USC Price School of Public Policy

Guide to Student and Academic Services

Opportunities at the USC State Capital Center

Guide to Student and Academic Services

The following guide has been written to assist students enrolled in Price School of Public Policy (USC Price) classes at the USC State Capital Center. Additional information can be found at the USC Price Current Students Web site.

Advisement
Degree Directors
Faculty Advisors for Students Taking Program in Sacramento
Student Services Advisors
Computing Facilities
Blackboard and USC E-mail
Financial Aid
On-line Academic Student Information System
Registration
Schedules of Classes
Statistics and Accounting Exams
Additional Questions

Advisement
Each degree program is overseen by a degree director who has responsibility for ensuring academic quality, professional relevance, scheduling, and exceptions to policy and academic advisement. In addition, each student is assigned to a faculty member who serves as the “faculty advisor” as well as to a staff member who serves as the “student services advisor.” The faculty advisor assists students in narrowing their areas of interest, advises students of courses taught by faculty who have similar interests, and apprises students of academic and professional development opportunities. The student services advisor assists students with all administrative aspects of their academic progress at USC, including monitoring satisfactory academic progress, processing exceptions, satisfying prerequisites and filing for graduation. Overall degree program coordination will be provided by the Associate Dean for USC Price Programs at the State Capital Center.

Associate Dean, USC Price Programs at the State Capital Center Dr. Rich Callahan, rcallaha@usc.edu, (916) 442-6911

Degree Directors:
MHA : Dr. LaVonna Lewis, llewis@usc.edu, (213) 740-4280
MPA : Dr. Shui Yan Tang, stang@usc.edu, (213) 740-0379

Faculty Advisors for Students Taking Program in Sacramento:
MHA : Dr. LaVonna Lewis, llewis@usc.edu, (213) 740-4280
MPA : Dr. Shui Yan Tang, stang@usc.edu, (213) 740-0379

Student Services Advisors:
MHA and MPA : Ms. Cynthia Clayton, cclayton@usc.edu, (213) 740-0525

Computing Facilities
There are computers available for student use at the State Capital Center. They are connected to the USC network, so students may access USC’s on-line library materials.

Blackboard and USC E-mail
The Price School of Public Policy will be communicating with you via e-mail on administrative matters as well as notifying you of class assignments via e-mail through Blackboard. We will be using your USC e-mail to notify you. Please contact Carmen Gomez, cgomez@usc.edu, (213) 740-6842 if you have questions about using Blackboard.

If you haven’t yet activated your USC email account, please do so at the following website:
https://secweb.usc.edu/cgi-local/firstlogin/showform?form=activate

Financial Aid
School of Policy, Planning and Development Assistance
All commitments previously made to students in Sacramento will be honored.

As we move forward, most scholarship assistance will be awarded at the time of admission and awards will be renewable for up to two years assuming satisfactory academic progress. On occasion, students’ financial situation change. To assist them, USC Price does reserve a small pool of money to award to continuing students who demonstrate this need.

Julie Kim juliethk@usc.edu, (213) 740-7594 is the USC Price scholarship coordinator. Beginning Fall 2004, she will input all students’ awards and serve as the USC Price liaison with the USC Financial Aid Office to ensure awards are coordinated and disbursed. If you have received an award and it is not showing on your account, please contact Julie.

Sometimes students’ financial situation changes once they enroll and they need scholarship assistance. If you find yourself in such a situation, please send Julie a letter indicating and documenting how your situation has changed.

On-line Academic Student Information System (OASIS)
Students may view their academic records on-line. Specifically, students may view the courses for which they are registered, their enrollment history, permit to register, grade report, completed course summary, degree progress summary report, degree navigator, transfer credit report, their new 10 digit ID, restrictions (holds), current billing balance, financial aid documents status, financial aid summary, change of address, and change of PIN number.

OASIS may be accessed from the USC homepage by clicking on OASIS on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.

To log in, students use their 9 digit (often the student?s social security number) or 10 digit USC ID as their student ID and a password. For first-time users, the student?s password is set to their 6-digit birthdate (00/00/00 in month/day/year order).

Questions about OASIS should be directed to your student services advisor.

Registration
USC Price has now set up all of the Sacramento classes for web or touchtone registration. The URL for web registration is: https://camel.usc.edu/webreg/Login.asp and the phone number for doing touchtone registration is (213) 740-3705. To verify your appointment time, click on OASIS and click on Permit to Register or contact USC?s Registration Office at (213) 740-8500.

The USC Price Schedule of Classes, including classes offered in Sacramento, is on the University?s website under schedule of classes. From the USC home page, click on <http://www.usc.edu/soc”>Schedule of Classes and then click on the term, then courses offered, then Policy, Planning, and Development (PPD) under School of Policy, Planning and Development. Courses that are offered in Sacramento carry a five digit class number that begins with 83xxx.

All USC Price students may take advantage of early registration. The registration periods are as follow:

Fall 2004 Semester -

  • April 1-August 20: registration period August 20: last day to register and settle all tuition and fees without a late fee
  • April 1-September 10: change of program allowed
  • September 10: last day to add classes. Last day to drop without a mark of ?W.? last day to receive 100% refund for dropped classes
  • November 12: last day to drop with a mark of “W.”

Spring Semester – November 1 (approximate date): registration begins.

Summer Semester – March 1 (approximate date): registration begins.

If you have questions regarding registration, please contact Ms. Carmen Gomez, cgomez@usc.edu, (213) 740-6842.

Schedules of Classes
The USC Price schedules will be available on line prior to registration on the USC website as well as the USC Price website. Courses that are offered in Sacramento are listed with a “Sacramento” location, while those in Los Angeles are listed with a building and room number or as “office.”

Statistics and Accounting Exams
The Statistics and Accounting Exams will continue to be administered in Sacramento prior to the start of the semester. Information on the Statistics and Accounting prerequisites can be found on the USC Price Website at the following URLs:

MHA prerequisities:
http://priceschool.usc.edu/programs/masters/mha/curriculum/prerequisites/
MPA prerequisites:
http://priceschool.usc.edu/programs/masters/mpa/curriculum/prerequisites/

The Statistics and Accounting Exams will be given on the following dates:

  • Statistics: October 12, 9:00-11:00 a.m., USC State Capital Center
  • Accounting: October 12, 1:00-3:00 p.m., USC State Capital Center

To sign up for the accounting or statistics exam, please inform Cynthia Clayton, cclayton@usc.edu, (213) 740-0525 of your wish to take the exam.

Additional Questions
We recognize that this document may not answer all of your questions so we do intend to print additional versions. If you have questions regarding student and academic services that are not addressed in this document, please send them to Carol Rush, crush@usc.edu.