Faculty Resources

Student academic concerns include class absences for more than one week, missing assignments, personal struggles interfering with course engagement, or classroom behavior of concern.

Please email the student about your concern, encouraging them to meet with their class dean. Copy their class dean on the message (you can check the student’s class year on Workday). The class dean will follow up with the student upon receipt of your email.

If you are not sure of the student’s class year, or have questions about Academic Board petitions, advising, or would like to discuss a student in confidence, please email classdeans@smith.edu or call 413-585-4915.

Submit a Student of Concern report or a Community Incident report via Student Affairs.

Call Campus Safety immediately. For emergencies, dial 413-585-5555. For non-emergencies, dial 413-585-2490. 

Do not send emails to class deans about student emergencies, as we are not 24/7 responders. Please see our hours of operation.

Please meet the team! The Class Deans Office consists of three full-time class deans (the first-year, sophomore, and senior class deans). All full-time class deans have served as faculty in higher education. The junior class dean is a Smith faculty member who serves half-time as the junior class dean. The office has three very helpful staff. The associate dean of the college is Tina Wildhagen.

The class deans’ mission is to help students reach and plan for their academic success and goals at Smith. Class deans are responsible for students’ overall academic program and serve as a resource for students throughout their time at Smith to offer support on academic and personal matters. The deans work closely with faculty advisers to train and support them so advisers can best support their advisees.

The deans and their assistants are valuable sources of knowledge on a wide range of college-related matters. They establish one-on-one relationships with students, their faculty, and with other campus resources to ensure students are connected to the supports they need to fulfill their educational goals.

• Create a clear and concise syllabus that includes specific due dates and expectations for assignments throughout the semester, links to campus resources, grading rubrics, and policies on late work.
• Class deans strongly recommend a mid-semester evaluation before the fifth week. This gives students the chance to know, while there is still time, what to do in order to improve. You should submit a mid-semester grade report for any student not making satisfactory progress towards a passing grade.
• We also recommend that you keep attendance so you can notify us when a student has missed more than two classes without communication.
• Provide feedback on a consistent basis, so students have an opportunity to learn throughout the semester what they are doing well and where they need to improve. Talk to students who are struggling to hand in their classwork on time and notify us before they get too behind.

Students petition the Academic Board by fully completing the digital form on the Class Deans webpage.

The Academic Board meets during the academic year and petitions are decided by Board vote. Petitions are not guaranteed approval.

Students petition for various items which may require instructor, adviser, and/or department chair approval (short in length and via email), including, but not limited to: enrolling in two courses with a time conflict; enrolling in a seminar before the junior year; enrolling in a special studies before the sophomore year; graduating early (otherwise known as acceleration); withdrawing from a course after the deadline.

Before the end of the final exam period: An individual faculty member may grant extensions through, but not beyond, 3 p.m. on the last day of the final exam period.

After the final exam period has formally ended: Students who wish to request extensions beyond the final exam period must ask their class dean during finals period. Requests are considered only if they relate to an emergent illness or sudden family emergency.

Additional information about extensions is shared through the faculty listserv each semester.

Please see the departmental honors resources for faculty page.

The Academic Integrity Board (formerly known as the Academic Honor Board) is responsible for upholding a rigorous standard of academic integrity defined by Smith’s Academic Integrity Statement.

Smith students are committed to developing their minds in college. Multiple factors, such as increasing uncertainty and the emergence of generative AI, have complicated the way that students think about academic integrity. Smith now has a website specifically for faculty resources related to academic integrity. There you can read about how to help students maintain their academic integrity and what to do if you suspect a student has violated the academic integrity statement.

Per your contract, all members of a department or program will serve as an LAA if they: (a) have taught at Smith for one year and are in one of the following categories: full, associate, or assistant professor; senior lab instructor; senior lecturer, (b) are not currently assigned as an LAA, and (c) will be present and teaching for at least the first three semesters of the projected advising period.

If you fit these criteria, whether a returning or new faculty member, you will most likely be asked to serve as an LAA beginning the next academic year. This process begins in the spring, so please be on the lookout for an important email with the subject “Liberal Arts Advising for Fall” in mid-spring, which will come from the PDOF, Daphne LaMothe, and Associate Dean of the College Tina Wildhagen, confirming your assignment.

A training in the spring for all newly designated LAAs will provide a clear timeline and description for the expectations associated with this service.

Consult your Faculty Advising Guide and/or your Class Deans Office Information for New Faculty handout.

If you need a copy of either of these resources, please email classdeans@smith.edu.