Deans' Contract Review Criteria

Academic Deans review to make sure Individual Study Contracts meet the following criteria: 

College Level Work, Quality and Quantity

Grammar Errors, Spelling, Incomplete or insufficient information
The contract must be college level quality; therefore it can not contain grammar and/or spelling errors or be incomplete. Although it is not a transcript document, this contract is an official College record and kept on file in the Academic Deans Office.

Does not appear to be college-level work
Individual and internship learning contracts must be intermediate and advanced work intended to build upon prior college-level course work and should build upon college-level study in areas offered in Evergreen's curriculum rather than remedial and/or vocational study.

Content appears inadequate for credit requested
Students must describe appropriately the activities and work associated to justify the academic credit to be awarded.

Timeframe appears inadequate for credit requested
Contract work needs to represent a full quarter's work for the number of credits requested. Use the Activities Timeline and talk to your sponsor to help identify how much work will earn a certain number of credits.

Appears study is repetitive; insufficient evidence of new learning
Individual and internship learning contracts must reflect new learning that builds on prior study and is not repetitive.

Clear Objectives & Activities

Learning objectives need to indicate what you plan or expect to Learn versus what you plan to Do.
In large part to facilitate evaluation and self-evaluation, this section of the form should be used to delineate what knowledge, skills, or both would be gained/acquired, enhanced/refined, or both. The student must avoid stating what activities will be undertaken, as those belong in the section labeled "Activities."

Need to clarify how activities relate to learning objectives
Although there doesn't need to be a one-to-one correlation, the activities section should reflect what the student will do to meet the learning objectives.

Conflicts

Sponsor appears inappropriate for this contract; may need different sponsor, or a subcontractor
The proposed sponsor should have experience or expertise in the discipline or activities the student plans to undertake for the contract in order to do an informed assessment of college-level learning.

Appears to have conflict of interest (see Conflict of Interest Policy)
There are a number of possibilities for this, so they would be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Examples include (but are not limited to):

  • when a student is planning to use a relative, or other individual with whom s/he has a close relationship, as a field supervisor or sponsor
  • if the student has a vested interest in, or previously established personal or fiscal connection with, the proposed internship organization

An Individual Learning Contract appears to include an internship component
Any work that is supervised or benefits an agency, organization or individual is an internship and must be documented on an internship learning contract. Additional activities that are not of direct benefit to the organization and sponsored by the same faculty, must also be documented on an internship learning contract form.

Possible violation of institutional policies
There are several violation examples. Each would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. See below for possible violations:

  • More than one contract with the same sponsor - all work with one sponsor during a given quarter must be documented on one individual or internship learning contract.
  • Internship credits exceed the 48-credit limit allowed by College policy
  • Enrolling for more than 16 credits. To ensure that we appropriately balance faculty workload while allowing student to increase their credit load, no single mode of study will be offered for more than 16 credits in a given quarter. (Modes include coordinated and group contract programs, courses, internships, and individual contracts.)
  • The contract activities violate college policies
  • Students must register individual and internship learning contracts each quarter.

Approvals

Before registering, students must have all approvals including: sponsor, field supervisor, subcontractor, academic advising (internships only):

For Internships Only: Internship Site Agreement
Student should contact their field supervisor and make sure they have completed, signed and submitted an Internship Site Agreement.

Missing appropriate facilities clearance
Student should contact the appropriate facilities and/or resource contact if they are using any Evergreen facilities and/or resource for the work in their contract.

Appears to involve study abroad, and is missing Study Abroad Waiver, Release and Indemnity Agreement Form:
Contact Coordinator of International Programs and Services (360.867.6312) or visit Study Abroad for information and the waiver form.

May require Human Subjects Review (HSR) clearance:
If you are conducting a study using information from people or if you are recording them in some way for that study, you and your sponsor must determine if human subjects review is required before you begin collecting such information.  To learn more, visit Human Subjects Review.