Pima Community College Glossary of Terms

Overview

“A” Number

This is a PCC student’s unique school ID number, always beginning with “A”. Treat this like as you would your Social Security number -- protected and private.

Academic Standards

• Good Standing

  • The College has a minimum academic requirement for all credit earning students. Students who maintain a 2.0 GPA and 67% completion rate cumulatively remain in good academic standing. Completion rate is calculated by dividing the number of credits that a student has attempted against the number of credits they have completed.
  • Withdrawals and re-takes are included in this calculation. If a student does not meet the minimum academic requirements, they will be placed on Academic Warning, Academic Probation or Academic Restriction.

• Warning

  • At this time your cumulative GPA has fallen below 2.0 and your completion rate is less than 67%. If you have any questions or would like to discuss your academic standing, you are encouraged to contact a Counselor or Advisor. To remove the hold on your account, you must complete one module in Student Lingo.

• Probation

  • Probation means you have remained below a cumulative 2.0 GPA and 67% completion rate for a second semester following Academic Warning. This is preventing you from staying on track with your graduation plans. To remove the hold placed on your account, you must schedule an appointment to meet with either a Counselor or Advisor to discuss your goals and review success strategies.

• Restriction

  • Academic Restriction means you have fallen below a 2.0 GPA for the most recent semester completed. Restriction occurs after being placed on Academic Probation at some point during your time in college. To remove the hold placed on your account, you must schedule an appointment to meet with either a Counselor or Advisor to discuss your goals and review success strategies.

Adjunct

An adjunct instructor is someone who is hired by a college to teach but isn’t a full-time member of the faculty.

Add/Drop/Withdraw

Be mindful that adding, dropping or withdrawing may affect financial Aid, veterans’ benefits, international student status, academic standing and athletic eligibility.

• Adding

  • After the registration deadline, you can add additional courses to your schedule. You must complete a Registration Form, obtain the instructor’s signature, and return the form to any campus Student Services Center. You will be charged an additional fee if an added class includes a course fee, or if you add a class after the refund deadline.

• Dropping

  • You must drop a class before the official refund deadline. You will receive a refund and the class will be erased from your record. Current students can view course-specific drop/refund deadlines in MyPima on the Academics tab under My Schedule. After the refund deadline, you will not receive a refund and may be financially liable for tuition and fees. Pima reserves the right to drop unpaid registrations.
  • Dropping unwanted classes remains the student’s responsibility.

• Withdrawing

  • Current students can view course-specific withdrawal deadlines in MyPima on the Academics tab under My Schedule. You will not receive a refund for a class from which you withdraw. You will receive a grade of “W” (official withdrawal) on your academic record. Withdrawing won’t affect your GPA, but a “W” will remain on your permanent record. Withdrawing from a class may affect your Academic Standing or your Satisfactory Academic Progress. If you do not follow the withdrawal procedure, you may receive a failing grade.

Access and Disability Resources (ADR) is located at each campus in the Student Services Center. ADR works with each student and faculty member to determine necessary accommodations. Pima does not charge students for accommodations and services approved by ADR. When you are ready to get started with the eligibility process, contact ADR to schedule an appointment with an ADR program specialist or complete an online application. For moreinfo, go to www.pima.edu > Current Students > Access & Disability Resources.

Advising

We recommend meeting with an advisor or counselor at least once each semester. Located at each campus, they support your academic goals by guiding you through procedures for classes, majors, unofficial degree checks and transferring. Each campus has a team of advisors ready to help you with your questions about college life. There are also assigned program advisors who are dedicated to the students enrolled in that program.

ARC Resource Center and Food Pantry

ARC Resource Center and Food Pantry locations are at Desert Vista, East and West Campuses. For hours and more details, visit pima.campuslabs.com/engage/organization/arc.

Computer Commons

All campuses have computing commons that students can use for word processing, to check email, log in to MyPima and conduct research online. Additionally, discipline- specific labs may also be available to students taking specific coursework. All computer commons have PCs and printers, Microsoft Office, JAWS, ZoomText, FSReader, and Read & Write. Some campuses offer additional hardware or software.

Co-requisite

Co-requisites are courses that are taken simultaneously with other courses. Example: MAT092S is a co-requisite for MAT 142.

Counseling

Counselors assist with general college procedures, student success skills, career exploration and personal concerns and crises.

Credit Hour

In college, credits has a specific meaning: one credit hour is one clock hour per week in class.

CRN

Course Registration Number (CRN). This is the unique number required to sign up for a specific section (unique days, times, campus, instructor) of a course. You find this info on the Class Schedule. Example:

• (CRN 54321) STU 100, section 1: MWF at 8am-10am on West Campus
• (CRN 54322) STU 100, section 2: MWF at 3pm-5pm on West Campus
• (CRN 54323) STU 100, section 3: TR at 1-3pm on Desert Vista Campus

Faculty Resource Center

A common room at each campus hosting resources, college mailboxes, and meeting spaces for adjunct office hours.

FERPA

Pima Community College informs its students annually of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. This act, with which the institution intends to fully comply, was designated to protect the privacy of educational records, to establish the right of students to inspect and review their education records, and to provide guidelines for the correction of inaccurate or misleading data through informal and formal hearings. Students who wish to grant the College permission to release certain information to a third party or who wish to withhold or release directory information must complete and submit the appropriate form. For more details and forms, go to https://bit.ly/30ziI5Y

Full-time Student

A student is considered full-time when they enroll in 12 or more credits per semester.

FYE

The First Year Experience (FYE) Program hosts seven different engagement opportunities on-campus and online for new Pima students who are within their first year (30 credits) at Pima.

Holds

A Student Account hold may be placed on your account for several reasons: a past due balance from a current or previous term; multiple registration deletions for non- payment; or the account has been passed to a collection agency. You cannot register for a new term or receive academic transcripts until all past due balances have been paid in full. To locate the hold on your account, log in to your MyPima > at the bottom of the Quick Links Tab, click on the lower left side of the page > click on the bottom hyperlink that says more online student services > Student Records > View Holds.

Honors

To join the Honors Program, you must successfully complete HON 101: Honors Colloquium with a grade of B or better. Students do not need to take HON or HC classes to participate in the Honors Club or the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) honor society.

Library

Each campus hosts a physical library where you can find a quiet spot to study and use your student ID to checkout books (including some textbooks), magazines, videos and games. Pima also offers a robust online library with search engines, e-books, online articles and free images.

MyAccountManager

MyAccountManager is located online in a student’s MyPima Account. This is where a student can pay their student account balance with debit or credit card or setup a payment plan.

Part-time Student

A student is considered part-time when they enroll in 6-11 credits per semester.

PimaConnect

PimaConnect is available in MyPima, within the Students tab, to connect a student with their success network. The success network includes a student’s instructor, counselor or program advisor. A student may be contacted by someone from their success network about their class progress during the semester.

PimaOnline

Pima’s virtual classes, degrees, advising and student resources.

Pima Text Alerts

PCC has activated the PCCAlert notification system to provide accurate information and guidance via text message and email to the PCC community about emergencies. Anyone can sign up for PCCAlerts (students, parents, employees, members of the community) by texting the word alerts to 79516.

Placement and Testing Centers

Located at each campus in the Student Services Center. This is where students take their accuplacer placement tests and any other college-related exam.

Placement Process

The College utilizes two processes to place students:

• Multiple Measures

  • If you have graduated from high school or earned your GED in the last three years, the College will utilize Multiple Measures for your initial placement.
  • The College will utilize your high school transcript information and/or any test scores (GED, SAT, ACT, AzMERIT) to place you in Mathematics, Reading, and Writing. Please call a Pima Community College Advising Center to set up an appointment and be sure to bring copies (unofficial is fine) of your documents to determine placement in math, reading, and writing. If the Multiple Measures placement level in any or all subjects is lower than you feel you are prepared for, an alternative is to prepare for and take the Accuplacer Placement Test(s). The College will use whichever method provides a higher placement.

• Accuplacer Placement Tests

  • If you have not graduated from high school or earned your GED in the last three years, Pima provides opportunities to practice and prepare for the Accuplacer Placement Tests. Students may also take these if they don’t believe their placement from Multiple Measures is accurate.

POS

Program of Study (POS). This is the “major” a student pursues for graduation.

Prerequisite

A course that is required to be completed (grade earned) before you may enroll in the next course. Example: WRT 101 is a prerequisite to WRT 102. An instructor may withdraw a student who does not have the proper prerequisites for the class. Prerequisites may also be waived by the instructor.

Program Pathway

This is a semester-by-semester degree plan of courses outlined to take in sequential order for timely completion.

Program Advisor

The assigned advisor to each of our “meta-majors” (collection of academic programs- or majors- that have related courses.)

QLess

A line management system in the Student Services Center designed for students to sign in to speak with an Academic Advisor, Program Advisor, Counselor and Financial Aid.

SAP

Students receiving financial aid or veterans benefits must meet Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) standards to receive funding. For details about these standards, go to https://bit.ly/2VDQzqQ

Section

Some classes have multiple offerings on different dates, times and campuses. Each unique option is called a section. Example:

• STU 100, section 1: MWF at 8am-10am on West Campus
• STU 100, section 2: MWF at 3pm-5pm on West Campus
• STU 100, section 3: TR at 1-3pm on Desert Vista Campus

Student Services Center (SSC)

The Student Services Center (SSC) is where you can receive academic advising, talk with a financial aid or veterans advisor, or meet with a counselor for career exploration or personal crisis management. Other departments in/near SSCs are cashiers, ADR, assessment and testing.

Student Accounts

The Pima department that manages your student account balance, including tuition, fees, overdue holds, etc. Visit any campus cashier’s office or email Bursaronline@pima.edu or call 520-206-4574.

Student Code of Conduct

Pima’s outline of policies specifying behavior that is accepted or prohibited in the College as well as in any setting that is related to the school. It is the responsibility of each student to familiarize themselves with these rules. To view, go to https://bit.ly/2K3YdJ9.

Student Life

Each campus hosts a Student Life office where students can get engaged in campus events, clubs, college-wide leadership events and student government. To learn more, go to pima.edu/engage.

Student Lingo

An online account with nine choices of online modules helping students set and achieve goals about skills/ strategies they want to improve for their own success. Completion is required to remove an academic warning hold so they can register for classes.

Syllabus

An academic document that communicates information about a specific course and defines expectations and responsibilities. It is descriptive (unlike a general course outline). Essential components are instructor information, general course information, course objectives, course policies, grading and evaluation, learning resources, and the course calendar.

Tech Corner

Offers free help to PCC students and employees with their mobile devices (laptops, tablets, cellphones) and PCC systems, such as MyPima and D2L. Tech Corner help desks are located at each campus. Services include hardware and software troubleshooting, malware removal, Wi-Fi setup and more.

Transcript (official)

An academic transcript lists your courses, grades and grade point average (GPA). At Pima, you order your official transcripts online through your MyPima account. You indicate whether you want to pick it up or have it delivered to another individual/college. Due to FERPA, the College cannot request or send transcripts on the student’s behalf. If you would like an official transcript evaluated from another college for transfer credit, complete a “Transcript Evaluation Form” in any Student Services Center, along with the sealed official transcript(s).

Transcript (unofficial)

An academic transcript lists your courses, grades and grade point average (GPA). At Pima, you can print a copy of your unofficial transcript through your MyPima account. If you would like an advisor to evaluate potential transfer credit from another college, you may use an unofficial copy for the initial review and advising conversation.