The Challenges of Continuing Education: University of Wyoming

Abundant CE Opportunities at the University of Wyoming

Returning to college can be a boon to your interests, job, and career. Whether you are seeking advancement in your current position and with your current employer, or looking for a change, a continuing education certification can be your ticket to greater opportunity, responsibility, and income.

The University of Wyoming's continuing education courses offer you abundant opportunities to advance your educational, professional, personal, and financial interests. Whether your choice is to pursue a UW continuing education certification entirely online or in a hybrid structure, the University of Wyoming offers you abundant choices in traditional, professional, and non-traditional formats and fields. As the catalog cover of UW's WyoLearn program puts it, “The world needs more Cowboys.” WyoLearn's open online courses include a wide range of computer science, art, English, and other developmental courses. And UW's Office of Online and Continuing Education offers a rich choice of undergraduate and graduate degrees, plus certificates and endorsements.

You Must Meet All UW Requirements

Your challenge, though, is to meet the University of Wyoming academic and conduct standards. Just because it's continuing education doesn't mean it's easy. Nor does it mean that university disciplinary officials will look past wrongs for which they would discipline a traditional undergraduate or graduate degree student. On the contrary, UW's online and continuing education introduction expressly states that the university's CE offerings “are equivalent to in-person programs in all the ways that matter – same learning expectations, same accreditation, and your transcript doesn't differentiate how you learned.” Our Student Defense Team is here to help you if you face UW CE disciplinary charges for failing to meet UW's rigorous academic and behavioral requirements.

UW's Student Code of Conduct

The University of Wyoming, like other colleges and universities, regulates student behavior through a Student Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct states expressly that “when students voluntarily enter the University, they assume obligations of performance and behavior relevant to the University's mission, processes, and functions. Expectations of students in an academic community are higher than those of other citizens.” UW also publishes a Student Academic Dishonesty Regulation 2-114, with which you must comply, addressing various forms of cheating. Even as a UW continuing education student, you must comply with the university's academic and behavioral standards.

Complying with UW's Student Code of Conduct and Student Academic Dishonesty Regulation isn't just aspirational. It's not just another thing for which to aim. Instead, university disciplinary officials will use both codes to discipline you right up to kicking you out of UW's CE program. As the Code of Conduct itself warns, “The procedures described in this Code are administrative procedures designed to create opportunities for members of the University community to evaluate alleged violations and determine appropriate sanctions if necessary.” While you pursued UW CE certification to improve your situation, disciplinary charges could put you in a worse rather than better position if you don't handle those charges properly with our help.

Special Challenges of UW Continuing Education

The University of Wyoming's continuing education degree programs have all the usual challenges of a college or university academic program. You must, for instance, meet your professor's requirements for completing coursework and examinations according to schedule, meeting the required minimums for academic work. If you are pursuing a UW undergraduate or graduate degree through UW's CE office, you won't get a pass for skipping assignments or failing exams. You must do the work timely and to minimum standards.

But UW continuing education, like CE at other schools, carries special challenges. Students enroll in continuing education after their traditional time for higher education has passed. That may mean that you are unaccustomed to college studies, meaning you'll need to quickly get back into the necessary study disciplines and routines. That may also mean that you have a demanding job on top of your CE studies, a job that you would not have had during a traditional college program. It may also mean that you have family responsibilities, whether for a spouse, children, aging parents, or other dependents, that you would not have had during a traditional college program. UW CE isn't easier. It may be significantly harder. Let our Student Defense Team help if your challenges have led to disciplinary charges.

Meeting UW CE Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)

If you are completing or pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree, your first challenge with the University of Wyoming's continuing education program is meeting its satisfactory academic progress (SAP) requirements. Some programs within the university, especially professional programs, may require you to meet UW SAP requirements simply for a certificate or endorsement, even if you are not pursuing a degree. Colleges and universities must maintain and enforce SAP policies to satisfy federal funding requirements. An SAP policy tells you what grades you must make, in what percentage of your attempted courses, and over what time. UW's SAP Policy includes these three requirements:

• that you maintain at least a 2.00 / 4.00 cumulative grade point average toward your undergraduate degree or at least a 3.00 / 4.00 cumulative grade point average toward your graduate degree;
• that you complete at least two-thirds (67%) of the courses you attempt, including courses you fail or from which you withdraw; and
• that you complete your program within 150% of the time for which the university plans the program, meaning within six years for a four-year degree or within three years for a two-year degree.

Let our Student Defense Team help you if you have received the university's notice that you are on SAP probation or that the university has dismissed you for failure to maintain satisfactory academic progress. The university offers you an SAP appeal for extenuating circumstances. But you must document and prove those circumstances and that you have overcome those circumstances. You must also articulate an achievable remediation plan using UW's SAP Appeal and Academic Plan Form. A simple letter explanation won't do. We can help you draft and submit your most effective SAP appeal in a timely manner.

Meeting UW CE Academic Conduct Standards

Making the grades isn't your only University of Wyoming continuing education challenge. You must also comply with the university's Student Academic Dishonesty Regulation 2-114. The University of Wyoming takes academic misconduct seriously. It must do so to preserve the integrity of its continuing education certificates, endorsements, and degrees. UW gives academic dishonesty the broadest possible definition as “an action attempted or performed that misrepresents one's involvement in an Academic Endeavor in any way, or assists another student in misrepresenting his or her involvement in an Academic Endeavor.” The Regulation defines Academic Endeavors to include assignments, exams, and clinical work. The Regulation then gives these traditional examples of academic misconduct:

• cheating, defined as “using sources, information, study aids, notes, materials, devices, or collaboration unauthorized and not explicitly approved by the instructor”;
• complicity, defined as “assisting another person in any act of academic dishonesty”;
• fraud, defined as “falsifying, altering or inventing data, research, or citations for an academic endeavor”;
• fabrication, defined as “forging, or otherwise misrepresenting to an instructor or an institution one's past or current academic or professional activities”;
• impersonation, defined as “impersonating someone or allowing oneself to be impersonated for an examination or other academic endeavor,” or “using a ghostwriter, commercial or otherwise, for any type of assignment”;
• obstruction, defined as “interfering with academic efforts of other students to gain unfair advantage for personal academic advancement”;
• misappropriation, defined as “unauthorized access to an instructor's files or accounts”;
• multiple submissions, defined as “submitting, wholly or in part, the same academic endeavor to earn credit in more than one course without explicit approval by all concerned instructors”;
• plagiarism, defined as “presenting the work of another, wholly or in part, as one's own work without customary and proper acknowledgement of sources and extent of use, unless authorized by the instructor”; and
• violation of professional standards within the specific continuing education program.

Take these academic misconduct charges seriously. You can lose your enrollment to suspension or dismissal for violating any of these standards. You can also leave a mark on your academic record that disables you from other education, training, job, and career opportunities. Get the help of our Student Defense Team to respond to charges under UW's Student Academic Dishonesty regulation.

Meeting UW CE Behavioral Standards

Your UW CE challenges go beyond academics. You must also meet the university's behavioral expectations set forth in its Student Code of Conduct. UW's Code of Conduct divides the prohibited behaviors into the following four categories, giving multiple examples in each category:

• community standards prohibiting classroom disruption, disorderly conduct, disruption, obstruction, interfering with fire or public safety personnel or equipment, damaging property, trespassing, weapons possession, violating any other university standard, or interfering with investigations of alleged violations;
• integrity standards prohibiting false reporting of emergencies, making a false representation to any university official of a university matter, using fake identification, failing to promptly disclose your felony conviction, forgery or unauthorized use of any university document, computer misuse, theft or unauthorized possession of university property, or interfering with investigations of these alleged violations;
• social standards prohibiting bullying, unlawful discrimination, hostile environment harassment, threats, and intimidation; and
• respect standards prohibiting dating or domestic violence, other acts of physical violence, hazing, sexual assault, sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, stalking, and cyber-stalking.

Once again, take these behavioral charges seriously. Behavioral misconduct typically implicates student and staff safety. UW disciplinary officials will take swift action when they perceive a safety threat. UW disciplinary officials will also treat seriously any action that interferes with another student's education. Let our Student Defense Team help you respond to behavioral misconduct charges under UW's Student Code of Conduct.

University of Wyoming Misconduct Procedures

Fortunately, the University of Wyoming maintains protective procedures through which you can challenge disciplinary charges. Public universities like UW must generally afford students due process of law before suspending the student long term or dismissing the student for alleged misconduct. Due process typically involves fair notice of the disciplinary charges and a fair opportunity to tell your side of the story to an impartial decision maker.

Both UW's Student Code of Conduct and Student Academic Dishonesty Regulation 2-114 include these protective procedures. Both codes expressly promise due process. Both codes provide for a preliminary investigation of the charges, including the potential for early informal resolution. Get our help if you learn that UW is investigating you for alleged misconduct. We may be able to help you present your information to investigators in ways that head off formal disciplinary charges. If officials do charge you, both codes provide for written notice of the charges. We can help you evaluate the charges and identify and acquire exonerating or mitigating evidence. We can also help you communicate with disciplinary officials to work toward early informal resolution where possible.

For matters that do not resolve informally, UW's disciplinary procedures promise a hearing before a designated official who must consider your evidence. You may have an attorney advisor present at the hearing. The hearing official must write a decision for you and your advisor to evaluate. You also have the right to appeal an adverse decision. Let our Student Defense Team represent you at any disciplinary hearing. If you have already suffered suspension or dismissal, let us help you with your appeal. Do not leave an indication of academic or behavioral misconduct on your UW record.

Premier Student Defense Services for UW CE Charges

If you face University of Wyoming continuing education disciplinary charges for any of the above reasons or on other grounds, then retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team. Hundreds of students nationwide have successfully defended and defeated misconduct charges with the help of our attorney advisors. We are available, no matter your UW CE program, undergraduate, graduate, or professional, for a degree, certificate, or endorsement. Call 888.535.3686 or chat with us.