SCCP Student Grievance Policies

Individual Problems: When a student is experiencing a problem with any member of the college’s faculty or administration, the following process should be carried out. Prior to each step in the process, the student should seek advice from his or her faculty advisor.

1. Make an appointment with the individual with whom the problem exists, explain the problem, and try to resolve it. 
2. If the problem cannot be resolved directly, the student should then contact the individual’s supervisor.
3. If the problem is still unresolved, the student should complete a Grievance Report Form (found on the college’s Web site www.sccp.sc.edu) and forward it to the Associate Dean. The student should also make an appointment to meet with the Associate Dean. The Associate Dean will review the complaint and intervene if college or university policies have been violated. The Associate Dean will maintain a file of all such reported grievances and their outcomes. Situations that have not been resolved at this point will be referred to the SCCP Grievance Committee for final review and action.

Class Problems: When a class feels that there is a problem affecting the class as a whole, the following process should be carried out. Prior to each step in the process, the class president should seek advice from the class advisor.

1. The president should announce and hold a class meeting. Identify the problem(s), clearly reduce them to writing, and ensure that the class is in agreement by simple majority vote. If so, the class president should forward this written statement to the individual(s) involved and request a meeting. If the class president is unsure of whom to contact, he/she should consult the Assistant Dean for student affairs.
2. If a satisfactory understanding or solution is not obtained at this level, the class president should then contact the individual’s supervisor.
3. If the problem is still unresolved, the class president should complete a Grievance Report Form (found on the college’s Web site www.sccp.sc.edu), forward it and the previous written statement to the Associate Dean. The class president should also make an appointment to meet with the Associate Dean. The Associate Dean will review the complaint and intervene if college or university policies have been violated. The Associate Dean will maintain a file of all such reported grievances and their outcomes. Situations that have not been resolved at this point will be referred to the SCCP Grievance Committee for final review and action.

Accreditation Issues

Issues, questions, comments or complaints pertaining to accreditation should be directed to the Associate Dean on each campus.  The College will keep a file of all communications related to accreditation.  If issues or complaints have not been satisfactorily resolved at the College the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education’s (ACPE) may be contacted via email: csinfo@acpeaccredit.org.  The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education has offices at 20 North Clark Street, Suite 2500, Chicago, Ill. 60602-5109.  They may be contacted by phone at 312-664-3575, by fax at 312-664-4652, or via their Web site: www.acpe-accredit.org.

SCCP Student Advisement System

• Each professional class on both campuses will be assigned a faculty class advisor. This class advisor will be actively involved in orientation and should actively promote professionalism within the class; the class advisor should also serve as a problem solver for the class. The advisor may meet with class officers to plan class events such as community outreach. The faculty advisor follows the class throughout their academic career in SCCP. Faculty members may serve a four-year term as class advisor. The class advisors are appointed by the Assistant Dean for student affairs and approved by the chair of the department of the faculty member.
• SCCP faculty members will be encouraged to serve as academic advisors. A faculty advisor should serve as a contact person, problem solver, and mentor for each student assigned to them. The Assistant Dean for student services will meet at least once yearly with the academic advisors to update them on student policies and student support services.
• An advisement period of two weeks will be scheduled during each fall and spring semester and will be published in the SCCP master schedule. During this advisement period, students are encouraged to seek counsel from their faculty advisors.
• Each campus will assign a professor of record, who will enter grades into the campus records system for each specific course. After each major examination, this faculty member is expected to contact the individual students with grades of D+, D, or F on the exam and offer an opportunity to meet with them regarding their performance on the exam, as well as offer mechanisms for improvement. The professor of record is also expected to provide the campus dean’s office with a list of students receiving grades of D+, D, or F on the exam; this will allow the dean’s office to identify students with academic problems in multiple courses. The dean’s office will schedule academic progress conferences with students who have deficiencies in multiple courses. The dean’s office will also notify the academic advisors of students who have deficiencies across courses.

SCCP Student Dress Code

• The dress code is enforced in all practice laboratories and during all practice experiences.
• MUSC campus students must wear ID badges at all times on campus.
• Laboratory Practice Experiences: Students and instructors will be expected to dress in a clean and professional manner. The instructors and students are responsible for maintaining compliance with the dress code policy. Students not wearing clothing deemed appropriate by the instructors will be warned at the first offense; a second offense of this policy will result in the student being asked to return in appropriate dress. The following are the guidelines for appropriate dress:

Students: White jacket-length lab coat (long sleeves required, non-SCCP/commercial logos and badges not permitted), id badge, dress slacks, dress shirt with tie, dress, skirt, blouse, or sweater.
Inappropriate dress includes: Baseball caps, tight-fitting leggings/stirrup pants, spandex, jeans, shorts, tee-shirts, any type of sweat pants or sweatshirts, halter tops, tank tops, midriffs, backless tops, flip flops, open-toed shoes, fatigues, any attire or accessories that my be deemed unsafe or distracting in the laboratory practice setting.
Practice Experiences: Students in practice experiences must be properly attired.*  Appropriate dress includes jacket-length, long-sleeved white lab coat, prominent display of the student’s ID badge, dress slacks, dress shirt with tie, socks, dress, skirt, blouse, closed-toe business dress shoes.  No attire or accessories that my be deemed unsafe or distracting to patients will be permitted.

*Individual sites may have a more rigorous dress code; students must adhere to specific preceptor/site requirements. The described dress policy is mandatory during practice experiences, seminars, and professional events where students represent the S.C. College of Pharmacy.

SCCP Student Policy for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention and Intervention

• The specific policies for alcohol and other drug abuse prevention and intervention for students enrolled in the South Carolina College of Pharmacy are defined in the individual academic bulletins for the students’ campus of enrollment, the University of South Carolina-Columbia or the Medical University of South Carolina-Charleston. For students at the USC campus, Carolina Community provides additional guidelines, including notification of student rights under FERPA and other mandated notifications.

SCCP Severe Weather Policies

• The specific policies for severe weather scheduling changes will be determined by the SCCP administration based on guidelines for the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina.

SCCP Student Sexual Harassment Policy

• The specific policies regarding sexual harassment for students enrolled in the South Carolina College of Pharmacy are defined in the individual academic bulletins for the students’ campus of enrollment, the University of South Carolina-Columbia or the Medical University of South Carolina-Charleston. For students at the USC campus, Carolina Community provides additional guidelines, including notification of student rights under FERPA and other mandated notifications.

SCCP Student Honor Code

• Policies regarding honor code and academic integrity for students enrolled in the South Carolina College of Pharmacy are defined in the individual academic bulletins for the students’ campus of enrollment, the University of South Carolina-Columbia or the Medical University of South Carolina-Charleston. For students at the USC campus, Carolina Community provides additional guidelines, including notification of student rights under FERPA and other mandated notifications.
• Individual SCCP committees will be appointed at the USC campus and the MUSC campus to review and take action on situations regarding honor code violations and academic integrity issues on their specific campus. The academic bulletin for the campus involved will provide the guidelines for dealing with these situations.
• Once a year, at the end of the academic year, the appropriate SCCP committees at the individual campuses will hold a joint meeting to review specific committee actions for the year and to make recommendations regarding honor code and academic integrity issues for SCCP. If students on either campus have been found guilty of academic violations, the uniformity of sanctions between campuses will be evaluated. A report from this joint committee meeting will be forwarded to each campus dean and to the executive dean.