the end of the sixth semester.

A student is placed on Academic Probation following either:

One unsatisfactory contract.
Two unsatisfactory ISPs.

A student may appeal his or her probation to the Registrar on procedural grounds only (i.e., in cases of error or misunderstanding)

A Student is Academically Dismissed in any of the three following situations:

Two unsatisfactory contracts, which need not be consecutive.
In any order, one unsatisfactory contract and two unsatisfactory ISPs; again, they need not be consecutive.
One unsatisfactory contract, for students who were readmitted after having previously been dismissed.

The Registrar will notify the student and the advisor of the pending dismissal and schedule a hearing with the SASC. A student has the option of appealing his or her dismissal to the SASC.

Academic Success Referral (ASR) & Student Support Team (SST) Referral

Notes About Financial Aid

Faculty are not expected to advise students regarding financial aid. The College’s Enrollment
Services staff automatically audit all students for their academic eligibility for financial aid, in
January and in the summer. They will contact students when that aid status is restricted or
terminated, and when students come close to reaching their eligibility limit.

Timely evaluations and contract certifications are critical. In financial aid decisions, designations
of “incomplete” and “work all submitted” are essentially equivalent to “unsat” and could cause a student to lose funding. The importance of timely evaluation cannot be overemphasized,
including timely ISP evaluations. Students may need to discuss outstanding evaluations or
certifications with their faculty in an effort to clear their academic eligibility for aid.

In addition to satisfactory contracts and ISPs, academic eligibility for aid requires a progress rate of satisfactory completion of at least two-thirds of all cumulative units attempted. This is
calculated by dividing the number of satisfactory units by the number of all units attempted. “All units attempted” may include units that are not important to the student’s contract. In accordance with the U.S. Department of Education aid guidelines, these are included in “all units attempted”:

Units dropped through renegotiation

Units that are incomplete
Units lost through withdrawal or emergency leave
Units for which all work has been submitted, but for which the evaluation is in progress or has not been submitted.
Units accepted in transfer via work at a prior college or university, or off-campus study
Units attempted via off-campus study for which a transcript is still outstanding
Units evaluated as satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

There is some flexibility for satisfactory completion of a lower proportion of all units
attempted. At least one half of all units attempted must be satisfactorily complete for students in their first three contract attempts. (Contracts assigned through transfer credit count toward these contract attempts.) It is, however, very difficult to rise from a proportion of one-half to two-thirds in the course of one semester; it is even more difficult when larger numbers of unit attempts are involved.

Academic eligibility for financial aid also requires that the student can meet graduation
requirements within 46.5 total unit attempts. Enrollment Services staff will terminate aid if a
student cannot meet graduation requirements within 46.5 unit attempts, with satisfactory
completion of a typical load of four units per contract. In some unusual cases, a student could
meet graduation requirements within 46.5 total units but only with satisfactory completion of
more than four units per contract. In this case, termination can be appealed with a letter of
support from the advisor indicating that the student is likely to be successful with a greater
workload.

For additional detailed information, consult the Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy for
Financial Aid Purposes.

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