- Information About:
This portion of the orientation will familiarize you with the policies and procedures of greatest relevance to you as an MBA student, as well as discuss how to resolve some of the most common administrative questions and problems.
MBA students are admitted to the program as fully approved, conditionally approved, temporarily approved, or conditionally temporarily approved. The letter you received from the Office of Admissions and Records lists your approval status in the fields "Admissions Status" and "Classification."
Questions regarding your admission status should be posed to an admissions analyst in the Office of Admissions and Records. They are your best source of information regarding your transcripts, GMAT scores, and any technical difficulties you encounter related to your admission or the registration process.
SBA employs three academic advisors--Rhiannon Davila at the Victoria campus; Kristy Hennessey at the Sugar Land campus; and Rosie McCusker at the Cinco Ranch (Katy) campus. When you were admitted to the MBA program under any status, your admission information was provided to your advisor. She will review your records and our admission decision and prepare a degree plan for your signature. Regardless of your admission status, you will not be allowed to register for a second semester as an MBA student until you have signed and returned your degree plan. The purpose of filing an official, signed degree plan is to protect your interests--once you have been formally admitted to the program, as long as you remain a student in good standing we cannot make changes to your degree plan that would result in an overall appreciable increase of total credits required for graduation.
Your SBA academic advisor will be your primary point of contact with UHV throughout your enrollment. She will be available to you for questions you may have about your program and your course schedule. In addition, your advisor will be your liaison with the School of Business Administration. If you have a crisis which affects your enrollment in the program, your first contact should be with your advisor, who can assist you in developing an action plan and, if necessary, assist you in apprising your faculty of your circumstances. Your advisor will also be your representative in the event that you need to file an appeal for an exception to SBA policies. All MBA students are encouraged to establish positive relationships with their advisors early to take full advantage of the benefits that these professionals have to offer their advisees.
UHV students may register online for each semester. A complete course schedule and registration instructions will be available from our website before registration opens. Registration typically opens approximately two months before the beginning of a regular semester, or one month before a summer term. SBA strongly encourages you to contact your advisor before registration opens for assistance in selecting your courses, and to register as early as possible to ensure that you enroll in your preferred classes before they fill.
When you register, the registration system may tell you that the courses you have selected have prerequisites. However, it will not prevent you from registering for a course for which you do not meet the prerequisites. The prerequisites are published in the course catalog, on the SBA website, and in individual course syllabi available online prior to each semester, and you are responsible for finding out whether you meet the prerequisites for your courses. Neither the faculty nor your advisor has the authority to waive a course prerequisite for you. Shortly after registration opens, SBA staff will review student prerequisites and notify students that they are being dropped from the rosters of classes for which they do not meet prerequisite requirements. If you are dropped from a class for missing prerequisites, it will be your responsibility to identify an acceptable alternate class or apply for a refund for that class.
On occasion, a SBA course may be canceled due to low enrollment (generally fewer than five students). If we are forced to cancel a course for which you have registered, your advisor will contact you and assist you in enrolling in an alternate course.
Students who are attempting to enroll in SBA classes which have already reached or exceeded their enrollment caps, as well as students attempting to enroll in classes during the last week of regular registration or during the late registration period, will need to request their registration through SBA's online waiting list. You will find a link to the waiting list on the left-hand menu of the SBA website under "Registration". Your advisor will notify you of the decision SBA makes regarding your registration request.
If, after completing registration, you decide not to remain in a course or not to remain enrolled at the University, you must notify the Office of Admissions and Records of your decision in writing immediately to ensure your eligibility for the appropriate refund. In addition, if you make such a decision after the deadline for dropping courses with no grades for that semester, you must also contact your faculty member to request a grade of W for the course. In both instances, you should also notify your advisor of the change to your schedule or enrollment status.
Information regarding your billing and payment instructions are available through the registration system. It is extremely important that you pay your tuition and fees on time each semester. Failing to pay the minimum amount due on your tuition and fees by the deadline may result in the University withdrawing you from your classes. Questions regarding your billing should be addressed to Lois Lemke in the Office of Business Services.
Whenever possible, students are encouraged to review official course syllabi online prior to completing their registration in order to make informed decisions about their schedules. As a SBA student, you are required to print a copy of the syllabus for any face-to-face or interactive video course you are taking prior to the first class day. Syllabi are not distributed in class. The syllabi for a given semester are typically loaded beginning approximately one month before classes begin, with the last syllabi loaded the last week before classes begin.
SBA publishes a list of the required textbooks for each semester approximately two months before classes begin. We will also list recommended options for obtaining textbooks on our webpage. You are free to use the publication information we provide to obtain your textbooks from your favorite online vendors. However, before doing so you should find out what your vendor's anticipated shipping time is, and what their return policy is in the event that they ship you the wrong edition of your text or you are forced to make a last-minute change to your schedule due to missing prerequisites or a canceled course.
When you enroll in a SBA course, whether live or online, our expectation is that your schedule will allow you to meet the requirements for that course during that semester. As a result, only under extremely unusual circumstances will your faculty grant you permission to miss class meetings, submit assignments late, complete exams on other than the officially scheduled dates, or receive a grade of Incomplete for a course.
Each semester, you should be candid with yourself about how much time you have to devote to your coursework based on your other commitments. MBA students who are not working full-time may enroll in up to 12 hours per semester. MBA students who are working full-time (35 hours per week or more) are discouraged from enrolling in more than 6 hours per semester. In addition, if in reviewing a class schedule you determine that you will have a personal or professional conflict with fulfilling course requirements, you should make every effort to move into a course whose schedule is not a source of conflict.
If an unforeseen crisis prevents you from fulfilling your course obligations, contact your advisor as soon as you are aware of the problem and seek her assistance in finding a resolution which will be acceptable to your faculty.
More than half of SBA students complete at least a portion of their degree program through online courses. Online courses provide a scheduling flexibility that is extremely useful to students with complicated schedules. However, students enrolled in online courses should be aware of certain policies and procedures related to the course.
When you enroll in your first online course, you will need to complete an orientation which demonstrates our course delivery system, WebCT Vista. A link to this orientation is available on the SBA website.
Students who enroll in online courses will be "loaded" into their online classrooms a few days before classes begin (or, for students who add classes late, a day or two after they have added an online class). However, students should not necessarily expect to have access to an online class before the first official day of the semester, just as students in live classes could not expect to visit the classroom a week before and find the class in progress.
Your semester class schedule as it appears on your WebCT account is not your official University schedule. If you are loaded into one or more WebCT classes, and then are dropped from classes because of missing prerequisites, a canceled course, or failure to pay the minimum due on your tuition, the courses will generally still appear on your WebCT schedule. However, if you were dropped from the University roster for the course, you will not receive credit for the course even if you complete all of the work for the course. Therefore, if at any point you have a question about your current registration, you should use the registration system online to verify your enrollment.
SBA employs two online support technicians--Mary Borden in Victoria, and Vicki Causey in Sugar Land. These staff are available to assist you with technical questions about your WebCT access, and may also be able to provide you with limited support on other computer issues related to your online classes. They are also your liaison with faculty on any WebCT-related complications which affect your completion of course requirements--for instance, if you have technical difficulties submitting a homework assignment or completing an online exam, your online support technician would need to verify your situation for the faculty member and assist both of you in finding a solution.
MBA students may receive transfer credit for up to six hours of equivalent graduate coursework with the approval of the Assistant Dean. If you would like to transfer a course or courses into the MBA degree plan, you must submit a copy of the course description and official syllabus for the course you have identified. If the course is appropriate for transfer, your advisor will notify you of this conclusion. Your advisor can also supply you with a letter of good standing on request should the other institution require one. Please keep in mind the following guidelines when researching classes for transfer credit:
Information in student records will be released only to faculty and staff for authorized university-related use. The student's consent is required to release information other than public information to any non-university personnel unless required by law or upon receipt of a subpoena duces tecum. In general, SBA personnel will not release even public information to anyone not employed by the university unless legally compelled to do so.
SBA's expectation is that you will contact us on your own behalf to discuss your questions and concerns unless it is impossible for you to do so. Should you choose to have a family member or friend contact us with questions on your behalf, please understand that our determination to protect student privacy will prevent us from discussing with them any issue related to complaints, appeals, or grades.
When you are preparing to enroll for your final semester of MBA coursework, you should contact your advisor and ask her to verify your outstanding graduation requirements. After you have completed registration for the semester, you will file an application for graduation with the Office of Admissions and Records. An admissions analyst will review your application and forward it to the SBA for approval. After SBA has responded, OAR will send you a copy of your graduation application which lists your outstanding requirements. Keep in mind that certain requirements which may not be listed on the application must still be met, including minimum GPA of 3.0 and no more than two grades of C for the entire program.
Student parking areas are provided at the University of Houston-Victoria, the University of Houston System at Sugar Land, and the University of Houston System at Cinco Ranch.
Beginning with the Fall 2009 semester, parking permits will no longer be required for students. Students are authorized to park in any UNRESERVED space without a permit. This includes any unreserved space on either UHV parking lots or The Victoria College parking lots. Parking citations will be issued for violations.
Parking permits are also not required at this time on the UHS-SL or UHS-CR campuses.
If you attend class on campus in Victoria or live in Victoria County, you may get your student ID card at the VC/UHV Main Library Circulation Desk. The picture ID also functions as your library card.
If you attend classes at UHS-Cinco Ranch or UHS-Sugar Land you can get a student ID/library card at the Administration Office at either location. If you are attending classes online, you may find a Texshare card more helpful to you than a student ID card.
UHV administers a wide range of scholarships, grants, loans, and work-study employment for students who qualify. Students may be considered for all available financial aid options by completing a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and a UHV Financial Aid and Scholarships Application. If you are specifically interested in scholarships, you should notify your SBA advisor so that SBA may provide the Financial Aid Office with additional information to support your applications.
Full-time MBA students are also eligible to apply for graduate assistantships. A link to the application appears on our main website on the left-hand menu under "Financing".
The Academic Center is a resource center for students, faculty, and staff. By appointment or online, the Center staff review class papers, articles for publication, and university publications. In addition, the Center maintains a comprehensive website that contains writing and ESL resources, including such items as APA and MLA documentation and grammar.
All students enrolled in MGT 6351 will be required to have their research papers reviewed by Center staff. As a result of such a review, a Center staff member will make recommendations about how to improve the quality of the paper specifically, and may also make recommendations about how to improve your writing in general if you appear to be weak in such areas as grammar, punctuation, or sentence construction. If they recommend skill-building in one or more areas, your instructor and the SBA student services staff will be notified. You must complete any such prescribed skill-building activity before you will be allowed to register for subsequent semesters.
All students are encouraged to continue to consult the Academic Center on writing assignments throughout their enrollment.
Information Technology provides academic and administrative support for computer users of UHV, including access to microcomputers, minicomputers, our local-area network, and the Internet. Microcomputers labs are maintained at all three campuses where UHV offers the MBA program.
Email accounts at UHV are automatically created for all currently enrolled students during the week prior to the first class day, and disabled at the end of each semester or if a student withdraws. Both the University and SBA will conduct most official communication with you through these email accounts. You should check your UHV email account at least once a week to be sure that you are not missing any critical announcements. Neither the University nor SBA will be held responsible for any consequences associated with your failure to check this email account. Complete instructions for accessing your university email account are available here.
MBA students enrolled at all locations as well as online have access to VC/UHV Library services, including research databases, electronic reserves, and interlibrary loan. Students should review the library's main information page for information about specific services available.
The Student Recruitment and Relations Office provides a wide variety of services to students, including information on housing and insurance, campus tours, vehicle assistance (jumper cables, slim jim), information on student organizations, and career placement resources. Students should review both the Student Recruitment and Relations webpage and the UHV 2006-2007 Student Handbook for more information.
Contact Information:
3007 North Ben Wilson
Victoria, TX 77901
Phone: 1-800-687-4293
Fax: 361-580-5529
