Welcome Back, NC State Faculty

Dear Faculty Colleagues,

Welcome back to campus for the 2024-25 academic year! It’s the first week of classes, and we’re excited to welcome new and returning students as well as new faculty to NC State. Wolfpack Welcome Week is in full swing, and I hope you’ve had the chance to participate in the activities on campus. Our first-year students started arriving last week, and with your hard work and dedication, they will graduate as part of the class of 2028.

The new academic year is off to a fantastic start! More than 44,000 students applied to NC State for this year, the highest number of freshman applications we’ve ever seen. With that, we are also welcoming our largest incoming class ever! Over 7,200 new students, including more than 5,800 first-year students and 1,450 transfer students, arrived this week from 97 North Carolina counties, 49 states and territories and 42 countries. Additionally, 18 percent of these students are first-generation students. This cohort is also academically well-prepared, with a weighted high school GPA of 4.31. 

On Sunday, Aug. 18, New Student Convocation was held for our first-year students, and it was a great success. We were thrilled to have Dr. Jason Bocarro, Owens-Shelton Distinguished Professor of Leadership with a Global Perspective and James Buzzard Leadership Development Program Director at NC State, as the speaker. He emphasized the importance of building relationships with faculty and students, making use of the world-class faculty and facilities at NC State, and not letting mistakes define you. It was truly inspiring to witness the enthusiasm of our students as they begin their journeys at NC State.

Events continue throughout Wolfpack Welcome Week, the most important of which is the start of your classes. We encourage you to enjoy some of the week’s activities and attend Packapalooza on Saturday, Aug. 24, our annual all-day street festival that caps off Wolfpack Welcome Week.

Please consider a few items as you prepare for the new academic year. One of our primary goals at NC State is ensuring student success. With that in mind, we want to remind you again of what you already know: you, the faculty, have the primary impact on our students and their progress. Please discuss the following topics with your students during the first week of class, especially with our first-year students who may not yet understand what it takes to succeed in a college environment.

Attendance

• Regular class attendance provides a strong indicator of student academic success. Students who miss classes are less successful. Remind your students that classroom activities remain equally important to outside assignments and often cover material students can’t get elsewhere.
• Excused absences – please review the Attendance Regulation – REG 02.20.03
  • Instructors must keep a record of attendance in 100- and 200-level courses.
  • The policy covers excused absences, including student representation of the university (e.g., athletics), military commitments, religious observances, and personal reasons, such as death or illness in the family. 
  • You must provide a fair and equitable arrangement for students to make up assignments for excused absences. Simply dropping an exam score can put a student at a disadvantage compared to other students in the class.
• We encourage you to review the Absence Verification website for information on anticipated and unanticipated absences.

Classroom Engagement

While moving through the semester, consider discussing with your students:

• How they can engage in and out of class with you, their classmates and the material covered;
• Your expectations; 
• How to prepare for class to make their classroom learning more productive; and
• The importance of office hours as a means to engage with you.

Academic Integrity

Integrity — in the pursuit, creation, application, and dissemination of knowledge is a key value at NC State. Please consider using the Pack Pledge on your syllabi, assignments, exams, and any other academic evaluations. The Pack Pledge states, “I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this test or assignment.”

If a student violates that pledge or participates in any form of academic misconduct, you are responsible for holding the student accountable. If a student engages in this behavior in your class, there is a strong chance it will, or has, occurred in another. Please talk to your students about the importance of being contributing, ethical members of this community of scholars. Please contact the Office of Student Conduct for assistance in promoting academic integrity and addressing violations.

Academic Support

Your students may need extra academic support outside of class. Resources available to them for academic support that you or others can offer include:

• Office hours
• Tutoring, including the Academic Success Center
• College/departmental advisors and support services
• DASA’s Academic Advising Services 
• Use of the Navigate Student Advising Platform. Record your advising notes there.
• Students with documented disabilities may need reasonable accommodations for equitable educational access. If a student requests accommodations without documentation from the Disability Resource Office, please contact the Disability Resource Office for assistance.

Student Wellness

Please remember that while students strive for success, they may encounter mental and physical health situations that may detract from their ability to thrive in an academic atmosphere. These situations are a continuing problem on our campus and other campuses nationally. If you have a struggling student in your class, especially during the beginning of the semester, please consider submitting an Academic Progress Report through the Navigate platform.

If you have a student exhibiting concerning behavior, please take one or more of the following steps:

• Refer the student to a CARES Case Manager through our NC State CARES Team. We can assist students who may be having difficulties, and you will also find many resources that may be useful to you as you work with your students.
• If a student is in severe emotional distress, please refer the student to the Counseling Center, and if your concerns warrant it, escort the student to the center.

Here are a few more reminders as we enter the new academic year:

• Last year, we launched a new Wolfpack Wellness website with filterable campus and community resources to help our community thrive.
• Two wellness days have been announced for this academic year: Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, and Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. No classes will be held on these days, and instructors should avoid any tests or deadlines on the following day.
• If students need to discuss their particular situation and review available resources, they may do so in a confidential meeting with the Student Ombuds. 

Office of Student Life and Advocacy

New this year is the Office of Student Life and Advocacy (OSLA). The office was created in response to one of the recommendations from the Student Mental Health Task Force and brings together Fraternity and Sorority Life, Student Leadership and Engagement and a newly formed unit, Resiliency and Community Support. The new office will serve as the nexus for student support on our campus and will serve as the initial point of contact for students, families, faculty, staff, administration, and the community to triage acute student needs and make referrals to campus partners. In this, OSLA will act as a conduit to a myriad of services, including student engagement opportunities, helping students find their niche and a sense of belonging, policy and process clarification, navigation of campus resources, assistance during emergency or crisis situations, or for general questions about campus. 

Resiliency and Community Support will provide dedicated staffing to support the Pack Essentials program, including the Feed the Pack Food Pantry, off-campus student outreach and engagement, absence verification, written student complaints, emergency management and crisis response, Wolfpack Pick Up, and event support. If you become aware of a student experiencing food, housing, or financial insecurity, please encourage them to visit the Pack Essentials website for a listing of basic needs support. 

Emergency Preparedness

Finally, I encourage you to include emergency information in your syllabus. The Department of Emergency Management and Mission Continuity developed brief language on the Faculty Resource page of Emergency Management and Mission Continuity’s website. Below is a recommended paragraph for quick reference:

• Emergency Preparedness: Familiarize yourself with the building(s) you frequent. Know the layout, including exit locations, stairwells and the Emergency Assembly Point (EAP). Review the “Quick Guide for Emergencies” found near the door in many classrooms for specific emergency information and instructions. If the quick guide is unavailable in your classroom or for additional information, visit wolfalert.ncsu.edu or go.ncsu.edu/EMMC. To receive emergency notifications, keep your information and cell phone number up-to-date in MyPack Portal. 
• To report an emergency, call 911 from a campus landline or 919.515.3000 from a cell phone while on campus.

Thank you for being an integral part of NC State students’ success. We look forward to an engaging and productive 2024-2025 academic year. Please visit our website for information and resources to help your students become successful and productive NC State citizens.

I wish you all the best for the academic year!

Doneka R. Scott
Vice Chancellor and Dean
Division of Academic and Student Affairs

This post was originally published in DASA.