Academic Catalog 2018

student must earn a 3.50 grade point average for the period and carry a course load of 12 hours or more. Alpha Chi National Honor Scholarship Society Chartered in the fall of 2000, the Virginia Kappa chapter of Alpha Chi (www. alphachihonor.org) is a national interdisciplinary honor society whose purpose is to promote academic excellence and exemplary character among college students and to honor those who achieve such distinction. Alpha Chi members are elected by the faculty from students who have earned 24 semester hours at Bluefield College, are ranked in the top ten percent of the junior or senior class or online program graduating class (based on cumulative GPA) and have good character. Alpha Chi seeks to find ways to assist students in “making scholarship effective for good.” GLOBAL EDUCATION Bluefield College is a member of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities and offers semester long study abroad opportunities in Australia, China, Costa Rica, India, Uganda, and England. Through our partnership with CAPA (www.capa.org) students have the opportunity to study in global cities such as Sydney, Buenos Aires and London and take a variety of courses with faculty members of the cooperating institutions as well as from qualified professors from the host country. Additionally, Bluefield College is aligned with Consortium for Global Education (CGE), which can be found on the web at www.cgedu.org. Through this program students can study abroad in various areas of interest, with short and long-term opportunities, especially as they relate to the learning of the Arabic and Chinese languages. Bluefield College also offers enrichment/learning opportunities through international travel and cultural immersion. Such opportunities are coordinated with academic coursework completed at the main campus in Bluefield. The college is committed to global education and has established an exchange program with Jiangsu Second Normal University in Nanjing, China, whereby Bluefield College faculty and students teach and study in China, and Chinese students and faculty participate in the Bluefield College academic environment. Opportunities for “global” activities are also available through BESTSEMSTER (www.BestSemester.com) in Washington, DC, Los Angeles and Nashville. Current information can be found under the Study Abroad link found under the Academics Tab on the Bluefield College website, or by contacting Dr. Maria Zalduondo, Chair of Global Education, at mzalduondo@bluefield.edu. RECORDS RETENTION POLICY Bluefield College adheres to the following Records Retention Policy. Official applications, student biographical information, veterans certification forms, official letters, evaluation of transfer credits, official transcripts from other institutions, high school records, AP/CLEP/DSST scores, change of major/advisor forms, confirmation forms, SAT/ACT scores, application for graduation, and copies of grade change forms will be kept for ten years in the student official file. Transcripts, original and computer backup, will be retained permanently. Academic materials such as catalogs, commencement programs, statistics related to degrees, enroll- ment, grades and racial/ethnic matters, and schedules of courses also will be retained per- manently. For applicants who do not enter the College, materials will be held one year, except where government requirements state otherwise.

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