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New Graduate Student Handbook This Handbook is a compendium of information about Georgia Southern University policies, requirements, and resources relevant to all Georgia Southern University graduate students. We invite your suggestions for improvements; please send them to the College of Graduate Studies.

Welcome from the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies

Dear Graduate Student:

Welcome to the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies that administers and evaluates all graduate programs at Georgia Southern University.

Graduate Education is a critical component of Georgia Southern. Georgia Southern wants to create an academically rich and rigorous environment that installs in each of you a sense of inquiry, a thirst for lifelong learning, an appreciation for intellectual honesty, and a desire to maintain a high level of professional integrity. Our student-centered faculty will work in partnership with you and challenge you to achieve your potential.

Please note that there is a Graduate Student Organization (GSO) that represents all graduate students. The GSO funds graduate student travel to meetings, funds small research grants, and helps define the events that occur in Graduate Student Appreciation Week. The GSO is your voice. Please consider actively participating in it. You can reach the GSO by telephone or email.

This handbook will assist you in making the most of your graduate experience by providing basic campus and community information. It will also support you throughout your program by providing you with names and numbers of numerous services available to students at Georgia Southern University.

Best wishes for a challenging and rewarding graduate experience!

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Graduate Community at Georgia Southern University

EXPECTATIONS FOR GRADUATE STUDY

What is the Graduate Environment Like at Georgia Southern University?

Our student-centered faculty work in partnership with graduate students. Our goal is to have a completely open and welcoming environment where diverse graduate students from across the world feel comfortable and valued. We want you to think of us as responsive, supportive and valuable. We strive to create an environment where you submit chapters of your thesis or dissertation prior to leaving, publish your work, submit patents, and submit proposals for consideration for graduate fellowships. We want to help prepare you for today's and tomorrow's worldwide careers, and for our graduate alumni to act as living ambassadors for their respective programs.

Graduate Education is a critical component of Georgia Southern. Graduate students like you create many of the publications and scholarly works of the University each year, and you are often on the cutting edge of the development of new knowledge. Georgia Southern wants to create an academically rich and rigorous environment where you are challenged to achieve your potential. We wish to install in each of you a sense of inquiry, a thirst for lifelong learning, an appreciation for intellectual honesty, and a desire to maintain a high level of professional integrity. This can be only done in an academically open environment where dogmas are challenged, new ideas are welcomed, and performance is rewarded. Both you and the faculty must work together in a mutually beneficial way for this to occur. We expect you to gain expertise in your area of study, and we shall view you as 'junior colleagues' and as apprentices.

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What Rights Do You Have?

The College of Graduate Studies adheres to the American Association of University Professor's Graduate Student Guidelines.

Leaves of Absence

Some graduate students need to take a leave of absence because of unforeseen family or personal issues. Make sure that you discuss this need with your major advisor first, and discuss your expected date of return. You will need to fill out a Withdrawal Form which is on the College of Graduate Studies website. We urge you to consider carefully the time that you have invested in your degree and to commit to finishing your degree if this is at all possible.

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Honor Code

The Georgia Southern University Honor Code states: "I will be academically honest in all of my course work and will not tolerate the academic dishonesty of others. I also pledge to engage in ethical behavior on-campus and off-campus, to live an honorable lifestyle, and to create a campus environment that is characterized by individual responsibility, civility, and integrity."

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Academic Dishonesty

A surprising number of students do not understand what academic dishonesty is. For example, it is academically dishonest to copy materials from a website and not cite the website. Academic dishonesty includes:

• Submitting material that is not yours as part of your course performance, such as copying from another student's exam or allowing a student to copy from your exam.
• Using information or devices that are not allowed by the faculty, such as text messaging another student during an exam.
• Obtaining and using unauthorized material, such as a copy of an examination before it is given.
• Fabricating information, research, and/or results, such as the data for a lab report.
• Collaborating with others on assignments without the faculty's consent.
• Helping another student to cheat.
• Demonstrating other forms of dishonest behavior, such as having another person take an examination in your place, or altering exam answers, or communicating with any person other than the exam proctor or faculty during an exam.
  

Plagiarism is another form of academic dishonesty and is prohibited. It includes:

• Directly quoting the words of others without using quotation marks or indented format to identify them.
• Using sources of information (published or unpublished) without identifying them.
• Paraphrasing materials or ideas of others without identifying the source.
• Unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic material.

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CONTACTS

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Campus Public Safety (Police) Public Safety Building Phone: 912-478-5234 http://welcome.georgiasouthern.edu/publicsafety/index.php	Health Services Health Center Building Phone: 912-478-5641 Fax: 912-478-0792 Email: health@georgiasouthern.edu http://services.georgiasouthern.edu/health/
Campus Recreation and Intramurals Recreation Activity Center Phone: 912-478-5436 Fax: 912-478-1892 http://services.georgiasouthern.edu/cri/	Information Technology Services Emerging Technology Center, College of Education Phone: 912-478-0882 Fax: 912-478-1424 http://services.georgiasouthern.edu/its/
Center for International Studies Carroll Building Phone: 912-478-0332 Fax: 912-478-0824 http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/international/	Library Services & Resources Ask a Librarian Workshops Circulation - Phone: 912-478-5647 Reference - Phone: 912-478-5645 http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/
College of Graduate Studies Veazey Hall Phone: 912-478-2647 Fax: 912-478-0605 Email: gradschool@georgiasouthern.edu http://cogs.georgiasouthern.edu/gradprograms.htm	Office of Graduate Admissions Lewis Hall Phone: 912-478-5384 Fax: 912-478-7240 Email: gradadmissions@georgiasouthern.edu http://cogs.georgiasouthern.edu/future_students/grad_application.html
Counseling and Career Development Center Counseling Center Building Phone: 912-478-5541 Fax: 912-478-0834 Email: careersv@georgiasouthern.edu http://students.georgiasouthern.edu/counseling/	Office of Research Services & Sponsored Programs Veazey Hall Phone: 912-478-5465 Fax: 912-478-0719 http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/research/
Financial Aid Rosenwald Building Phone: 912-478-5413 Fax: 912-478-0573 Email: finaid@georgiasouthern.edu http://students.georgiasouthern.edu/finaid/	Parking & Transportation Services Building 114 Phone: 912-478-7275 Fax: 912-478-1309 Email: parking@georgiasouthern.edu http://services.georgiasouthern.edu/park/
Graduate Student Organization Veazey Hall Phone: 912-478-5457 Fax: 912-478-0605 Email: gscholar@georgiasouthern.edu http://cogs.georgiasouthern.edu/gso/	Student Disability Resource Center Cone Hall Phone: 912-478-1566 Fax: 912-478-1419 Email: sdrc@georgiasouthern.edu http://students.georgiasouthern.edu/disability/
The Office of Registrar Rosenwald Building Phone: 912-478-5152 Fax: 912-478-5439 Email: wings@georgiasouthern.edu http://students.georgiasouthern.edu/registrar	Student Fees Deal Hall Phone: 478-0999 Fax: 478-1724 Email: N/A http://services.georgiasouthern.edu/bursar/osf/studentfeespage.htm

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Resources for Graduate Students

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Question	Resource	Contact
Where can I find information about the community, such as where to shop, worship, eat, etc?	http://statesboroherald.com/ http://www.statesboro-chamber.org/	Online version of the local paper or Statesboro Chamber of Commerce. 912-764-6111
Where do I get my Georgia's driver license?	http://www.dds.ga.gov/locations/dllocations.aspx?csc=45	Georgia Dept. of Driver Services 912-681-5999
Where do I get my Eagle ID Card?	http://services.georgiasouthern.edu/aux/	Auxiliary Services in Russell Union.
How can I pay my Georgia Southern fees?	http://services.georgiasouthern.edu/bursar/osf/studentfeespage.htm	You can pay with cash, check, credit card, and bank wire.
How do I find out what graduate housing is available on campus?	http://services.georgiasouthern.edu/aux/	Auxiliary Services has graduate housing information.
Where do I get a parking permit?	http://services.georgiasouthern.edu/aux/park/	Parking & Transportation Office at 912-478-7275.
How do I find out about graduate health insurance?	http://services.georgiasouthern.edu/aux/health/	Email: health@georgiasouthern.edu
Can I get help with writing papers?	http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/success/	Academic Success Center in Cone Hall at 912-478-5371.
Where do I register my car?	Bulloch County Tax Commissioner's Office Bulloch County Annex	115 North Main Street Statesboro 912-764-6285
Where do I find information on electric/gas hookups?	Georgia Power http://www.georgiapower.com/	Georgia Power 888-660-5890; Excelsior EMC 764-2123; Natural Gas (in the city): City Hall 912-764-5468
Whom do I contact for telephone/Internet service?	http://www.frontieronline.com	Frontier 912-764-9131; Bulloch Telephone Cooperative 912-764-7511
How do I get water service?		If you live in the City of Statesboro, contact City Hall (912-764-5468). Outside of the city, contact your landlord or real estate agent for the name of the private water company that services your area.
How do I get cable/Internet service?	http://www.northlandcabletv.com/Statesboro/default.asp?area=Statesboro&office=Statesboro&aytp e=8	Northland Cable TV 912-489-8715
Where can I get information about East Georgia Regional Medical Center (EGRMC)? For a listing of Bulloch County physicians, contact EGRMC.	http://www.egrmc.com	912-486-1000
Where can I get information on banks?	BB&T www.bbt.com Farmers & Merchants Bank http://www.fmbnk.com Queensborough National Bank http://www.qnbtrust.com/locations/index.asp First Southern National Bank http://www.first-southern.com Fort Stewart Georgia Federal Credit Union http://www.geovistacu.com/ Heritage Bank http://www.the-heritage-bank.com Park Avenue Bank http://www.parkavebank.com Sea Island Bank http://www.seaislandbank.com Wachovia http://www.wachovia.com	912-764-6610 912-489-2600 912-764-6600 912-489-7600 912-764-4612 912-489-3519 912-764-8900 912-489-8661 912-764-9611
Where can I find information about education facilities?	http://statesboro.homestead.com/education.html http://www.bulloch.k12.ga.us/	Bulloch County Schools 912-764-6201
Where can I get information on real estate?	http://statesboro.homestead.com/realestate.html	Yellow Pages
How can I get a Statesboro Regional Library card?	http://strl.info/	912-764-1341
Where can I find legal assistance?	http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/legal	912-486-7481
Where is the local Post Office?	http://www.usps.com/	1 South College Street Statesboro, GA 30458
Where do I get a Social Security card?	http://ssa.gov/	600 North Zetterower Statesboro, GA 30460 912-764-7591

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