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Academic Support

Westmont is committed to providing opportunities for strong intellectual growth. This growth includes more than mastering course content alone. The college also challenges you to improve your ability to think clearly and to state ideas accurately and effectively. Professors will encourage you to express personal values openly and to challenge and evaluate competing ideas with fairness and insight.

Academic Advising
Westmont faculty are eager to provide quality, helpful academic advising. But you must take the initiative to develop a relationship with your faculty adviser, making appointments in advance of registration to get to know them and to discuss your future. Your faculty will know the details of your academic program and general education requirements. Much of this information can also be found in the college catalog (found on our Web page), and all academic policies and procedures can be found on the registrar’s Web site. Additional information about academic advising and resources to develop academic success can be found here. If you want to switch your academic adviser, you must fill out a form from the registrar’s office. If you have additional questions, feel free to contact the director of academic advising and disability services, Michelle Hardley at x6159 or mhardley@westmont.edu.

Directed Study
Westmont offers a variety of directed-study programs, including tutorials, general honors, major honors, in-course honors, practica, and research. Consult the college catalog for specific details, or discuss your interests with individual faculty.

Library and Information Services
The main level of the three-story Voskuyl building is the entry point both to the building and to the services of the library. Standard features of the library (the circulation, reserve, and references services) are on this floor, along with inter-library loan. A collection of CD’s and videos is stored behind the circulation desk.

The lower level contains the offices of information technology, along with laboratories for general computing needs and language and graphics computing. The upper level houses the greater part of the library’s book collection. Several offices are located there as well: Office of Life Planning, director of academic advising and disability services, director of internships programs, director of intercultural programs, Writer’s Corner and college Web master. Fines for overdue books in general circulation are $.25 per day, and for overdue reserve materials $.25 per hour.

Library circulation hours: Monday-Thursday, 7:45 am to 1 am: Friday. 7:45 am to 6 pm; Saturday, 9:30 am to 6 pm; Sunday 1:30 pm to 1 am. Circulation and reference services are closed during chapel.

Registrar and Student Records Office

The student records office is the college custodian of academic records, transcripts, and test results. Class schedules, academic policies, information about procedures, and clarification of graduation requirements are available from the student records staff.

Information relating to an alternative major, concurrent enrollment, CLEP, credit by exam, general honors, major honors, grade point average, academic probation or suspension, academic petitions, adding and dropping classes, and tutorials also comes from this office. If you need to secure an adviser, change advisers, or declare a major, you can receive assistance by talking with any of the student records staff. Please consult the Registrar's Web site for more detailed information.

The student records office is located on the first floor of Kerrwood Hall and is open Monday-Friday from 9 to 3:30 p.m., but closed for chapel from 10:15 to 11:30 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Support Services

Westmont offers support in two areas: academic skills and supplemental instruction.

Academic Skills
The Successful Scholars Seminar (APP 002), especially for students new to Westmont, is a six-week, non-credit course that provides an extended orientation to academic aspects of college life. If you have any questions, contact academic advising and disability services at x6159. If you would like to participate in the course you may add it to your course schedule through the registrars office.

Supplemental Instruction
Supplemental instruction is tailored to individual courses. It usually takes the form of exam review sessions, homework labs, or small group tutorials led by students who have done well in that class.

These programs meet the needs of most of our students most of the time. However, you may have problems in a particular class or feel you are not progressing in the way you would like. Don’t hesitate to contact the director of academic advising and disability services if you need additional help, x6159.