Graduation

Graduation and Residency Requirements

At least 25 percent of the credit hours required for a degree must be earned through instruction offered by Piedmont College.

In order to graduate with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Science, or Bachelor of Science in Nursing, the candidate must:

• Complete a minimum of 120 credit hours;
• Fulfill the minimum requirements for a major. Half the required courses for the major (and for a minor if one is chosen) must be completed at Piedmont College;
• Complete all senior work (the last 30 hours before graduation) at Piedmont College;
• Meet all of the College’s general education requirements. Please see the Undergraduate Studies section;
• Beginning with freshmen who matriculate in Fall 2013, candidates will also be required to complete 45 hours of experiential learning projects in accordance with the Piedmont College Compass program. Transfer students are also required to complete a prorated number of Compass hours. Please see the Piedmont College Compass Program portion of the catalog.
• Have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.0 or higher (specific majors may require a higher GPA);
• Have a satisfactory conduct record;
• Apply for graduation upon reaching 90 credit hours;
• Be current on all college accounts.

Students who applied for graduation one year ago or more and did not graduate, must reapply for graduation, if they decide to graduate at another time.

It is the responsibility of all graduating students to apply for graduation by posted deadlines (see Academic Calendars at www.piedmont.edu/registrar on the Registrar’s page). Application forms may be obtained from the Registrar’s Office or on the Registrar’s page on PilgrimNet. Applications for graduation must be received by the Registrar’s Office upon reaching 90 credit hours.

Special Events Dress Code

Convocation, Baccalaureate and Commencement

Participation in Convocation, Baccalaureate, or Commencement is an earned privilege. Piedmont College students are expected to abide by the following guidelines for appropriate and acceptable dress. Participation is permitted at the sole discretion of Piedmont College.

Convocation:

Freshmen should dress in appropriate attire and is suggested that attendees wear dress slacks, a button-up shirt and tie or a day dress.

Baccalaureate:

Graduates should dress in appropriate attire under their academic regalia. It is suggested that graduates wear dress slacks, a button-up shirt and tie or a day dress. Neither graduating student’s hoods nor mortarboards are worn at Baccalaureate. Honor cords are not worn to Baccalaureate. Any unapproved enhancements to regalia will be confiscated and returned to the graduate after the service. Replacement robes will be provided.

Commencement:

Graduates should dress in appropriate attire under their academic regalia. It is suggested that graduates wear dress slacks, a button- up shirt and tie or a day dress. Hoods and mortarboards are worn at Commencement. Mortarboards are to be worn squared, not tilted. Men remove their mortarboards for the invocation and again during the benediction. Women do not remove their mortarboards. Some institutions allow students to display symbols of ethnic pride and religious cloths. Piedmont’s decision is not to allow these types of cloth to be worn as stoles but to allow a graduate to display it flat on top of the mortarboard. Any unapproved enhancements to regalia will be confiscated and returned to the graduate after the service. Replacement robes and/or mortarboards will be provided.

Tassels:

The tradition of moving the tassel signifies graduation. Undergraduate students wear the tassel on the right until the degree is conferred. Once the degree is conferred, the tassel is moved to the left. Since graduate students already have the distinction of achieving graduation, their tassels are worn on the left throughout the ceremony.

Mortarboards:

The current policy is to allow decorations on hats as long as they are two-dimensional. E.g., glitter is OK, but a several-inch palm tree sticking straight up is not. Lights, bows, feathers, action figures and flowers are also not acceptable. The policy will be enforced and noncompliant hats will be confiscated for the duration of the ceremony and the graduating student will be provided with a plain hat. Confiscated mortarboards will be returned to graduates after the ceremony.

Stoles:

Piedmont College does not permit the use of stoles.

Medallions:

The Registrar’s Office will distribute graduation honors medallions to undergraduate students who qualify. These include cum laude (green), magna cum laude (white), and summa cum laude (gold).

Cords:

Cords are used to distinguish a major and/or honor. Below is a list of recognized honor and organizations for which approved cords may be worn with your regalia during Commencement. You may not wear honor cords/tassels/pins issued by another school/organization.

Fraternity/Sorority membership: Alpha Sigma Phi, Zeta Tau Alpha.

Honor societies memberships: Alpha Chi, Alpha Lambda Delta, Alpha Phi Sigma, Alpha Si Omega, Alpha Sigma Lambda, Biology Honors Program, Chemistry Honors Program, Chi Alpha Sigma, Compass Program Honor Society, Delta Mu Delta, Kappa Mu Epsilon, Kappa Pi, Lillian E. Smith Scholars, Phi Sigma Lota, Psi Chi, Psychology Honors Program, R.H. Daniel School of Nursing Health Sciences Honor Society, Sigma Alpha Pi, Sigma Tau Delta, Society for Collegiate Journalists, Torch of Piedmont, Who’s Who.

Student-athlete status: Baseball, Basketball (M&W), Cross Country (M&W), Cycling (M&W), Golf (M&W), Lacrosse (M&W), Soccer (M&W), Softball, Swim (M&W),Tennis (M&W), Track & Field (M&W), Volleyball.

If there is an organization that falls outside of the guidelines above, contact your organization's advisor who can reach out to the Registrar's Office for consideration and approval. Organizations who fail to follow the established attire policy will jeopardize the organization's future ability to be represented with adornments in future ceremonies.

Graduation with Honors

A degree with honors is awarded to undergraduate students who earn at least 48 semester hours at Piedmont College with an overall GPA of 3.50-3.69 (cum laude), 3.70 – 3.89 (magna cum laude), 3.90-4.00 (summa cum laude). The overall GPA for a degree with honors includes all attempts a student has made to complete all courses, including transfer courses and repeated courses.

Graduation Charges

An application fee is due at the time of application for graduation.* The fees are $100 for undergraduates, $125 for master’s and education specialist, and $150 for doctoral candidates. It is the student’s responsibility to be familiar with application deadlines which are posted on the academic calendars. All college accounts must be paid in full before the degree is conferred.

*Under extenuating circumstances, an application submitted after the published deadline requires approval from the Dean of the appropriate schools and an additional late fee.

Transcripts

A transcript is a record of all courses taken and grades received at the College, as well as those transferred into the College. As such it includes all initial and repeat courses and all courses that fall under the Forgiveness Policy.

Official Transcript Requests

Piedmont College provides printed or electronic transcripts using the secure National Student Clearinghouse website. It is secure and available 24/7. The Registrar’s Office can provide official printed (hard copy) transcripts for a fee.

To make a transcript request through the National Student Clearinghouse, visit the website. Choose the destinations where you want to send your transcripts. Sign off by paying online—there is an $8.25 (electronic PDF)/$8.95 (mailed) fee per transcript.

Transcripts cannot be furnished for any student whose financial obligations to Piedmont College have not been met. If your transcript is denied due to financial obligations, it is your responsibility to submit a new request form when your account is settled in the Student Accounts Office.

Unofficial Transcript Requests

There is no charge for providing unofficial transcripts. They may be emailed as PDF files, faxed, or mailed. Students requesting unofficial transcripts should use the form available on the Registrar’s web page (www.piedmont.edu/registrar).This form requires the student’s signature and must be mailed or faxed to the Registrar’s Office.

Posthumous Degrees

In the event of a student’s death during his or her final term of study, a member of the student’s family will be invited to accept the diploma during commencement exercises. In order to receive a posthumous degree, the student must have completed a minimum of 90 semester hours.

Patents, Copyrights, Trade Secrets, and Intellectual Property

The entirety of this policy relates to faculty, staff, and student employees. Section E relates specifically to students and student employees.

Individual faculty and staff, on occasion, generate new ideas and concepts that result in marketable products and opportunities. Piedmont College encourages, promotes, and protects the academic research, scholarship, and development of products of its employees. Simultaneously, the college maintains its commitment to stewardship and cultivation of its financial resources. Individual employees may pursue efforts to create commercially marketable products and, in cases where Piedmont College has invested resources, the college may assert a financial interest in such products.

Intellectual property refers to, but is not limited to, patentable inventions, copyrightable works, trademarks, service marks and trade secrets. Examples include but are not limited to artistic works, musical compositions, computer programs and software, theater scripts, and the like.

Products resulting from creative and scholarly pursuits, culminating in a patent, copyright, trade secret, or intellectual property convey ownership rights to the individual and/or the institution, depending on several factors.

1. Sponsorship - If an outside private (i.e., not state or federally funded) agency funds an activity that results in a product, unless the sponsorship agreement between the individual, the sponsor, and the institution states otherwise, such product will be owned by the institution.
2. Institution work – If a product is developed during the course and conduct of institution-assigned work, the institution owns the product. Income, defined as net revenue after all personal and institutional expenses have been paid, from such property shall be shared between the individual and the institution at the following rate: All income up to the first $8,000 goes to the individual. This amount will be divided equally if more than one individual exists. Remaining income is divided with one-third to the individual and two-thirds to the institution.
3. Institution-assisted work – When institution resources assist and support individual employees in the generation of an income producing product, income shall be shared between the individual and the institution at a rate of 45 percent of net revenue to the institution. Institutional support and assistance may include use of office and laboratory space, technology, access to library, and support staff, and institution-paid time within the employment period.
4. Individual employee work – Any product developed by an individual employee that uses no institution resources, contains no sponsorship agreement, and is unrelated in any way to institution-assigned work, shall be the sole ownership of the individual employee. It is the individual’s responsibility to demonstrate the total independence of the work.
5. Intellectual property rights of students - Intellectual property rights belong to the students who create the work. This includes work that has been created to meet course requirements using college resources whether or not the student has paid tuition or fees for the course. However, work that is created by students as part of their student employment belongs to the college as do the subsequent intellectual property rights.
6. Disputes – Any disputes about ownership of products shall be directed to the President.
7. Copyright Infringement Policies and Sanctions –
   1. File Sharing and Copyright - Many scholars and music artists rely on copyright to protect their intellectual property. "Peer-to-peer" (P2P) file sharing applications have made it easy for Internet users to share files with one another. There are many legitimate uses of P2P file sharing, such as updates and software purchases. However, P2P file sharing applications are also used to share copyrighted material such as songs, movies, software applications, and games without permission. If you upload or distribute copies you make of copyrighted works, or download or acquire unlicensed copies of copyrighted works, you may be infringing someone else’s rights. Although using P2P file sharing technology is not in itself illegal, if you share copyrighted material without permission -- even unwittingly -- you are breaking both the law and college policy and could be subject to college, civil, and/or criminal sanctions.
   2. Summary of Civil and Criminal Penalties for Violation of Federal Copyright Laws- The Department of Education publishes in the Federal Student Aid Handbook a summary of the civil and criminal penalties for violation of federal copyright laws:
   1. Copyright infringement is the act of exercising, without permission or legal authority, one or more of the exclusive rights granted to the copyright owner under section 106 of the Copyright Act (Title 17 of the United States Code). These rights include the right to reproduce or distribute a copyrighted work. In the file-sharing context, downloading or uploading substantial parts of a copyrighted work without authority constitutes an infringement. Penalties for copyright infringement include civil and criminal penalties. In general, anyone found liable for civil copyright infringement may be ordered to pay either actual damages or "statutory" damages affixed at not less than $750 and not more than $30,000 per work infringed. For "willful" infringement, a court may award up to $150,000 per work infringed. A court can, in its discretion, also assess costs and attorneys' fees. For details, see Title 17, United States Code, Sections 504 and 505. Willful copyright infringement can also result in criminal penalties, including imprisonment of up to five years and fines of up to $250,000 per offense. For more information, please see the website of the U.S. Copyright Office at www.copyright.gov.
   2. Disciplinary action, including loss of use of the College information technology systems up to and including expulsion from the College or employee termination could result from violations of these policies. Piedmont College informs students regarding copyright infringement and academic integrity though each class instructor and is included on all syllabi. The college’s statement can be found in the college 2016-2017 catalog.