Faculty Advising Guidelines and Directions

For drops before the semester starts, please email the course information, names and student IDs with a request to drop to regweb@sfsu.edu. Please follow these instructions to drop a student week 1-3 of instruction:

  1. Login to the Faculty Center
  2. Select the Faculty Center tab
  3. Open the my schedule sub-tab. The My Teaching Schedule section will display all of the instructor's courses
  4. Click the class roster icon (little group of people) for the class the student(s) should be dropped from
  5. When the class roster opens, select the student(s) to be dropped using the Notify column check boxes
  6. Click the drop selected students button
  7. Click OK to confirm your changes
  8. On the confirmation screen, click Return

To see a video demonstration, please visit: Dropping Enrolled Students

Note: If a student cannot be dropped from a class, inform the student to check his or her Student Center for further instructions.

Please keep these things in mind if a student asks you about dropping during the normal drop/add period;

  • At SF State, dropping a course is the student’s responsibility.  However, faculty are authorized to instructor-drop students who do not attend the first class meeting, who do not meet the course criteria, or who do not participate in the course as required during the drop period.
  • Dropping or withdrawing from one or more classes may affect their status as a full-time student, their tuition calculation, and their financial aid eligibility.
  • If they are currently receiving financial aid or have received aid previously, they may be responsible for paying back some or all of the aid if you drop or withdraw from one or more classes. If they are unsure about your financial aid status, they will need to contact the Office of Student Financial Aid for information. The best way to contact that office is in person at the One Stop Student Services Building (recommended). They are not replying to email.
  • For information about refund calculations and deadlines, review the Bursar’s Office website.
  • International students should contact the Office of International Programs at f1@sfsu.edu, as drops and withdrawals can affect an international student’s visa status.
  • Students receiving veterans benefits also need to be mindful of the special rules required to receive benefits and continue eligibility. Contact the Veteran’s Service Center for assistance.

Withdrawals are student initiated. Below are directions you can send to a student who asks to withdraw, and guidelines for approving a withdrawal request.

Current Semester Withdrawals:

How do I submit a withdrawal? 

Go to gateway.sfsu.edu > Class Services > Grade Exception Processing > Request Withdrawal

  • Withdrawals (W’s) are for when students want to drop a class after the deadline. These must be requested by the student because they need a “serious and compelling” reason as suggested below.
  • Current semester withdrawals are all done completely online now and submitted by instructors for the first 13 weeks of the semester. 
  • W's stay on a student’s record but do not affect their GPA.  
  • No documentation is needed until after week 13 (check the registrar's calendar for details). After that, extra supporting documentation will be required. Send students to Katherine Kwid, via email at kkwid@sfsu.edu, see her in person in HUM 573 or call her at (415) 338-1891 her if you have questions.

Serious and Compelling Reasons are defined by the student, not the faculty, however we discourage dropping a student because they are not doing well in the course in general (see grade forgiveness policy). The only reasons that will be outright rejected by the university are those involving plagiarism and cheating.

Here is a list of possible reasons that may be given;

  • Serious and extended personal or family illness
  • Physical or mental health issues interfering with one’s ability to complete the course
  • Documented disability interfering with one’s ability to complete the course
  • Extended personal or family crisis
  • Death of a loved one
  • Significant financial problem making it impossible to come to class for extended periods
  • Change in work schedule making it impossible to come to class for extended periods
  • Change in child or other dependent care making it impossible to come to class for extended periods
  • Unanticipated and valuable educational or employment opportunity at the same time as class for extended periods
  • Military or extended jury service making it impossible to come to class for extended periods
  • Error by San Francisco State University faculty, staff or administrator
  • The student never attended class and the instructor did not drop the student before the end of the drop period.
  • Student is in first semester at SF State and misjudged amount of time SF State course work requires.

Appeal of the Deadline to Submit a Request for Withdrawal

Academic Policy requires that all requests to withdraw from a course must be submitted no later than the last day of instruction of that term. If circumstances clearly beyond your control prevented you from meeting this deadline, you may appeal for consideration. Please encourage your students to withdrawal during the normal withdrawal period to ensure easier approval. Appeals are being discouraged.

Appeals which are incomplete or which are based on circumstances within your control will be denied. Appeals for a full semester will be reviewed by the Board of Appeals and Review committee as appropriate. They will make a recommendation to the academic administrator appointed by the president for a final determination for withdraw proposals after the 13th week of the semester.

Your appeal should be submitted by email to Katherine Kwid and include:

  • A brief statement (1-2 pages) outlining the nature of the request, including an explanation of the circumstances that prevented you from meeting the deadline. The statement must include:

    • Student’s first and last name
    • Student’s SF State ID number
    • Current email and phone number
    • Semester and year (e.g. spring 2020) for which you are requesting the withdrawal(s)
    • Department(s) and course number(s) for each course for which you are requesting withdrawal
  • Documentation of the accident or serious illness that clearly matches the time period for which you are requesting the withdrawal.
  • Approval to withdraw from the instructor(s) and department chair(s) for the course(s). If there is more than one course involved, you must secure approval from the instructor and department chair for each course. Please note, if an instructor is no longer available, you can secure the department chair’s approval. Approval can be secured via SFSU email and those emails must be included in your documentation.

Assigning a Withdrawal Unauthorized

Go to gateway.sfsu.edu > Class Services > Faculty Center > Grade Roster

Login in to the Faculty Center and assign the student the grade on your Grade Roster. Click "save" at the bottom of the page. You do NOT need to approve the grades at the top of the page.

  • A Withdrawal Unauthorized (WU) is a forced withdrawal for students who disappear during the semester for an extended amount of time and don't complete enough work to be assigned a grade. 
  • WU's are not only important to remove students from SETE's, but they also give us data about whether the student attended the class and failed or stopped attending. This helps us know how effective we are in retaining and teaching our students. So please assign WU’s when appropriate!
  • You should generally try to contact the student at least a couple of times to see if they have a reason for a normal withdrawal before considering a WU. 
  • The WU is only used for students who stop attending class after the drop deadline and have not been in contact with you (3 weeks or more of no contact--if it is a borderline case and you are not sure what to do, please contact Tyler). 
  • WU's are not available to assign until grade rosters become available late in the semester (around week 12 usually)
  • If a student is taking the class CR/NC, you can assign a NC instead of a WU.
  • WU’s can be assigned until grades are due, but if they are assigned to a student before a certain deadline provided by the registrar, students will be ineligible to fill out a SETE evaluation.
  • If you are thinking of giving a WU to a student in the first semester of a stretch course (such as ENG 104), note that a WU will mean the student will not be eligible to take the next semester or repeat stretch, and will instead have to enroll in the accelerated course. So make sure you try to communicate this to the student before assigning a WU.

To access your waitlist after the semester has began, follow these steps;

  1. Login to the SF State Gateway
  2. Select Class Services
  3. In the Prerequisite Roster section, select the term from the drop-down box
  4. Click the Go button (double arrow)
  5. View the class list:
    • Faculty: The class list displays all of the instructor's courses
    • Staff and administrators: Use search boxes (Class ID/Title, Class Category, Class Type) to search for individual classes
  6. Select the check box for the roster(s) you would like to view
  7. Click the Get Class Roster button
  8. The class roster displays enrollment information for all students. To view just the waitlisted students, click the Skip to Waitlist as of ... link.

Course substitutions are done by submitting an Advisor Request through the department office. To submit a substitution, please send an email to Katherine Kwid, kkwid@sfsu.eud, containing the following information;

  1. Student ID
  2. Course ID, institution, and year and semester taken of course to be substituted
  3. Which area the substitution to be counted in. (Ex: Area E, Literature; The genre.)

You may direct students to forward emails to me if your approval is stated in the body of the email. Students will receive an email from the Registrar when the substitution has been approved. Students who have received a preliminary denial of their graduation application should be asked to reach out to the graduation specialist to ask them to reevaluate their graduation when the substitution goes through. 

  1. Login to the SF State Gateway
  2. Select Class Services
  3. Select Grade Exception Processing
  4. Select the Grade Change Previous Term button in the left navigation
  5. Select the term from the Change Term drop-down box and click Change Term
  6. Select the correct class from the Course List and click Select Class
  7. When the roster opens, locate the correct student record and click Change Grade
    Note: If the link is not available and the field reads Cannot Change Online, contact your college/department
  8. Verify the correct student was selected
  9. Select the correct grade in the Grade To drop-down box
  10. Enter details in the Instructor Justification field
  11. Click Submit Grade Change

The grade change will be submitted to the department chair. When the chair approves the change, the instructor and student will receive notice via email.

Our B.A. applications to graduate are now being done entirely online beginning Spring 2021! The registrar will be using the students Degree Progress Report (DPR) to track their graduation. To review a graduation with a student;

  • Send them to the Advising Resource Center first! The ARC can review the students general education credit, and all requirements outside of the Creative Writing requirements and then send them back to you once they are cleared.
  • When you meet with the student, you can ask them to fill out the B.A. advising worksheet, which can help you understand that they are on track without looking at the DPR; however if you do not review the DPR with the student, please make sure they are checking their DPR. If the student has not yet registered for the semester that they will be graduating in, they will likely apply for graduation before their DPR will be cleared of red marks. You can help the student understand what courses they will need to register for when they can, and ask them to make sure those requirements are showing up as fulfilling the requirement in the DPR once they register.

-If the DPR has a discrepancy, and a course is not populating correctly, please get in touch with me about programming the correction. If a course substitution is needed, please follow the steps above on Course Substitutions accordion.

Petitions vary per student. Please email kkwid@sfsu.edu with any questions about petitions. You can find the generally used petitions for the university in the following locations:

Commonly Used Petitions:

The University is using two formats for online teaching. If you need assistance with either of these platforms, please reach out to Academic Technology, at@sfsu.edu; (415) 405-5562. 

Canvas Guides:

iLearn Guides: 

Ordering Supplies:

  • To order Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including masks, hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes, please login to this portal to place a request by form; Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management. Please click on +New to create a request, with the title of Supply Request. 
  • If you need supplies for your office which are unavailable in the Department Office, please reach out to Katherine Kwid, kkwid@sfsu.edu. Please check the bottom drawer of the file cabinet below the mailboxes in HUM 573 for available supplies.

Building Access:

  • If a classroom is locked and you need access to it, you may call Facilities Services for access at (415) 338-1568 between 9 and 5 p.m.  
  • If you need access to your office, you may stop by the Creative Writing Department office between 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Friday or call us at (415) 338-1891. If we are unavailable, please call the Liberal and Creative Arts Dean's Office at (415) 338-1471 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
  • If it is outside of these hours, you may call the non emergency UPD phone number for access to any room at (415) 338-7200.

Technology Help:

  • If you need assistance with the technology in your classroom, please reach out to Academic Technology at at_desk@sfsu.edu or calling them at (415) 405-5562. 
  • If you need assistance with the computer in your office, please reach out to Information Technology by submitting an email to service@sfsu.edu, filling out a request in their IT Service Portalor calling them at 415-338-1420. 

PLOs 2020

Title of Degree: Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing

Overview

Program Learning Outcomes

  1. Creative Work: Students will produce a written creative work demonstrating growth as writers.
  2. Professional Preparation: students will demonstrate skills in fields related to literature and/or creative writing, including publishing, writing, teaching, editing, book arts, and/or arts management.
  3. Literature: Students will read, discuss, and analyze the work of a broad range of writers from diverse racial and cultural backgrounds and explain how literature in general, and their own genre in particular, relates to larger human experience.
  4. Craft Elements: Students will write and revise creative nonfiction, fiction, plays, and/or poetry using the elements of craft to embody their individual and universal visions as well as analyze and discuss craft elements in their peers’ work.

 

New PLOs for the MA in Creative Writing

Title of Degree: Master of Arts in Creative Writing

Overview

Program Learning Outcomes

  1. Creative Work:  Students will produce a publishable written creative work that demonstrates individual and universal vision and a high level of craft skills.
  2. Professional Preparation: Students will demonstrate professional level skills in fields related to literature and/or creative writing, including publishing, writing, teaching, editing, book arts, and/or arts management.
  3. Literature: Students will read, discuss, and analyze the work of a broad range of writers from diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, as well as explain how literature in general, and their own genre in particular, relates to larger human experience.
  4. Craft Elements: Students will write and revise creative nonfiction, fiction, plays, and/or poetry using the elements of craft as well as analyze and discuss craft elements in their peers’ creative work.

 

PLOs for the MFA in Creative Writing

Program Learning Outcomes

  1. Creative Work:  Students will produce a publishable written creative work that demonstrates individual and universal vision and a high level of craft skills.
  2. Professional Preparation:  Students will demonstrate professional level skills in fields related to literature and/or creative writing, including publishing, writing, teaching, editing, book arts, and/or arts management.
  3. Literature: Students will read, discuss, and analyze the work of a broad range of writers from diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, as well as explain how literature in general, and their own genre in particular, relates to larger human experience.
  4. Craft Elements: Students will write and revise creative nonfiction, fiction, plays, and/or poetry using the elements of craft as well as analyze and discuss craft elements in their peers’ creative work.